Wickham Soap Company – Super Smooth Shaving Soap – Club Cola

Tags

9/10, caramel, citrus, Cola, shaving soap, vanilla, Wickham Soap Company

Offering up a brand new product out of England, we have Wickham Soap Company for the next review. The sample I recieved came in a little box, the product filling the box one of the softest soaps that I’ve come across. Probably still a bit too firm to truly be considered a cream. “Super Smooth” indeed.

Thus, it was easy enough to scoop out a little bit from the box to test it out. I was quite pleased with the results. It was very forgiving for the amount of water needed; while it definitely needed a bit more than a splash, it would have been difficult to over-water it, as long as you give it enough elbow grease. A very wide “sweet spot” for good performance before it starts thinning out appreciably. Great glide, great protective lather, great performance really, with some really solid lather stability to boot. And it ended up leaving my face feeling rather pleasantly moisturized after the fact as well.

The scent is described as being “An uplifting scent that has top notes of a citrus lemon nature, while the mid and base notes are that of vanilla and caramel.” All in all, I’d say that sounds rather accurate; I found it rather pleasant. The strength could have been better, once lathered and applied I’d say it is a fair bit shy of my ideal strength, although still reasonably noticeable, and with a relatively slow rate of fading.

• 9/10 Scent Pleasantness
• 8/10 Scent Strength
• 9/10 Lather Quality

Overall, I’d say this is an easy 9/10.

• Cost: The sample shown was provided by the manufacturer for the purposes of this review. You can get your own 25g samples for £3.95, of a full 160g tub for £14.50.

Gear used:

• Brush: Mühle HJM Black Fibre
• Razor: Feather AS-D2
• Blade: Asco Super Stainless
• Bowl: Hand painted by myself (Yes, I know it’s ugly).

Ingredients: Potassium Stearate, Potassium Cocoate, Potassium Lardate, Potassium Apricotkernelate, Water, Glycerine, Parfum

Mama Bear Soaps – Creme Brulee

Tags

6/10, caramel, Glycerin, Mama Bear Soaps, shaving soap, vanilla

My first review for a while comes after the first shave for almost a week, shocking I know. So, to combat 5 days of growth, I naturally reached for the vintage Bakelite slant; some damned fine cutting power there.

Mama Bear Soaps’s Crème Brûlée (Actually, they spell it without the accents, but hey) smells mostly sweet, with hints of caramel and vanilla, and I’m also picking up something that seems a bit citrus-y. It’s fairly nice when sniffing the soap directly, unfortunately it’s not all that strong, so once lathered up, that mostly fades to just the vanilla.

As for the lather, here’s the Mama Bear boilerplate review: Lathers up nice and thick to begin with; be sure to add a decent amount of water to get enough glide, but not too quickly as it’s easy to over-shoot the mark and be left with something too runny; if you’re using a scuttle, the heat will cause the lather to break down between passes, but a few extra drops of water and a quick stir will fix that up nicely. Gives a perfectly nice shave.

• 7/10 Scent Pleasantness
• 7/10 Scent Strength
• 7/10 Lather Quality (reflects new scoring as outlined here)

6/10 overall. Definitely would have fared better if it was stronger, but the scent wasn’t anything to write home about either.

• Cost: $10.99 for a bowl worth, or a dollar for a sample as shown. It’s also included in the “everyday favorites” sample pack, along with 17 other scents for $14.99.

Gear used:

• Brush: The Colonel
• Razor: Vintage Bakelite Slant
• Blade: Lord Super Stainless
• Scuttle: Robert’s Feats of Clay #4

Ingredients: Coconut Oil, Palm Oil, Castor Oil, Safflower, Glycerine (kosher, of vegetable origin), Purified Water, Sodium Hydroxide (saponifying agent), Sorbitol (moisturizer), Sorbitan oleate (emulsifier), Soybean protein (conditioner), Wheat protein and fragrance either natural or synthetic.