QEDman – Spearmint and Tangerine shave stick

Tags

7/10, citrus, Discontinued, Fruit, mint, QEDman, shaving soap, shaving stick, Spearmint, tangerine

Edit: as below, this line is no longer available.

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So, apparently the owner of the place that made the QEDman soaps for QEDman has retired. They’re down to one last scent available in the shaving stick, the wild orange, and three scents available for the tubs; Anise & Lavender, Grapefruit & Peppermint, and this one, Tangerine & Spearmint.

The lather is decent enough; a good balance of lubrication and thickness; you’ll want to be reasonably generous with the amount of water used. Somewhat narrow sweet spot to get the balance just right, but some good moisturization.

The balance on the scent is definitely predominately the spearmint, which shouldn’t be all that unexpected, considering it’s generally considered a much strong scent than tangerine. You can detect hints of the sweetness of tangerines underneath the minty-ness. Fairly pleasant, although I would have preferred more tangerine.

The strength is reasonable to start, without much in the way of fading. Not strong per se, but definitely not weak.

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

Anyways, it’s a nice enough soap, with good performance in all areas, but nothing to write home about in any aspect. 7/10 overall.

• Cost: As mentioned, the shaving stick in this scent is no longer available, however a 5oz jar can still be found for $13.50. While they do ship to Canada and some other places outside the US, the shopping cart feature only works within the US, so you’ll need to e-mail for a quote.

Gear used:

• Brush: Wee Scott
• Razor: Feather AS-D2
• Blade: Big Ben Super Stainless

Ingredients: Saponified 100% food grade coconut, palm, castor, and safflower oils, with kosher vegetable glycerin, soybean protein, aloe vera extract, and essential oils.

The Strop Shoppe – 1887 Limited Edition with Lanolin

Tags

8/10, Discontinued, shaving soap, soft soap, spice, strop shoppe, tobacco, wood

So, anyways, one thing that I need to keep in mind when I get a limited edition soap to review is that they’re limited. And I should probably review them faster than slower. I bought this soap back in June of last year, and stuffed it under the sink on my “to-do list”. In the meantime, they stopped making it, and you’ll have trouble finding it. So, sorry, here’s a review for a product you might not be able to get.

The Limited Edition / Lanolin formula performs exquisitely. It’s got a very wide sweet spot, and provides great thickness and glide. There are absolutely no issues with lather stability, and it left my face feeling great and moisturized to boot. Anyways, it’s pretty much what I expected out of the Strop Shoppe. For quality wise, at least.

One thing I’ll note is that there appears to be an inconsistency about the packaging. At the top, it says it is “Special Edition: Extra soft – Double butter Formula, Cocoa Butter – Shea Butter.” The ingredient listing at the bottom however doesn’t list any Cocoa Butter or Shea Butter. I presume that this was probably just a left-over from their special edition that they failed to remove when they made up the label for the Limited edition. This is, unfortunately, also something that I’ve somewhat come to expect from the Strop Shoppe; they’re great at making soaps, but the little details of running a business sometimes seem to slip past them. For example, their current listing of a Limited Edition says in the description that it’s made with tallow and lanolin, but the ingredient listing doesn’t mention lanolin at all.

The scent is nice enough. I’ve seen it described elsewhere as “woodsy, spicy, and tobacco”, which doesn’t seem all that far off. The spicy portions develop a bit more once lathered up. All in all, it’s a nice cologne-y scent. The strength is decent; coming on at about a medium strength, without much in the way of fading.

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

Overall, I’m willing to round up and give it a 9/10.

• Cost: As mentioned, it’s not really available anywhere anymore. I had purchased this one $17.50 from MenEssentials.ca.

Gear used:

• Brush: Ecotools Kabuki Finishing Brush
• Razor: Vintage Bakelite Slant
• Blade: Bolzano Superinox
• Scuttle: Robert’s Feats of Clay #4

Ingredients: Potassium Stearate, Sodium Stearate, Glycerin, Ricinus Communis (Castor) Seed Oil, Cocos Nucifera (Coconut) Oil, Lanolin, Fragrance.

Green Mountain Soaps – Nick’s Red Jacket (shave off entry)

Tags

8/10, cedarwood, clove, Discontinued, Fruit, nutmeg, oakmoss, Orange, peppermint, Scent Off 2013, shaving soap, spice, Spruce, tobacco, wood

Edit: This particular scent is no longer available.

Ho Ho Ho! And now, with a fair bit of delay because I’ve been feeling both lazy and ill lately, we’re up to the final Scent Off 2013 entry. From Green Mountain Soaps – Nick’s Red Jacket. Here’s what the rest of the judges had to say about it. And here’s what the manufacturer had to say about the scent:

Triple milled shaving soap with a special scent developed for the holidays. Essential oils of Spruce, Sweet Orange, Peppermint, Texas Cedarwood, Nutmeg, Clove, Tobacco Absolute, Carrot Seed & Oakmoss evoke the scent of Christmas Eve clinging to St. Nick’s jacket on Christmas Eve on his journey home to the North Pole.

Of all the scents listed in the description, the Peppermint really predominates. To the point that, while you can tell that there’s “something else” there, it’s difficult to really be able to distinguish what that something else might actually be, with probably the orange and the spruce as somewhat distant runners up.

Overall it’s a pleasant scent; I do like peppermint, and it certainly fits the seasonal theme. The scent was at a good strength level; started out fairly strong, with only a bit of fading throughout each pass.

I’d call the lather fairly good. While it wasn’t all that difficult to find the right amount of water for a good balance of lather thickness and glide, it did seem to have some lather stability problems, with noticeable breakdown starting to happen before got from one cheek to the other.

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

All in all, I’m going to be giving this final entry in the scent off a 8/10.

• Cost: A 1 oz sample is available for $5.50, or a 2.5 oz puck for $9. Unfortunately, the last time I checked, they only shipped within the United States, so any of us who live elsewhere might be a bit out of luck.

Gear used:

• Brush: The Colonel
• Razor: Yuma Safety Razor
• Blade: Astra Superior Platinum
• Scuttle: Robert’s Feats of Clay #4

Ingredients: Tallow, Distilled Water, Stearic/Palmitic Acid, Coconut Oil, Sodium Hydroxide (lye), Castor Oil, Cocoa Butter, Glycerin, Potassium Hydroxide, Olive Oil, Borax, Bentonite, essential oils

Petal Pusher Fancies – Ciderhouse 5 (Scent off entry)

Tags

7/10, Apple, apple cider, Discontinued, Fruit, petal pusher fancies, shaving soap, spice

Edit: It appears that the line has disappeared off the face of the earth, after a small scandal erupted following a few allegations, including that the fellow who ran HTGAM had been under different names reviewing some soaps that he made (under the Petal Pushers brand), and that the ingredient listing for at least some of the soaps was likely falsified. Here’s a bit of an overview.

Frankly, what I saw put a bad taste into my mouth, and I don’t think I’ll be doing any more business with that company. Anyhow, they’ve since rebranded into “Phoenix Artisan Accoutrements”

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Next up is the next scent off entry, and the 2nd shaving soap that I’ve tried from Petal Pusher Fancies; Ciderhouse 5. As per usual, here’s what the other judges had to say about it.

I really wanted to give this one top marks for the scent. When I did the initial sniff tests of all of the soaps sent out, I liked this one the most, by a fair margin. A wonderfully delicious and accurate apple cider scent, perfectly fitting for the season. However, unfortunately, once it came time to lather it up and actually shave, I found the scent didn’t transfer to the lather very well. It came across weak, and faded from there.

The soap itself performed much like the previous soap I’d tried from them; a bit fiddly, but still fairly easy to get a great shave, great thickness and glide, with some decent moisturization.

• 10/10 Scent Pleasantness
• 6/10 Scent Strength
• 9/10 Lather Quality

Anyhow; relatively weak scent, but it smells really really nice. Feel free to make your own determinations based upon just how strong you tend to like your shaving soap scents. I’m giving it a 7/10 overall.

• Cost: The soap is available in a 3 inch tin that nets you about 3.5 oz, for $9.95.

Gear used:

• Brush: Wee Scott
• Razor: Feather AS-D2
• Blade: Gillette 7 O’clock Black

Ingredients: Water, Stearic Acid, Potassium Hydroxide, Sodium Hydroxide, Pure Kokum Butter, Organic Coconut Oil, Organic Castor Oil, Organic Avocado Oil, Organic Sweet Almond Oil, Pure Essential Oils & Fragrance

How to Grow a Moustache Synergy Shaving Soap – Pumpk’n 3.14 (Scent off entry)

Tags

clove, Discontinued, How to Grow a Moustache, pumpkin, Scent Off 2013, shaving soap, spice

Edit: It appears that the line has disappeared off the face of the earth, after a small scandal erupted following a few allegations, including that the fellow who ran HTGAM had been under different names reviewing some soaps that he made (under the Petal Pushers brand), and that the ingredient listing for at least some of the soaps was likely falsified. Here’s a bit of an overview.

Frankly, what I saw put a bad taste into my mouth, and I don’t think I’ll be doing any more business with that company. Anyhow, they’ve since rebranded into “Phoenix Artisan Accoutrements”

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Next up for mantic’s Scent Off 2013 is the entry from the fellows over at How to Grow a Moustache. Delicious Pumpk’n 3.14! Pumpkin π? Pumpkin Pie! It’s the first time I’ve had a chance to try one of their products, and I was rather looking forward to it. Here’s what everyone else had to say about it.

So, since it’s the scent off, let’s talk about the scent first. It seriously smells exactly like a pumpkin pie. I’m not too big of a fan of the taste of pumpkin pies, but even I’ll admit they smell quite nice, and it also got the “girlfriend’s seal of approval”. Naturally, I think this is a damned great fit for the theme of the contest (for which it’ll be getting a bonus point). The strength level is just about perfect as well; since it’s not really a scent you want too strong, but it stays at a nice medium-strong level throughout.

The lather is quite nice. I understand that a different formulation was used for the scent-off than their normal one, however the differences appear to be relatively minor. Honestly, thus far it seems like the lather category of the contest is going to be the tightest by far; every one I’ve tried has been quite good, the Synergy being no exception. These artisans certainly aren’t phoning it in! It lathered up easily, a tad on the thirsty side, and gave a good balance of glide and thickness, with a reasonably wide “sweet spot”. And afterwards, the skin was feeling great.

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

My overall assessment is a nice solid 8/10.

• Cost: Unlike the others thus far in the contest, H2GAM still has some left for sale! 8 oz of soap in their large format (5 inch diameter) tin will set you back $15.95. Note the gold tin shown might not still be available, in which case you’ll get the silver tin they usually use.

Gear used:

• Brush: Mühle HJM Black Fibre
• Razor: 1966 Solid Nickel Gillette Tech
• Blade: Treet Dura Sharp
• Scuttle: Robert’s Feats of Clay #4

Ingredients: Ingredients: Organic Kokum Butter, Organic Mango Butter, Organic Cocoa Butter, Chaulmoogra Oil, Organic Avocado Oil, Organic Pumpkin Oil, Organic Castor Oil, Coconut Oil, Palm Oil, Organic Neem Oil, Safflower Oil, Glycerine, Purified Water, Sodium & Potassium Hydroxcide, Soy Bean Protien, Aloe Extract, Pumpkin Powder Enzymes, Yellow Dock Root, Maca Root & Essential Oils

Barrister and Mann – Hallows (Scent off Entry)

Tags

7/10, Barrister and Mann, black pepper, cedarwood, cocoa, Discontinued, labdanum, oakmoss, Scent Off 2013, vetiver

The next entrant in the scent off is Barrister and Mann’s Hallows. B&M had made this scent available to the general public; unfortunately, they sold out in rapid fashion, and apparently there’s no plans to make the scent again (I guess some of the oils used are hella expensive). Alas. Here’s what the judges as a whole thought. To kick off my review, let’s see how B&M describe it:

Taking inspiration from the swamps of Boston, we combined vetiver, oakmoss, black pepper, cocoa, labdanum, and cedar to produce a deep, cold scent suited to the chilly, bitter days of late October. Gloomy, rich, and perversely elegant, Hallows is a reminder of why men once feared the dark.

This seems like a perfectly accurate description; it’s certainly suits the requirements of the contest rather well; that having been said, I can’t say that I’m really all that much of a fan of the scent itself; while I wouldn’t say it’s unpleasant, the combination just doesn’t do it for me. If I was judging it solely on how much I like it, it probably wouldn’t be doing all that well, but, since it does meet the parameters of the contest rather well, I gave it a bonus point or two to bump up to 8/10 for overall scent for the contest. The strength was definitely up there, without much fading.

The performance is typical of Barrister and Mann’s; excellent. Just be sure to use enough water and you’ll get a great lather with good thickness, glide, stability, and good moisturization to boot.

• 6/10 Scent Pleasantness
• 9/10 Scent Strength
• 9/10 Lather Quality

Overall, I’d say it’s so-so. 7/10. I know there’s others out there who really liked the scent, but it just didn’t click for me.

• Cost: Alas, all sold out. Sorry.

Gear used:

• Brush: Mühle HJM Black Fibre
• Razor: 1966 Solid Nickel Gillette Tech
• Blade: Treet Dura Sharp
• Scuttle: Robert’s Feats of Clay #4

Ingredients: Potasium Stearate, Sodium Stearate, Potassium Tallowate, Sodium Tallowate, Aqua, Glycerin, Potassium Ricinoleate, Sodium Ricinoleate, Fragrance, Andropogon Zizanioides (Vetiver) Oil, Cistus Ladaniferus (Labdanum) Resin, Juniperus Mexicana (Cedarwood) Oil, Theobroma Cacao (Cocoa) Absolute, Coconut Milk, Potassium Kokum Butterate, Sodium Kokum Butterate, Unrefined Shea Butter, Potassium Cocoate, Sodium Cocoate, Lanolin, Allantoin, Silk Protein, Tocopherol Acetate.

Petal Pusher Fancies – Steam River Rum

Tags

bay rum, Discontinued, petal pusher fancies, shaving soap

Edit: It appears that the line has disappeared off the face of the earth, after a small scandal erupted following a few allegations, including that the fellow who ran HTGAM had been under different names reviewing some soaps that he made (under the Petal Pushers brand), and that the ingredient listing for at least some of the soaps was likely falsified. Here’s a bit of an overview.

Frankly, what I saw put a bad taste into my mouth, and I don’t think I’ll be doing any more business with that company. Anyhow, they’ve since rebranded into “Phoenix Artisan Accoutrements”

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So I finally got around to trying a puck of Petal Pushers Fancy soap which I had kicking around, and let me say, I’m rather pleased. They’re one of a crop of relatively new soapmakers who burst onto the scene in the last year or two who, unlike so many “artisan soapmakers”, actually make their own soap with their own recipe of fats and lye, instead of just buying a commonly available soap base and fiddling with it a bit or just adding scent.

And it looks like they’ve been successful in figuring out what it takes to make a great shaving soap. They tout it as a “Kokum Butter Shaving Puck”, which makes sense I suppose given that it’s a relatively uncommon ingredient to use in soaps that I’ve seen. Even if it is only the 3rd most common fat used in the soap. But then again, if we were being that picky, then there’s no way that Mitchell’s Wool Fat would get away with referring to themselves as such, considering the lanolin there is only a minor ingredient at best, percentage wise.

Anyways, it lathers up nice and thick. I found it a bit tricky to get the right amount of water needed for the right balance of thickness and glide, but once I get it I was rather pleased. That trickiness is balanced out by the fact that the soap did leave my face feeling rather nice after the fact. All things considered, it’s a top notch shave.

This particular puck is their River City Rum, which I now notice appears to be discontinued. Alas, this is what I get for buying far too many types of soap at a time and holding on to them for too long before getting around to review!

It was a fairly nice bay rum scent, although there was just something about it that seemed a bit off to me, although I can’t put my finger (nostril?) on it. Not that it was unpleasant, mind you, but just not as nice as I find most good bay rums smell.

The strength was so-so; it started off at a medium strength, and faded away to a “relatively weak” by the time I got to the end of a pass.

• 8/10 Scent Pleasantness
• 7/10 Scent Strength
• 9/10 Lather Quality

Obviously I can’t really recommend getting this particular scent, as it’s gone, but I’d say it’s probably safe to assume some of their other stuff is pretty decent; I’ll get around to some more in good time! 7/10.

• Cost: Also no longer available are the cakes shown above which I shoved in a tupperware container; they now all come in tins, with a 3.5 oz tin going for $9.95; 5 oz for $12.95; and 8 oz (5 inch wide) tin for $18.95.

Gear used:

• Brush: Wee Scott
• Razor: Edwin Jagger DE81BL (Red)
• Blade: Asco Super Stainless

Ingredients:  Water, Potassium Hydroxide, Sodium Hydroxide, Stearic Acid (Vegetable Derived), Organic Castor Oil, Pure Kokum Butter, Organic Coconut Oil, Organic Avocado Oil, Organic Sweet Almond Oil, Pure Essential Oils, Fragrance (unscented version does not include essential oils or fragrance)

Klar Kabinett shaving soap

Tags

8/10, Discontinued, floral, kabinett, klar, Rose, shaving soap

edit: as below, this scent is no longer available.

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So, I’m fast-tracking this review, as we recently heard word that Klar (apparently Germany’s oldest soapmaker) has decided to discontinue their celebrated Kabinett shaving soap. I’m not really sure why, it seems to be a very fine soap to me, and apparently tends to sell rather well.

The scent is a subtle rose; scented with essence of rose, it’s quite pleasant smelling, assuming of course that you like rose. It’s actually fairly strongly scented when in the bar, but fades to a reasonably low level when lathered; it doesn’t disappear, but it’s certainly not in your face.

The lather is rather wonderful, IMHO. I’d say that it requires an average level of water in order to get good enough lubrication out of it, but a bit of experimentation showed that it seems to have a fairly wide sweet spot. It gives a really good balance of a thick lather and good glide, doesn’t thin out easily, and has great stability. Not too much noticeable in the way of moisturization that I saw, but all in all, a very good shave.

• 9/10 Scent Pleasantness
• 7/10 Scent Strength
• 9/10 Lather Quality

All things considered, I think I’m happy rounding up to a 8/10. Personally, I would have preferred a stronger scent, but there was still just enough there to make a difference to the overall experience of the shave.

• Cost: 500g of Klar Kabinett (in 2x 250g bars) goes for $20. Which is a pretty darned good price for that much soap. I got the sample used from a friendly redditor who wanted to know my thoughts on the stuff.

Gear used:

• Brush: Mühle HJM Black Fibre
• Razor: Gillette Travel Tech
• Blade: Astra Superior Platinum
• Scuttle: Robert’s Feats of Clay #4

Ingredients: Sodium Cocoate, Potassium Cocoate, Sodium Stearate, Potassium Stearate, Aqua, Cocoamidoproprl Betaine, Soyamide DEA, Parfum, Sodium Chloride,Amino-Tris (methylene phosphomic acid) Tetrasodium EDTA, Sodium Hydroxide, Potassium Hydroxyde, CI 77891, Geraniol, Benzyl Salicylate, Citronellol, Eugenol

XPEC Original Shaving Cream

Tags

8/10, cedarwood, citrus, cologne, Discontinued, floral, ginger, lemon, oak musk, pepper, Rose, shaving cream, spice, thyme, wood, XPEC

Edit: This version had been discontinued. There is a new XPEC cream out there, but it is a reformulation, thus I wouldn’t base a purchase upon this review.

XPEC Original’s scent is based upon notes of rose, thyme, lemon, pepper, ginger, cedar wood and oak musk, with the rose being the scent that predominates. It most reminded me of Truefitt and Hill’s 1805, with perhaps a bit more “spice” added to the mix, as the pepper was noticeable, although I didn’t find it quite as strong as some other reports I’ve seen. All in all, I quite rather liked it.

The strength started off quite strong, however it didn’t stay there; it faded significantly throughout the shave, although it kind of dropped off to a level I’d describe as “so-so” and stayed there, not disappearing completely.

The cream lathered up quite nicely. Initially, with very little water, it looked like something that would work, however that turned out to be a mirage, as it was somewhat lacking in glide. However, a splash or two more fixed that right up, without appreciably thinning the lather. It ended up with a really good balance of glide and thickness, and what seemed like a rather wide “sweet spot” for water content. It was fairly voluminous as well, I’m thinking that you could get away with making a tub of it last a fair while. Very nice stuff, which left my face feeling nice and moisturized as well.

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

Overall, I give it a solid 8/10, not really rounding up or down. It’s a quality shaving cream. That having been said, I’m not sure I’d say it’s worth the price.

• Cost: I had a sample sent to me by a kindly redditor who wanted to know what I thought of the cream. For everyone else, however, samples don’t seem to be readily available, and a 250 mL tub will cost you $66.99. And… the manufacturer’s website doesn’t list a cream anymore, so it’s possible that it’s being discontinued as well.

Gear used:

• Brush: Ecotools Kabuki Finishing Brush
• Razor: Yuma Safety Razor
• Blade: Lord Super Stainless
• Scuttle: Robert’s Feats of Clay #4

Ingredients: Not quite sure. Couldn’t find a listing on-line of the ingredients for the cream, only for the soap. All I could find mentioned are that it includes Glycerin, Coconut oil, and Aloe, which let’s face it, could describe a heck of a lot of shaving creams!

MJ’s Soap Shop – Tangerine Grapefruit shaving soap

Tags

5/10, citrus, Discontinued, Fruit, grapefruit, MJ's Soap Shop, shaving soap, tangerine

Edit: The site has had the following message up for at least a few months now: “In order to perform site maintenance, our online shop has shut down temporarily. We apologize for the inconvenience and ask that you please try again later.”

I can only assume that this change isn’t actually all that temporary.

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So this’ll be my first foray into reviewing a soap from my home country. Alas, I wasn’t all that impressed.

Well, with the scent at least. It’s supposed to be a tangerine and grapefruit. I love the smell of grapefruit, and I like tangerines, so I was rather looking forward to this one. Unfortunately, it ended up being far too weak to really appreciate. When lathered, there was essentially no scent left. When sniffing the shaving soap itself, even then the smell is somewhat overpowered by the smell of the other ingredients of the soap; what’s left is a vaguely sweet smell, one that I can’t really pick out any citrus notes from, and certainly not grapefruit.

The lather, on the other hand, performed admirably. It loaded easily, and lathered up nice and thick. It was relatively thirsty, but used what water was added well, building a nice creamy lather with good glide. It seemed to have a decent enough sweet spot for water content, and gave good moisturization to the face as well.

• 6/10 Scent Pleasantness
• 3/10 Scent Strength
• 9/10 Quality of Lather

So… if you’re one of those folk who don’t really care how the soap smells, I’d recommend giving this one a shot. Otherwise, eh, too plain, the scent does nothing to add to the shaving experience. Overall, I’m giving it a 5/10.

• Cost: A puck (~ 3 oz) will set you back $5.

Gear used:

• Brush: Wee Scott
• Razor: Gillette Old Style with WWI US Service Set
• Blade: Crown Super Stainless
• Scuttle: Robert’s Feats of Clay #4

Ingredients: Tallow, Stearic Acid, Coconut Oil, Potassium Hydroxide, Castor Oil, Sodium Hydroxide, Glycerine, Essential oils, White Kaolin Clay.