Mike’s Natural Soap – Orange, Cedarwood, and Black Pepper

Tags

8/10, black pepper, cedarwood, Fruit, Mike's Natural Soaps, Orange, shaving soap, spice, wood

Next up, from a line of soap I haven’t touched since December; Mike’s Natural Soaps’ Orange, Cedarwood, and Black Pepper.

The lather is exactly what I expect out of Mike’s Natural: absolutely wonderful. It’s quite a thirsty cream, so use plenty of water and enough elbow grease, and you’ll work up a lather with great cushion, very good glide, which leaves your face feeling nice and moisturized to boot. As per usual, top marks for lather.

The predominate scent is most definitely the orange, with the black pepper coming up a close second bringing some kick to it, with the cedarwood serving to balance things out a bit between the other two. I find it fairly pleasant, if not something to write home about, but I’ll give it a bonus point because the girlfriend really likes it.

The strength is damned good as well; comes on good and stays without noticeable fading.

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

So, all in all, I’d say it’s a very solid 8/10.

• Cost: $8.50 for a 4 ounce bar, $1.25 for a half ounce sample.

Gear used:

• Brush: Mühle HJM Black Fibre
• Razor: Feather AS-D2
• Blade: Ladas Super Stainless
• Scuttle: Robert’s Feats of Clay #4

Ingredients: Distilled water; saponified tallow and stearic acid; vegetable glycerin; saponified kokum butter, avocado oil, and shea butter; lanolin, fragrance and/or essential oil(s); saponified coconut oil;  kaolin clay, vitamin E.

Mike’s Natural Soaps – Bay Rum

Tags

9/10, bay rum, Mike's Natural Soaps, shaving soap, spice

Next up for the roadshow edition of my soap reviews is Mike’s Natural Soaps’ Bay Rum.

The lather is, well, absolutely luxurious. Use plenty of water (and I mean plenty!), and you’ll yield a thick lather with plenty of glide, which leaves your face feeling soft and wonderfully moisturized after the fact.

The scent was a nice and spicy bay rum. A fine blend of bay, cloves, etc, it’s definitely one of my favourites. Strength-wise, it’s almost spot on, the only issue being some slight fading near the end of each pass with the razor.

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

Definitely near the top of the list. 9/10. For bay rum soaps specifically, right now I can’t decide if I like this one more than Al’s Shaving Products Calypso, I’ll get around to doing a side-by-side comparison one of these days! Anyways, at this point I highly recommend trying a sample of everything that Mike’s Natural Soaps produces.

• Cost: $9.00 for a 4 ounce bar, $1.50 for a half ounce sample.

Gear used (Roadshow edition!):

• Brush: Wee Scott
• Razor: Bic Comfort Twin
• Scuttle: A empty tub that formerly contained the Body Shop’s Maca Root shaving cream.

Ingredients: Distilled water; saponified tallow and stearic acid; vegetable glycerin; saponified kokum butter, avocado oil, and shea butter; lanolin, essential oils; saponified coconut oil;  kaolin clay, vitamin E.

Mike’s Natural Soaps – Pine & Cedarwood

Tags

8/10, cedar, Mike's Natural Soaps, pine, shaving soap, wood

For my 2nd review of Mike’s Natural Soaps, I’ve got his Pine / Cedarwood scent.

The shave itself was still quite quite nice, although I didn’t have I didn’t have quite as much luck as last time getting the perfect blend of lather slickness and thickness. It was still great, mind you, just not absolutely wonderful. As the last time though, it definitely needed a fair bit more water than most, maybe I just ended up giving it a bit too much.

The scent was, well, spot on. It’s a fine recreation of pine and cedar-wood (as to be expecting, since it’s made from the essential oils of those two woods), with the pine dominant. It’s nice enough but not really something that I think I’ll find myself turning to all that often. A bit too raw I guess, I think it would have been better tempered with some other scents (I suspect I’ll like their Orange, Cedarwood, and Black Pepper scent better when I get around to reviewing it). That having been said, I’ll give it a couple bonus points for accuracy; if you’re looking for just a woodsy smell, this’ll do the trick.

Strength-wise, it came on strong enough when first applied to the face, but mostly faded after about 10 seconds.

• 9/10 Scent Pleasantness
• 7/10 Scent Strength
• 9/10 Lather Quality (reflects new scoring as outlined here)

If you’re looking for something woodsy, this is worth a shot. 8/10.

• Cost: $8.00 for a 4 ounce bar, $1.00 for a half ounce sample.

Gear used:

• Brush: Wee Scott
• Razor: Vintage Bakelite Slant
• Blade: Feather Hi-Stainless
• Scuttle: Robert’s Feats of Clay #4

Ingredients: Distilled water; saponified tallow and stearic acid; vegetable glycerin; saponified kokum butter, avocado oil, and shea butter; lanolin, essential oils; saponified coconut oil;  kaolin clay, vitamin E.

Mike’s Natural Soaps – Lime

Tags

9/10, citrus, Lime, Mike's Natural Soaps, shaving soap

I’ve heard nothing but rave reviews about Mike’s Natural Soaps, and after having tried my first sample, I can definitely see why.

My first shave with the stuff was pretty good. Decent amount of cushion, reasonably slick, etc. On my 2nd shave, I accidentally added a fair amount more water than I would have normally done so. And it turned out to be glorious. A little elbow grease (and perhaps using up a bit more soap than I might have otherwise), and I have a wonderful lather that was slick as a skating rink and cushioned like a dream. It was the best shave I’d had in, well, since I started doing these reviews.

And the scent was pretty darn good too. Mike promised a “Simple, sweet, citrusy invigorating lime”, and I would say he delivered. It’s quite pleasant.

Strength-wise, it’s not quite strong enough. The soap itself smells strongly, and follows to the lather, if not quite as strongly as I would have liked. While on the face, it’s smells nice but a tad weak, but at least it doesn’t fade all that much while shaving.

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

Overall, it’s a great soap! 9/10. Thus far, it’s my favourite Lime scented soap. I highly recommend giving it a shot.

• Cost: $8.00 for a 4 ounce bar, $1.00 for a half ounce sample.

Gear used:

• Brush: The Colonel
• Razor: Merkur Progress
• Blade: Shark Super Stainless
• Scuttle: Robert’s Feats of Clay #4

Ingredients: Distilled water; saponified tallow and stearic acid; vegetable glycerin; saponified kokum butter, avocado oil, and shea butter; lanolin, fragrance and/or essential oil(s); saponified coconut oil;  kaolin clay, vitamin E.