Fitjar Soaps – Isrose (aka Frost Rose; Scent off entry)

Tags

7/10, 8/10, floral, menthol, pine, Rose, Scent Off 2013, shaving cream, shaving soap, wood

Next up in the scent off is a product coming to us from the town of Fitjar in Norway. Fitjar Såpekokeri (aka Fitjar Soap) offered forth both a cream and a soap, which I’ll be doing in one review, in a scent they call Isrose, or “Frost Rose”. This is the first products I’ve tried from them. I’d heard mostly quite good things, and they seem to have lived up to their reputation. Here’s what everyone else had to say about it.

The soap is good; not great, but quite good. It lathers up quite easily,
however does thin out a bit when enough water is added to give it what I
think it a good level of glide. I didn’t really notice anything in the
way of moisturization after the fact. I did have quite good lather
stability however.

Upon a trying it a few more times, I’ve actually switched my initial
opinion; the cream seems to be working better than the soap; it does
require a bit more elbow grease, but it gave what I considered to be a
superior balance of glide and lather thickness. Good stability, still
not much noticable on moisturization.

As for what they had to say about their scent off entry:

The inspiration for this scent is from frost roses on the windows of my log cabin in Telemark. One of the most magical Christmases I have ever had was spent here. The Frost roses were exquisitely beautiful, and they looked a bit like the pine trees that grow right outside the window. So the Christmas scent Frost Rose became a blend of sweet rosa damascena aand rose geranium, spicy pine and icy menthol.

The aroma of rose with the touch of pine is pretty nice, with a reasonable strength level. However, I’m not sure that the menthol is all that suitable for what’s supposed to be a seasonal scent winter/autumn scent. It reminds one of winter, but it’s not something that I’d want to be using during winter. Even living in a spot with one of the mildest winters in Canada, I’m still not eager to try and cool my face down further in the mornings once we get to this time of year!

• 8/10 Scent Pleasantness
• 8/10 Scent Strength
• 9/10 Lather Quality for the cream; 8/10 for the soap

Overall, I’d say that I’ll give the soap a 7/10 and the cream a 8/10.

• Cost: The cream can be had for 155 NOK (about $25.50 USD) for a full 175 mL jar, or a 20 mL sample (shown) is available for 20 NOK (~$6.40 USD). The soap is available for 111 NOK (~$18.25 USD) for a 100g refill; extra if you want a plastic bowl with an aluminium lid, or a wooden bowl.

Gear used:

• Brush: Mühle HJM Black Fibre
• Brush: Wee Scott
• Razor: Feather AS-D2
• Blade: Gillette 7 O’clock Black
• Scuttle: Robert’s Feats of Clay #4

Ingredients (shaving cream): Potassium stearate, potassium cocoate (from organic oconut oil), glycerin, olea europea (organic virgin olive oil), essential oils(rosa damascena, rose geranium, pine, menthol).

Ingredients (shaving soap): Glycerin, sodium stearate, sodium cocoate (from unrefined, organic oconut oil), coconut fatty acid, lauric acid, cocus nuciferi, olea europea (organic virgin olive oil), sorbitol, sodium laurate, sodium laurate sulphate, sodium lauryl sulphate, pentasodium pentetate, tetrasodium etidronate, essential oils (rosa damascena, rose geranium, pine, menthol).

Taylor of Old Bond Street – St James shaving stick

Tags

7/10, amber, bergamot, citrus, Coriander, floral, Fruit, geranium, lavender, lemon, mandarin, ozone, patchouli, pine, shaving soap, Spearmint, St. James, Taylor of Old Bond Street, wood

St James is nicely scented, a rather complex scent that I would have failed to realistically describe, so I’ll let the manufacturer speak to that:

A fresh masculine fougere opening with bergamot and mandarin intertwined with citrus ozone notes supported by a fruity floral heart resting on a woody amber base. Contains Coriander oil, Geranium oil, Lavandin Grosso, Lemon oil, Patchouli oil, Pine oil and Spearmint oil.

So… kind of reminiscent of Eton College, with some woody and ozone notes added. All in all, I think I slightly prefer Eton College, but they’re both nice enough scents.

Strength-wise, it’s decent enough. It isn’t really strong at all, but it also doesn’t seem to fade noticeably during the shave, staying at a nice medium level steady-state.

I was rather pleased with the lather as well. It lathered up easily, producing a thick cream with great glide, and excellent stability (it managed to stay there while writing most of this review). Not much in the way of moisturization properties, and the volume produced was perhaps a bit sub-par, but all in all, it’s what I’d say is a good shave.

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

So, Overall, I’m going to say a 7/10. It’s a nice middle of the road shaving soap, nothing outstanding about any aspect of it, but nothing to complain about either.

• Cost: While I got this one off someone on /r/shave_bazaar, a new one can be had for $14.50. This scent of soap is unfortunately only available in the stick.

Gear used:

• Brush: Wee Scott
• Razor: Gillette Travel Tech
• Blade: Astra Superior Platinum

Ingredients: Glycerin, stearic acid, aqua (water), potassium hydroxide, myristic acid, sodium hydroxide, parfum (contains: benzyl salicylate, linalool, hexyl cinnamal, limonene).

Penhaligon’s Blenheim Bouquet shaving cream

Tags

9/10, Blenheim Bouquet, citrus, lavender, lemon, Lime, musk, Penhaligon, pepper, pine

I’ll admit, I try a lot of shaving soaps and creams that a lot of people rave about, and a lot of the time I just don’t really see what they’re going on about. Once in a while, I do, and Penhaligon’s Blenheim Bouquet is one of those times.

It’s mainly a citrus scented soap, however after the first hit of the lemon and lime, it reveals a nice complex mix, tempered by lavender, and supported by pine, musk, and a bit of black pepper. I really really quite liked it.

The strength was great as well; not much fading, good strength throughout the shave.

The lather too was rather good. Relatively thirsty for a cream, once enough water was added it easily lathered up to a nice thick consistency with great glide. Rather voluminous as well. Nothing outstanding in the way of moisturization / skin care, bad or good. My only quibble would be that the stability could have been a bit better; it didn’t become unusable or anything, but the lather was visibly fading by the end of my shave.

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

Overall, I’m giving it a 9/10, and I think I’ll slot it in at #7 on the top ten list. Because, damn that stuff smelled nice. Seriously, I need to get the cologne. So… if anyone’s got a spare $120 kicking around, I’d really appreciate it!

• 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, I do recall Garry’s Sample Shop having had it in stock at one point, although he doesn’t right now, you might want to keep your eye there, and on the Wetshaving Sample Shoppe. Or, you could just go for it: 150 mL can be found for $45 in a travel tube or $55 in a glass jar, shipping included.

Gear used:

• Brush: Ecotools Kabuki Finishing Brush
• Razor: 1966 Solid Nickel Gillette Tech
• Blade: Lord Super Stainless
• Scuttle: Robert’s Feats of Clay #4

Ingredients: Aqua, stearic acid, myristic acid, glycerin, potassium hydroxide, coconut acid, glycol distearate, sodium C14-16 olefin sulfonate, parfum(fragrance), limonene, linalool, citral, phenoxyethanol, methylparaben, butylparaben, ethylparaben, isobutylparaben, propylparaben

QEDman – Pine and Cedarwood Shave Stick

Tags

8/10, cedarwood, Discontinued, pine, QEDman, shaving soap, shaving stick, wood

Edit: apparently the owner of the place that made the QEDman soaps for QEDman has retired; the line has been discontinued.

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Pine and Cedarwood; a classic scent, done quite well. Of course, since this soap uses essential oils for its fragrance, this isn’t all that surprising. Strength-wise, it’s pretty good. About a medium level aroma, without any noticeable fading during the shave.

The lather is good; this is only the 2nd time I’ve used a shave stick, but unlike last time I managed to not use wayyyy too much. It gives a good balance of lubrication and lather with plenty of cushioning. I found I needed to add enough water until I just got to the point where it was just starting to thin out in order to ensure it had enough glide. No stability problems like I’d seen out of some other similar soaps, and an average level of moisturization.

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

A nice solid shaving soap, I can definitely see why its name gets so many positive mentions. 8/10.

• Cost: The 2oz shaving sticks are available for $9.95, or a 5oz jar is $13.50. While they do ship to Canada and some 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: Edwin Jagger DE81BL (Red)
• Blade: Bolzano Superinox

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

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.