Elegant Rose artisan shaving soap – Woodland Spice

Tags

9/10, cedar, cinnamon, cloves, Elegant Rose, fir, Orange, shaving soap, spice, wood

So, when Melissa over at the Elegant Rose boutique contacted me about reviewing her soaps, I was initially reluctant, after having a look at the ingredient listing on her page. Well, turns out I was at least a bit mistaken, she had completely reformulated her soap, this time not falling into the whole “slight alterations to a hand soap” trap that so many artisan soap makers do when they want to branch out into shaving soap. She just didn’t have it up on her website for sale at that point; now she does.

And the product that she did provide to me is pretty darned good.

Latherwise, it’s a reasonably thirsty soap. Not quite as much needed as, say, Mike’s Naturals or Barrister and Mann, but you’re definitely going to want to add a small splash when lathering to help develop it. It’s too finnicky, so absolute precision isn’t a worry here. It develops into a nice thick lather with pretty good glide, although perhaps not quite what I’d say is great glide. After the shave, it leaves the face feeling nice and moisturized, smooth, etc. I’d imagine that’s in no small part due to the kokum and shea butter?

Anyways, it’s good stuff; she obviously actually did her research and tested thoroughly. And, as a bonus, it smells nicely too!

The woodland spice is, well, pretty much exactly like what it sounds like, a woodsy scent combined with spicy notes, most notably the cloves and the cinnamon. With some sweetness too, from orange and probably at least some influence just from the kokum and shea butter in the soap itself. A very deep invigorating scent, great for the winter months. As far as soaps go, it’s not too shabby in the strength department; once lathered up and applied to the face it presents itself rather noticeably, with only some fading during the course of a pass.

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

I think it’s reasonable to give this one a 9/10. I’m really glad that she managed to reformulate her soap with this much success!

• Cost: As mentioned, I was provided this soap sample for the purposes of this review. Pucks of the soap can be obtained from the Elegant Rose website, for 14.95 per 4 oz. Just keep in mind that this review is valid only for their artisan shaving soap. As well, Melissa provided a coupon code “Shave” which could get you 10% off your order until April 24th.

Gear used:

• Brush: Mühle HJM Black Fibre
• Razor: Vintage Bakelite Slant
• Blade: Personna DE
• Scuttle: Robert’s Feats of Clay #4

Ingredients: Saponified Oils of vegetable stearic acid, organic shea butter, kokum butter, organic palm oil, avocado oil, coconut oil, castor oil, apricot kernel oil, organic jojoba oil and essential oils.

Arturro Barbiere Vetiver shaving soap

Tags

8/10, arturro barbiere, shaving soap, soft soap, vetiver

So this is a follow up on my latest review. That one was the unscented version of Arturro Barbiere’s shaving soap, which I thought was quite nice for an unscented soap.

Here we have the Vetiver version of the shaving soap. The vetiver is a quite pleasant scent; it has the nice deep earthy scent that I think of when I think of vetiver (which I’ve only ever really encountered in shaving soaps mind you), as well as perhaps a very slight bit of a fresh green note that I haven’t noticed in many other vetiver scented products.

It was strong enough that it was noticeable throughout the shave, but I definitely would have preferred if it had a bit more “oomph” to it.

As for the performance of the soap itself, as far as I could tell it was identical to the unscented version. Which shouldn’t exactly be a shock to anyone. Relatively soft, it has a nice wide sweet spot with regards to the amount of water you can use and still get a good shave out of. Works reasonably well with very little, but does improve if you add it to what I would consider to be a moderate amount of soap. You don’t need a lot, but you’re probably not going to be able to accidentally overshoot it all that much.

All in all, a good balance of lubrication and protection, and good moisturization properties to boot.

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

All said, I’m going to give it an 8/10. It provided a very pleasant shave, although I definitely would have liked it better if it was a bit stronger.

• Cost: They come in either a 100g plastic tub for about $9 USD or a 150g tin for around $12 USD, depending upon the exchange rate at the time. Purchases are made either via e-mail at arturrobarbiere@interia.eu, or via the contact form on his website.

Gear used:

• Brush: Mühle HJM Black Fibre
• Razor: Feather AS-D2
• Blade: Astra Superior Platinum
• Scuttle: Robert’s Feats of Clay #4

Ingredients: coconut oil, stearic acid, vegetable glycerin, distilled water, shea butter, beeswax, potassium hydroxide, natural fragrance oil.

Arturro Barbiere “Pulire” unscented shaving soap

Tags

6/10, Arturro Barbiere. unscented, shaving soap, soft soap

I was contacted by Artur, the fellow behind the polish Arturro Barbier line of soaps about doing a review. So, he sent off a pair of soaps, their Vetiver scented one (which I’ll be covering in a few days), and this unscented “Purile” soap.

The soap is relatively soft. It reminds me a lot of Wickham Shaving Soap, both in appearance and consistency and performance. Like the Wickham, I found it had a relatively wide sweet spot. It would work reasonably well with just the water on a moistened brush, but the performance did improve when a moderate amount of water was added to the mix. It didn’t seem easy to over-shoot the amount needed. It provides a very good balance of glide and thickness, and left my skin feeling soft and moisturized as well. All in all, a pretty damned good shave.

So, it’s a pretty good soap for an unscented. Those of you who follow my reviews with any regularity will know that I consider the scent to be a rather important part of the overall shave process. The scent of this soap is, well, extremely neutral. It doesn’t smell of much at all, which I suppose is the point. Sometimes even with unscented stuff you can make out what ingredients went into it, but I didn’t really find that to be the case here.

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

So, if you’re specifically looking for an unscented soap, I’d definitely recommend that. If not, obviously I wouldn’t. Overall, taking the unscented-ness into account, I think I’ll have to give it a 6/10, because after all, it’s not something that I’d go out of my way to use when there’s scented products available. That having been said, I’ll be reviewing the Vetiver version in a couple of days, and I’m sure it’ll fare better.

• Cost: They come in either a 100g plastic tub for about $9 USD or a 150g tin for around $12 USD, depending upon the exchange rate at the time. Purchases are made either via e-mail at arturrobarbiere@interia.eu, or via the contact form on his website.

Gear used:

• Brush: Mühle HJM Black Fibre
• Razor: Vintage Bakelite Slant
• Blade: Astra Superior Platinum
• Scuttle: Robert’s Feats of Clay #4

Ingredients: coconut oil, stearic acid, vegetable Glycerin, distilled water, shea butter, beeswax, potassium hydroxide,

Erasmic Shave Stick

Tags

6/10, floral, shaving soap

My first impression of Erasmic’s shaving stick was that it was too brittle to be sold in this format. Like many shave sticks, it comes with a little plastic holder that has four prongs, onto which you are to impale the shaving stick. Anyways, one I removed the wrapper and went to reimpale the stick on the prongs, the soap broke off in chunks, preventing the holder from actually, you know, holding the soap. Far too brittle to be sold in this format.

The soap performed… well, pretty much exactly like the Derby shaving stick that I reviewed a while back. Good balance of glide and thickness once you dial in the right amount of water to use (not too much, be careful of adding too much between passes, not too little). A bit finnicky, but it was good stability-wise. No real noticable moisturization or other skin benefits however.

The scent was slightly less unpleasant. I wouldn’t say I like it, it was still a very artificial aroma, cloyingly floral. It was however also not very strong at all. Quite discernible when sniffing the stick directly, but not really noticeable at all when shaving.

• 6/10 Scent Pleasantness
• 4/10 Scent Strength
• 8/10 Lather Quality

Overall, meh. The scent did nothing for me, the shave was good but not great. 6/10.

• Cost: Connaught Shaving sells two of the 50 g sticks for £2.40. They also have a 75g version that comes in a plastic tub, for £3.00.

Gear used:

• Brush: Wee Scott
• Razor: Vintage Bakelite Slant
• Blade: Sharp Durablade

Ingredients: Sodium Tallowate, Sodium Palm Kernelate, Aqua, Potassium Stearate, Sodium Stearate, Potassium Cocoate, Sodium Cocoate, Glycerin, Parfum, Cinnamyl Alcohol, Citral, Citronellol, Coumarin, Geraniol, Limonene, Linalool, Titanium Dioxide, Sodium Chloride, PEG-14M, Tetrasodium EDTA, Sodium Gluconate, Sodium Silicate, Magnesium Sulfate, Tetrasodium Etidronate.

The Strop Shoppe – Russian Tea limited edition

Tags

9/10, cinnamon, citrus, clove, Fruit, Orange, shaving soap, spice, strop shoppe

Despite its name, “Russian Tea” is an American invention, or at least the mix of tea, oranges, cloves, and cinnamon upon which this scent is based is, where it’s most popular as a Christmastime drink in the Southeast.

Strop Shoppe specifies that it’s a combination of orange, clove, and other spices. Those two scents are definitely quite noticeable in the mix, as well as a cinnamon-y note as well. I didn’t really notice much in the way of tea, however. Overall, it’s a sweet spicy concoction, which I found to be rather pleasant.

And the strength level of the scent is pretty much ideal for me. Nice and strong, without any noticeable fading while you shave.

The performance is excellent, as expected from one of the Strop Shoppe’s special edition soaps. It lathers up easily, very thick with a great amount of glide as well. And some great moisturization properties to boot.

I do however have to mention the inconsistency on the labeling. Again. The label listing of ingredients doesn’t list the cocoa butter or shea butter that another part of the label specifies it has in the “double butter formula”. Also, this soap can’t seem to figure out if it’s the special edition or the limited edition, as both are on the label. I seriously hope that I stop having to see labeling inconsistencies when dealing with the Strop Shoppe in the future. It’s irksome. Frankly, they don’t seem to be getting any better at this whatsoever. For example, on their website, the “Limited Edition – Vivace with Tallow & Lanolin” doesn’t have any lanolin at all in the ingredient listing.

Edit: So, apparently the newer style of the labels for the special edition Russian tea had the labelling fixed. And they’ve since fixed the issues with the ingredient listing on their website for the Limited Editions.

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

So, I think I’ll be giving this a 9/10. A very nice soap.

• Cost: I think this was probably actually the Limited edition, as it’s in the 4 oz tub instead of the 6 oz tub that the special editions seem to come in. But the limited edition doesn’t currently seem to be in stock; the special edition version is however, at $18.99 for a 6 oz tub.

Gear used:

• Brush: Wee Scott
• Razor: Vintage Bakelite Slant
• Blade: Big Ben Super Stainless

Ok… as for the ingredient listing, here is what the label says:

Ingredients: Potassium Stearate, Sodium Stearate, Glycerin, Castor Seed oil, Coconut Oil, Fragrance.

As mentioned above, I don’t think that’s accurate.

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.

Garden Variety Soap Company – Bergamot Cedarwood shaving soap

Tags

6/10, bergamot, cedarwood, citrus, clove, garden variety soap co, juniper, Lime, patchouli, shaving soap, wood

So I received this puck of shaving soap after getting an inquiry from the soap maker about doing a review. I frankly kind of wish she had contacted me prior to coming up with the formulation; perhaps I could have helped to steer her in a bit of a better direction.

As we often see from people who are already making soap that decide to delve into making shaving soaps, it looks like it’s basically hand soap with bentonite clay added. I suppose I can’t blame them terribly; after all that’s pretty much what comes up on the first page or so if you google “How to make shaving soap”. The problem being that they’re all listed on soap oriented websites, and not anyone with any real “cred” with regards to shaving. I’d liken it to someone who was trying to figure out how to bake a cake following a recipe on an breakfast website telling egg lovers how they can alter their omelet recipe by adding some flour, instead of actually listening to the advice on a baking site.

Which isn’t to say that some type of clay can’t be a small component of a good shaving soap (as seen in Mike’s Naturals amongst others), but it sure as heck can’t be the only thing that you’re using to try and make it into a shaving soap instead of something else.

Anyways, enough of a generic rant, about this soap in particular: it seriously lacked lather stability. If you do use it, I’d suggest tailoring your lather mix to be on the water-heavy side, so at least you get a very good amount of glide, since you’re not really going to be able much to speak about in the way of thickness. It did at least have some decent moisturization properties, but that’s not really enough to salvage the performance.

The scent was pleasant; the bergamot seems to be predominate with the cedar and the other scents providing a nice base. There’s a bit of sweetness to the mix as well, which might be from the shea / cacao butter. All together, it came together for a nice combination.

It was about a middling strength; not strong, but not weak, with fairly decent staying power.

• 9/10 Scent Pleasantness
• 8/10 Scent Strength
• 6/10 Lather Quality

Anyways, I’ll be giving this a 6/10; I can’t really recommend it due to the unsatisfying shave it provided.

• Cost: As mentioned, I was given this puck free of charge for the purposes of this review. You can get your own 4 oz puck for $8.

Gear used:

• Brush: The Colonel
• Razor: Merkur 37C Slant
• Blade: Personna DE
• Scuttle: Robert’s Feats of Clay #4

Ingredients: Water, Sunflower Oil, Castor oil, Coconut oil, Sodium Hydroxide, Palm Oil, Shea Butter, Cacao Butter, Bentonite Clay, Essential Oil Blend (bergamot, cedarwood, juniper, patchouli, lime, clove)

RazoRock “La Famiglia” Don Marco shaving soap (original formulation)

Tags

8/10, bergamot, citrus, floral, Fruit, Neroli, RazoRock, shaving soap

So, this is yet another example of the fact that I really need to get reviews done quicker and out the door faster. Here’s a review of the original formulation of RazoRock’s “La Famiglia” Don Marco shaving soap, which has since been superceded by a new formulation. The old one can however still be found at a few spots.

The soap lathers up easily, really thick, with good amount of lubrication. Just be sure to use enough water; this is one of those soaps where you might lather it up, and it could look right, but when you go to use it, it’s not as slick as it should be, because it needs more hydration. But if you get the water balance right, it’s just an excellent soap, with a good amount of moisturization as well.

The scent is quite pleasant, orange-y and citrus-y from the bergamot, with a nice bit of sweetness from the neroli, it is really a nice little package. Unfortunately, it’s not all that strong, starting off at what I’d say is a medium amount, and experiencing some fading from there throughout the shave.

Edit: For those who don’t read the comments, Joe from RazoRock has pointed out that the only change in the formulation was an increase in the strength of the scent by 50%. I presume by that ihe means a 50% increase in the amounts of the fragrance used by either volume or weight. The base soap formula has stayed the same. So… yeah, I’ll probably like the new stuff better.

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

Overall, I’ll give this an 8/10.

• Cost: As mentioned, there only appears to be a few places you can find the old formulation in stock now. One such spot sells it for $6.99.

Gear used:

• Brush: The Colonel
• Razor: Merkur 37C Slant
• Blade: Personna DE
• Scuttle: Robert’s Feats of Clay #4

Ingredients: Stearic Acid, water, cocos nucifera, potassium hydroxide, sodium hydroxide, fragrance, sodium carbonate, linalool, linalyl acetate, decanal, erthyl 2-naphthyl ether, gamma-undecalactone, alpha-dimethylphenethylbutyrate, octanal, cital.

Honeybee Soaps – Coffee Mocha

Tags

7/10, chocolate, coffee, honeybee soaps, shaving soap

Mmmmm… coffee and chocolate, two of my favourite things.

Honeybee Soaps’ rendition thereof is a fairly pleasant mix. It’s heavier on the chocolate, and a bit light on the coffee IMHO, and overall not quite as sweet as I would have expected. Still, it works fairly well, coming off what I’d say is a medium strong mix, without too much in the way of fading.

The lather’s the usual from Honeybee soaps; use a fair bit of water and some elbow grease and you’ll wrest a decent balance of thickness and glide out of the soap. It’s certainly good enough to get the job done.

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

All said, I think I’ll give this a 7/10; it’s good, but doesn’t really stand out in any particular area.

• Cost: Samples are $1.99 per ounce, full 3.5 ounce pucks are $4.99, or $6.99 for 4 ounces in a plastic tub.

Gear used:

• Brush: The Colonel
• Razor: Feather AS-D2
• Blade: Big Ben Super Stainless
• Scuttle: Robert’s Feats of Clay #4

Ingredients: Coconut Oil, Palm Oil, Castor Oil, Hempseed Oil, Safflower Oil, Shea Butter, Glycerine (vegetable origin), Vitamin E, Water, Sodium Hydroxide, Sorbitol, Sorbitan Oleate, Soybean Protein, Wheat Protein, White Kaolin China Clay, Cosmetic Color and Fragrance Oil.

Red Leaf – Black tea shaving cube

Tags

8/10, black tea, sage, sandalwood, shaving soap

Red Leaf is a shaving soap which, judging by the ingredient listing, is at least partially based upon a melt-and-pour base. That having been said, I think it’s at least on par with one the best melt and pours that I’ve used before, such as Elvado, or Honeybee Soaps.

I didn’t find too much of an issue finding the right amount of water for use with this soap. I do know I sometimes have issues with that with soaps sticks, or cubes I guess, given that it’s a bit harder to control the amount of water you’re using when it’s not being added directly into a bowl or scuttle. But this stuff seemed to be fairly tolerant to different levels of moisture. It provided a good balance of glide and lubrication, and some decent moisturization to boot.

They describe their scent as follows:

The scent of warm toasted tea leaves, Black Tea is a slightly smoky, sexy, and warm scent with a woody natural smell with notes of Sage and Sandalwood.

I suppose that seems reasonably accurate; it’s definitely smoky and warm. I wouldn’t really say that it smells all that much like Black Tea itself, but it’s definitely in the same vicinity. I rather do like it. The strength could use some bumping up; it’s still noticeable, but definitely not strongly so when lathered up and applied to the face.

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

All told, I think I’m willing to round this one up to an 8/10.

• Cost: I got this from MenEssentials, where the 100 g cube goes for $10. Red Leaf also has sample sizes available on their website. I’ll note here that the sample sizes are the same formulation as the cubes; however I’ve confirmed with the owner of Red Leaf that the “travel containers”, the 3.5 oz jars of soap, they are a slightly different formulation from the cubes or the samples, so I make no promises that the performance would match what I’ve outlined here.

Gear used:

• Brush: Wee Scott
• Razor: 1966 Solid Nickel Gillette Tech
• Blade: Shark Super Stainless

Ingredients: Ingredients: coconut oil, sustainable palm oil, castor oil, safflower oil, vegetable glycerin, purified water, sodium hydroxide, sorbitan oleate, soybean protein, wheat protein, fragrance