Barrister and Mann – Cheshire shaving soap

Tags

9/10, bermagot, black tea, citrus, earl grey, shaving soap, tea

Some of you might know that I’ve been looking for a good Earl Grey scented shaving soap or cream for a while. Well… I’m satisfied that search can be declared over.

I’ll put the disclaimer here: I was provided this sample by the manufacturer free of charge. Since, you know, he was aware that I’d been looking for a good Earl Grey scent, and there’s definitely worse business strategies than providing reviewers with something that you think they’ll enjoy.

Cheshire is a pretty damned good approximation of a classic Earl Grey tea; unlike some attempts out there, Barrister and Mann didn’t stop at the bermagot oil, but did their best to recreate the scent of the tea as well. Well, a sniff of the soap and a sniff of the tea bag, and I’m satisfied that this is probably about as close as you’re ever going to see. A damned fine job crafting a wonderful scent.

The strength too is quite good. It starts off rather strong, and during the course of the shave only fades to a “fairly strong”. Perhaps I would have preferred a tad more, but let’s face it, if they had done that there’d probably be others complaining it’s overpowered.

The lather is, well, the same as I’ve come to expect from B&M. It’s thirsty, so don’t make the mistake of being stingy with your water, otherwise you might end up with something that’s lacking for lubrication. Keep at it, and apply a little elbow grease, and you’ve got a nice slick lather that retains good thickness, with a decently wide sweet spot. And some decent moisturization properties to boot.

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

So, yes, I’ll say that I’m quite pleased with this soap. I think I’ll be sticking it at #3 on the top ten list. A rather strong 9/10 overall. And, a damned fine value for the price you pay.

• Cost: A 1/2 oz sample can be had as part of their 7 piece sample pack, for $11.50, on its own for $2, or you can go for the full-sized puck for $11.

Gear used:

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

Ingredients: Potassium Stearate, Sodium Stearate, Potassium Tallowate, Sodium Tallowate, Aqua, Glycerin, Citrus bergamia (Bergamot) Oil, Salvia sclarea (Clary Sage) Oil, Lavandula Angustifolia (Lavender) Oil, Pogostemon cablin (Patchouli) Oil, Potassium Ricinoleate, Sodium Ricinoleate, Coconut Milk, Potassium Kokum Butterate, Sodium Kokum Butterate, Unrefined Shea Butter, Potassium Cocoate, Sodium Cocoate, Lanolin, Allantoin, Silk Protein, Tocopherol Acetate.

Kell’s Original Hemp Blend Shaving Soap – Black Tea

Tags

8/10, amber, bermagot, black tea, cedarwood, citrus, floral, Fruit, Glycerin, Jasmine, kell's original, lemon, musk, Orange, shaving soap, tea

Kell’s Original Black Tea is one of those ones were it’s probably best just to start off by giving you the listing of how they describe the scent:

This smoky, sexy and sophisticated fragrance is reminiscent of roasted tea leaves with strong overtones of tobacco. With surprising top notes of Italian Bergamot, Sicilian Lemon and Southern Orange, the blend winds down with Black Tea Leaves, Star Jasmine, White Cedarwood, Amber Crystal and a rich musk. This is a bold and unusual scent sure to intrigue.

So, as you can see, it’s a fairly complex scent. I’m not going to lie, had someone asked me to sniff it and give a description, I’m not sure that “tea” would have popped up. But, knowing that’s what they’re going for, I can see how it hints at that. I’m not entirely sure that I pick up everything listed there, in particular I don’t get all that much of a citrus impression at all, be it lemon, orange, or bermagot. As an aside, I think I would greatly enjoy a shaving soap that manages to capture the essence of Earl Grey, a classic blend of black tea and bermagot.

Anyways, it’s a complex scent, but it’s rather enjoyable; I found it to be somewhat invigorating, it’s just spicy enough to give a little bit of a kick to the senses. It comes on just shy of “strong”, but manages to avoid fading noticeably from there.

As is expected now from Kell’s Original, the lather is quite nice. It’s provides good performance in thickness, glide, and moisturizing properties, provided that you remember to use enough water! Quite voluminous as well, a fully loaded brush will provide far more lather than is needed for a typical 3-pass shave.

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

All-in-all, 8/10. I’d definitely recommend at least trying out a sampler. Also available with aloe, although I haven’t tried that formulation.

• Cost: The sample puck used was $2 for 1 oz, also available are 2.7 oz cakes for $5.25, 4oz in a tin for $8, or a 2.5 oz shave stick for $9.

Gear used:

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

Hemp blend ingredients: Coconut Oil, Palm Oil, Olive Oil (Grade A extra virgin), Safflower Oil, Glycerine (vegetable origin), Hemp Seed Oil (unrefined), Purified Water, Sodium Hydroxide (saponifying agent), Sorbitol (moisturizer), Sorbitan oleate (emulsifer), Soy bean protein (conditioner), Wheat Protein (conditioner)

Man Cave Soapworks – Black Tea and Leather shave gel

Tags

5/10, leather, Man Cave Soapworks, non-lathering, shaving gel, spice, tea

Today’s review, by request, is Black Tea and Leather shave gel from Mancave Soapworks. T’is the first non-lathering gel I’ll reviewed thus far, and when I say non-lathering, I don’t mean “doesn’t lather well without a lot of water, but once you get that right lathers up quite nicely” like some other creams designed to be used brushless, I mean “doesn’t do anything whatsoever when a brush and water is used upon it.”

Needless to say, the shave performance is rather different from most. I will say it provides an extremely slick glide. Unfortunately, it comes at the expense of having virtually no cushioning, not only being a gel but a relatively thin one.

Which isn’t to say that it gave a completely terrible shave, but I certainly wouldn’t recommend it for anyone remotely new to the whole wetshaving scene. Those a bit more experienced should be able to judge to what extent they rely upon the cushioning of their usual soap or cream.

As to be expected, you will also be using a lot more of the product on a daily basis than your average cream or soap. I ended up going through about 15 g of the stuff during the course of a 3 pass shave, and that was with laying it on relatively thinly. Thus I’d only expect to get about 8 shaves out of each jar.

The scent is a nice spicy concoction, the black tea being quite evident, with the leathery scent providing a nice base. All in all, it’s an overtly manly scent. Strength-wise, it’s fairly strong, quite noticeable throughout the shave (at least it avoids the problem that a lot of soaps have with the lathering process killing off their aroma).

• 9/10 Scent Pleasantness
• 9/10 Scent Strength
• 4/10 Lather Quality (reflects new scoring as outlined here)

Overall, I’d give it a 5/10. The scent delivers, but the shave isn’t all that good. Personally, I’d just go with the aftershave balm in the same scent instead.

• Cost: The 4 oz jar goes for $8.

Gear used:

• Razor: Edwin Jagger DE81BL (Red)
• Blade: Lord Super Stainless

Ingredients: Aqua, alcohol, glycerin, polysorbate, carbomer, triethamine, methylparaben, propylparaben, fragrance, aloe gel, aloe oil.