JCinPA
The Lather Maestro
Well, I am really excited about this! My favorite soap at the moment is RazoRock Artisan Line Mughetto di Bologna (Lilly of the Valley scent). I got a sample of the Mystic Water soap in a now discontinued (for good reason) scent from another B&Ber a couple weeks ago and was pretty impressed, but it's hard to lather small soap samples. Michelle from Mystic Waters spotted the thread and offered to send me a puck to do a review with! Very nice! She was playing around with Tea Tree oil and some other things in the first sample and I thought it smelled like Mr. Clean. She emailed me that was an early experiment and she offered the Lilly of the Valley and I jumped on it.
The right way to do this, in my opinion, is to give it a decent trial period, especially if it is new to you and you are comparing it to an old favorite. So I am going to do at least a two week, every-other-day comparison between her Lilly of the Valley scent and the RazoRock MdB!
I like to do a trial run or two lathering a soap before shaving with it so I get to understand it. I think that, in general, many of us over think the lathering process, and it is kind of a "Just Do It!" kind of thing. Use a lot of product, and play with it a bit. So I did that tonight.
First off, the scent is phenomenal! It does smell similar to the RR, but it is stronger. The RR is not different, really, just more subdued. The Mystic Water Lilly of the Valley scent is intoxicating, I love it! Like my first experience with the samples, though, I found it to be a bit more airy than RR. My first thought was, "This tub is way too small!" I don't know why the Italian soft soap makers use such small tubs, but part of the genius of the RR line, IMO, is the tubs are 2-3X larger than the soaps. Michelle enclosed a lathering instruction card and it basically what we call here "Marco's Method", and that is very sloppy with Cella or Proraso or Omega. I found the same thing with the Mystic Water, which comes in a tub that just contains the soap puck. So my first test lather was a bit thin and airy with this one. The RR tubs are hands-down the best containers for lathering soft soaps with a wet brush. For the extra 25 cents it might cost for a larger plastic tub, I would recommend all manufacturers use bigger ones.
So I cleaned up a Rubbermaid tub and transferred the soap to that, and tried it again, using my favorite, custom King1976 made 24mm silvertip badger brush. MUCH better. I soaked the brush, gave it a couple gentle pumps, and loaded for about a minute. Much more like the RR experience, but then when adding water I went too far and it was thin and airy. So I started lathering it on my palm, pushing it into the scuttle, whipping it then lathering on my palm some more, and eventually I was rewarded with a wonderful laterh. Not, perhaps as dense as the RR, but close. And I am dialing it in, so I think I'll be able to do a good comparison over the next couple weeks. Here is the scuttle, some later on my hand that has been sitting for a few minutes and the rubbermaid tub behind it.
Holy cow, is this stuf SLICK!!! Like buttered ice. So tomorrow, the comparison begins, I will start with an Omega boar and the razor will be my ONLY razor (gasp! yes I do not rotate!), an EJ DE89 head on a Bob's Razor Works XXL handle. I put my last Personna Lab blade in it this morning, so I will be on shave #2 with one of my favorite blades. I will finish this week out with that blade, alternating soaps every morning. Next week I will use my standard Gillette Super Platinum Black (Indian) blades. If I do a third week, I'll use a vintage NOS Schick Plus Platinum.
As I mentioned, the RR MdB is my current favorite soap, and having a nearly identical scent will make it a fairer comparison because scent can influence our subjective experience so much. I will give it enough time that I am as facile with the Mystic Water as I am with the RR, also in the interest of making a fair comparison. Then I will send the remainder off to our resident Italian soft soap guru, Marco for further testing! It's just not right to keep an entire puck intended as a sample, so I will get it off the real expert when I am done. I will be curious to see what I get next for that tub, more RR or the MW! I honestly don't know right now.
Many thanks to Michelle of Mystic Waters, and I am really, really looking forward to this. First shave with the MW is Tuesday, March 27! Stay tuned!
The right way to do this, in my opinion, is to give it a decent trial period, especially if it is new to you and you are comparing it to an old favorite. So I am going to do at least a two week, every-other-day comparison between her Lilly of the Valley scent and the RazoRock MdB!
I like to do a trial run or two lathering a soap before shaving with it so I get to understand it. I think that, in general, many of us over think the lathering process, and it is kind of a "Just Do It!" kind of thing. Use a lot of product, and play with it a bit. So I did that tonight.
First off, the scent is phenomenal! It does smell similar to the RR, but it is stronger. The RR is not different, really, just more subdued. The Mystic Water Lilly of the Valley scent is intoxicating, I love it! Like my first experience with the samples, though, I found it to be a bit more airy than RR. My first thought was, "This tub is way too small!" I don't know why the Italian soft soap makers use such small tubs, but part of the genius of the RR line, IMO, is the tubs are 2-3X larger than the soaps. Michelle enclosed a lathering instruction card and it basically what we call here "Marco's Method", and that is very sloppy with Cella or Proraso or Omega. I found the same thing with the Mystic Water, which comes in a tub that just contains the soap puck. So my first test lather was a bit thin and airy with this one. The RR tubs are hands-down the best containers for lathering soft soaps with a wet brush. For the extra 25 cents it might cost for a larger plastic tub, I would recommend all manufacturers use bigger ones.
So I cleaned up a Rubbermaid tub and transferred the soap to that, and tried it again, using my favorite, custom King1976 made 24mm silvertip badger brush. MUCH better. I soaked the brush, gave it a couple gentle pumps, and loaded for about a minute. Much more like the RR experience, but then when adding water I went too far and it was thin and airy. So I started lathering it on my palm, pushing it into the scuttle, whipping it then lathering on my palm some more, and eventually I was rewarded with a wonderful laterh. Not, perhaps as dense as the RR, but close. And I am dialing it in, so I think I'll be able to do a good comparison over the next couple weeks. Here is the scuttle, some later on my hand that has been sitting for a few minutes and the rubbermaid tub behind it.
Holy cow, is this stuf SLICK!!! Like buttered ice. So tomorrow, the comparison begins, I will start with an Omega boar and the razor will be my ONLY razor (gasp! yes I do not rotate!), an EJ DE89 head on a Bob's Razor Works XXL handle. I put my last Personna Lab blade in it this morning, so I will be on shave #2 with one of my favorite blades. I will finish this week out with that blade, alternating soaps every morning. Next week I will use my standard Gillette Super Platinum Black (Indian) blades. If I do a third week, I'll use a vintage NOS Schick Plus Platinum.
As I mentioned, the RR MdB is my current favorite soap, and having a nearly identical scent will make it a fairer comparison because scent can influence our subjective experience so much. I will give it enough time that I am as facile with the Mystic Water as I am with the RR, also in the interest of making a fair comparison. Then I will send the remainder off to our resident Italian soft soap guru, Marco for further testing! It's just not right to keep an entire puck intended as a sample, so I will get it off the real expert when I am done. I will be curious to see what I get next for that tub, more RR or the MW! I honestly don't know right now.
Many thanks to Michelle of Mystic Waters, and I am really, really looking forward to this. First shave with the MW is Tuesday, March 27! Stay tuned!