La Toja - Item of he Week 2/25/13

[OldSaw]

Well gents, I am out and done with La Toja for good. I got home a little early this afternoon and decided to test if the irritation was indeed from the soap or if my technique was off. I used my forearm to lather up and sure enough after a minute or two of lathering it started to tingle. Leaving the lather there for a few minutes intensified this experience so I washed it off and thanked the soap for its duty but bid it farewell forever. I haven't heard anybody else having this issue so I am a bit surprised, but that being said it will join the likes of Fume and Mama Bears on my personal do not buy list. I wish you all luck on your last shave for this series and look forward to joining in when I can in the future.

That's too bad, but it happens from time to time. I have had the same reaction to a few soaps, but not La Toja. L'ocitane Cade is one that I can't use at all, turns my face into a nasty bunch of red dots.

 

[OldSaw]

Last day with La Toja and another great shave. The gear for today was: La toja, Semogue LE 2012, Gillette tech, Gillette 7 o'clock black, ad Captain's choice bay rum. Nice smooth shave.

It has been interesting using the same product for a week. I usually have a more capricious soap schedule. Using the same soap over the week does give the opportunity to better understand the capabilities of the product, especially if you can discuss it. In reading this thread we can see that LaToja is a really good soap and is a consistent performer. Through this I discovered that the stick seems to apply better if it is soaked for a bit, for me around 30 seconds to a minute. Prior to this week I had left the foil on the bottom of the stick and though the stick remained in its base, it was somewhat loose. Based on recommendations here, I removed the foil and now it seems to be really locked into the base. It seem to be the general opinion that La Toja is a thirsty soap, but I think that it has a pretty forgiving sweet spot. The scent of La Toja is pleasant, I think it has a general soapy scent with a minerally note. Others detect this mineral scent as a light smokiness. I found the general post shave skin feel to be decent with this soap, it is nondrying but does not provide the moisturizing aspects that some products do. Trumper's coconut cream or Pre de Provence for example. Although La Toja is a fairly mild soap, it can potentially irritate some users, so as always YMMV. Given the price and performance this soap is an excellent addition to any den, and the packaging makes it really easy to travel with.

Anyway, thanks to OldSaw for proposing the item of the week thread. I will participate in future incarnations when I have the product.

Thank you Jason, for such a nice summary. I'm glad that this first event worked out the way it did.

I discovered on this last La Toja shave today, that soaking for more than a couple of minutes can deplete the stick pretty fast. I left mine soaking in about an eighth to a quarter inch of water this morning while I drank a cup of coffee. When I went to shave there was a very visible line where the water stopped and the diameter of the stick was quite a bit smaller below the waterline. It did not improve the application any over a shorter soak. I was able to incorporate the water from the soaking (in the bottom of one of my custom lathering mugs) into the lather and it worked out well with plenty of rich lather for 3 passes and some left over.

Thanks everyone for participating and I look forward to future events.

 

[Amzimbo]

For this last shave I went for an "all La Toja" uberlather: stick, cream and Manantiales soap. While it was fine, and I had lots of lather to work with, I wouldn't say it was any better than the Manantiales on its own.