My Guess... 3017

[jasonb8736]

My 16g of MdC are gone. 20 shaves exactly so 0.8g/shave

I found it super easy to lather and very consistent. Slickness was pretty good once I started using enough product and painted water onto the lather on my face. Protection was slightly lacking for me but not a deal breaker.

I could use this soap every day and be quite content if I didn't know anything else existed. That said, I'll probably choose more protective soaps and won't go out of my way to get more of this (or one of the clones).

Looking to the next 3017 I'm hoping for some help again. If you guys had the following to pick from what would you start?

Mystic Waters Lavender Lime
AoS Tallow Lemon
Mike's Bay Rum
B&M Nocturne
RazoRock Nervous Wreck
Arko stick
Palmolive stick
La Toja stick

I have some motivations but want to see what you guys have to say. MW is the only wildcard performance wise. I haven't even test lathered it yet but it smells really good.

Spring is in the air...AOS Lemon tallow would be my choice.

 

[AJ123]

thanks Jason. I ended up putting both in my order of a half dozen of them, so now I have two of the Sandalwood.

I looked into this very question last year. They're the same. It's regional marketing, I believe. Excellent sandalwood soap

 

[PhilC]

My 16g of MdC are gone. 20 shaves exactly so 0.8g/shave

I found it super easy to lather and very consistent. Slickness was pretty good once I started using enough product and painted water onto the lather on my face. Protection was slightly lacking for me but not a deal breaker.

I could use this soap every day and be quite content if I didn't know anything else existed. That said, I'll probably choose more protective soaps and won't go out of my way to get more of this (or one of the clones).

Looking to the next 3017 I'm hoping for some help again. If you guys had the following to pick from what would you start?

Mystic Waters Lavender Lime
AoS Tallow Lemon
Mike's Bay Rum
B&M Nocturne
RazoRock Nervous Wreck
Arko stick
Palmolive stick
La Toja stick

I have some motivations but want to see what you guys have to say. MW is the only wildcard performance wise. I haven't even test lathered it yet but it smells really good.

Since it'll be used Spring as the weather warms MW seems about perfect to me. I do something lavender ea. Spring and something citrus each summer.

FWIW the last few MW I've used have performed like champs for me. One of my all time favs. I know YMMV and all, but I love MW.

 

[jasonb8736]

thanks Jason. I ended up putting both in my order of a half dozen of them, so now I have two of the Sandalwood.

You will be happy. Tremendous soaps. I hope you ordered coconut...

 

[FL shaver]

Needed a fast shave this morning so I face lathered the Valobra Menthol with a 20 mm two band from TGN. Here's where this soap can really excel! Loaded 10 seconds and had great lather for three passes. Such a soft soap that it loads quickly. Kinda pasty initially, but really got slick and dense with the addition of water. Yeah. This is a very good soap. And I get no post-shave irritation. Guessing it's the menthol cool that takes care of any burn. Good moisturizing, too. I'll enjoy the brick and hopefully move on in a month...

 

[brucered]

Mystic Waters Lavender Lime
I have some motivations but want to see what you guys have to say. MW is the only wildcard performance wise. I haven't even test lathered it yet but it smells really good.

MW gets my vote. I've used that one in the past and really enjoyed it.

I'm not sure I'll continue with my RR SV, it's not doing anything for me. Shave are OK, not up to my standard and seems to be lacking in slickness. I seem to get a regular weeper or knick, same as I was getting with Cella.

 

[Haggises]

Since it'll be used Spring as the weather warms MW seems about perfect to me. I do something lavender ea. Spring and something citrus each summer.

FWIW the last few MW I've used have performed like champs for me. One of my all time favs. I know YMMV and all, but I love MW.

This.

 

[snowman]

Needed a fast shave this morning so I face lathered the Valobra Menthol with a 20 mm two band from TGN. Here's where this soap can really excel! Loaded 10 seconds and had great lather for three passes. Such a soft soap that it loads quickly. Kinda pasty initially, but really got slick and dense with the addition of water. Yeah. This is a very good soap. And I get no post-shave irritation. Guessing it's the menthol cool that takes care of any burn. Good moisturizing, too. I'll enjoy the brick and hopefully move on in a month...

I agree, it is a good soap. Lathers easy, no irritation. Very similar to the tallow based RR's I've tried. I load my damp SOG boar for maybe 20 seconds (damp soap), lightly dip the tips in water, face lather for another 30 or seconds, tons of lather for 4 passes. I have been working through mine for about a month. The scent is gone, which is fine with me. Protection is decent. Yes, Valobra is growing on me, its a nice soap. Postshave not as good as Mikes or Haslinger for me. So I'm not going to buy a brick of it. Just too many other choices that are better. But I can sure see why many people use Valobra soft soap every day. Mine is dwindling....I think by this weekend it will be done. Which means I get to hit a new soap for April.

 

[FL shaver]

Alright, so I'm not the only one killing a brick now. Nice! I don't see this soap mentioned much here, but it has it's fans, eh? Two months? It does fill about 2/3 of my MWF dish. It looks very much like Cella now, too.

 

[Gig103]

I am approx halfway through my B&M Adagio and the last few shaves have fallen short. It feels more drying than I am used to and I sort of miss my Palmolive!

 

[brucered]

RazoRock SV is out and 50g of PdP is in. It didn't take long for me to see PdP is vastly superior soap then many.

There was no airy proto-lather, no lather fading, residual slickness which RR didn't seem to have and the post shave feel and general softness of it on my face was amazing.

I'm not one to dissect ingredients, but the lather quality seems to be in a different league with Haslinger and PDP over almost all the soft Italian soaps I've used. Is it the steric acid that makes soft soaps lather so easily but always has them a bit airy and frothy when they are first lathered up? PDP and Haslinger don't seem to get that way and it stays creamy and bubble free, not producing the same volume but better quality.

Either way, PdP is as good as I remembered and delivered a perfect shave for its revisit 3017. Here's hoping it wasn't a fluke.


Obviously, I'll have to give it more time before making a comparison between it and Haslinger, but after one shave, I think I'll be hard pressed to pick a favorite.

 

[Jarick]

You always have interesting, good posts Bruce.

RR soaps have been hit or miss for me. My first soap was an old Sandalwood Third Eye, which was a mediocre performer with good scent until the end, when it turned gooey and worked well. XXX was a really good performer, more slick and dense than voluminous. Since then I've got partial jars of R.160, P.160, Christmas in Tuscany, and Lavender. All of those are the more airy type of lather.

Did you smash PdP into your mug? How much difficulty? Any pics of the lather?

All the PdP talk...I'm going to have to get another puck. Just like MWF, I was disappointed in the performance but I absolutely love the smell. Perfect Spring scent, light, floral, soapy. I'd hack off 50g like you guys are doing.

Lastly...

I took a break from AOS sandalwood tallow to try the MdC again. I loaded my giant Shavemac 2 band and forgot that MdC doesn't need a lot. Lathered very easily and got two passes without trouble. I decided to try for a third and squeezed the brush to get enough lather, which then dried out on my face right away. I went the brush and worked again for two more passes worth of lather. It was a touch thin but nice.

I wasn't able to tell if the MdC was any less slick than the AOS because there wasn't a ton of growth to deal with, but it was a nice shave. I also wonder if, because MdC lathers so easily, I haven't been using it a touch too dry in the past.​

 

[SpikedLemon]

I've been working away on my tin of PdP and my main complaint (as though it could be considered one) is that it is lasting a VERY long time. It's a solid soap that I would not hesitate to recommend to others that simply delivers. I think I'm a few months away from finishing this tin at my current pace.

 

[brucered]

Did you smash PdP into your mug? How much difficulty? Any pics of the lather?

I cut off 50g chunk with my plastic Ikea knife and then pressed it into the dish. Because it came off in pieces, it was already in pieces that made it easy to press and form into the dish.

No pics of the lather but I will tomorrow or the weekend. It was very Haslingeresque in how it looked and performed.

 

[jasonb8736]

RazoRock SV is out and 50g of PdP is in. It didn't take long for me to see PdP is vastly superior soap then many.

There was no airy proto-lather, no lather fading, residual slickness which RR didn't seem to have and the post shave feel and general softness of it on my face was amazing.

I'm not one to dissect ingredients, but the lather quality seems to be in a different league with Haslinger and PDP over almost all the soft Italian soaps I've used. Is it the steric acid that makes soft soaps lather so easily but always has them a bit airy and frothy when they are first lathered up? PDP and Haslinger don't seem to get that way and it stays creamy and bubble free, not producing the same volume but better quality.

Either way, PdP is as good as I remembered and delivered a perfect shave for its revisit 3017. Here's hoping it wasn't a fluke.


Obviously, I'll have to give it more time before making a comparison between it and Haslinger, but after one shave, I think I'll be hard pressed to pick a favorite.

I hear what you're saying about the soft soaps, Bruce. Sometimes, I think too much water is immediately added to the soft soaps when building lather. The hard soaps need more water, in general, because they have a harder (drier) consistency.

Personally, I use a wet brush to lather both soft and harder soaps, but the time/duration on the puck/soap changes. As you point out, it could be the ingredient list also.

I'm intrigued by your PdP comparison to Haslinger...

 

[brucered]

I'm intrigued by your PdP comparison to Haslinger...

It's hard to describe and it may just be in my head, but they just feel more soothing on my face, even before the razor touches it.

 

[Parjay]

Here is some file footage of my PdP lather. This was before my first pass.

 

[jasonb8736]

It's hard to describe and it may just be in my head, but they just feel more soothing on my face, even before the razor touches it.

I'm confident in my opinion of Haslinger. It generates a lather that is certainly top tier. I use other soaps to get variety and to tap into the hobby side of shaving. PdP is just one of those soaps I'll have to try, eventually. I dabble with L'Occitane de Provence Cade and get decent/okay shaves with it. I'm interested to see how other French soaps perform.

 

[chinmusic82]

That is nice to hear @brucered. I posted some very similar thoughts about 7 weeks ago.

 

[brucered]

That is nice to hear @brucered. I posted some very similar thoughts about 7 weeks ago.

This is my second go round with PdP. After the first puck, I immediately bought another as it was that good. FF 2y and a bunch of new soaps and a few new favorites, I was worried it wasn't going to live up to how highly I regarded it.

I'm only one shave in, but if the rest are like today's, I'll be a happy man.