Samplerthoughts/reviews (LASS, Strop Shoppe, B&M)

[kingfisher]

My wife bought me 7 soap samples for Christmas from Maggard's (this is an awesome service that Maggard's provides, by the way). I thought maybe people would be interested if I chronicled my experiences with these soap samples (all new to me).

The samples I got were these: Strop Shoppe Special Edition London Morning and Teak Wood; Barrister and Mann Seville and Cheshire; and LA Shaving Soap company Topanga Fougere, Spring Street, and Hollywood Romance.

After sniffing, I chose SS London Morning as the first soap. In the container, I thought it had the most immediately appealing scent. I thought the top note was bergamot, which is a scent I really love, but it turns out it was some kind of citrus zest.

My review of SS SE London Morning

Appearance/Consistency: This is a pale, very soft soap that is easily pliable. The soap surface is kind of sticky, so when trying to put it into a Pyrex container for lathering, bits of it kept getting stuck to my thumb. It was virtually impossible to get a smooth surface, because every touch led to more of it coming up onto my thumb or fingers.

Scent: The scent is pretty amazing. It's a complex, cologne-type scent. Top notes are definitely citrusy, but there are underlying notes of vetiver and white pepper. These scents come out more when the soap is lathered. After lathering, the soap scent is not bright at all, but rather complex and deep, with oakmoss/vetiver sort of dominating, and a little citrus and a hint of pepper to round out the scent. This is really a well crafted scent. Normally I like simple scents that are mostly citrus or floral, and even I really appreciated the complexity and depth of this scent. Those of you who like vetiver, oakmoss, and the like are sure to enjoy this scent. Scent strength is perfect; neither too heavy nor too light.

Lather: I lathered it once with a finest badger and once with a synthetic brush. In both cases, the protolather at loading was thick and rich, and the final lather was really nice; luxurious, almost. The lather squeezed up from the breech of the brush for touch-ups is better than almost any soap I have tried.

Slickness was good. Protection seemed not quite as good as I would have expected given the thickness of the lather, but it was still very good.

Post-shave Face Feel: This soap left my face feeling smooth and nice. Not moisturized, but not dry at all. I would say the post-shave face feel was very good.


Unfortunately, something about this soap caused my face to get a very slight burning sensation about halfway through the first shave. I tried it again a second time to make sure it wasn't my imagination, and the same thing happened. It wasn't terrible and my skin didn't get red or anything, but I am sure there is something in this soap that doesn't agree with my skin. I am hoping it is one of the scent components rather than one of the base soap ingredients, because I really think the Strop Shoppe lather is top-notch.

But, because of the sensitivity issue, I am finished with London Morning, and it will definitely not be my next full tub soap purchase.

Having said that, this is an amazing soap with a fantastic scent.



Next sample up is B&M Seville. I will post a review when I have had a chance to shave with it at least twice.

 

[celestino]

Thanks for the review, Randall.

 

[Batman]

This is great...thanks. I just bought a few samples from Maggards. Looking forward to your other reviews.

 

[tclobaugh]

Great idea. I've gotten a few samples from maggards as well, and love the ability to do this.

 

[kingfisher]

OK, ready for review number two.

The second soap I chose to try out was Barrister and Mann's Seville. I have now had a chance to use it twice, once lathered with a boar brush and once with a finest badger.

Appearance/Consistency. This soap is soft and malleable, but not sticky like the Strop Shoppe. Pressing it into a Pyrex bowl leaves a nice smooth surface. Definitely a harder soap than Strop Shoppe (probably because the artisan uses more sodium hydroxide in the saponification step). The color is an orangeish-brown.

Scent. The scent, to my nose, is really nice. It is a combination of citrus top notes (mostly bergamot but with a little lemon thrown in), herbaceous lavender and rosemary, and patchouli, with a bit of oakmoss to round it out. At first sniff, it is mostly citrus and patchouli, but when lathered the herbaceous quality really comes out. The lavender in this one smells strictly herbaceous; not floral and thankfully not resinous. There is quite a bit of patchouli in it. (For those not scent-knowledgeable, patchouli is a somewhat sickly sweet smell like that of incense sticks in the 70s; imagine walking pushing your way through those hanging bead strands into that smoky room in Haight-Ashbury and you're pretty much there.) I'm not a huge patchouli fan, but in this scent it works really well because it is balanced out by the herbs, the nice citrus topnotes, and the oakmoss.
It is a nice scent in the "barbershop" vein that in this rendition is a little more complex than most and is quite pleasing. It is also a scent that I think will grow on me over time; I like it already, and I feel like I would like it more with more uses.
The scent strength is pretty robust. This is not a faint scent or one that you can just barely smell. My wife could smell it from her sink when I was lathering it. This morning I finished shaving, left the bathroom to get dressed, and then came back into the bathroom to comb my hair. The entire bathroom smelled wonderful with left-over Seville scent.

Lather: Ultimately the lather from this soap is outstanding. Loading is a little slower than with the Strop Shoppe (probably because the soap is harder), the protolather is not as rich, and it takes a bit longer to work the lather to where I want it. The end result lather is thick, rich, slick, and protective. Not as unctuous and thick as the Strop Shoppe lather, but somewhat slicker. It shaved beautifully.

Post-shave Face Feel: Very good. Not ultra slick, but not dry. My skin felt nice after the shave.


Verdict? This is a really great shaving soap. All the B&M soaps I have tried have produced similarly great lather, so it comes down to scent preferences. Seville, to me, is a really nice scent. This one is really a contender for a full puck purchase. (I have a 5 more soaps to try out first, though.)

 

[kingfisher]

OK, review number three is L.A. Shaving Soap's Spring Street.

Appearance: Soft, oft-white soap about the same consistency as B&M soaps.

Scent: This is a really interesting scent; to my nose it's a Fougere with floral top notes. I find it very complex and pleasant. It is meant to evoke the scent of a meadow in spring and it does a pretty good job. One day after I used this soap my wife said, "You smell good" when I kissed her. This is obviously a positive.

Lather: This soap loads very easily and begins to form a somewhat bubbly protolather very quickly. After a little bit of work and water incorporation it settles into a fluffy, peaked lather that is beautiful and photogenic. The lather scent is true to the scent in the tub; perhaps a bit more floral on the face, which I enjoyed. It is plenty slick. Protection is perhaps a slight notch below that of B&M.
I lathered this once with a boar brush, once with a finest badger, and once with a synthetic. In each case the lather was the same; white, rich, but a little fluffier than my preferred lathers. Perhaps there is a bit too much saponified coconut oil in this soap? (The difference between this lather and that of B&M, though, is not great; these are subtle differences that may or may not be noticeable to you.)

Post-Shave Face Feel: I was concerned that this soap might be drying, given the ingredients list, but it proved not to be so. The post-shave face feel is good to very good.


Verdict? Another winner. If you like the idea of a Fougere but want something a little lighter and cleaner, this scent might be for you. If you enjoy a soap that lathers very quickly and easily and produces a lather that is voluminous, you will really enjoy this soap. I had three good shaves with it, and now I am moving on to my next sample.

 

[manjuro]

Wow! Wonderful informative reviews. Thanks so much. I'm looking forward to the rest.

Would it be all right with you if I send you samples of all my soaps so I can tell if I like them or not?

 

[beginish]

Great reviews, Randall. I'm interested to hear your scent comparison of Spring Street with Topanga Fougére.

 

[August West]

Waiting on Hollywood Romance.

 

[kingfisher]

OK, time for review number four.

This time, the soap was Strop Shoppe Teak Wood special edition with tallow.

All the comments about the soap's consistency, etc., are the same as those posted in the London Morning review at the top of the thread. Very, very soft soap; sticky. Difficult to get into a container for lathering because it sticks to your fingers. Just like the London Morning. I shaved with this three times, once lathered with a boar, once with a finest badger, and once with a synthetic brush.

Lather: Because of the extreme softness of the soap, it lathers up very easily (also provides fewer shaves per sample than the other soaps). I think all those things are tied neatly together: namely, because it is so soft, it loads really quickly into the brush, lathers up very richly, provides a great shave, and runs out quickly, too.

The lather quality is unassailable. Beautiful, thick, luscious lather; never bubbly, never airy, never flat. The Strop Shoppe samples I have tried (just these two) were just about perfect as far as lather quality is concerned.

Scent: This is another interesting scent. I happen to have a teak wood desk in my house, so I can tell you that this soap does KIND OF smell like teak wood, although it's much more subdued that the real thing, which is good. If you have ever smelled a teak wood piece of furniture, this soap smells like what the furniture would smell like if somebody could tone it down about 4 or 5 notches. There are other scents lingering in this soap, as well. I don't know what scents are in it, so I will just describe what I smell. First, the scent is woodsy but sweet. Very sweet, in fact. I think I sense some patchouli in it. Probably some cedar, as well. Underneath the teak, the sweetness, and the patchouli there is a tone that I can only describe as dirt. It doesn't really smell like vetiver, which is often described as earthy, as well, although I can't say it doesn't have vetiver in it. There's no smokiness to it at all. It just smells like dirt. Like I imagine B&M Petrichor was designed to smell (Petrichor is supposed to smell like earth after a light rain.) The dirt note (for lack of a better term) is not a bad thing; in fact, I think without it this scent would be overly sweet; sickly sweet, even. The dirt rounds it out nicely and keeps it from becoming cloying.

I really like this scent, even though I'm not usually one for woodsy/outdoorsy/dirty scents. If you are a person who already likes this type of scent, you will probably LOVE Teak Wood, provided you are not put off by an immediate sweetness that fades somewhat in the actual lather. In other words, the smell of the soap off the puck is very sweet with very little earthiness, but the smell of the lather balances out better and the dirt smell rises up.

I am happy to report that this one, unlike London Morning, did not make my skin burn, so my reaction to London Morning was probably to one of the fragrance or essential oils. I do not react to the base soap of Strop Shoppe. Unfortunately, I am highly allergic to cedar, and this soap did make my nose get all stuffed up.

So, Strop Shoppe Teak Wood will not be my next full puck shave soap purchase.

Verdict: I highly recommend Strop Shoppe soaps. This lather is really, really nice. And if you like the description of this scent and are not allergic to cedar, you might want to give it a try.


FYI, only three more samples to go. B&M Cheshire, and LASS Hollywood Romance and Topanga Fougere. I always try out a sample for at least three shaves before posting a review, so patience is rewarded.

 

[kansaskyle]

Great reviews! I got my popcorn ready and waiting for the other two.

 

[kingfisher]

OK. I've only had two shaves with LASS Topanga Fougere, but I decided to post the review today anyway, since the weekend is coming.

Appearance/Consistency: Curiously, this sample wasn't quite the same as the Spring Street sample I tried earlier; this one seemed softer and was less homogenous (there were some hard pieces within a mostly very soft soft). Color was the same as the Spring Street.

Scent: Honestly, I don't know why everybody always laments the loss of the old forumla Penhaligon's English Fern when a soap like LASS Topanga Fougere is available. For the record, I'm not a Fougere fan per se, and I've never had a Fougere soap. I never tried the old Penhaligon's English Fern, but I have had samples of the cologne so I know what the scent is.

Topanga Fougere is a really nice, green, earthy scent. I let my wife smell the unlathered soap and asked her what it smelled like. She said it smelled like she was standing in a forest. The scent off the soap and the scent off the lather is identical; it blooms a little but does not morph when lathered. It's dense, mossy, dark but very slightly sweet, and green. The individual scents don't come out at all to my nose; it's perfectly blended into a "new" scent. They just meld together (in contrast to my experience, with, for example, B&M Seville, where I can pick out almost all the scent notes individually).

It doesn't smell like English Fern. I don't have a lot of experience with other Fougeres to make other comparisons. I would just say that, if this is possible, it smells both more rustic and yet more sophisticated than English Fern. I know it sounds like an impossibility. I'm searching for a metaphor that might explain it. Let's say you're going to a concert at the local university and the ensemble there is going to play Handel's Water Music. You get into your car, and you happen to have a disc of the Philadelphia Philharmonic performing the piece. The CD recording is perfect in every way: it was recorded in a studio where all other noises were blocked out, it was compressed and mixed for weeks prior to being put onto the disc, the instruments are all perfectly tuned and are played flawlessly, there are no missed notes in the entire thing. You love it and think that there is no way Water Music could ever sound any better.

But then you get to the concert. When you arrive, you discover that the ensemble is just 15 dedicated, talented musicians playing period instruments. Their take on Water Music is spirited, less regimented; not perfect, not "polished." It lets the music breathe and take on a life you never heard in it before. When the concert is finished, you think that the performance you just heard, flawed though it was, was even better than the Philharmonic's.

That's my take on the scent of Topanga Fougere versus the scent of English Fern. English Fern almost smells too processed, too sanitized, too polished, too "sterile" after smelling this stuff. This is really an excellent scent. Very sophisticated without being overly polished.

And this is from a guy who has not been really clamoring for a fougere scent. You fougere guys should be all over this, IMO. (Disclaimer: I've not smelled either of the B&M offerings, nor the MdC Fougere, nor Tiki, nor QCS, so I can't provide a comparison.)

Lather and Shave: Once again, this lathers just like Spring Street. Springs into lather right away. Never looks bubbly. Turns into a nice lather within a minute or two. The lather is beautiful; photogenic in the extreme. The only slight quibble I have with this lather is that, once again, just like Spring Street, the lather tends to be slightly fluffier than I would prefer. It looks kind of like the lather that comes out of a can of Barbasol (although it's actually nowhere near that airy, and it shaves a LOT better). Just more like that than the lather of my other soaps. I you enjoy a voluminous lather, this will be right up your alley. Even if you like a denser lather, you'll still like it; I don't want you to think that the lather is not efficacious, because it is.

Face Feel after the Shave: Nice.

Verdict? Wow. I think this soap will wonderfully scratch any Fougere itch you might have. I can't imagine why every red-blooded Fougere-loving shaver on the planet hasn't already bought this soap.

Oh, and as for the comparison of this scent to Spring Street? When I first smelled them, on Christmas Day, I preferred the Spring Street. Now I think this one is better. Spring Street is lighter, happier. It has a bit more of a floral opening and I detect some citrus in it that I don't smell in the Topanga Fougere. Spring Street is a really nice scent. But there's a purity and a harmony in the Topanga Fougere that I find slightly more satisfying.

 

[egh128]

Top notch reviews. Thank you!

 

[tclobaugh]

Great reviews, Randal

 

[Jaybeez]

Great reviews, thanks! I'm a huge LASS fan, and currently use Bespoke #1. I've seen / heare a ton of very positive reviews about TF, and your review seals the deal. I'm pulling the trigger today!

 

[Brian G r a f s t r o m]

Great reviews, Randal! Thank you for taking the time to write and share them. I have a sample of the LASS Topanga Fougere I haven't tried yet --- but I agree, it smells awesome! (it doesn't really smell fern-y to me, which I appreciate).

 

[kingfisher]

OK, I know it's been awhile, but it's time for my next-to-last review. I continued shaving with the B&M Seville until it was all gone (I got 6 or 7 shaves out of the sample). Because I enjoyed the lather of th B&M so much, I went straight to the B&M Cheshire sample.

Appearance/Consistency: Exactly like Seville. Soft, but not sticky. Light brown.

Scent: Smelling Seville and Cheshire in the sample container, I felt like there was a lot of similarity between the two scents. Once lathered, though, Cheshire does not smell like Seville. They do share two scent notes: lavender and patchouli. However, the Seville has a rather pungent rosemary note that doesn't exist in Cheshire; Cheshire gets its herbal quality from Clary Sage, which is a much softer herbaceous scent that I quite enjoy. There is also bergamot, which is a scent I really like.

Interestingly, when I first started lathering it up, I got this strange thought in my mind that I sensed a chocolate-like scent note in the lather. As I thought about it, I discovered that it wasn't really chocolate, but more specifically, a plain M&M scent that I was getting. Now some of you may think that I've lost my mind, and I'm not sure anybody else senses this particular scent that I associate with plain M&Ms, but if you ever buy one of those giant XXL bags of M&Ms, there is an interesting scent that hits you right when you open up the package. It's definitely peculiar to the PLAIN chocolate M&Ms (I'm kind of an M&M expert, because I eat so many M&Ms it's ridiculous). Anyway, that scent that wafts up upon opening a giant bag of M&Ms is in Cheshire. Maybe not EXACTLY the same, but very close. I think it's the combination of the patchouli with the clary sage, but I can't be sure. Later in the first shave I was sure I smelled a mild fresh wild mint note, too, but the scent notes are listed only as bergamot, clary sage, lavender, and patchouli. I think that sometimes mixtures of scent notes produce notes that remind people of things that aren't actually in the scent. So, in this case, my nose picks up the "plain chocolate M&M scent" and a faint wild mint scent. Both of these scents are very pleasant.

I may have a slight disadvantage because I don't drink tea, so I have no idea what Earl Grey tea smells like. I can't say, therefore, whether Cheshire smells like Earl Grey tea. I can say that it smells really, really good and that I enjoy it a lot. (I do have a soap from Beer Soap Brewing Company called "Earl Grey and Honey," and I can tell you that Cheshire smells nothing like that soap, for whatever that's worth.)

Anyway, I enjoy the scent of Cheshire a great deal. I'm having trouble figuring out whether I like this better than Seville, or whether I prefer the Seville. They are both really nice.

Lather: Lathers up easily and quickly with finest badger, boar, or synthetic brushes. Makes a nice, dense, yogurty lather that is slick and protective. Top notch lather and top notch shaves. If you've never tried B&M soaps, you are in for a pleasant surprise when you do make the leap. If you already use them, then you know what I'm talking about.

Face Feel after the Shave: Really nice. Slick, soft, moisturized, but without the feeling that there is a film or something left on the face.

Verdict? This is a really great soap. Out of the 6 samples that I've tried so far, this one and Seville are vying to be my next full puck of soap. It's a really hard decision for me which one I like better, but I guess that's a good conundrum. They are both outstanding.

I'm going to probably be shaving with this one until it's used up, and then I'll break out the LASS Spring Street. I'll review it once I've had at least three shaves with it.

 

[onethinline]

Great reviews! B&M was the first artisan soap maker I checked out, and the line is still easily my favorite. I "blind bought" a tub of Strop Shoppe's Baker Street, but have only used it once, and kind of boffed the lather (don't think it was the fault of the soap at all). I'm curious to try LASS, though if the performance isn't quite at B&M's level, I don't feel any rush.

Have you tried Catie's Bubbles? That's another one I grabbed recently, and it lathers very nicely.

 

[tclobaugh]

Great reviews! B&M was the first artisan soap maker I checked out, and the line is still easily my favorite. I "blind bought" a tub of Strop Shoppe's Baker Street, but have only used it once, and kind of boffed the lather (don't think it was the fault of the soap at all). I'm curious to try LASS, though if the performance isn't quite at B&M's level, I don't feel any rush.

Have you tried Catie's Bubbles? That's another one I grabbed recently, and it lathers very nicely.

+1 on Catie's Bubbles. I think it is in a similar performance class to B&M but has different and often unique scents. Their LPV is like no other soap I've smelled, in a very good way. There is a reason it's so popular.

 

[Gig103]

Great reviews! I am adding teakwood and Topanga to my wishlist based on your descriptions. Oh, and I agree with your B&M thoughts.