D.R. Harris Arlington soap review

You load your brush with 4-5 swirls and write a scathing review of a classic soap.

I hope any newbies reading this review have the good sense to dismiss it summarily.

Swirl for 2 minutes.

I think everyone should dismiss "first impression" reviews. You've barely said hello to the product. Ive had about six shaves with arlington and it gets better every time. Of course it started off GREAT and is now AWESOME!!

When I first was trying to learn how to lather soaps and creams, this video was a big help for me.


Soaps usually require more work than creams. The harder the soap, the more work will be required to get that good lather going.

My guess would be that any soap in a wooden bowl was meant to be loaded with a stiff brush. I guess I'm more of a fan of lathering on the puck in a big mug or glass bowl...

Guarantee a few more shaves with it will improve your lather. I don't find my Arlington lathers to equal those of Tabac, MWF, MdC, Arko, Speick, or Palmolive. Even vintage Old Spice outperforms it, excepting scent. It is the equal of GFT Coconut, however. When it comes time to use it again (doing the one soap at a time thing), I am looking forward to killing the puck!

Rylos said:

LOL, seriously?!?!

I load my triple milled soaps for a minute & do at least 120 swipes across the puck in that time to load my brush. Don't blame a product for poor performance after one use when you haven't learned the right ratios yet. I'm pretty sure this soap will be much better for you when you actually have more soap in your brush.

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Huh? I never said it was a bad soap. I just said there are better soaps out there for the money. And maybe I wasn't loading it enough, I figured I wouldn't need to load THAT much into it since so many reviews on it saying it explodes with lather, easy lathering and etc...etc...

Yeah. Fifteen to twenty seconds loading is more than enough for a soap as nice as Arlington, as well as the others I mentioned.

Rylos said:

LOL, seriously?!?!

I load my triple milled soaps for a minute & do at least 120 swipes across the puck in that time to load my brush. Don't blame a product for poor performance after one use when you haven't learned the right ratios yet. I'm pretty sure this soap will be much better for you when you actually have more soap in your brush.

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what he said

FL shaver said:

Yeah. Fifteen to twenty seconds loading is more than enough for a soap as nice as Arlington, as well as the others I mentioned.

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In my very hard water 15-20 seconds even on a soft soap will give a horrible lather. As someone here is fond of saying (& I find it to be very true), 99% of all lather problems are solved with more product.

If 15-20 seconds works for some but not others then I don't know what the issue is. I load all my soaps the same and can lather even the most finnicky soaps like modern Williams & Cade with zero problems even in very hard water.

If you consider that I've got 9 pucks of Arlington in my stash you may conclude I like it a lot.

Load that brush up! What are you saving the soap for anyway?

I am glad I saw this today. This morning was my first use of DRH Arlington. I got a sample to try and went for it today. I am used to creams, not soaps so there was a bit of a difference, and I think having a scuttle or a separate bowl would be better with a soap. That being said, I face lathered and didn't have an issue with performance. I didn't get a lot of scent from the soap, but what was there was nice.

After I got finished, I thought I actually got a closer shave (maybe my skin was just softer/smoother due to the arlington), and I had fewer neck nicks. Is it all related to the soap? Not sure, but I can say that I didn't significantly alter any other part of my shave routine this morning.

I intend to try some other soaps, in addition to the creams I use, and if that goes well will probably invest in a scuttle as well.

Either way, good morning B&B and have a great day!

+1 for more loading. Stop relying on number of swirls (don't rely on time either) and learn to identify a properly loaded brush and poor first impressions will be less of an issue in general. If you rely on swirls/time then you're just memorizing steps that only work for a fixed set of variables (brush, soap, water, etc). Change out one or more of those variable and those steps probably won't work for you. Learn to identify a properly loaded brush and you can get good lather no matter what you change unless the soap really is terrible. I do agree with the sentiment repeatedly posted that it's misleading to review a soap without knowing how to properly lather it.

AFCBradyfan12 said:

I just said there are better soaps out there for the money.

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...and better is always highly subjective.

FL shaver said:

Fifteen to twenty seconds loading is more than enough for a soap as nice as Arlington, as well as the others I mentioned.

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YMMV applies to this as well. Not everyone has identical water hardness for one thing. What's "more than enough" for you may be too much or too little for the next. Again, don't rely on time or swirls.

masonjarjar said:

My guess would be that any soap in a wooden bowl was meant to be loaded with a stiff brush.

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Not really. It's always easier to blame tools than technique. My badgers have a bit of backbone but they're by no means stiff and I have no problems lathering my triple milled soaps in wooden bowls.

The D R H soaps lather well but I must say I do hate their scents. The ones I've tried all seem artificial to me.

DRH Marlborough is right up there as one of my favourites, both for scent and lather. Beautiful woody scent, with strong cedar and very light sandalwood and spice. I like the Arlington soap, though I've yet to try the AS or cologne. Perhaps as a summer scent?

Rylos said:

In my very hard water 15-20 seconds even on a soft soap will give a horrible lather. As someone here is fond of saying (& I find it to be very true), 99% of all lather problems are solved with more product.

If 15-20 seconds works for some but not others then I don't know what the issue is. I load all my soaps the same and can lather even the most finnicky soaps like modern Williams & Cade with zero problems even in very hard water.

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There is no issue. The soap is fine, I just added too much water and not enough lather. Again, the soap isn't bad at all. For the price, I'd rather have something better that is all. I've got semi-hard water too, but it doesn't effect my lather at all. 120 swirls for what? What are you shaving that you need that MUCH lather? I hope you realize that the left over lather will be washed away in the end. That's very wasteful for a nice soap like DRH Arlington.

The only reason someone would need to lather their soap up that much would be one of a few things; they either have very, very hard water or their brush sucks performance wise or they enjoy being wasteful.

takeshi said:

+1 for more loading. Stop relying on number of swirls (don't rely on time either) and learn to identify a properly loaded brush and poor first impressions will be less of an issue in general. If you rely on swirls/time then you're just memorizing steps that only work for a fixed set of variables (brush, soap, water, etc). Change out one or more of those variable and those steps probably won't work for you. Learn to identify a properly loaded brush and you can get good lather no matter what you change unless the soap really is terrible. I do agree with the sentiment repeatedly posted that it's misleading to review a soap without knowing how to properly lather it.


...and better is always highly subjective.


YMMV applies to this as well. Not everyone has identical water hardness for one thing. What's "more than enough" for you may be too much or too little for the next. Again, don't rely on time or swirls.


Not really. It's always easier to blame tools than technique. My badgers have a bit of backbone but they're by no means stiff and I have no problems lathering my triple milled soaps in wooden bowls.

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YES! Thank you! I couldn't have said it better myself. I don't have as hard water as others do.

And you can't help it if you've tried everything and nothing wants to work for you. Some things are suited better for some people than others.

Greg1911 said:

If you consider that I've got 9 pucks of Arlington in my stash you may conclude I like it a lot.

Load that brush up! What are you saving the soap for anyway?

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Why would I want to waste a good soap by loading it to death? I just don't understand why you can't load as you go...it's not hard to do. If you load too much and you have tons of left over lather, what are you going to do with it other than wash it off from your brush?

FL shaver said:

Guarantee a few more shaves with it will improve your lather. I don't find my Arlington lathers to equal those of Tabac, MWF, MdC, Arko, Speick, or Palmolive. Even vintage Old Spice outperforms it, excepting scent. It is the equal of GFT Coconut, however. When it comes time to use it again (doing the one soap at a time thing), I am looking forward to killing the puck!

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When you say this, are you referring to the moisturizing properties or in general?

ouch said:

You load your brush with 4-5 swirls and write a scathing review of a classic soap.

I hope any newbies reading this review have the good sense to dismiss it summarily.

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That was enough for me to get by for 2 passes. I didn't lose anything by swirling my puck for a 3rd or 4th time. It doesn't hurt to re-swirl.