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Mike's Natural Soaps - an early review

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Mike's Soap is a great local product. Both the shave and shower soaps
are nice. The soap is soft enough that you can mold it into any container with
your hands. Lathers well with the Zach/Marco method, 60 second load, face
lather. Shown are pictures of load, after face lathering, and after two passes.

I find you need to load these small batch soaps longer than say DR Harris, but
the lather is solid and the shave very comfortable. The first couple times I
tried using the bar as a shave stick, but could not get a thick lather. You
need to load the brush well, and then the soap comes to life.

Mike's communication and packaging are excellent. The best compliment I can
give is that I hope Mike, and other like vendors, don't get too big thats they
can't keep up with the demand. I will purchase both the shave and shower soaps
again.
 
I have to agree with you on the shower soap... Excellent stuff. My little sample he included is almost used up and I need to order a few bars of the stuff. Leaves the skin really soft.
I've only had the chance to use the shave soap a couple of times, but have had no problems with it at all, very solid performer.
 
I received the "Barber Shop" scent last week and fired it up for the first time this weekend.

My initial impression was that it was a little harder to build lather than I have gotten used to with Monsavon and Razo chianti lavender, but upon a little more work on my part, it produced an amazingly slick and cushiony lather.

I have tried it 2 days in a row at this point, both times with a Gillette Super slim set to 9 with a Gillette blue blade, and the result has been amazing. I suspect that part of my lather building issue is my not yet broken in boar brush.

I highly recommend this product and will be buying from Mike in the future. Fantastic service to boot!

Tyler
 
I've been using the Mike's Natural Orange/Cedarwood/Black Pepper every day this week to get the full experience, and I'm definitely impressed. This stuff lathers like a champ with both my Vie Long 13061 and my TNG 20mm Silvertip. It provided a nice, slick lather with plenty of cushion for both a Fatboy and a long comb NEW with Feather blades. I already have a bar of Lime on it's way here and I foresee continuing to buy more product from him.

Pro-tip: Because it has Lanolin in it, I find it. performs best with cooler water, which is especially nice with summer starting to get into full swing here!

thanks...so are we saying the Lanolin in it, lathers similar to MWF as far as more product and warm water, not hot?

i want to order a puck and am getting prepared, so i don't have the same issues i had with MW and have to do too many test lathers before i get it right.
 
thanks...so are we saying the Lanolin in it, lathers similar to MWF as far as more product and warm water, not hot?

i want to order a puck and am getting prepared, so i don't have the same issues i had with MW and have to do too many test lathers before i get it right.

I couldn't lather MWF no matter how I tried. Got rid of it ages ago. But Mike's soap lathers like a dream w/very little effort. The only thing I've noticed is that his soap likes a lot of water -- way more than I usually use. I face lather & don't use extremely hot water, but the water's definitely warm.
 
I haven't found it too temp sensitive but, as others have said, a heavy load and more water seems to be the ticket with Mike's. I use a Colonel on soaps.
 
Mike's soaps aren't push-button latherers like Arko or Speick stick; I find that I need to load a bit longer than with the Italian soaps I use, but it certainly doesn't require excessive amounts of soap or technique for Mike's to lather well, and I really feel like I get a closer shave using his soap than I do from any of the commercial soaps.
 
Shaved with the barbershop again this morning. One thing I noticed about this soap is that my brush still "drags" on the bottom of the bowl even when the soap is properly hydrated. I kept adding water until the brush was "sliding" across the bowl like I do with my other products, but that resulted in a lather that was way too thin. For the first time ever, I had to add more product midshave. Problem solved! Another great shave from Mike's and I really love the way my skin feels after using it.
 
This is the first soap I've tried so I'm no expert but it was pretty amazing IMO. Lathered up really easily, super creamy, and smelled amazing (lime scent).
 
I have some barbershop coming my way any day now. Can't wait. I'll have to force myself to stop using Cella.

Cella is great, but I think Mike's gives a better shave despite the lather seeming a bit thinner.... and Cella comes in just one scent; "love-it-or-leave-it almond"
 
Just ordered a tin of their original Barbershop soap because the pucks are all sold out!

Seems like Mike will be busy making more batches for us. I'm extra excited with this one with all the praising going on here :biggrin1:
 
I just ordered a tin of the peppermint/rosemary shaving soap today. I am very excited to try it, not only because it's received great reviews but also because this will be my first experience with shaving soap.
 
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