ARKO! Now I know what all the BUZZ is about!

[Dusty1]

Wow, got my stick of Arko in the mail today (thanks Mannj14) and all I have to say is WOW! Now I know why everyone talks about this stuff. In short I would discribe it as "Lather from the gods, scent from hell". I have hard water and sometimes it is hard to whip up a good lather, but for $2 a stick this puts much much much more expensive soaps and creams to shame. I wanted to love it, I really did, but the scent I would describe as "overpowering", nauseatingly so. I don't catch the whole urnal cake thing, but I think it smells like a cheap lemon car air freshener right after it has been opened, and I just rubbed it all over my face. Lets just say it's airing itself out in my bathroom right now, and the scent is right at home doing so.

So Arko, I want to like you, I really do, but not so much that I will live with a headach each morning and avoid kisses from my wife to be with you.


PS. One side note, I was also not able to tolerate the smell of high end Castle Forbes Lavendar either, gave me a headache instantly (Arko at least took a few minutes). Hope this helps in your decision making process!

[cryhavoc]

Let it air out and the strength of the scent will die down. Try it again in a few days and see if you can stand it, if not send it to me BTW did you taste it ?

[maxzoran]

It is pretty fantastic. I keep it in my travel kit, so I don't use it a ton. But when I do, I know I will get a great shave out of it.

[Dusty1]

Let it air out and the strength of the scent will die down. Try it again in a few days and see if you can stand it, if not send it to me BTW did you taste it ?

Taste it? No, but I'm still smelling it.... Did love that lather though, and immediatly stripped off the wrapper to let it air out. Maybe it will be more at home in my car.

[Dusty1]

So tell me that the Arko cream in tubes performs like this only with a better scent. Is that true? That is what I would like to hear.

[redrako]

Peel an inch of two of the label off, leave it somewhere where the strong scent can diminish and you'll find that the scent softens quickly.

Last winter purchased 15 sticks from Amazon and they all arrived in a flat priority mail package on a Saturday afternoon. As soon as I opened the door the Arko scent cut through the cold winter air, I thought what did I get myself into. I wondered if I had made a mistake and if I'd even be able to use it. Surprisingly, SWMBO commented from the the living rooms that she liked it,

So I put 14 of the sticks up in the shave bunker (a box I keep in the attic) and opened up the first stick. Almost instantly as I started to swirl a newly broken in Semogue 1800 against my face I understood the phrase 'exploding lather'.

Regarding Arko creams, they certainly have their fans but for me it's a fair-good cream. I've used the 'Moist' and 'Maximum Comfort' and would categorize them as being okay. They can be had for a great cost, but IMO it's a case of a lesser product for a lesser price. I suspect that out of the folks who have tried Arko creams, my opinion is in the minority. Certainly they're worth a try.

Regarding your Arko stick, give it a good airing and it will come to love you.

[maxzoran]

I would agree with the fair-good assessment on the creams. The scents aren't necessarily luxurious but not quite Arko stick-like. I will say that on a cost/performance basis the creams are actually a really nice deal.

[OldGreyGuy]

So tell me that the Arko cream in tubes performs like this only with a better scent. Is that true? That is what I would like to hear.

I bought some blades from Betshave at one point and there was a tube of the Arko Moist thrown in. The scent was fine, not unlike the Australian Shave brand cream and doesn't to my nose have a lemon scent, it is fairly slick, lathers well using a small Frank Shaving travel brush and works well. Nothing to right rave reports about but it just works well.

[mctmatt]

I bought three tubes of different scents of the Arko cream and they have no strong scents such as you find in the Arko stick. The creams are great for their price and the scents are very mild. You can compare them to the Derby creams, Gillette Creams, Lea Creams, and Palmolive creams. Don't let the Arko Stick scare you from purchasing the Arko creams they are totally different.

[cxg231]

I get good shaves from all of my Arko products, but the creams I would best describe as "utilitarian". They get the job done well but nothing in particular stands out, good or bad. That being said, when I run out I will be buying more. They are inexpensive and get the job done well. They aren't for my weekend "luxury shave" but who cares at that price/performance point?

[Cochese2323]

Tried it once and couldn't get past the scent after see the urnial cake references in other threads. Seemed to lather up well though, but not so great to justify the smell. But I know scent is a total YMMV thing because I love Tabac and other feel the way out that as I do about the Akro. I just mailed mine out to another newbie, hopefully he will like.

[Kinsofboo]

I too received my stick of Arko in the mail along with the Super Speed that I had won in a PIF by Kona Kruiser (great razor, thank you!). This mornings shave was a new experience and a great one at that. I didn't mind the smell of Arko, it did have a citrusy scrubbing bubbles type smell, but I found it rather refreshing. The one thing I will need to work on, as I believe it is still a part of my learning curve, is keeping the lather moist. It seemed to dry out fairly quickly and did not leave me with the slickness that I would have liked on the 2nd and 3rd passes, but enough to get a quality shave. The lather really did jump up out of nowhere, my brush has never been that full. The thing that really took me by suprise was the size of the stick, for some reason I was expecting it to be the size of a regular shaving can or slightly smaller, but it was more like a roll of half dollar coins. This may have found a home in my travel pack. Overall great experience and now looking forward to trying different varieties of shave sticks.

[Songwind]

I got my Arko stick last week, and loved the lather instantly. I found the scent to me mediocre.

Now that it's had a few days open to the air, the scent is much mellower and more pleasant.

I had a great shave with Arko just this morning!

[beengone]

I agree that the scent is unpleasant. I can tolerate it and am hoping the scent dies down. I've been using it for a couple weeks now and am kind of used to it. Maybe it's fading a bit, but it's still strong. You could press it out onto wax paper and set it out in a garage or something for a couple weeks. That should help it dissipate faster.

Have you tried Palmolive shave sticks from Europe? They're not quite as good on the lather, though close. Scent is woodsy, outdoorsy, soapy and you can re-scent them with a little effort. If you look around you can find them for a lower price. PM me if you want to trade for one or two of them.

[Krona Kruiser]

Oh, Arko. Utilitarian is a great term. It's like Suave products, not the best but cheap and useful. I really like how Dusty1 described it, "Lather from the gods, scent from hell."

[jamesspo]

The scent does fade quickly. Although I love the scent, and always keep a stick in a ziplock bag at my desk so I can take a quick sniff. It's a great performer, to be sure.

[OkieStubble]

Love everything about Arko. Scent, lather, everything. :)

[cryhavoc]

Where is jwcarlson to back me up on the taste?

[Balj86]

I gotta say the ARKO SS scent does grow on ya. To make sure it agreed with my skin I shaved two days in a row with it and was happy. Im happy to say now that it will always be in my rotation!

[Pkrankow]

I stuck my Arko unwrapped in the garage for 3 months. Much nicer now. I moistened the soap then wrapped the original wrapped back on and it stuck almost like it was new.

Palmolive stick is OK, performance is similar to Arko, smells like dish soap. The scent is much less intense out of the box. I am almost through my first stick of Palmolive I used it 3x a week for over a month (I only shave 3x a week) and the scent got "old" but did not diminish. I have about half the stick left and will probably break it out again in a month or two.

Phil