Sample Qualities

[huntingdan]

Ok, I recently received some samples from Gary. Great service and by no means is this thread bashing his service. He is great and if you would like some great samples I would highly recommend him.

The question I have is for people who have used samples, then bought the original product due to the samples. Do you find the sample qualities to be of equal, higher, or lower qualities of the "real deal" product. So far I have used MWF, Cella, and fixing to whip up some Dr. Harris Arlington samples. I have found the first two products to be awesome. I'm expecting the actual whole bar or tub to be atleast equal to or better than the quality of the samples. Hoping at least. I know the samples are grated from an original puck does this reduce the quality of the soap? I know its a lot easier to mail and form into a mug, bowl, etc. for sample purposes.

Just wanted to get opinions of users who have done this process before and get your opinions.

[jwcarlson]

It's soap... it's not fine wine. :)

[donoma]

I would think some of the soap samples would lather better & easier than the real thing due to it being grated. When/if you order the full product and it doesn't act the same as the sample don't be discouraged. When a triple milled soap gets grated it is easier to load. Many people actually grate hard soaps to make it easier to lather. So in conclusion, I think samples would be better or as good at the original product.

[huntingdan]

It's soap... it's not fine wine. :)

AND it's not Arko huh? By the way I DO have a stick coming in the mail soon. So all might be changing once I try that.

[Go West Young Man]

Beyond the usual batch variation if you're talking about boutique and not mass-marketed soaps, there shouldn't be any difference.
Grated soaps are softer and therefore easier to load up on the brush, so when you get the puck expect to have to put a lot more effort into swirling but the soap itself is the same either way.

[Quintar]

I've ordered DR Harris marlbourogh and klar kabinett samples and they both lathered and smelled just like their respective whole soaps. I had arlington already when I ordered marlborough (just ordered to see what it smelled like) side by side i saw no difference in performance. Like others have said, I have a much easier time loading soap when grated into a bowl. I grated a speick stick into a bowl and it loads so rapidly after that i have to load for less than 5 seconds or my lather bowl completely overflows...

I think people were just making wild speculations in that other thread... someone complained about arlington being less than mind-blowing in performance so people suggested the lack of performance might be due to it being a small sample instead of the whole soap, when most likely it was just that arlington is just a perfectly decent soap and one shouldn't expect spectacular life-changing results from it...

[jazzguy]

I've ordered a bunch of samples from Garry. So far the things that I bought full size after trying them perhaps performed slightly better than the sample. And that may be simply because I get the full experience of the product including the visuals and the packaging.

[cvac]

One thing to keep in mind is that part of how representative a sample will be lies in how the user uses it. Even with proper instructions, there is no guarantee that everyone will use it correctly, particularly newbies.

If you are new, you'll be much better off starting with at least a couple "full products" rather than a ton of samples. You'll have more of the same product to burn through (more trial and error) and you can figure out the best way to use it as you gain more experience and your technique improves.

Btw, if you look at the Arlington thread closely, the problem was that the guy couldn't get a decent/thick lather out of it at all. Perhaps there was nothing wrong with the sample and he just wasn't using it correctly. That may have been due to the fact that he was accustomed to loading from a full puck and not working with a grated sample.

[huntingdan]

yeah, I believe that was the thread I was referring to. While I haven't ever had a bad lather I'm sure I can always work on "getting it down." Thanks for the responses, just been lucky that the samples I have used I was able to get lathers down. Seems pretty on par with the videos I've seen.

[itaforte]

I find that the real product generally performs better than samples simply because it is easier for me to load my brush with a full sized puck compared to a sample.

[sulkhogan]

Full size pucks generally perform a bit better than samples just because they're easier to load from. If you like the sample, you'll love the puck. Also, grating doesn't hurt the soap. I mill a lot of my soaps (wooden bowls are too damn expensive) and they all perform perfectly. It's melting you have to watch out for.

[takeshi]

I know the samples are grated from an original puck does this reduce the quality of the soap?

Quality isn't affected. It can be harder to load from samples (none of the samples I've used were grated) but that's an entirely different matter.

One thing to keep in mind is that part of how representative a sample will be lies in how the user uses it. Even with proper instructions, there is no guarantee that everyone will use it correctly, particularly newbies.

^ This. And not all soaps respond the same to the same technique. Particularly if you rely on number of swirls or time and can't identify proper loading by look and feel.