Mike's Natural Soaps...again

I read an earlier thread with a review by Major Burns and bought a tin of the Rose and Sandalwood soap. I'm so happy with this stuff. It's the first soap that I've been able to get a really good lather off of and I've tried MWF, Cade, Trumpers, and a few others. This just lathers up much quicker for me. I'm getting cream type of lather.

It's also a really slick soap. The razor really glides over it. The scents are excellent! The rose is very similar to Vulfix Rose. I also got the Pine/Cedarwood. This one is a little out of the norm. It smells like I've been cutting 2x4s on my chop saw. I like it though. I've already ordered Barber and Lavender so I'm excited to try them. My skin felt so good that I ordered some bath soaps for my wife as well.

Best of all, my face loves this soap. It feels great when I'm done shaving. Very moist.

I just wanted to throw out some kudos to a really good artisan soap maker.

Working through some samples myself as well as some samples from MW. Not sure which one I'll go with, they both perform really. Might have to get both.

I agree, this is a new breed of lather ... "yogurt" like. It gives protection from the blade, that's all I care about. No nicks. No weepers. Many artisan soaps cannot say the same.

I like the orange so much I'm gonna gift one to my Dad.

Mike makes great soaps!

Just out of curiosity, how do you guys lather this soap? I.E. face, bowl, what? I got some samples from Mike as well, and really like the soaps scent, but I can't lather it worth a damn. In its defense, the only soap I've ever actually been able to lather well is the stuff from proraso. Any pointers are appreciated, and yes, I read the Mega thread on how to lather soaps.

Marco Method works well for me-usually use a well soaked boar, 30-45 seconds load time. Warm water. Another thing I sometimes do is start hand lathering to get things going for a bit before moving to my face- because I sometime's get a little irritation from excessive face lathering depending on brush etc. This is very similar to how I lather MWF.

scott81425 said:

Just out of curiosity, how do you guys lather this soap? I.E. face, bowl, what? I got some samples from Mike as well, and really like the soaps scent, but I can't lather it worth a damn. In its defense, the only soap I've ever actually been able to lather well is the stuff from proraso. Any pointers are appreciated, and yes, I read the Mega thread on how to lather soaps.

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cryhavoc said:

Mike makes great soaps!

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+1 Got my samples in the mail yesterday (record time) and am impressed. Tried the Barber Shop scent first and found that it makes great lather. Since I face lather, the 1 oz sample was perfect in size: after my shower, I applied water to my face and then rubbed the rectangle sample onto my face, then used my Omege 49 to easily build some great lather. The shave was BBS even though it was the 15th shave on my new GEM PTFE coated blade. After the shave, my skin felt great; will be trying some more samples, need to order the lime next time. Really hard to imagine how any soap could perform better. THANKS Mike.

scott81425 said:

Just out of curiosity, how do you guys lather this soap?

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Damp brush, swirl on top of the soap for 30+ seconds. Transfer to bowl and build the lather. One thing that I have noticed with Mike's is that the "indicator" that you need to add water is misleading with Mike's. Usually, when I get a bit of "drag" of the brush on the bowl, it means I need to add more water. With Mike's, the sweet spot for me is just before I lose the "drag" of the brush on the bowl. What I am trying to say is that when Mike's is at the perfect consistency for me, it appears that it still needs a bit more water. I hope this helps, I know it's been a bit confusing.

For the record, Mike's is one of my favorite lather products. Great stuff and great customer service!!!