La Toja - Item of he Week 2/25/13

Hello to all.

This will be the first of a series of "Item of the Week" threads that I am promoting in the General Shave Discussion forum. I will be posting a schedule of items of the week as we progress so we can plan for the threads that we want to participate in.

The Rules:

1. It is very simple. Use the item of the week for the week that it is scheduled and post your thoughts on that item in its thread.
2. Everything else in your shave line-up may be rotated at will, but keep the featured item of the week as part of each shave.
3. The weeks will start on Monday. Sunday could be a free day, or an overlap day for the next week or whatever.

Why:

I think six days of use will give most fellows a good idea of how they are liking the featured item. By having a group of members trying the same item at the same time it is like a self writing review as we discuss our likes and dislikes as well as sharing tips. By keeping each item to one week intervals we will be able to cover a lot of territory without any major commitments, like a month of... or a year of... I hope this works out to everyone's liking.

So just to get things going, the first featured Item of the Week will be La Toja shave stick.

Sweet! One of my absolute favorites! This will be interesting!

Bosse

Nice initiative! I have an unopened stick of la Toja waiting but sadly I will not join this week; there are too many soaps opened in my den and I want to finish a few before I open a new item but I will follow this and future threads closely!

Looking forward to this as La Toja is a soap I'm hoping to try this year.

I will try to pick some up today.

I am ready, willing and able to give this a go. La Toja is by the sink and ready for action tomorrow.

clk said:

I am ready, willing and able to give this a go. La Toja is by the sink and ready for action tomorrow.

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I do the same thing sometimes. I think I'll use the B&B Essential brush with the La Toja stick tomorrow.

OldSaw said:

I do the same thing sometimes. I think I'll use the B&B Essential brush with the La Toja stick tomorrow.

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ditto! my B&B essential just arrived last night

I pulled the La Toja out of the shave drawer tonight, now I just need to decide what to use with it...

Had my La Toja shave today, this thing is thirstier than I remember (or I just had too much soap on my face). Took some work getting the lather right, but it was a great shave. Finished up with Floïd Vigoroso (so all Spanish software today), my face is very happy.

La Toja! What a wonderful stick. It has been a while (been testing blades with my test superlather) so the stick was very dry. A good amount of our very soft water made all the difference. This stick makes a very slick lather and gives a very good protection from the blade! I facelatered as usual.
As you can see from the picture I indulged in one of my favourite blades, the Super Iridium (original version). Sweet but soon extinct. I am in the process of finding a new favourite to my Feather AS-D1...
Bosse

Anyone care to describe the scent?

I'm in!

Dirk-Lerxst-Pratt said:

Anyone care to describe the scent?

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I've been looking for a description of that scent for a long time. It kind of smells smokey to me a bit.

Dirk-Lerxst-Pratt said:

Anyone care to describe the scent?

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It has been described as warm and powdery. I agree with this, it is very subtle. I am lost of words to describe subtle scents, I mainly aim for the slickness and protection!
This guy is more up to describing it: http://www.shaving101.com/index.php/product-reviews/shaving-soaps/148-la-toja-shave-stick.html .
Bosse

How does the scent of the discontinued soap compare to the stick? That's one soap I always miss out on and would love to try it.

Man... I used the cream before reading this thread. I love the cream and the stick

itsmedave said:

How does the scent of the discontinued soap compare to the stick? That's one soap I always miss out on and would love to try it.

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I missed out on that one also. Unfortunately I think it is discontinued...
Bosse

Started early and used last night.
I might agree with the thirsty, though I think I had a drier than usual brush. Lather kept on improving as I worked more water into it. (Face lather, Vie long horse/badger beehive)
Nice and slick and left my face feeling moisturized.
Still can't smell nuttin'!

I just finished up a shave with La Toja face-lathered with a Vie-Long, and topped off with Floid Vigoroso. I use my Gillette old with a Polsilver super irridium.
Nice shave over all. i though I might have been a bit too aggressive with razor at times, but La Toja provided a enough protection.

I did use a fair bit of water but I have tried adding it more gradually. Instead of dipping the brush in water, I am added some a few drips at a time. It took maybe a slight bit longer but I was rewarded with really nice lather.

In terms of the scent, it find it hard to describe. To me it smells soapy, but instead of being sweet of floral has a sort of lightly spiced mineral type scent. Very clean smelling.

Well first shave with La Toja wasn't as nice as it could have been but not bad overall. I do think the La Toja is thirsty and my lather was a bit less hydrated than optimal resulting in a little discomfort but no nicks or weepers. I lathered up using my SOC 2-band which fell in the sink (filled with water of course) after the 2nd pass. Needless to say I was a bit frustrated with myself and didn't have my zen so I just finished the shave off with some vintage Avon Brisk Spice and called it a shave. The scent of La Toja is mild and definitely in the powder family, no smoke at all to my sniffer. Will give it another go tomorrow and will hopefully keep my brush out of the drink.

PS- I'm thinking that sticks are not my favorite way to go and may grate this bad boy into a bowl if I'm not happy with the results after a couple more shaves. It isn't real comfortable pressing a hard stick all over my face trying to get enough soap for a 3 pass shave.