THEHTGAM/PPF/PH0ENIX/D0UGLAS/H0DGES/FRANCES Thread

I haven't had too many great experiences with vegetable based shave soaps. I get good lathers, but nothing remarkable. (Kell's Original is one exception in that it generally a thick, slick lather with great moisturizing properties, although the scents are not too remarkable in my opinion). That being said, today I am reviewing synergy shave soap.

Price: 10/10. $10.95 for an 8oz. Tin. This is a steal. It is an intro price, so strike while the iron is hot.

Scent: 8/10 This is a clean uncomplicated bay rum from essential oil. The strength is great throughout the shave and lingers some after. If you are a bay rum fan, this is a great soap. It reminds me of the pure bay rum scent of captains choice. It is fantastic and for those who don't like cloves this is a great choice.

Lather: 9/10. this soap lathers like no vegetable soap I have ever tried. It is thick and has a reasonably large sweet spot. I easily generated a yogurty and extremely slick lather with my omega pro 20102. The shave was effortless. I achieved bbs with no irritation or nicks. My skin also felt very clean and moisturizer post-shave. I used a feather blade in my Gillette fatboy, which is a combo I use to try out the lather slickness and cushion as I have a tough time with that combo. Overall, an excellent lather.

Overall I would say 9/10. This is a great product. The tin is 5in in diameter, which is unusual, but boy did it make loading and lathering easier and even more enjoyable. Bay rum lovers give this guy a shot.

So today I got home from work and checked the mail box, to my delight I found my iKon Slant from Phil at Bullgoose, Petal Pusher Fancies Sandalwood shaving soap and a soap that up until last Friday I had never heard of, Synergy Shaving Soap.

I was dying to get the iKon slant broken in and went with the Synergy soap for my maiden voyage with the iKon SS Slant.

This soap performs well upon initial impressions. I lathered with my Semogue SOC for about 20 seconds and then built a very stable lather in about another 60 seconds. I did a three pass shave without issue, very slick, moisturizing and the lather was very stable throughout the entire shave. I had emailed Douglas at the website where I purchased the soap and asked a few questions and his near "dissertation" on the 6 months that he spent developing and fine tuning the soap, latherability, working on which brush worked best, what water temperature works best, and one main discovery he found was that increasing the size of the container to 5 inches across to increase the surface area of lathering really caused this soap to perform at its highest potential. I am not doing a service to the absurd and amazing amount of knowledge he cranked out to me in his email, but this soap is very impressive and the ingredients are even more impressive...vegan formula and explosive lather.


I chose the lavender and cedar and it smells amazing by the way!!!

Maybe it would do this soap justice to compare it to soaps many of us already know .... this soap is as slick and lathers just as well as Stirling, Strop Shoppe and QCS...... but the post shave is a bit more moisturizing than SS and QCS and on par with Stirling and Panna Crema.

It really surprised me how well this soap performs.

Congratulations on finding a good vegan soap! It definitely sounds exciting. i may have to try this along with the Petal Pusher Fancies!

I can also vouch for this soap. I purchased a tin of the Bay Rum scent really just because at the time it was $15 including shipping for 8oz of soap and one person I trusted had reviewed it highly. I had no real expectation beyond it being passable but it produces nice, rich, slick lather with almost no effort at all and has a very nice bay rum scent. My only beef is that the tin it is packaged in gives it a metallic note when you sniff it in the package, but it's not present at all when lathering it. I would highly recommend this soap, whther you're vegan or not.

I just ordered a puck of the Cavendish, can't wait to try it.

Placing an order now on Italian Barber. Looking forward to giving it a try. I loved the lather from PPF which I found extremely moisturizing, hopefully this also delivers. The Canvendish (pipe tobacco scent) is a scent I've been looking forward to for a while now.

Any reviews for these? Ingredients look amazing, dying to try more natural soaps.

I have been reading some really great reviews, B&B, Sharpologist, of course How To Grow A Mustache, and a cpl others. So I ordered one of each yesterday, Black Tea from PPF, and Cavendish from Synergy. I will report back after trying them.

I've tried PPF coconut. It's the most moisturizing soap I've tried, perhaps slightly at the expense of slickness. Overall its a really good soap, and produces a creamy lather like tallow soaps. I have dry skin and this is a perfect product for me. It did irritate my skin a bit, and they offered to send me an unscented puck for my troubles

I'll be ordering the Synergy unscented later tonight. It looks like it will be my winter soap now that its getting colder.

I have PPF Sandlewood and it's an excellent soap. Lathers great with a nice slick shave.
Totally forgot about a thread I made on PPF just a bit ago and never got around to finishing up . If you're into the vegan thing this soap comes highly recommended.


http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthread.php/362163-Petal-Pusher-Fancies-vegan-shave-soap

I've ordered some in the Cavendish scent, as well. Excited to try it and see if it smells like my father's pipe tobacco!

What the heck. I'll try it. They make an unscented, which is all I use. I'll try any artisan soap once. Interesting ingredients, too.

The review on Mantic's site was pretty great. Guess I'll be able to test it for myself soon enough.

Nick

I just got my tin of Vanetiver delivered, and the scent is delicious. Definitely more vanilla than vetiver though.
I knew it was supposed to be a lot of soap, but the tin itself is even larger than I thought. Much larger than a tin of Mike's Natural.

Just had my first shave with Synergy unscented shaving soap, and here's my initial review:

This soap is ridiculously easy to lather. The giant size of the tin did appear to help with loading. About a 30 second load time was all I needed to have a ton of soap on the brush. I bowl lather, but I'm sure anyone who face lathers will find it just as effortless.

This is vegan soap, so it's not really fair to compare it against Mike's or Barrister & Mann, but I'm going to do so anyway. Tallow / lanolin soaps feel much richer to me - heavier, thicker, and perhaps a bit more cushioning. However, it's slickness / glide that is the most important factor to me, and Synergy excels in that area. The lather does feel light on the face, but not thin or airy. The slickness is outstanding, allowing me to blade buff with ease and total comfort. I got a super close BBS shave with absolutely zero irritation.

The post-shave feeling is excellent, leaving my skin feeling soft and nourished. Really impressive. Probably the best of any non-tallow / non-lanolin soap I've tried.

My only negative comment is that the tin is so big it doesn't fit in my medicine cabinet, and has to live next to the sink. That's a small price to pay for eight ounces of great soap that comes at such a reasonable cost.

This soap will stay in my rotation, and I'll update this review if my feelings change after using it regularly. Still, after this first great shave, Synergy seems like a winner.

Nick

Yup... yet another soap to try! That and the Petal Pusher Fancies, which is also "vegan" and sold by the same vendor, have now piqued (or, in interwebz-speak, "peaked") my interest. Thanks for the reviews, gentlemen!

wagstaff said:

Yup... yet another soap to try! That and the Petal Pusher Fancies, which is also "vegan" and sold by the same vendor, have now piqued (or, in interwebz-speak, "peaked") my interest. Thanks for the reviews, gentlemen!

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Both soaps are very good. They are two completely different companies, correct? I've wondered since they are sold by the same vendor.

Haven't tried the soap, but I love the idea of the extra large tin. I've often wished whatever I container I was loading up in was a little bigger. I'd be curious for others to comment on how they like the oversized tin.

wagstaff said:

Yup... yet another soap to try! That and the Petal Pusher Fancies, which is also "vegan" and sold by the same vendor, have now piqued (or, in interwebz-speak, "peaked") my interest. Thanks for the reviews, gentlemen!

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As Wagstaff and I have a remarkable ability to enable one another's shaving-related purchases, I've just ordered a tin of Petal Pusher Fancies unscented.

Nick

That is a huge tin of soap!