Had my first shave with MWF today after a few practice lathers, seeing as the reviews make it to be a tough lathering soap. Well got it to oather rather easily, probably easiest of my hard soaps. Once I felt like I achieved a great lather it was time to shave. The shave went off good without any issues made a 2 pass shave and cleanup pass face lathering the whole time and only had to load the 1 time. Everything was smooth, soap had good cushion, good slickness, good protection. Overall I would rate this a very good soap and will be keeping it, but as the title states it was not what I expected. I came into the shave thinking this stuff would be the best shaving soap in most all categories, except maybe scent, and was expecting it to be rather challenging to lather. While the lather was super easy, I was almost let down by the feel of the shave. I had in my head that this would be a second to none soap from reviews. With that said, I'm not hating this soap at all and it will stay in my den, I liked this soap very much, and is probably going to become a favorite of my hard soaps because I did get a really good shave with it and its well worth the $14 I paid for it. But I dont know, I guess I was just expecting too much. Great soap nonetheless, and look forward to using it more to see if maybe there was just something I didnt perfect in the lather, but I feel confident in the lather I made. But thanks to others out there who are better at these reviews for pointing this soap out, it truly should be a staple in most dens, but ymmv.
First use of MWF not what I expected
- Thread starter drdave2387
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I'm in a similar boat. It lathered fine for me (though I did have a few where I didn't use enough product)
MWF won't make it into a repeat-buy for me though. It was nice but I get a better shave from Arko.
MWF won't make it into a repeat-buy for me though. It was nice but I get a better shave from Arko.
One thing I learned is the more you use it the better it seems to perform. Out of all the soaps I have I reach for MWF the most! Just keep working with it but I guess as with anything, YMMV.
+1 Fred. Use a lot of water and more time with added elbow grease. The Marco Method is perfect for this type soap.
Count me firmly in the not hard to lather, just unimpressive lather camp on MWF. Most of the well regarded soaps I wrote off early then tried again after I was much better at lathering had improved. MWF hadn't. Not even slightly. It's not even top 20 among commercial soaps for lather.
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I'll always keep it around because I got a good shave and post shave was nice, I guess I just had too high expectations. I think had I not got it to lather so easily I would have been more ok with knowing it wasnt going to lather well for me. It was one of those, if it works it'll be the best every or if it doesnt work oh well because it hasnt for plenty. I wasnt expecting it to be equivalent to proraso, maybe a little behind proraso. But thats not a bad thing either. I really like the scent of mwf though, I smelled it again this morning even though I didnt shave (lazy) the scent grew on me more. I was expectint a nice dense but not clogging, slick lather and it was good just not great. But I loved the scent and post shave which is why I will keep some on hand.
That's a BIG +1 You'll find it get's better as it settles in. Keep working with it and you'll be likely to find it out-preforms most of the soaps you may have. It's truly one of the greats.
I appreciated the Fat more with a straight than a DE. I was saying the same thing you are when I first bought it, in fact I stopped using it and put it under my sink. I have been using a straight for a few months now and couldn't get the slickness I wanted from my other "go to" soaps. So I tried the Fat again and loved it. I also agree that it does get better with more use.
Exactly! I look at it like a nice boar brush. You get a certain one due to hearing great things. You try it a couple times and cant figure the hype. If you just set it aside and use it once in a blue moon it will seem mediocre and just blah. But if use it a lot and break it in it becomes your go to and you dont know what you did without it!
