Tabac-Why So Good

I finished my initial puck that came with my kit from SRD and am trying some new soaps, particularly MWF and Tabac. In the past week or so I always get a super shave with Tabac. I even really like the smell. Lathers perfectly for me every time.

The MWF, not so much. I have a harder time getting it to lather and the performance just does not live up to all the hype but I find myself wanting it to work and will keep experimenting with it. Maybe it is just my technique. I use a skuttle but seems like I really develop the lather on my face. Really like the ceramic container but not sure it will always have MWF in it. If it matters I'm using a Thater 4292/5 dual band silver tip brush, great brush, by the way.

I am sure that I will always have a puck of Tabac going and can't imagine how a soap could be better. Just no clue as to why it's so good.

Soap certainly must be one of those YMMV but I really can't say enough about how well it is working for me.

Tabac is one of the easiest and best soaps. Some don't like the scent, I do, but no one complains about the lather.

Tabac is great.

You can get a bath/shower soap, shaving soap/cream, aftershave and cologne.

A perfect Tabac morning.

Nope not YMMV it is a superior soap to MWF, that simple. I would say there are a handful of soaps that beat Tabac and not by much and many that equal but it is not easy, one of the elites for sure, scent aside a great performer.

apipeguy said:

I finished my initial puck that came with my kit from SRD and am trying some new soaps, particularly MWF and Tabac. In the past week or so I always get a super shave with Tabac. I even really like the smell. Lathers perfectly for me every time.

The MWF, not so much. I have a harder time getting it to lather and the performance just does not live up to all the hype but I find myself wanting it to work and will keep experimenting with it. Maybe it is just my technique. I use a skuttle but seems like I really develop the lather on my face. Really like the ceramic container but not sure it will always have MWF in it. If it matters I'm using a Thater 4292/5 dual band silver tip brush, great brush, by the way.

I am sure that I will always have a puck of Tabac going and can't imagine how a soap could be better. Just no clue as to why it's so good.

Soap certainly must be one of those YMMV but I really can't say enough about how well it is working for me.

Click to expand...

It works great because the smell scares the hairs right off your face.

shavefreak said:

Nope not YMMV it is a superior soap to MWF, that simple.

Click to expand...

Better watch out, those are fighting words for many gentlemen!

Cksnffr said:

It works great because the smell scares the hairs right off your face.

Click to expand...

No doubt!

Tabac is a terrific soap. It was my first "Wow!" lather and I don't think that I put it down through my first winter shaving.

The Fat is also great, but as you've discovered can bit more fickle. Here's what helped me dial in MWF.

Before you shower place a light skim coat of water on top of the puck.
When you come out of the shower, start to swirl your squeezed, soaked brush on top of the puck to simply build a frothy, foamy lather. You're not going to lather your face with this stuff, but pour it into a bowl and set aside, squeezing the remainder out of your brush into the bowl.

Now start to load your brush on the puck. Load it as long as you've been loading the Tabac and then double that time. Apply the loaded brush to your face and then begin hydrating the lather by dipping the brush tips into the frothy, foamy, wet lather in the bowl. You can add quite a bit of water, but do it gradually.

This may sound like a lot, but it's a way of softening the lather, loading enough soap on your brush for a really terrific soap. The more that you do this, the easier it gets to lather.

Tabac is my ED soap...it's a solid performer, excellent, long-lasting and slick lather that (for me) is easy to build and face-lather.

That said, I just got a puck of MWF, and...it is also excellent. I soak it in warm water, load a shaken-dry badger (Colonel) brush and face lather...tune in the lather with addition of drops of water to brush...amazing amounts of superb lather...great shave!
(NOTE: I have well water, but it's pretty soft, so that I'm sure is a factor).

Tabac is sitting on the bench for a week whilst I thoroughly evaluate MWF. But Tabac is still #1 on my team and it will be hard to unseat.

NOTE: I have accepted the fragrance of Tabac...it has a lot of presence, but I don't mind...to me it smells like a great shave! And I find the subtle scent of MWF to be very nice indeed.

Pepin said:

Tabac is great.

You can get a bath/shower soap, shaving soap/cream, aftershave and cologne.

A perfect Tabac morning.

Click to expand...

+1 ... nothing goes better with Tabac soap except more Tabac products.

For me, Tabac is a Winter scent. It is at its best when the outside temp is below freezing. I've used it in Summertime, just for the sake of experiment, and it didn't work. I couldn't wait to get back home and wash it off and put on something seasonally appropriate, like Proraso.
Be aware that the Tabac scent is tricky ... if you use the Cologne or EdT or Deodorant, it will go dormant for hours and then all of a sudden, "Whooooomp. There it is!" when it gets reactivated by body heat.

As for the MWF, you need to keep the puck saturated in between uses. It will dry out easily, but give it a good underwater soaking at least overnight when it is brand-new, and be sure to keep it shiny-wet in between if you don't use it every day. And MWF is very partial to soft water, so if that applies in your area, get some distilled water from the grocery store and give it another try.

The MWF ceramic bowl is pretty to look at, but it is clumsy to hold and slippery and very fragile. I have one, but if I ever need to replace the puck, I will get one of the rebranded MWFs in a Kent wooden bowl.

Please don't repurpose that bowl to hold a different soap. There is something about cross-branding containers that just makes my skin crawl. You wouldn't take an empty bottle of Johnnie Walker and refill it with Jack Daniels, would you? The only thing you should put back into an MWF bowl is another puck of MWF.

There are exceptions to this cross-branding rule. Old Spice, Seaforth and other vintage mugs can be used with any other brand of soap, since the original product is no longer available.

shavefreak said:

Nope not YMMV it is a superior soap to MWF, that simple. I would say there are a handful of soaps that beat Tabac and not by much and many that equal but it is not easy, one of the elites for sure, scent aside a great performer.

Click to expand...

Which soap(s) would you say outperform Tabac ?

amey said:

Which soap(s) would you say outperform Tabac ?

Click to expand...

TFS Linea Intenso Dure soaps. For me at least.

As said; soaps are YMMV, so it's useless to speak of "the best" soaps.

Out of interest, whats the Tabac Shave soap scent like?
I have the bath soap and aftershave here and the two are totally different!! Both pleasant though.

PeteB said:

Out of interest, whats the Tabac Shave soap scent like?
I have the bath soap and aftershave here and the two are totally different!! Both pleasant though.

Click to expand...

Smells like an ashtray emptied in an old lady's purse, according to some.

I'd say burnt tobacco and lavender mainly.

Not Tobacco. Tobacco flower is how some of us describe it. Here is a description that might help,,, or not.

http://www.basenotes.net/ID26121551.html

PeteB said:

Out of interest, whats the Tabac Shave soap scent like?

Click to expand...

Tabac smells like the zombified corpse of Granmda Ethel after she keeled over from too many Pall Malls at the nickel slots in a Reno truck stop.

It's an acquired taste.

Cksnffr said:

Tabac smells like the zombified corpse of Granmda Ethel after she keeled over from too many Pall Malls at the nickel slots in a Reno truck stop.

It's an acquired taste.

Click to expand...

A rather good description and still I love Tabac and its scent. Another good description i read was "a bus filled with chain smoking grannys with pink dyed hair"

Cksnffr said:

Tabac smells like the zombified corpse of Granmda Ethel after she keeled over from too many Pall Malls at the nickel slots in a Reno truck stop.

It's an acquired taste.

Click to expand...

Now i am certain i have veeery strange taste

PeteB said:

Out of interest, whats the Tabac Shave soap scent like?
I have the bath soap and aftershave here and the two are totally different!! Both pleasant though.

Click to expand...

IMO, closer to the Aftershave splash.

+1 on the old lady's purse combined with an ashtray interpretation of the scent. Smoky, leathery, powdery.

Great performance though. I think I put it about even with the old AOS tallow soaps, which smell much better.