I have both the puck and the stick. I think Arko is without a doubt the best shave stick you can get. Makes the most lather and very easy to do so.
Thoughts on Arko? Looking to try it.
- Thread starter StubbleOfSteel
- Start date
De Vergulde Hand and Palmolive are in the same price range, just like the Wilkinson Sword stick.
Among those, Arko does not stand out for me.
I love the scent of Arko. I grated two sticks into a stoneware crock with a lid and was greatly disappointed that the scent is getting weaker the longer I use it. I'd wear a cologne that smelled like Arko shave stick if it had several hours or more longevity. Arko smells clean, fresh and generic to me. Its an excellent performer for me. I think Arko is an awesome product for its price point even if you don't like the scent it still delivers great performance.
Williams Mug Soap does smell like a urinal cake from a truck stop men's room to me. Reminds me of summer road trips to visit family down South when I was a kid in the late 70s. Arko will work with my tap water but it excels with distilled. Williams won't hold for more than 5 minutes for me with tap water and a overload of product but I can get it thick and stable with distilled water and a heavy load in the brush.
Williams Mug Soap does smell like a urinal cake from a truck stop men's room to me. Reminds me of summer road trips to visit family down South when I was a kid in the late 70s. Arko will work with my tap water but it excels with distilled. Williams won't hold for more than 5 minutes for me with tap water and a overload of product but I can get it thick and stable with distilled water and a heavy load in the brush.
Don't think about it...just try it !
Enough people have posted by now. As you can see, "Arko" is a subject that draws a lot of attention here, good and bad. You now have more than enough information to justify any risk of $3.00, so just buy it and try it. You already know you'll like it or you won't. There is not much in-between or fence-sitting opinion out there when it comes to Arko.
I just used Arko again tonight after taking some time to use other soaps, and I was amazed at how well it performs. This is one soap I'll always try to keep on hand. Even my fiancée enjoys it for shaving her legs!
My thought exactly. If it cost $8 I would pass it by. But fifteen bucks for a dozen on Amazon: I'm sold.
Again, the Wilkinson Sword and Palmolive sticks are just as good , in my opinion, and in the same ballpark (1 to 1,50 per stick). Of course the ARKO sticks are larger, but both the WS and Palmolive sticks are harder soaps.
ARKO, at 1 per stick, is priced correctly for a drugstore soap. But it's not something special, in my opinion.
YMMV of course!
In the States, Arko is special. In Europe and Britain, one can actually find Palmolive sticks in groceries and at the drug stores. In the States, shaving sticks simply don't exist. Most Americans don't even know there is such a thing, and for those who do, generally the first one they encounter is Arko. So Arko has a very special novelty effect on people born and raised in the States. I agree with your assessemtn of the soap itself..but the "you never forget your first" effect is occuring here.
And the novelty effect for Arko works both ways. My take is that good old-fashioned Cashmere Bouquet soap has it beat on every level...price, scent, and above all shave, but few here seem to have tried it, and my suspicion is that is because Cashmere Bouquet is so commonplace and been around so long, and is so cheap.
I can get ARKO locally, but I have never heard about Cashmere Bouquet soap; to me that would be more special indeed.
I just got the stick yesterday. I will use it today, but I have to admit, it does have a funny scent, I can't see this soap as a regular rotation option, but will see.
Well, this will become a PIF in the near future. Didn't like the smell and the lather was nothing to die for. I used my Semogue Boar brush, I don't know if using a Badger will make a difference. But the smell, that smell, I would not go as far as saying it smells like a toilet puck, but, to me, smells like, old.....
Well there you have it: Arko is not for all. I wish they would make other scents. They do it for the creams.
Here's my take on Arko:
http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthread.php/456237-First-Shave-with-Arko-Soap
http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthread.php/456237-First-Shave-with-Arko-Soap
Ok. You've got Arko nailed. If cheap and good isn't significant to you, than it has nothing to offer.
I think there are way better soaps than Arko. But none so cheap, at least readily available to me. And as a verifiable cheapskate I'm in the bag.
A while back there was a place in the UK they was having a great deal on palmolive with free shipping to the states. And I found the palmolive was great, too. But the deal went away, and so did the love affair.
As I've said, if Arko cost $8 + shipping I would look elsewhere.
PS: I buy cheap laundry detergent, too.
+10
