Al's Shaving Products review.

Attachment 184138I ordered a sample pack of Al's Shaving Products that finally arrived Friday, and I thought I'd post my thoughts about the product for anyone who might be curious about Al's Shaving Soaps. I'm reviewing this as beginner to the world of straight razor shaving, and am providing this as my own personal opinion and nothing more. I received a pack of 8 shaving soaps that came in small round containers, slightly smaller than a silver dollar, with the name of the scent written with a silver marker pen. Not the most professional packaging, but it gets the job done. There was also a pamphlet with a thanks, and brief guide on how to use Al's Shaving Soap. Opening the containers revealed a white pearlish looking soap that was a little softer than solid. I figured that i could probably get two shaves from one container, but the pamphlet mentions that you could get up to 16 shaves from one of these small containers. My first thought was "no way", but after lathering up the first time, I could definitely see how the little bit in these containers could last a good while. As the pamphlet says, "A little bit goes a long way". For the most part I followed the guide on creating a good lather, and was able to get a very good lather with very little soap loaded onto the brush. I did this twice in my new Georgetown Pottery G20 Scuttle. First in a cold scuttle, and then again in a hot scuttle. Both times this soap lathered up fairly quickly and produced a dense lather that did not dissipate or dry out during my shave which lasts about 30-40 minutes. The scent for these soaps was fair in my opinion. None of them stood out as exceptionally pleasant to me. In fact they all share the same slightly 'medicinal' base scent. In fact my first impression after smelling the first three was that there was not much diversity in scent between them. In fact, the only negative thing I would say about these soaps is that there scents all share so much of the same base, that there is only a sight difference between all 8 samples. Not that they all smell the same. But it seems like 95% similar and 5% different. The only shaving cream I can compare these to is what I have been using prior to receiving these samples. That would be C.O. Bigelow, which I hear is very good. I couldn't discern any difference between my shave with either product. I used a hot steamy towel, and Noxema preshave prior to applying the shave lather.
To wrap up :
Pros -
Good lather
A little makes a lot
Generally pleasant earthy scents with a slightly medicinal background
Seems to stand up to heat fairly well
Provides as good a shave experience as C.O. Bigelow
Cons -
All soaps have the same background fragrance
Not much diversity in fragrances
Not a very complex fragrance

My Final opinion
Al's Shaving Soaps provides a very good lather that will last in a very warm scuttle (very subjective YMMV). However because the scents are so similar, I probably would never buy more than one of these soaps, because there would be too much similarly between two or more. I wasn't a huge fan of the medicinal under note these soaps had, but there was one exception. The fragrance Boheme stood out to me as the best of the lot (totally subjective). It also had that same medicinal note, but it seems to be more of a compliment for this fragrance, and didn't stand out as much as the others. Great quality soap, but not much diversity or complexity in fragrance.