The Obie Memorial First Tier Soaps and Creams Thread.

[SemperFi]

^ There's not another shop that stocks it besides BullGoose (https://bullgooseshaving.com/collections/le-pere-lucien) that I'm aware of--it was a limited edition run, and I don't know if BullGoose will still stock it going forward now that it's sold out.

[evnpar]

I'm on my second tin of Abricot. I grew up with an apricot tree in the back yard and it's one of my favorite scents, as well as one of my best performing soaps.

[Gasman]

I too have a tin of the Vegi LPL. Its a wonderful scent but as stated, performance is just not there. I've just put it on my display case as the tin looks great. Might use it someday but not the soap. Glad its not just me!

[Phrank]

So had two jars of Stirling Soap arrive the other day, Glastonbury and, Gin and Tonic.

They are from an artisan maker, inexpensive at under $15 a pop, so my expectations were in line with that type of soap - surprise!

Tallow based, shea butter, and absolute lather bombs - exploded with lather, in your face lovely scents, and punches well above it's price point.

Now, the Glastonbury was very nice in a traditional, kind of been there, smelled that, shaved with it kind of way - great soap, great performance, can't go wrong.

On the other hand, the Gin and Tonic, which I thought would be somewhat of a novelty soap, a giggle, and not worth more than one or two shaves then bring it up to MikeB52's meet for him to try absolutely blew my mind.

I've mentioned that personally, I was very disappointed in the new MdC Agrumes soap, I really felt they phoned that one in - was a basic "do-over" of your standard lemongrass scent, and found it mechanical and uninspiring - I expected more from MdC given their price point. I was expecting something of a citrus nature, really wide bodied with lots of notes, that really stood out, and was treated to a copy of Klar Seifen, Lemongrass replicant IMO (and not as nice IMO).

Well, Stirling delivered that with the Gin and Tonic, Juniper Berry, a couple of limes, and a splash of Lemon, and it hits all those citrus notes spectacularly. Was somewhat reminiscent of Castle Forbes Lime, with the noticeable presence of lemon, and the juniper berry just added that range and depth that made me recall this was what I expected when I ordered the MdC Agrumes soap, something completely different as Monty Python would say, and a citrus experience, combined with the tallow and shea butter, combined to be a stellar shave.

This is a soap I would definitely order again, really, at under $15, can't go wrong, and especially with a soap like this that punches way above it's weight class, really, what a surprise from Stirling, this artisan soap maker, given that, it already had two strikes against it usually for me.

My opinions only of course.....

[sharptonn]

It's official, Phrank!

YOU Sir, are a lather snob!

[Phrank]

It's official, Phrank!

YOU Sir, are a lather snob!

I prefer soap whore thank-you very much......

[SemperFi]

I think most of us purchase a product with optimism: An optimism that product X will fulfill wants or needs we have. Or to put that differently, I don’t think any of us buys a soap or cream with the hope that it will suck—i.e., we want the products we buy to work for us.

Richard’s (evnpar) and Jerry’s (Gasman) posts, along with several other similar SRP posts, coupled with a multitude of posts on other forums, about LPL vegetal soaps were interesting.

What was interesting about many of those posts were the wide range of reported experiences: A common trend I read was either the soap worked extremely well or the soap did not work extremely well. The common frequencies of both reported experiences indicate the probability of both observations being valid, and to brush off so many common but polar differences with a YMMV is in this instance, I think, superficial.

After doing deep dive into soap making, I believe LPL is a cold-processed soap. Generally, cold-processed soaps need about 4 to 6 weeks to cure. While most or all the lye in a cold-pressed soap dissipates in about 24 to 48 hours (tongue testing a soap is a common method used in determining whether or not lye is still present), the 4 to 6 week curing time allows saponification to complete and usually yields a better soap as water in the soap finishes evaporating.

A few examples of common issues with cold-processed soaps that haven’t completely cured are they tend to not lather as well, can cause skin irritation (incomplete saponification), and the soap is consumed faster. If variables such as water quality (hard water for example) are thrown into that mix, some issues with incompletely cured soaps can compound.

I think allowing LPL’s veg soaps to cure longer might be a possible solution to some of the challenges some have experienced with these soaps. Indeed, LPL’s website tacitly points to allowing for more curing time with its recommendation, “Our tip: to preserve your soap all its qualities we recommend you leave it open permanently, it will dry, become harder and more economic and pleasant fragrance perfume your bath.”

I especially like LPL’s apricot scent, so I’m going to let it cure for a month plus to see if that improves my experience with the soap. I’ll periodically weigh the soap: If its weight drops and then stabilizes during that time, that will be an indication the soap probably didn’t fully cure before it was packaged into its tin and distributed for sale. Hopefully this experiment will yield great results—will post the results in a month or so.

[Phrank]

I think most of us purchase a product with optimism: An optimism that product X will fulfill wants or needs we have. Or to put that differently, I don’t think any of us buys a soap or cream with the hope that it will suck—i.e., we want the products we buy to work for us.

Richard’s (evnpar) and Jerry’s (Gasman) posts, along with several other similar SRP posts, coupled with a multitude of posts on other forums, about LPL vegetal soaps were interesting.

What was interesting about many of those posts were the wide range of reported experiences: A common trend I read was either the soap worked extremely well or the soap did not work extremely well. The common frequencies of both reported experiences indicate the probability of both observations being valid, and to brush off so many common but polar differences with a YMMV is in this instance, I think, superficial.

After doing deep dive into soap making, I believe LPL is a cold-processed soap. Generally, cold-processed soaps need about 4 to 6 weeks to cure. While most or all the lye in a cold-pressed soap dissipates in about 24 to 48 hours (tongue testing a soap is a common method used in determining whether or not lye is still present), the 4 to 6 week curing time allows saponification to complete and usually yields a better soap as water in the soap finishes evaporating.

A few examples of common issues with cold-processed soaps that haven’t completely cured are they tend to not lather as well, can cause skin irritation (incomplete saponification), and the soap is consumed faster. If variables such as water quality (hard water for example) are thrown into that mix, some issues with incompletely cured soaps can compound.

I think allowing LPL’s veg soaps to cure longer might be a possible solution to some of the challenges some have experienced with these soaps. Indeed, LPL’s website tacitly points to allowing for more curing time with its recommendation, “Our tip: to preserve your soap all its qualities we recommend you leave it open permanently, it will dry, become harder and more economic and pleasant fragrance perfume your bath.”

I especially like LPL’s apricot scent, so I’m going to let it cure for a month plus to see if that improves my experience with the soap. I’ll periodically weigh the soap: If its weight drops and then stabilizes during that time, that will be an indication the soap probably didn’t fully cure before it was packaged into its tin and distributed for sale. Hopefully this experiment will yield great results—will post the results in a month or so.

This is exactly what happened and is happening with my LPL Cologne / Fougere, gone through almost half a 200 gram tin, only really had 6-7 shaves, and it won't lather really at all.

Going to go and open up my tins and allow then to cure....

Excellent post, and would explain the wide variety of experiences....so it's not just tallow versus vegetal then...thanks.

[doc47]

Daddy Lucien has made a crop that has none of the problems I've previously encountered when trying to lather one of his hard soaps.

[sharptonn]

GAAAAAAA~!

You guys are killing me! I love it!