The Obie Memorial First Tier Soaps and Creams Thread.

[Deeter]

After seeing Baume.be listed often on the top 5 thread, I ordered some. It arrived today. Definitely on my top 5 list. Very nice! Thanks to those that recommended it.

[Phrank]

Art of Shaving, "Oud", not bad, nice lather, OK scent, actually fairly nice scent, nice glide, nice rich full lather, and the scent definitely had some depth and range to it...could see where people might think, "new car smell", or "plastic", but I know these creams usually only need a little dab, too much and they can overwhelm, and I thought this was a nice cream.

In order to have stars of the show, you need to have a solid cast, and this soap has a solid place in Tier Two IMO, I'll use it again for sure.

Tomorrow, back to PannaCrema...speaking of stars!!!

[Dieseld]

Ok this is just not cool. For some reason, they don't have the PannaCrema available to ship to the states.
What a way to kick a guy on pay day..........

[Phrank]

Bull goose shaving in the States is the NA reseller for PC.

[Dieseld]

Thank you my friend and enabler


Edit: nope can't find it on their site.......

[Augustagj]

I think if I had to choose just one, I would take Castle Forbes Essence of Lime.

[GreenRipper]

I mentioned a while back that I received a few different soaps for my birthday and I am pleased to say that I finally have some soaps in my personal First Tier.

The first is the D.R. Harris Windsor that I bought for myself, since no one else saw fit to buy it for me. I've used soaps with better cushion or better glide but the Harris is well above average in each category. I've found building a lather to be very easy with this soap, particularly after making a slight change in the way I use it (more on this in a sentence or two). I find the face feel of the Harris soap to be excellent, definitely the best of the non-tallow based offerings that I've tried. All of these attributes put this soap in my first tier all on their own but the scent may be what drives the point home. I mentioned before that the Windsor scent immediately brought Fine's American Blend to mind but after taking some time to use it I found the fragrance to be both more subtle and of deeper complexity than the American Blend, which resides in the upper reaches of my second tier. For those who are shaving on a moderate budget but who want to try one of Obie's top soaps I can recommend giving the D.R. Harris soaps a try.

The one complaint I have is purely personal and I freely admit that I'm a weirdo on this one...the wood bowl. I'll be the first to admit that the bowls are actually very nice for the price but their form doesn't quite fit my function. Some months ago I bought a number of stainless steel bowls that are rather shallow and wide, just tall enough to cover a puck but offering quite a bit of room around its circumference. What I've found is that I really like building my initial lather in these bowls and now find the smaller bowls to be somewhat more difficult to use. Sadly I'm now more interested in refills than bowls but I have a pretty little Harris offering to put to other uses.

The second set of soaps were a number of samples from Stirling Soap Co. along with a full-sized refill of their Gin and Tonic. Each of the four varieties of the Stirling offerings performed very well at my sink and have been given a place in my personal first tier. The soaps provide good cushion, excellent glide and the type of face feel that only a tallow soap has been able to achieve in my experience. While many tallow based soaps, like MWF, can take quite a bit of effort to lather I found the Stirling soaps to be quite user friendly. I have had no issues in building a lather relatively quickly and even used one sample while traveling where the water was so hard as to be nearly usable as a building material.

My wife bought me four varieties of the Stirling shave soaps and while the fragrances aren't as complex as the Windsor they each have their own personalities.

Gin and Tonic: "The most refreshing soap in the world," is the sentence that ends Stirling's description of this scent and I'm inclined to agree with them. The fragrance is one of limes and juniper berry with just a touch of lemon, fitting at least a few of the ingredients in a good Gin and Tonic (you could add a few more for my tastes but I'm a snob). The scent itself is a touch medicinal but somehow I find it extremely refreshing and it is low-key enough that someone working in a medical field could likely get by with it despite the general prohibition against scented hygiene products. The most refreshing shave in the world includes this soap and its namesake drink, as long as Pinckeny Bend's tonic syrup is put to its intended use!

Margaritas in the Arctic: I saw that this soap is Stirlings biggest seller and its easy see why with the scent of limes and a decent dose of menthol. Some members might find this soap a bit on the fragrant side but I'm a fan, especially since I have a soft spot for soaps with menthol. This is one that will remain in my rotation and I currently have a full-sized puck and a bottle of splash due to arrive tomorrow. I can't comment on the paring of this soap with its namesake drink because I prefer to save the limes for my gin and my soap and use the tequila in a Paloma.

Pharaoh's Dreamsicle: An homage to the dreamscicle, this soap contains notes of orange, vanilla and Egyptian musk. My wife bought this one because I'm a big fan of an orange freeze or a Dreamsicle on a hot summer day. I can't complain about this fragrance but it didn't wow me either, I'll finish the sample but doubt that I'll ever bother to invest in the full-sized puck.

Lemon Chill: Lemons and menthol, combination that both my lovely wife and I thought would be enjoyable. In reality I found the fragrance to be far too sweet for my tastes and it took a few days for the experience to really register in my mind. The fact is that Lemon Chill is exactly the scent you would get if you soaked Lemonheads candies in a bottle of menthol. For me it was simply cloying and the menthol, which I generally love, didn't pair well with the sweet lemon scent. Needless to say I'll finish off the sample but reordering is pretty much out of the question.

All-in-all a very nice set of soaps for my birthday, several of which will continue to brighten my shave for years to come!

[Blamo]

Ok this is just not cool. For some reason, they don't have the PannaCrema available to ship to the states.
What a way to kick a guy on pay day..........

Try Handlebar supply. I just bought the green one last week. I live in NY and it was 62 bucks total with shipping. I would tell you to save your money and buy some B&M Seville...it is just as good and quarter the price.

Ps...the guys that are saying Panna Nuavia cost them in the $90 range I believe are all in Canada and are talking about the loonie cost not $90 in US money.

[Blamo]

Great write up Ripper. I'm going to have to try some stirling now...you are worse on my wallet than Obie.

You are another OP to rave about Harris, which keeps me coming back to it with the same crappy results. You tease in your post above, when talking about lathering the Harris, "more on this in a sentence or two" but you never come back to it. How are you lathering? In particular, does your brush have a stiff backbone? I find that the only variable change that shows promising results is when I break out the boar brush. Problem is that I don't like the feel of the boar on my face and I find it silly to use two brushes.

[Obie]

GreenRipper,
Thanks for your thoughts on D.R. Harris and Stirling. Well done.
I keep my Harris lather on the moist side for better glide and residual face feel. The Stirling soaps are some of the better of the scores of artisan products made in the U.S. Catie's Bubbles soaps, I must say, are my favorites of the U.S. made artisan shave soaps.