The Obie Memorial First Tier Soaps and Creams Thread.

[Leatherstockiings]

When it comes to the D. R. Harris scents I place Arlington slightly ahead of Windsor. Arlington is more of a warm weather scent for me while the woodsiness of Windsor seems to go better with cool weather. I didn't care for the Marlborough scent since I really don't like sandalwood. I like Harris soaps much better than the cream. I owned a tube of the Marlborough cream and it burned my face. Truefitt & Hill Trafalgar cream also gives me a bit of a burn. Based on the similarities between the two creams I would wager they are made by the same factory.

[Gasman]

2 for 2. Figures. Ha. I'll wait till tomorrow. Was looking on Amazon and they have them in the bowls but you still have to pay shipping so I got to weigh the costs of if I want the bowl on not.

[MRutter8671]

What a great list. I have just ordered some DR Harris soap to give that a try from your first tier, I have been using Taylor of old Bond street soap for some time now, usually the San Sandalwood as I find this soap the longer lasting but occasionally I've used the lemon and lime soap and it does smell lovely but seems to not be as lasting as the sandalwood and is a lot softer, I think the softness of the soap adds to its quick use but it does smell really good and provides good lather, glide and cushion.
Again, thank you for taking the time to make this list and comprehensive review, there are a lot of soaps that will be added to my list.

[GreazyThumbs]

What is the best value 1st tier creams to try. I wanted to branch out and try something new.

Sent from my VS986 using Tapatalk

[neehooya]

Jerry, when are you driving up North?
I ordered 3 samples of DR Harris (Arlington, Windsor and Marlborough) from Maggards. Stop by and you can try them for yourself, the samples are cream though. I ended up ordering Arlington and Windsor pucks since I didn't care too much for Marlborough.
Unlike you , I won't charge you for those samples... Let me know.
Cheers.

[neehooya]

What is the best value 1st tier creams to try. I wanted to branch out and try something new.

Sent from my VS986 using Tapatalk

I would suggest that you order samples, pick a scent that suits you the best, top Tier are great performers overall.
IMO, When it comes to $$$ they are all comparable ($/oz), maybe with one exception of Czech&Speak (too rich for my blood).
Cheers.

[Steve56]

I second the suggestion of samples. Here are my cream suggestions:

Castle Forbes, about the same cost per shave as Proraso because it is so concentrated. But the initial buy-in is high because it's 200ml instead of 100ml or 125ml

D. R. Harris - flys under the radar by a good amount. Reportedly HRH Prince of Wales likes Marlborough.

I Coloniali Rhubarb - recently discontinued, but if you can find a tube it's a really good cream.

Truefitt and Hill Ultimate Comfort - super light lavender, good for sensitive skin

Simpsons creams - the Vanilla Rose (all rose to my nose) is a classic English rose cream.

I think that you will be pleased with how many shaves you can get out of any of these.

Cheers, Steve

[Gasman]

Jerry, when are you driving up North?
I ordered 3 samples of DR Harris (Arlington, Windsor and Marlborough) from Maggards. Stop by and you can try them for yourself, the samples are cream though. I ended up ordering Arlington and Windsor pucks since I didn't care too much for Marlborough.
Unlike you , I won't charge you for those samples... Let me know.
Cheers.

Thanks for the offer my friend. I'll be buying in another week as the wife said the bills are in need of my fund first at the moment. And driving a Hazmat truck, I cant just go driving around where ever I want. They got these stupid rules about where I'm allowed to drive and park. Plus its a company truck so no side trips.
But very kind of ya and I promise I wont charge you another 100 bucks for a sample. LOL.

[Dieseld]

The New City, which when you open the container, smells ghastly, like raspberries and something dark and scary, but once lathered, wow! The Irving Park was within the envelope of what you'd expect a soap to be, but the New City just shatters expectations of what a shaving soap can be. The raspberry settles right down, and provides a bottom end, the leather and black suede (Oud AFAIC) are very present, and again, the saffron, Amber and especially the Frankincense make appearances to the nose as you shave. I was surprised at the end of the shave, after expecting not to like this one based on opening the container, I actually liked it MORE than the Irving Park...so can't wait to try Northerly Island.

I have to agree TOTALLY with this review of the New City Cream.
But I wouldn't actually call it ghastly upon opening it. It is very strong of raspberry though. And the over all fragrance while shaving is pure bliss!!!! Just amazing!!

Now as to the aspects in my opinion.
Quick load of the brush, and I mean quick. About 10 or so firm swirls around the container.
Then to the shave bowl, an amazingly rapid building of a bowl full of thick and even shiny cream.
On to my face, and using my usual scrubbing circular motion to work it in after a hot towel, it still lathered more!
The aroma was intoxicating........
The shave........so smooth and a wonderful glide. My skin felt great and I was also able to still stretch my skin without slipping. This has happened with some soaps that are just too slick for me.

I'm looking forward to trying the Irving Park tomorrow, and expecting the same results

Thanks Obie and Phrank, this is surly a tier one cream without question

[GreenRipper]

I want to preface this review with a warning to those of you who suffer from sensitive skin: Steer clear of the Black Ship Grooming soaps!

I will be very clear here, I suffer from oddly sensitive skin. I will occasionally wander across a product that I have an adverse reaction to but, in general, I tend to be much more sensitive to heat and sweat. When I switched to traditional wet shaving I seemed to have fewer outbreaks and the move to a straight razor almost a year ago nearly eliminated the ongoing issues I had with ingrown facial hairs. Up to this point I have not had a reaction to a shave soap but Black Ship Grooming's soaps torched me. Be warned, my friends!

I became interested in the Black Ship products through the SotD pictures I tend to occupy myself with on Instagram. These soaps seemed relatively popular and a couple of their fragrances caught my fancy. A online trip to Maggards netted me three samples, The Black Rose, La Concorde and Thomas Tew. None of these were the fragrances that piqued my interest but they would at least allow me to try the soap without dropping a full $15 on a tub of soap.

The soaps arrived on Thursday afternoon and, of course, they were lined up in the shave den for use on Friday morning. These samples were so soft as to verge on being classified as croaps so I was expecting them to build a lather quickly and easily and I wasn't let down by the Thomas Tew, a citrus scented offering. The lather was almost luxuriously dense when whipped up with my Tuxedo synthetic, offering excellent cushion and decent slickness.

During the shave I noticed some irritation that I actually put off to the previous day. On Thursday I had experienced a poor shave, pretty much learning that my Robeson ShurEdge needs to visit the hones and followed up by a full day outside, on a unseasonably hot and humid day. This pretty much guaranteed that my skin skin would be in near agony Thursday night and I wasn't surprised to have lingering issues on Friday. Unfortunately the irritation failed to ease as the day went on and even yesterday evening my face felt raw and uncomfortable.

This morning I was much better and while I had suspicions that the Black Ship soap was part of the problem I was determined to try again. This time the Black Rose soap got the nod but by halfway through my second pass my cheeks were already beginning to burn. Today I was smart enough to halt my routine and return to the shower to wash both my face and my shave brush before finishing my shave with good ol' MWF. My face feels a touch irritated but certainly better than yesterday.

I would love to give the Black Ship Grooming soaps a true review as I found the lather rather rather nice but only getting through a shave and a half limits my ability to give any type of informed opinion. I will say that the fragrances I ordered didn't grab my attention and the Thomas Tew seemed more weak than subtle.

All that I'm left with are a couple of samples that I'm hesitant to give to someone else to guinea pig.