Thread: Fine Soaps

Gentlemen,

I'm afraid I have not tried any of the Fine shave soaps. We are inundated by artisan shaving soaps. Some are good and some not so. I don't know where Fine stands in that lineup. I tried Fine American blend aftershave, however, and liked it, even though the fragrance lasted a short while.

Originally Posted by Obie

Gentlemen,

I'm afraid I have not tried any of the Fine shave soaps. We are inundated by artisan shaving soaps. Some are good and some not so. I don't know where Fine stands in that lineup. I tried Fine American blend aftershave, however, and liked it, even though the fragrance lasted a short while.

I don't have anywhere near your experience with soaps so I'm hesitant to place the Fine soaps in one of your tiers but with that disclaimer I'll give it a try. My thoughts are that these soaps belong somewhere in the upper rungs of the second tier. I've used MWF quite a bit and I feel that the Fine products provide lather that is just as good, if not better, and I can build that lather a good deal faster than I can with MWF. Personally I'd put Snake Bite in my own top tier simply based on the ridiculous amount of menthol that the soap contains and how much I love the face feel that comes with it.

On terms of scent I like the American Blend a lot and I didn't buy the soap until I had experimented with the aftershave. The fact that the aftershave suffers from fade is probably one of the reasons I like it so much. I tend towards a rather sensitive sense of smell, which is why I've gravitated to odorless products most of my life and its the membership here that has inspired me to be a bit more adventurous in my grooming products. For my own use the fact that the scent fades quite a bit is a good thing but I am still getting whiffs of the American Blend now, about 23 hours since my last shave. The Snake Bite fades very quickly, disappearing within roughly 45 minutes, a testament to this product's lack of fragrance and the volatility of the menthol.

Currently the Lavender Pour Homme combo is on my want list and I really want to break down and try a puck of The Holy Black's Gunpowder and Spice.

I've tried 30 different soaps and creams at this time, and would have to agree in what tier this soap would sit.

I have soaps costing over $70 to under $3, and have found that a lot if the lesser valued soaps are as good, if not better than the high end soaps, but that's me.
I was hesitant about the Fine products. But being I live so close to our store ( SRD/ Imperial Shave) I could go and smell the products, and love the Platinum scent, as well as the others. Now that I've used it for some time, the other scents will go in place of other pucks as their used up.

As I mentioned in Obie's thread, "Ist Tier Soaps and Creams", the Fine soaps are excellent troopers - I would say they are an outstanding, higher member of the 2nd Tier, and there is no shame in that whatsoever.

The Italian Citrus is very nice, reminiscent of Acqua Di Parma, solid puck, and a rock solid performer.

Same can be said of the Fresh Vetiver and the Platinum, they smell exactly like they're fantastic aftershaves, and lather easily, create a nice thick lather, and are like I said rock solid performers.

Price is a little steep for a puck of soap in a cardboard box, and it is inconvenient to say the least that they are not packaged with some type of corresponding bowl, even a cheap plastic one. I hate and won't put my soaps in Ziploc of Tupperware containers any longer, so having to purchase a bowl for the soap to live in is a real minus IMO.

But if you enjoy using different soaps as much as I do, then these are great additions, solidly 2nd tier soaps.

I agree that the lack of a bowl is more than a tad annoying. I had a couple of containers languishing under my sink so it wasn't a deal breaker for me but I would prefer it if they would go the route of MWF and offer a soap with a bowl and replacement pucks.