Thread: Jabonman - Eufros Recommendations

My tins of Jabonman/Eufros tallow formulated soaps, along with accompanying balms, arrived from Spain late last week.

I ordered Manuel's Fougère, Ylang Ylang, Dama de Noche, and Rosa Bourbon, and for the past few days, I’ve put them through their paces…wow, they are spectacular!

All 4 soap’s performance is killer: They lather well and build into nice, thick suds, their lubrication (i.e., glide/slickness) is outstanding with both a straight and easily with a DE, their post shave qualities are great (very moisturizing), and the scents are excellent. Dama de Noche is on the more flowery/sweet side, but that’s not a deal breaker for me during this time of year.

As others have posted, Rosa Bourbon is a sublime rose scent—one of the best I’ve experienced. Later this week I’ll tradeoff between Rosa Bourbon and C&S No. 88 (they’ll be fun to compare). While the soap is more expensive, if one enjoys rose scents, Rosa Bourbon is definitely worth a go!

When lathering the soaps, going slow and incrementally adding small amounts water yielded the best lather results for me. I did a quick experiment with adding the about the same amounts of water: quick and incremental. While the volume of water was about the same, adding it quickly didn’t produce nearly the nice, thick lather that slower, incremental additions produced.

The balms are also excellent—the scents closely match the soaps. Not much is needed, they absorbed easily (didn’t get the tacky/stickiness that some balms leave behind), and they all were very skin nourishing.

And doing business with Manuel is outstanding: He’s a nice person, replies quickly to email, and is fast with shipping. He’s a 5-star, class act and outstanding artisan!

Beyond what I purchased, I definitely will add more Eufros to my rotation—Manuel’s soaps hit all the right marks in my book!

Originally Posted by SemperFi

My tins of Jabonman/Eufros tallow formulated soaps, along with accompanying balms, arrived from Spain late last week.

I ordered Manuel's Fougère, Ylang Ylang, Dama de Noche, and Rosa Bourbon, and for the past few days, I’ve put them through their paces…wow, they are spectacular!

All 4 soap’s performance is killer: They lather well and build into nice, thick suds, their lubrication (i.e., glide/slickness) is outstanding with both a straight and easily with a DE, their post shave qualities are great (very moisturizing), and the scents are excellent. Dama de Noche is on the more flowery/sweet side, but that’s not a deal breaker for me during this time of year.

As others have posted, Rosa Bourbon is a sublime rose scent—one of the best I’ve experienced. Later this week I’ll tradeoff between Rosa Bourbon and C&S No. 88 (they’ll be fun to compare). While the soap is more expensive, if one enjoys rose scents, Rosa Bourbon definitely worth a go!

When lathering the soaps, going slow and incrementally adding small amounts water yielded the best lather results for me. I did a quick experiment with adding the about the same amounts of water: quick and incremental. While the volume of water was about the same, adding it quickly didn’t produce nearly the nice, thick lather that slower, incremental additions produced.

The balms are also excellent—the scents closely match the soaps. Not much is needed, they absorbed easily (didn’t get the tacky/stickiness that some balms leave behind), and they all were very skin nourishing.

And doing business with Manuel is outstanding: He’s a nice person, replies quickly to email, and is fast with shipping. He’s a 5-star, class act and outstanding artisan!

Beyond what I purchased, I definitely will add more Eufros to my rotation—Manuel’s soaps hit all the right marks in my book!

Jay, those are the same 4 I own and could not agree with you more!

After about a month of 3 of Manuel's soaps in my rotation I'm ready for a follow-up.
I've bought Fougère, Rosa Bourbon, and Brisa de Oriente. Manuel was very kind to include 4 different samples too, but I still haven't tried those. I also bought a balm, but this is for another thread (I just can say here it's as excellent as the soaps are).
All the soaps are "premium" tallow-based ones. The lather they produce is simply outstanding! I have very hard water here, and with some soaps I have to use bottled or take some resin-softened from my espresso machine - small hindrance indeed, but nevertheless one I'd prefer to shave without. Manuel's soaps ate my water for breakfast - pun intended because the soaps were also very thirsty ones.
At first, being used to English hard triple-milled soaps, I loaded my brush rather heavily, added some water and noticed it needed more. So I added some... and some more... and more... and yet more... At the end I got the amount of lather that would be enough to shave my whole body - and then some The smell was so good it was a real pity to waste the lather, so I made about 5-6 passes that time - there was nothing left to shave, but I still enjoyed the smell and the feel of it
The lather is rich, lasts forever - hard water or not, very slick, and provides great protection and cushion effect. To make the first evaluation, I used the soap with no pre- or post-shave treatment, and it performed magnificently: easy shave with absolutely no irritation, and with smooth, fresh, and relaxed feeling after the shave.
Scent related, all the soaps have very strong - some would say a bit overwhelming - smell out of the box. Manuel uses essential oils and it seems he's not a cheapskate at all When lathered, the odor gets milder, less concentrated, but still very well and enjoyably pronounced - exactly the right amount in my opinion.
Now to the individual scents: I have to take my hat off to Jabonman's originality in this department The scents are all complex but well-balanced combinations of different origins.
Fougère: even this would be simple smell gained some welcome additions in Manuel's interpretation. I can smell some citrus, mint, and maybe lavender in it. Of course fern is the main motif, and overall the scent is light, refreshing, and I would say airy.
Brisa de Oriente on the other hand is the exact opposite: heavy, spicy, stuffy even - like humid summer heat (I live in Israel - believe me I know what I'm talking about ) Most of all it reminds me of Masala Chai, and I wouldn't be surprised if this indeed was Manuel's inspiration for creating this scent: cinnamon, cardamon, cloves, nutmeg, peppercorn - they are all there, smelling wonderfully rich and balanced, accentuating instead of obscuring each other. Well done indeed! I was totally unprepared for this soap to smell like it, but Masala Chai is my favorite winter drink, and so Brisa de Oriente will probably become my favorite winter soap.
And now to the cream of the crop: Rosa Bourbon. Objectively, they are all of the same quality, and the "cream of the crop" epithet is totally personal - you'll see why in a minute. I was somewhat cautious ordering this particular scent: not only it is the most expensive one from Eufros collection, I wasn't sure I'd like simple and sweet flowery smell of the roses as the only motif of the soap. By the way, for those of you who wondered, Rosa Bourbon is a kind of cultivated rose partially originated in Réunion Island. It is in no way rose-and-bourbon combination some would hope (but most would dread) to get.
As all other Manuel's olfactory creations, this one is not a "simple" one-dimensional scent either. I can recognize some citrusy overtones, and probably kind of earthy component to it, but the rose itself - wow Upon opening the tin can for the first time I was immediately transferred some 35 years back - to a country home my grandparents were renting each summer, and to the rose-petal jam my Grandma was making of the rose bushes growing there. I wasn't even aware they were of this particular type of rose, but it must be true our olfactory memories are the strongest ones, as I could really taste that jam when smelling the soap!

35 year I haven't think of this - not even once - but there it was as vivid, colorful, and tasty (sic) as if it was just yesterday. Unforgettable experience!
All in all, I don't really know why it took me so long to discover and to order these Jabonman's creations, but now I have to make up for all the time I lost - and to order some (a lot) more.

Dimab, brilliant review--you nailed it! Manuel's soaps and balms are brilliant performers, especially in hard water, in every sense. I'm with you, I'll be ordering more as well. Manuel has set a very high bar for other artisan and mainstream soap makers to achieve!

Originally Posted by dimab

Manuel was very kind to include 4 different samples too, but I still haven't tried those.

Follow-up #2. Tried the Ylang Ylang: if you like complex floral scent, by all means buy this soap! Besides the obvious ylang-ylang one can recognize overtones of patchouli, notes of orange blossom, and may be also some very subtle sandalwood.

Every other quality is right at the top - with the rest of his soaps.

Originally Posted by dimab

Follow-up #2. Tried the Ylang Ylang

Follow-up #3: just tried the Tierra Humeda or Wet Earth. Like its name suggests, the first impression is that of wet earth. Not just any but the one of primeval rain forest after heavy tropical rain - hinting at rotting wood, moss, but also at fresh after-the-rain ozone, spicy vetiver and, surprisingly, roasted peanut shells.

Originally Posted by dimab

Follow-up #2. Tried the Ylang Ylang: if you like complex floral scent, by all means buy this soap! Besides the obvious ylang-ylang one can recognize overtones of patchouli, notes of orange blossom, and may be also some very subtle sandalwood.

Every other quality is right at the top - with the rest of his soaps.

He used to call Ylang Ylang, Ylang Ylang Patchouli, so your description was right on.

Originally Posted by dimab

Follow-up #2. Tried the Ylang Ylang: if you like complex floral scent, by all means buy this soap! Besides the obvious ylang-ylang one can recognize overtones of patchouli, notes of orange blossom, and may be also some very subtle sandalwood.

Every other quality is right at the top - with the rest of his soaps.

Ylang-Ylang also contains jasmine absolute, I understand.

If only Manuel was able to bring back the original Ylang-Ylang, Pachouli, Naranja of 5-6 years ago. It was his masterpiece of the time and I'd still rate it as such, today, superb as his current offerings all are.

On Jay's recommendation I had to order some of Eufros soaps to try. I ended up purchasing tubs of the Rosa Bourbon and Fougere with samples of Ylang ylang, Terra humeda, Cronos, and Gea. Let me first agree with almost every review I have read, these soaps are top notch! Lathers very easily and hits all of the marks for a top performer! Slick, thick, cushion, protection, and great post shave feel!

The soaps are NOT light on scent. For these you need to really enjoy the scent IMO! I am not very proficient at picking out all of the individual scents. That said, I did not care for the Ylang Ylang, Terra Humeda, or the Cronos. Of course subjective but just not for me.

On the other hand, the Fougere was on the stronger side and not my favorite but I did enjoy it. To my surprise, the Gea not only had a very nice complex scent but the performance was outstanding!! I have to admit, I was a bit apprehensive about a vegan soap compared to tallow when it came to performance. This has completely and forever wiped that concern out of my mind!! Awesome!! Will definitely order a tub of Gea.

I have saved the best for last, Rosa Bourbon. WOW, WOW, WOW. This scent is one of my all time favorites! I do not have many rose scented soaps but this one blew me away. Complex, beautiful, lovely, etc..... (I could go on) I hope to never be without.

At the end of the day, thank you Jay for bringing Eufros into my view. I had never heard of this line and am quite pleased. Exquisite stuff!

Thanks, Rich! I'm glad you tried and really liked Manuel's Rosa Bourbon--hands down, it's the best rose-scented suds I've found to date!

Spot on with his scents...they definitely let you know they are there, and wow, they are well crafted from quality ingredients. Yep, he has a few scents I didn't like as much, too. Recently tried his Zanzibar, and it's a wow scent for me! If you didn't try his balms, consider them with a future order--they are also excellent!

Now I gotta lead ya down the path one more time.... If you haven't tried CRSW Glide yet, consider giving it a go...the price is great and the performance is stellar! Richard lead me down this path, and it's awesome! https://www.coldriversoapworks.com/s...ing-cream-soap