Thread: Glide from Cold River Soap Works

I have been a tester for a soap that was just released by CRSW. Larry has spent a year creating a soap with exceptional slickness and water holding capacity, as well as post shave face feel, and he has exceeded his goal. I have not shaved with a slicker lather, making it a joy to use for straight razor shaving. I lightly loaded a damp brush for 30", then built my lather by adding small amounts of water until it suddenly expanded into a rich, voluminous, luxurious lather with nearly unbelievable cushion and glide. I swear that I could even feel the cushion and glide while using my brush, as there was a very "soft" feeling while painting on the final strokes. Out of habit, I always use an AS followed by a balm, but I purposely withheld them when using this soap. There was a mild residual slickness even after my cold water rinse, and hours later, my face still felt hydrated and soft. I have never used a soap with this amount of stability in the lather, probably related to it's amazing ability to hold a lot of water, and it will hold up for as many passes as desired. At the end of my morning shave, I took a leftover glob of lather and left it out in a shaving bowl. When I returned home from work 12 hours later, there was a small skin on the glob, but once removed the same lush, creamy lather remained.

This soap excels in its slickness and in its post shave face feel. In my 56 years of wet shaving I haven't shaved with a soap with this amount of slickness, cushion, glide, and face feel. The testing soap was unscented, an I'm eagerly awaiting the three scented soaps that were just released. All I know is that the performance is incredible, possibly a game changer.

Richard, thanks for your great review! Damn, CRSW Glide is sold out for now but I'll be checking regularly to order and give it a try.

Sigh....sold out, story of my life.....will be like waiting for the LPL to dry out and actually perform.....

The Select soap is excellent, so I am really looking forward to the Glide, which I was fortunate enough to order before it sold out.

I just spoke with Larry, who was surprised at such a large response for this soap. Once people use it and discover how great it is, I'm sure he'll be surprised again. He said that more is curing, and will be available in a couple of weeks. By that time I'll have reviews of of the scents, although I think I'm better at judging the quality and performance of a shaving soap than its scent.

A soap that doesn't just vanish in 10 minutes? I got to give this a try. That is one of my issues with a lot of artisan soaps. Lather the face, shave half of it and then you have to replenish the lather as its just fades away. Drives me nuts! I guess this will go on the list to try. Thanks for the review.

BTW, Is it a heavy buttery/creamy texture?

Well, I just used "Fragile Confusion", and I gotta say, this soap went to the bottom of Tier 2 for me.

Tad miffed, as I feel I've essentially purchased 3 tubs of unscented soap, ingredients could be, "Rotted Zombie Flesh, Fish Entrails, and Stale Beer with a Cigarette Butt in the Bottom", and I wouldn't know it, wouldn't be able to tell.

Same as the "Madmans' Bouquet"...no scent.

Whilst I expected to mention the depth and wide ranging aromas, nada, the Nivea cream I applied afterwards stands out more, and it's unscented....this soap has great potential, but kinda feel like I now have 3 tubs of essentially the same unscented soap that I'll probably never use again.

Gotta wonder how it made it out the door with literally zero scent, even the Krokus Saffron is a veritable blaring symphony of scent compared to this....

Geez Phrank,
This is puzzling to me.
I have used the Fragile Confusion a couple of times. I get a medium strength sweet barbershop scent with a good dose of black pepper mixed in.
I always shower after I shave, and this is one of the few scents that linger a bit that I can still smell throughout the day. This one even does what it says and comes and goes. It is pretty mellow and pleasing during the day, but I can still smell it.
If I were you I would try to contact Cold River Soapworks and discuss it with them. Maybe they would be willing to replace it.
I have always had an acute and enhanced sense of smell though....Maybe it's just me??

Pete <:-}

Originally Posted by petercp4e

Geez Phrank,
This is puzzling to me.
I have used the Fragile Confusion a couple of times. I get a medium strength sweet barbershop scent with a good dose of black pepper mixed in.
I always shower after I shave, and this is one of the few scents that linger a bit that I can still smell throughout the day. This one even does what it says and comes and goes. It is pretty mellow and pleasing during the day, but I can still smell it.
If I were you I would try to contact Cold River Soapworks and discuss it with them. Maybe they would be willing to replace it.
I have always had an acute and enhanced sense of smell though....Maybe it's just me??

Pete <:-}

I've got one more to try, superb soap in application, Richard hit the nail on the head in terms of the soaps performance, stellar, leaves the face feeling superb and the glide is unlike any other soap I've used. Maybe it's my nose, or the soap has to get some air, it is the first time use on each one....we'll see with the next flavour.

Originally Posted by SemperFi

Richard, thanks for your great review! Damn, CRSW Glide is sold out for now but I'll be checking regularly to order and give it a try.

They seem to have restocked a couple of the Glide scents. I just grabbed the agarwood one and the bouquet one was in stock too.