Thread: The Great 2018 Mystery Soap Review

Originally Posted by Speedster

Okay, here I am fellas! Finally got around to shaving some 5d+ growth with my Oakwing G and mystery soap #7. I just grabbed the baggie resting on top of the other samples in no particular order.

Scent was mildly cherry with almond possibly. A lovely, soapy scent! This stuff quickly built up into an airy lather using a GP20 scuttle and fairly hard, natural aquifer water (hell on espresso machines). Performed my typical 2-pass shave with some touch-ups and cleaning up my neckline. Glide, cushion, and post-shave feel were excellent.

However, I did feel a very slight burn through my moustache area during and after the 2nd pass. I'm always mixing up razors and soaps anyways, so the issue could have resulted from operator error as easily as the soap. No biggie. A great feeling face otherwise and a very close, comfortable shave.

Enough #7 remains for another test drive with perhaps a different razor...say once I've played with the remaining 6 soap samples.

Guys, yesterdays shave was brought to Speedster by none other than...




Yup, the much loved, time honored Cella!! You might have guessed when he called it a lovely soapy scent with hints of cherry/almond. I kind of thought the scent was in your face but whatever - he nailed the scent!! The "airy lather" really was key for me, as I find it very airy. I wonder Mark if it was your razor that made the save so lovely, or the soap... or both? Why do I ask, because you might recall my review:

https://straightrazorpalace.com/soap...969-cella.html

I found the lather to be rather light. But you know, for as much as I bitch and moan about Cella - it's an alternative than many a man use every day and oh that smell!!


Anyway, what a great start!! I didn't have to write a review of my own being I already did, and Mark pretty much nailed it.

EDIT: If after Marks next review, someone guesses what it is before my reviel, I'll buy em a tub !!

Ha! So much for my abilities to adequately review the shaving qualities of the cream. I suppose the discomfort shaving my moustache area was owing to poor glide/cushion rather than anything else. Stands to reason since my touch is a bit heavier versus anywhere else.

Oh well...at least I pegged the scent.

Originally Posted by Speedster

Ha! So much for my abilities to adequately review the shaving qualities of the cream. I suppose the discomfort shaving my moustache area was owing to poor glide/cushion rather than anything else. Stands to reason since my touch is a bit heavier versus anywhere else.

Oh well...at least I pegged the scent.

I think you are being a bit hard on yourself personally. There's lots of guys who love the stuff! There's a lot to consume in one shave.

Originally Posted by Speedster

The overall tone of my retort was in jest, OCDShaver. I understand your goal of removing all possible variables from the review. However, each one of my razors typically delivers peak performance since I don't have nearly enough razors to adequately maintain my honing skills.

I'm betting dollars to donuts the razor itself had little to do with the issue I encountered since I've yet to receive a poor shave from the Thiers-Issard LE. To be certain, I'll use the Oakwing G again. ��

Egads! I practically never shave the same razor twice in a row unless newly acquired.

The only reason I say is because I typically try to encourage guys to really evaluate their soaps the same way we try to tell them to evaluate their edge or honing. And when we do we always tell them to keep everything constant and change one thing up at a time. And we always say to rely on the shave test. I feel the same way about soaps. Forget scent, forget lather, forget the cool bowl it came in and just evaluate how your face felt after the shave. But you can't give a soap an honest side by side comparison if the razor had a harsh edge or was broken in some on the next. It has less to do with this particular exercise and more of a suggestion to everyone else that might try replicating the experience. Most of us have, or at least used to have, a ton of soaps. When the shave is less than stellar, we often look at the razor and question the edge. And that's legit. But it could be lousy soap too. For me, MDC is a prime example. I was seduced by how easily and voluminous the lather was. It smelled pretty good too. But my face felt terrible after the shave. I finally realized it was not for me.

As soon as Mark said cherry/almond I knew it was Cella. Should've mentioned it, In my defence I was supposed to be working earlier and didn't get time to respond.

No almond this time, but I just finished shaving with David's sample marked #1. Much better lather than my last shave with that Cella, and I most certainly had the lather on the watery side which likely handicapped the performance a bit. Didn't seem to matter -- my blade found a slick greeting and the shave was great. I wound up with my customary Tier 1 soap/cream smoothness. Much closer especially around my moustache area with no burn whatsoever.

On the downside, my face feels a bit tight following up the shave with my usual cold water rinse, towel pat down, and some Trumper's skin food (sandalwood this run). Maybe the poor face feel post-shave owes to my watery lather? Not sure. I wouldn't judge the overall quality of this one without having another go.

Again, with my hard water, I had no troubles making a fine lather in no time at all. Adjusting water ratio with these small test samples is challenging since I'm accustomed to brush loading directly from a hockey puck sized soap/cream. Next time around, I plan to start with much less water.

As to the scent, oddly enough, I found a considerable cherry note (a la Cella) but without almond. Fairly strong enough to impress noses in adjacent rooms. A very enjoyable shave scent and lather that covers the wet work well. As long as the face feel issue resulted from my poor water ratio, I'd certainly add this one to my rotation.

Ok, now for possibly yet another dramatic pause while we await earcutter's reveal.

I don’t know if I should reveal, or wait for Speedster to try again using the corisponding splash in vile one? I found this products balm and splash really spoke to its name more than the soap ever did.

Bah! Let’s move on.

I agree with you Mark, this is a teir one soap - for me at least. As a matter a fact, if I only had this soap from today on, I’d be ok with that. I doubt I’ll ever be without it actually. The soap was:




I’m going to be giving this soap my week long review next, so watch out for that but yeah, I remember when I got this, I shaved with it for a week straight. I can’t get enough of the scent.

The soap I always thought was a kind of hay/rose mix. I don’t know if I’d say cherry, but then, I don’t know if hay/rose does the description justice either. The balm and slash, bar none smell of rose. But it’s an ever so masculine rose.

The soaps viscosity and cushion are fantastic. I’ll write more in my review, but this duck tallow soap is a winner!

"Cherry" was the closest thing my nose could come up with honestly. The fragrance is much too complicated for me to describe but really pleasing!

FWIW, I certainly don't detect rose/hay either. Yet another YMMV deal I suppose, but at least we both enjoy the scent!

Is that the Oleo?
Mark you found a tight feeling? The feel of soap is so much more important to me. Scent is nice but as long as it do t smell bad... how well a soap works is what sets it apart for me. If it is Oleo, ive never found a tight feeling. I hate that in a soap.

Originally Posted by Gasman

Is that the Oleo?
Mark you found a tight feeling? The feel of soap is so much more important to me. Scent is nice but as long as it do t smell bad... how well a soap works is what sets it apart for me. If it is Oleo, ive never found a tight feeling. I hate that in a soap.

Yes, Oleo. I haven’t found it to tighten either Jerry.