Thread: The Great 2018 Mystery Soap Review

Ever wonder how someone would describe you if they interacted with you but never knew your name or history? Me too! Ever wonder how you’d interact with a shaving product if you knew nothing about it? Right? It’s especially bad for me because I can get really caught up in packaging and propaganda. The propaganda alone can keep me going for weeks before I discover something sucks lol!

And herein lies the magic of the Mystery Soap Review. Nothing sexy, no names, just a man and his samples - and an honest review.




And that man, the man giving us the blind reviews is a dude who I know will give me his honest take. A dude who has good taste in spite of the fact that it doesn’t always agree with mine. Maybe because it doesn’t always agree with mine - Mark aka Speedster. I can’t wait to hear what you have to say Mark!

How It Works: Mark will give his take on a sample, i’ll In turn reveal what that sample was and give my take, then YOU’LL give us your input and we’ll reach consensus.

It’s quite reviling, and fun. Subscribe now by telling us what you think, how this can be improved, and who you’re going to do this with in the future lol!!

Genius!
Tell someone a bottle of wine is a 1000 bucks at it will be the best thing they have ever tried even if it's cat urine. I'm the same with creams and soaps, if it's expensive it must be good. This will cut the crap and the product will be based purely on performance.
Looking forward to hearing the results.

I will be watching to see the results.

How it can be improved? Same razor each time, maybe touching up on a finishing stone if needed to get through the samples. Same razor, finished the same way each time. Pick a razor that is reliable that takes a smooth edge. Same brush too. Just like honing, hold as much constant as possible. Same lathering technique too. Either face lather or bowl lather. No changing it up. Finish the shave the same way too. Same aftershave, alum if used, or whatever your post shave process is. But that stays the same each time.

Originally Posted by OCDshaver

How it can be improved? Same razor each time, maybe touching up on a finishing stone if needed to get through the samples. Same razor, finished the same way each time. Pick a razor that is reliable that takes a smooth edge. Same brush too. Just like honing, hold as much constant as possible. Same lathering technique too. Either face lather or bowl lather. No changing it up. Finish the shave the same way too. Same aftershave, alum if used, or whatever your post shave process is. But that stays the same each time.

That’s why I like to, and generally do test my soaps using my DE and my Feather AC. But it’s got to be fun too!

Great heads up!

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.

Originally Posted by OCDshaver

How it can be improved? Same razor each time, maybe touching up on a finishing stone if needed to get through the samples. Same razor, finished the same way each time. Pick a razor that is reliable that takes a smooth edge. Same brush too. Just like honing, hold as much constant as possible. Same lathering technique too. Either face lather or bowl lather. No changing it up. Finish the shave the same way too. Same aftershave, alum if used, or whatever your post shave process is. But that stays the same each time.

No, just NO! ............

Spent way too many years testing crappy M$ .NET software to go all OCD on shave soap reviews. Funny, I didn't read your response 'til after I posted my review. FWIW, I'm pretty sure it's not the razor. If anything, it's my lack of user time. Been playing with Japanese steel lately, so the last time I shaved with the Oakwing G was probably July.

But, seriously, I use no more than 15 razors. Everything else remains pretty much unchanged: the same Thater 4125/3, GP20 scuttle, and Geo. F. Trumper's skin foods to finish (unless pairing CF postshave w/ the cream).

Ah, nice to have my smooth face back. I cannot stand the beard feel after day 5 or so.

Originally Posted by Speedster

No, just NO! ............

Spent way too many years testing crappy M$ .NET software to go all OCD on shave soap reviews. Funny, I didn't read your response 'til after I posted my review. FWIW, I'm pretty sure it's not the razor. If anything, it's my lack of user time. Been playing with Japanese steel lately, so the last time I shaved with the Oakwing G was probably July.

But, seriously, I use no more than 15 razors. Everything else remains pretty much unchanged: the same Thater 4125/3, GP20 scuttle, and Geo. F. Trumper's skin foods to finish (unless pairing CF postshave w/ the cream).

Ah, nice to have my smooth face back. I cannot stand the beard feel after day 5 or so.

I think for a truly fair analysis you have to keep everything else the same. One razor might have just come off the Hines while another might have five shave under its belts. Oh well.

Originally Posted by OCDshaver

I think for a truly fair analysis you have to keep everything else the same. One razor might have just come off the Hines while another might have five shave under its belts. Oh well.

Love it - I finally know why you called yourself OCDshaver lol!!!

Originally Posted by OCDshaver

I think for a truly fair analysis you have to keep everything else the same. One razor might have just come off the Hines while another might have five shave under its belts. Oh well.

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.