Markbignosekelly asked me over on the SOTD thread if I’d give my thoughts on the Sebum Gold.
The 5-bar version: The soap is good, not great. The serum is exceptionally good.
The soap lathered fairly easily. I have to agree with Bob and his comments on the maker’s recommendation about a synthetic brush. I’ve lathered this soap with both successfully, although I have to admit it was easier lathering this soap with a synthetic.
The soap made a good lather, took a good amount of water, but it's not really a 'high-volume' soap. To use the term of art, the lather is fairly unstructured, and can break down very easily if over hydrated.
This won’t be an issue for most of us straight-razor shavers who tend to prefer glide over cushion.
Actually, the glide on the soap is one of the factors that leaves the most to be desired. There was no issue in making a pass with the lather on the face, however, without the lather on the face, there wasn’t much ‘residual slickness’ at all. I had to be very cautious. I suppose this is due to the lack of the standard saponifying ingredients.
With that said, the post shave feel was exceptional even before applying the serum. The serum is excellent-when I put it on after the shave, my skin was left supple, glowing, and the face felt great all day.
Scent strength of the soap and serum is middle of the road.
The scent is very much ‘essential oil forward’-very natural smelling, not nuanced, like the aisle of a 70s health food store. It hasn’t seemed to interfere with the colognes I’ve used.
For a similar post shave feel with much better performance on the soap, I’ll reach for a Grooming Dept Lusso or duck tallow base followed by the GD serum. Similar in terms of post shave, better glide, and much less expensive. The Barrister Excelsior base and Declaration Icarus also have similar post shave feels to the Sebum Gold soap.
I've only had a four shaves with the Sebum, so I'll take some time to dial it in and assess.
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