Thread: Free soap giveaway

Tried if for the second time tonight. This time I used it with a shaving cream to make an uber lather. After using a liberal amount of shaving cream it made a good thick lather that stayed on my face for the entire pass. It did seem to take a lot of cream to make a good lather with this soap, but I can't tell if that is because of the soap or the cream. I was using a cheap tube of Faulding Shave Cream which I haven't used by itself yet.

And one more thing. Now that I have tried it and given my critique, if anyone else would like to try it I would be happy to post what I have left to you. You would only have to pay for postage, which from here isn't much.

Hi Ray, first I want to thank you for sending out the soap. It arrived promptly and now that I have been able to give it a couple of trys I can give an honest review.

I have to tell you from when I opened the box, I enjoyed the fragrance. The aroma was very nice and pleasing. The aroma did not fade when used and did seem to last for me.

As far as the lather, I noticed that the lather building took a while. I usually build on my face and go from there. I had a hard time making a nice thick lather as I am used to. I have to agree with Oglethorpe in his findings, when I builded the lather it was VERY airy and not that creamy. I actualy did the same thing he did and washed the first attempt off and tried again thinking I was using too much water. It seemed to be very thin and seemed to fade during my shave. There did seem to be some slickness but not what I am used to when shaving.

Now when I shave I usually hit my neck and chin first, then I move to the cheeks and side burns last. I found when using the sample it faded considerably and started to dry on the tops of my cheeks before I could get to them. I took a short time to strop again and re-applied to the cheeks and side burns. I found that the lather faded on the brush as it did on the face and had to load it again to build up the cheeks and side burns.

Over all it was a pleasant shave and I really liked the scent.

Thank you again Ray and I hope there is more to try soon!

I tried my sample out today. I used my trusty Tweezerman brush and face-lathered it. I found that, despite the gorgeous smell, it simply doesn't perform comparably to any commercial soaps.
I loaded the brush on the sample, giving me a promising amount of gorgeously scented soap foam on the surface of the sample, then lathered on my face. However, it was at this point the disappointment set in. The lather doesn't stay around (in fact, it had vanished in the short time between me putting down the brush, opening my razor and running it under the hot water prior to my first pass), and the slickness is rather low.
I retried, using less water and a more soap on my brush, but found that the lather still didn't stay around, and still wasn't slick.
Next time I'll try adding a bit of glycerin to it and see if that helps the lather, but I think I may have to relegate this soap to use as a fancy face soap.

I have read similar reviews about Mitchell's Wool Fat (MWF) from several users, although, I never had any problems with it. Needless to say, MWF is one of my favorites soaps. I wonder if there is something about the lanolin that makes some people prone to having lathering problems with these soaps. I did not have the chance to try Ray's soap and nobody mentioned anything about conditioning in their reviews. Being a lanolin based soap, I bet it is great. Having sensitive skin, for me, conditioning is very important in a shaving soap. Ray, I am surely to late for samples but I would certainly offer my experience as a chemist and soapmaker, should you feel it would be helpful.

Al raz.

Al,

I agree, MWF is tough to lather, but it does work out well after some effort. I gave this sample another shot just lathering and it is too airy. Maybe it is unbalanced somehow.

I'll send you what's left of my sample. Just post me $3 for shipping and I'll send it out.

PM me if interested.

I also experienced the short-lived lather issue with Ray's soap. My workaround was to lather repeatedly.

But, the smell is so wonderful that I just don't mind re-lathering.

I don't know much about soapmaking, but I would like to see a touch more protection/slickness and lather that would last a little lather.

Thanks to Ray for making this soap available. I will continue to enjoy it.

PM sent looking forward to testing.

I'm in if you still got some!

Count me in

Seeing as the last post on this thread was almost two years ago, I am pretty sure the giveaway is over.