my first big order of soaps/creams

ok so i pulled the trigger on some things i was watching on the bay and said since its almost shaving time i need to get some things so i opted for

8oz earthy fresh shaving cream soap and the 8oz italian lime shaving cream soap from shamrockshaving

the 5 pack sampler of ogallala: bay rum splash, bay rum cologne, special reserve cologne, bay rum lime and peppercorn splash, and bay rum sandlewood splash.

ogallala bay rum and lemongrass soap

and the ogallala shaving kit, hjm badger brush with stand, ogallala bay rum soap and their old fashioned camp mug.

still need some other basics what ya think?

It sounds like you are going to have some fun. I have been using a few Col. Conk puck Soaps for the past 18 months and that soap just last forever! I also found an easy way to thicken it up for better results on the first pass.

I just ordered up vintagebladesllc creams - Lavendar and Sandlewood. I will also order up some Mama Bear next week so I can have some fun too.

Looking forward to my next few shave!

Pabster

The soaps I currently have:

Mitchell's Wool Fat
Tabac
AOS Lemon
SRD Lime
SRD Blood Orange
SRD Bulgarian Rose Otto

The creams I currently have:

Truefitt & Hill 1805
Proraso


The best one I have: The SRD Bulgarian Rose Otto. That one should be in every shave den. Pricey, yes. But not having tried any other creams, I'm gravitating to the glycerin based soaps because I like the cushioning.

i figured id give that shamrock guy a go since he too makes all his own soaps and creams even if i have to wait till march 18th to shave it will be fun to decide which one to try first as well as which scent to splash on as well

You should also try The BOMB, from Alraz and CarrieM's creams also. Both are made by members of this site.

My favs:
GFT Rose and Lime soap
T&H Almond Cream
GFT Coconut Cream
Cella Crema da Barba (the bomb)
Proraso Crema (good tues-thurs shaver)

I just ordered up a T&H Rose Cream Tub and Pre de Provence Cream. Can't wait. Good luck, soaps & creams are just as addicting as razors.

Have to agree with the above(not worked out how to quote yet)
Soaps are quickly become a very strong AD of mine started off with muele and this month have aquired.
Mitchells wool fat
Prosaro
Tabac
Dr harris sandalwood
Erasmic (seen it in local chemist picked it up)

And have still been looking and thinking i will need to get that one to try everytime i see other ones posted about on-line.
:soapbox:

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Originally Posted by paco

You should also try The BOMB, from Alraz and CarrieM's creams also. Both are made by members of this site.

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indeed i will i got my shamrock ones today they are a little looser then i figured they'd be but they smell great

Shawn, Any updates on your Shamrock experiences?

--Bob

Nice haul!

Hope you enjoy it..! :)

Give Mama Bears soaps a try as well, SWMBO got me some for my birthday and they are absolutely fantastic. Really rich scents, brilliant lather and they feel great on the skin..!

+1 to Stubear's recommendation for Mama Bear's glycerin soaps. I also recently tried some goats milk / shea butter / earth clays soaps from 1846HouseSoaps sold on Etsy that have proved great as well.

....old snap of the works :)
http://rap.midco.net/bald1/shaving_kit.jpg


Razors: 1965 PAL adjustable injector | 1966 Schick M1 adjustable injector | 1974 Schick/Int'l Silver "Paul Revere" injector
Blades: NOS Schick Platinum Plus | Personna Platinum Chrome
Brushes: 2002 Shavemac Thuja wood 23mm Silvertip | 2007 Rooney Faux Ivory 2/1 22mm Super | 1999 Shavecenter German 19mm Pure | 2010 Omega/Marvy Beechwood 24mm Boar
Creams: Taylors (avacado; rose) | Trumpers (coconut)
Soaps: Mama Bear (various) | 1846HouseSoaps | Surrey/VdH
Scuttle: Feats of Clay

no updates yet have to wait till tomorrow so i can shave sposed to go out and be a leprechaun tonight lol

but it smells good, is super slick and lathers ok in my hand

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Originally Posted by ShawnWmDavis

no updates yet have to wait till tomorrow so i can shave sposed to go out and be a leprechaun tonight lol

but it smells good, is super slick and lathers ok in my hand

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Figured WTH and placed an order for his sampler. He was nice enough to agree to substitute his earthy-fresh for the almond. I have an allergy to ingesting those nuts and recently found out the hard way with my first ever use of an almond shaving product (Truefitt & Hill's sample almond cream) that they too produce a nasty reaction. As a retiree you'd think I'd know better but over all these decades of wet shaving I simply never tried anything almond. That is until I got the T&H sample pack..... BIG lesson learned!


I also just heard back from CarrieM and decided to sample these scents:
--Black Raspberry Vanilla
--Sage & Citrus
--Orange
--Patchouli
--Dragon's Blood

Should prove interesting :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by paco

You should also try The BOMB, from Alraz and CarrieM's creams also. Both are made by members of this site.

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Huge +1 to Alraz's "The BOMB" shaving creams. Protects like a soap, smells like a cream, and conditions like an aftershave. Send Alraz a PM for info.

are the patchouli's over powering like the ones the burners wear??

and shamrock packages his stuff well he even black tapes the lips so they dont leak or spill out. earthy fresh is a nice old spicy kinda manly scent you can see the ingredients if you look close enough

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ShawnWmDavis

are the patchouli's over powering like the ones the burners wear??

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Mama Bear's was rather subtle and quite nice, so I'm hoping CarrieM's will be too.

Quote:

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and shamrock packages his stuff well he even black tapes the lips so they dont leak or spill out. earthy fresh is a nice old spicy kinda manly scent you can see the ingredients if you look close enough

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Good to know.... thanks!

thats also good to know i was worried id smell like a hippie lol

there will be some leakage when you open the container its a nice metal canister but thats how i know its super slick try washing it off its like oil and water. the large size im not sure how his samples come

i like the lime nice and clean and bright scent, earthy fresh is just rugged smelling


i see he has the soap i ordered the cream but im sure it will be packaged well, he is a straight edge shaver too so he must be a good guy lol

Shawn,

His samples are 4 oz plastic cups. That's a healthy size for a sample :)

BTW enjoy St Patrick's Day. If I were in Syracuse I'd be at Coleman's (do a search... great classic Irish pub but noted for both their small leprechaun door and the traffic light on the corner with green on top.... Tipperary Hill.. only one in the US of A) but here I'm attending the last game of the season for the Rapid City Rush ice hockey team. They've made the playoffs too :)

sounds like a sweet place, and as you can see below lol its a tradition

ok so i shaved today with shamrocks soap cream, i cannot get a high lather with it, it goes fizzy/lacy in short time it is very slick but maybe im not using my brush right so dont let it sway anyone its probly my technique.


but no major bleeding, took my time and did my whole face cept goatee with my Griffon #60 carbo mag now i need a strop lol.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ShawnWmDavis

ok so i shaved today with shamrocks soap cream, i cannot get a high lather with it, it goes fizzy/lacy in short time it is very slick but maybe im not using my brush right so dont let it sway anyone its probly my technique.

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I'll let you know how I fare once the four 4 oz samples are in hand.

Quote:

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but no major bleeding, took my time and did my whole face cept goatee with my Griffon #60 carbo mag now i need a strop lol.

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You sure it wasn't a Toro, Husqvarna, Poulan, Snapper, Troy-Bilt, Lawn-Boy, John Deere, Craftsman, or whatever to tackle that huge red forest? Or perhaps a bunch of tiny leprechauns with microscopic sickles thinning the curls?

ha ha no it was a wahl trimmer hot shower with bay rum soap and a hot shave lol

Shawn,

Just one shave so far (with Earthy Fresh) and the lather was a tad thin too but I attributed that to too much water. I could have added more cream but was pressed for time and just pushed on. More after I get a number of shaves with the stuff under my belt.

How about you? Things improve?

i tried my lime and really loaded the brush up with the cream i dunked it in and same thing by the time i built lather on my face and grabbed my straight it was thin like milk on your lip....

maybe it takes some fine tuning like you said

Shawn,

I've used three different brushes with this stuff. I've shaken as much water as possible out of each (silvertip high loft, super medium loft, boar being broken in). I can get nice lather after some aggressive whipping (more than normal for other creams) but as you've already noted it tends to dissipate quickly. Using a scuttle to keep the stuff warm helps but still... The up side is that the shave is comfortable and close regardless. I also don't find the scent all that strong which from my knothole is a good thing as I hate it when a shaving soap or creme overpowers or compromises a cologne I want to wear. Conclusion: I won't be buying again.

It's also been a full week since I exchanged PMs with CarrieM about some samples of her creams. She was to let me know when she was ready to ship. Don't know if she's been busy, sidetracked, or even insulted at the meager size of the order I was planning (samples only). Oh well.....

My favorite creams still are TOBS Avacado, TOBS Rose, and Trumpers Coconut.

i shaved with it last night using minimal water and lots of the cream, i found if i paint it on instead of rub it on it doesnt fizz as fast, it shaves well and is super slick but doesnt lather like my ogallala at all.

im not sure if its the clay or what he uses but youd think with glycerin in it would be like an uber later.

but now i look at the pic in his ads and its the same thin lather so perhaps the bentonite clay for slickness and lanolin do something but he also says he uses stearic beads for fuller longer lasting lather.

i dont see myself ordering them again but i have 24 ounces of it lol so ill use it now and then

I doubt it's the clay as I've had numerous soaps in the past with bentonite in it and they lathered quite well (especially a now discontinued goats milk soap).

Regardless our experiences seem to match. Shame really. I've been at this since puberty in the 50's so I'm no novice LOL. At least all I have is four 4 ounce containers to go through.

i ordered 2 of the 8 ounce creams, the first lime i got was kinda loose/runny so he sent me another 8 ouncer for free

Interesting. Of my four samples, the Earthy Fresh is like just mixed "mud" for sheetrocking. The other three are hardened.... not like a soap cake but still firm.

There's a thread elsewhere about ingredients and what too much or too little does to the lather including making fizzy thin bubbles. The soy and palm kernal are probably the root causes which he tries to compensate for with stearic beads. I'm simply guessing here though.

yeah thats handmade for ya lol

My favorite soaps at the moment (I don't like creams really..):

Tabac!
Colleen's soaps are nice, The Gentlemen's Quarter
Cella (this stuff is VERY good! I love it.)
Van Der Hagen from CVS or rite aid, seriously 10,000 times better than williams, this is good stuff!
Truffet and hill puck.

I never got past the smell of Tabac aftershave so I've never tried the soap. Others a lot of folks cite are available only in a stick which is a non-starter for me. I prefer using a lather bowl and have for decades. I agree with you about Surrey/Van den Hagen Deluxe. It's an inexpensive solid performer. It may not be the best in any particular category but it certainly doesn't fail in any either.

Here are my preferences:

Razors: 1965 PAL adjustable injector | 1966 Schick M1 adjustable injector | 1974 Schick/Int'l Silver "Paul Revere" injector
Blades: NOS Schick Platinum Plus | Personna Platinum Chrome
Brushes: 2002 Shavemac Thuja wood 23mm Silvertip | 2007 Rooney Faux Ivory 2/1 22mm Super | 2010 Omega/Marvy Beechwood 24mm Boar
Creams: Taylors (avacado; rose) | Trumpers (coconut)
Soaps: Mama Bear | 1846HouseSoaps | VdH
Witch Hazel/Balm: Thayers Cucumber| Issey Miyake
Scuttle: Feats of Clay

yeah i just picked up a cake of VDH at the army depot it was like 2-3 bucks also had aqua velva in the glass bottles

Shawn,

As much as it pains me, the 4 mini tubs of cream we've been discussing now rests under my sink. From there it may not be long before they see the trash. I've got too many great soaps and creams to be playing with this marginal stuff. Call it a $20 lesson learned. That said I do find great artisan stuff too. An example would be the soaps from 1846 HouseSoaps (View Shaving Soap by 1846housesoaps on Etsy). Great stuff :)!

used my VDH and my 1911 gillette pocket safety razor today, that vdh is really soft and creamy im impressed, even if i used PX brand blades it was a nice shave couple nicks from skin irritation due to working in dirty areas but all in all a good shave.

ill look into the ones you listed as well when i can

finally got a decent lasting lather out of the shamrock cream stuff i had to use minimal water and atleast a walnut sized amount meaning in the shell whole walnut kinda alot of product if you ask me but like i said painting it on instead of swirling it one works the best for me:(

To add my $0.02:

TGQ Soaps (Provence Lavendar, Armani Code Black, Sandalwood, and Cavendish Black)
T&H Cream (1805, Trafalgar)
TOBS Cream (Rose) :beer1:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ShawnWmDavis

finally got a decent lasting lather out of the shamrock cream stuff i had to use minimal water and at least a walnut sized amount meaning in the shell whole walnut kinda a lot of product if you ask me but like i said painting it on instead of swirling it one works the best for me:(

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Taking a queue from you I tried using a huge blob of this stuff (this time Bay Rum). Easily 2.5 times the amount of any other cream I've ever used. Worked up better lather than before but alas by the time I finished shaving my cheeks the lather on my neck was all but a thin soapy film. I re-lathered from the scuttle and pressed on. (I always build lather in a bowl and paint it onto my face. Extra stays warm in the brush scuttle.) The stuff is slick and gives a better than decent shave but the quick dissipation of the lather is more than annoying.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by dward

To add my $0.02:

TGQ Soaps (Provence Lavendar, Armani Code Black, Sandalwood, and Cavendish Black)
T&H Cream (1805, Trafalgar)
TOBS Cream (Rose)

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+1 on the TOBS Rose and add their Avacado to the list. I also favor Geo F Trumper Coconut cream. I'm still working my way through samples from Truefitt & Hill and The Gentleman's Refinery. Never tried anything from The Gentleman's Quarterly yet.... just noticed that she has creams too but at $15 for 3.7 ounces, she's more expensive than TOBS and just shy of Trumpers range :)

yeah which is bad cause it is slick and smells good