Wilkinson Sword Shaving Soap

Hi there,
I recently obtained a blue dish of Wilkinson Sword shaving soap. After a couple days I thought I would try out a shave with it. Like usual I let my brush and the soap soak in warm water for about two mins. I loaded up my brush and then went to my ceramic mug with it to create my lather. My first thought....Garbage! I thought maby I had screwed this up somehow. I went to my other soap and got done with my shave. Later that day I needed to figure out if it was just me or the soap. I have done about 5 test lathers and still have not been able to get a nice rich lather that will not disapear upon application....anyone else have some comments about this soap? I'd love to hear any opinions :)

By and large I am afraid there seem to be serious concerns about this once-great company. I have asked this question recently here, only to be told it was famously dreadful. A couple of weeks ago I found an extremely heavy black granite mortar, meant for grinding spices etc., in the local supermarket, knocked down to $5/£3 because it was missing its pestle.
Gently heated, it whips up lather wonderfully and stops everything going too cold. Fabulous with my Droyt's soap, or Palmolive+drip of glycerin, even this cannot rescue Wilkinsons!
What to do with it, that's the problem, because it has a rather nice clean smell, in a 'fifties kinda way, that reminds me of King's Men, if you remember that, and Suave Hair Cream.
So I don't suppose I'll throw it away. I'll keep it for the day the wife's mother fancies a Brazilian. That'll teach her.
On the safety razor section, I have bemoaned the downturn in quality of the Wilkinson Classic double edges. I know which butterfly door's which; I would mark each edge 1 and 2, then I could get two shaves out of each edge, then turn the blade over to get another shave out of the other side of each edge. Yeah, mean I know.
However, I think they have changed production to God knows where, because one shave per edge is definitely it.
Back to the original question. I recently got a better result with the little complimentary hotel soap mixed with a bit of shampoo. Free!!..... So long as you don't count the $99 for the room!

Wilkinson sword bowl=garbage.
Wilkinson sword stick=blue magic

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Originally Posted by sleekandsmooth

Hi there,
I have done about 5 test lathers and still have not been able to get a nice rich lather that will not disapear upon application....anyone else have some comments about this soap? I'd love to hear any opinions :)

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I like Wilkinson Sword soap and use it a couple of times a week. I also had a hard time at first getting a decent Lather out of it. To me it sound as though your brush is too wet, and or your using too little of the soap. I get the best results by really loading the brush well. Keep swirling you brush over the cake until the soap starts to foam over the sides. It's like building lather on the puck. Then go to the scuttle and work your lather or as I like to do just start to face lathering. With some work Wilkinson Sword will reward you with that clean soapy feeling with just a pleasant hint of a classy urinal puck smell. YMMV :D

[QUOTE=newb;733380...with just a pleasant hint of a classy urinal puck smell. YMMV :D[/QUOTE]


:rofl2::rofl2::rofl2:

If we're talking about Wilkinson soap that's in a blue bowl.....I lathered with it twice and then sent it packing. Garbage. It was a $4 lesson. Just my opinion.

A British fellow I know likes to call the wilki soap in the blue bowl screw lube, cause that's all he claims it's good for.

lol,
Well seems as tho I am not the only one who thinks the blue bowl sword soap is complete garbage....I got a free tub of it for a few days before it goes to the garbage can....pm me
Shayne :)

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Originally Posted by sleekandsmooth

lol,
Well seems as tho I am not the only one who thinks the blue bowl sword soap is complete garbage....I got a free tub of it for a few days before it goes to the garbage can....pm me
Shayne :)

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your not the only one regarding this soap mate, i was always a fan of Wilki's soaps and shave foams for a while, seen this in Asda near me and thought why not would compliment the new razor and brush.

but after a lot of wasted effort i cannot get a lather out of it (although it smells really nice), i think the only way you could get it to lather would be to run it through a blender with some boiling water and even then i doubt it...

I agree that this soap is not worth the plastic tub it comes in. Doesn't lather up very good at all. I'll try anything once, and I tried this soap ONCE.

Wow, I didn't know there was such hatred of the Wilkinson Blue Bowl.. After reading these posts I decided to put away my Bigelow Proraso tube and bring out the mighty Blue Bowl of classy urinal puck aroma!

What dimethicone delight! I tried loading my squeeze-dried little Tweezerman badger brush on it and it got was not loading well. Put a light finger-tip sprinkling of moisture on the urinal puck and it began loading real good. I think my puck got a little dry from disuse (had it since '08). Once it was sprinkled it loaded quickly, was just gauging how wet the brush would have to be for my individual puck. Lathering bowl stage was OK, went like any average shaving soap. I built up a dense lather, stiffer peaks than I usually like for the first pass. It was lacking there but I had some leeway because it was the first pass. Added more water, voluminous lather with softer peaks and everything went much better. Can't say it's exceptional, or poor. After adding more water the slickness was there and I intentionally used more strokes on XTG level aggressive strokes. I'm thinking SRD's shaving soaps are better. Had a close shave, though, no problems. No excess irritation. Regular aloe/witch-hazel glycerin astringent/healer then a light application of the Nivea cooling balm.

Was there a reformulation? Bad batches? Mmmmmm.. smell that fresh, classy urinal puck scent? That's me! Thanks for the inspiration, guys. Who knows, maybe I'll develop irritation in the next 24-36 hours.

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Originally Posted by AxelH

Wow, I didn't know there was such hatred of the Wilkinson Blue Bowl.. After reading these posts I decided to put away my Bigelow Proraso tube and bring out the mighty Blue Bowl of classy urinal puck aroma!

What dimethicone delight! I tried loading my squeeze-dried little Tweezerman badger brush on it and it got was not loading well. Put a light finger-tip sprinkling of moisture on the urinal puck and it began loading real good. I think my puck got a little dry from disuse (had it since '08). Once it was sprinkled it loaded quickly, was just gauging how wet the brush would have to be for my individual puck. Lathering bowl stage was OK, went like any average shaving soap. I built up a dense lather, stiffer peaks than I usually like for the first pass. It was lacking there but I had some leeway because it was the first pass. Added more water, voluminous lather with softer peaks and everything went much better. Can't say it's exceptional, or poor. After adding more water the slickness was there and I intentionally used more strokes on XTG level aggressive strokes. I'm thinking SRD's shaving soaps are better. Had a close shave, though, no problems. No excess irritation. Regular aloe/witch-hazel glycerin astringent/healer then a light application of the Nivea cooling balm.

Was there a reformulation? Bad batches? Mmmmmm.. smell that fresh, classy urinal puck scent? That's me! Thanks for the inspiration, guys. Who knows, maybe I'll develop irritation in the next 24-36 hours.

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haha you maybe right on the formulation change we may never know, i do know that since i last posted about my problems with this soap, i found like you that soaking it with some water seems to get things going abit easier.

I found that running the tap until hot water was coming out and then putting some of this on the top of the soap puck helped a great deal in getting a shaveable lather from it, although i did notice that the lather dried quite quickly.

the one thing i really like about this soap though is the smell, yes ok its the fancy unrinal puck smell but i for one really like it :D (call me wierd if you want lol).

I think it's a good idea to give any new soap plenty of time for the lather building process to see if it turns out. I've done it from dry but loaded brush building gradually with many additions of water to dumping in a lot of water in one go once the charged brush is ready for the lathering bowl. It all seems to become the same lather in the end, its development just looks different.

P.S. someone walked into my "man cave" shortly after I'd finished and commented on the fresh and wonderful scent (to help combat my body "aroma", trust me, urinal puck is definitely the lesser of two evils).

So this morning, for no particular reason I prized the lid off the Wilkinson blue bowl, dripped some hot water on the puck and a little later swirled the hog brush around and around. For what seemed an age. Hopeless. Eventually I gave up, but instead of rinsing it away, I squeezed what there was into the warmed granite bowl I use, whipped up some Palmolive soap, which burst into life very quickly and married it to the bit of Wilkinson in the bowl, and not expecting much to happen, added a tiny amount of Palmolive cream. The result was nothing short of alchemic! "What am I supposed to do with all this?" I'm now glad I didn't kick this poor little Wilkinson stray dog out, for he's found a use at last. I'm going to start tomorrow off with a laugh too.

Cheers, here's to you all.

I use the old wilki blue mainly because I didnt know better and because it was the only bowl one in the shop.
I just work around in the dish until the lather is oozing over the side then shove it on my moisten chops.

I have tried various brand sticks over the years inc wilki, cos I've never liked canned goo.

I dont have a problem with wilki blue it certainly does not disapear as I shave it stays there in all its foamy glory

Maybe I'll look for a different brand bowl and compare the 2

Perhaps I'm a heathen that loves the smell of urinal cakes but I've always got a Wilkies soap for when I fancy a bit of a wake up shave! I probably use it at least once or twice a fortnight and have no problems getting a decent lather with it. I'm in a hardwater area and give it a good soak of hot water that gets tipped out before I lather up. I've tried a few cheap shaving soaps and this is definately my favorite. £2 well spent in my opinion and available everywhere in England. Just my opinion!

I also use it, and quite like the smell, as it was all I could find to start with.
I find the lather a bit 'thin', but perfectly functional

The plastic bowls, both, the black and the blue are nothing special, but the stick is a good perfomer and very cheap. The glide and the aftershave are well, the scent is not noticeable

Going to resurrect this thread as I just got some Wilkinson soap in the blue plastic container. I had not used it for years and for $4.00 thought it worth a go. I did a test lather on my hand and have to say the result was not too shabby at all. The lather appears to be thick and slick with a fresh clean scent.

Swirled my boar brush in cold water gave it a couple of shakes and strated loading the brush. Dipped the tips of the brush in water, gave it a shake and loaded some more. Then when on to palm lathering adding water as I went by the dip and shake method. In the end I squeezed out the lather from the brush and put it back on the brush being unable to get it all on.

http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g2...psfe8c8e2a.jpg

It will be a day or so before I shave with it but see no reason it would not be more than adequate for the job from the test lather. If the shave goes well I think it would be good value at it's price point. The first five ingredients listed are Aqua, Stearic Acid, Sodium Hydroxide, Glycerine and Cocos Nucifera.

Bob

the blue shave stick is a nice one.
i have been using it this week and i like it.

Tryed the Blue Bowl to day — and liked it :-)
Soaked the soap first in some water and spent some time filling the brush with soap as i normally do with other soaps.
Then I created the lather directly on the chin, as I normally do.
I first used Wilkinsons own "finest bristle" brush. It was not good. Switched to a Badger Silver tip and then I got lots of lather. I like to smell of it.

i saw wilkinson sword stick/erasmic stick combo on ebay and bought them....havent tried the erasmic stick yet but the wilkinson stick was really nice. i might even like it better than latoja stick which was my previous favorite. i tried the tub years ago and wasnt impressed at all.

i'd recommend giving the stick a try though. ebay has them once and a while.

I have has a chance to use the blue bowl Wilkinson shave soap for a few time now and can see not much wrong with it at all. It lathers well, nice and slick and smells decent. I can say I think I like it much better than lather wise than the Edwin Jagger Sea Buckhorn I bought which is 4X the cost of the Wilkinson. People who croak that a product is "cheap for a reason" still puzzle me after multiple experiences like these.

Bob

I enjoy their DE razors, but I can't say the same for their shave soap.

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Originally Posted by ChopperStyle

I enjoy their DE razors, but I can't say the same for their shave soap.

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Classic case of YMMV going on. I have had soaps that others rave about and I think they are overpriced for what they deliver. OTH I have been pleasantly surprised by products like Wilkinson in the blue tub that many denigrate. For me it delivers a very good lather especially considering it's price point sorta like Arko does.

Bob

See post 19 in this thread for the lather I get from it.