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Was delivered today. The smell is.....intoxicating and complex. Something only Obie could accurately describe.
I'm about as good with words as I am with a camera, but the wooden bowls all look the same.
Can't wait to whip some of this up!
http://i.imgur.com/WL6z0.jpg
Hello, rearviewmirror:Quote:
Originally Posted by rearviewmirror
Thank you for the kind words.
I've looked for La Toja through the years and failed to locate a vendor that carries it. Where is it available? La Toja is another soap with a cult following of sorts. I look forward to reading your thoughts on it.
Regards,
Obie
I ordered mine from here: La Toja Shaving Soap Wooden Bowl 150gr. | Gifts And Care
Came to $37 shipped, took 2 weeks or so to get it.
La Toja | Razor Blades & More Co. also has it, but is out of stock, and I believe there is another online vendor in the US that is about to start selling it as well.
This guy carries the soap sticks (I'm guessing they're made from the same soap.) La Toja Shaving Soap Stick - €5.95 : The Vintage Scent Co., Rare and Antique Products for Men He's located in Portugal so if your funny about paying more for shipping than you do for the item, he also has a great selection of Semogue brushes.
rearviewmirror, sir, thank you for the lead on these sites. I have already put my name on the list to be notified when the stock is in.
Stay well.
Obie
I've heard nothing but good things about La Toja. I'll have to add it to my "to try" list.
Thanks for the vendor list as well, as I also wondered where to purchase this soap. :tu
It is my understanding that the LaToya sticks are not the same soap and the soap in the bowl.
I have the bowl ordered and I cannot wait for it to get here.
Paul
I recently tried the soap. I whipped up very nicely and gave nice cushion and glide. I liked it very much.
Just had my first shave with it. As Jeff said, whipped up nicely and provided some very nice cushion.
Also, Juan and giftandcare.com is out of it right now, not sure when he'll be getting it back in stock.
Now time for honesty: if this was readily available, I don't think it wouldn't be held in such high regard as it is now. I liken it to cuban cigars. People think they're great because we can't get them in the states. Yes, there are really good cubans, but there are also amazing cigars from many other countries that are cheaper and easier to get. But cubans are 'exotic'.
Hello, rearviewmirror:Quote:
Originally Posted by rearviewmirror
I like your analysis on La Toja. Scarcity somehow adds an extra star to certain things.
I have never tried La Toja. From the many comments I have read about the soap, however, La Toja is a well regarded, but it fails to grab the superstar status.
Interesting all this. When the stock comes in, I will give La Toja a try for my own self satisfaction.
Thanks for your thoughts, my friend.
Regards,
Obie
Its interesting to note that the sticks are made in Slovakia and not Spain. From what I understand the wood bowl soap is still made there though.
i want it just for the packaging..
OK, this stuff has my attention but is...um...quite a bit steeper than my normal fair. Would any of you fine gentlemen care to do a head on between this stuff and say, Mitchell's Wool Fat?
Hello, 1OldGI:Quote:
Originally Posted by 1OldGI
I have never tried La Toja. I have tried Mitchell's Wool Fat. I would assume the two soaps are from two different worlds and, therefore, comparing them would be somewhat difficult. Also, Mitchell's Wool Fat is in its own class.
Regards,
Obie
I told some months ago with the manager of Manantiales of la Toja and:
The soap, aftershave and other products from "manantiales" are different from the regular la toja
The soap is made in Spain with a different formula of the regular stick of La Toja
Every product of the "Manantiales" range has more concentration of mineral salts.
The products of the Manantiales range cannot be sold outside of Spain, Henkel doesn't let to sell this products by vendors different than the "manantiales de la Toja" shop. The soap is being sold by 10,3€ and 6€ by shipping in Spain
It is a bit more expensive (under $40 shipped) but you get over 5 oz (a little more then MWF), and the fancy bowl. So it's not much more then MWF if you get it with the ceramic bowl.Quote:
Originally Posted by 1OldGI
And yes, this is different then the readily available La Toja soap sticks as du212 said
Well I am just about to spend 3 days in Barcelona and I wondered whether of our Spanish members might suggest a bricks and mortar place I might get this soap. Also, any other shaving related recommendations for Barcelona? (Maybe the address for a warehouse full of NOS Filharmonicas)
Claude
I'd be curious to know if that's the case because when I visited the island of La Toja, it didn't look like anything was produced there anymore. I think the old factory closed down, so if La Toja soap is still being produced in Spain, it isn't produced in the original location.Quote:
Originally Posted by tfrod
I think its made with the salts or something from the island.Quote:
Originally Posted by Oolong
Right, the island of La toja doesn't have a factory, and it didn't have in the past. The factory of la Toja was located in Culleredo, at 'a Coruna' province, however the Island of la Toja is in the province of Pontevedra (among Portugal and the province of a Coruna) . The factory of a Toja was more than 50 miles forn the island of La Toja. The factory of Culleredo was closed when the Henkel group (a german chemical company) took over the "La toja" brand. I have soaps from Culleredo, but now the soaps or other products of the 'La Toja Brand' are being made in other factorys o the Henkel group across Europe (Poland, Slovakia, ...).Quote:
Originally Posted by Oolong
The Manantiales range is different, those products are being sold only in a store (La Toja Museum in the island of La Toja) and the quantities to produce are much more small than the "La Toja" products that are being sold in supermarkets. In this way the providers of Manantiales are small companies from Spain, Manantiales gives them the formula and the mineral salts and they produce the soaps or deodorants, of aftershaves or shaving soaps.
The Manantiales shaving soap is made by a little cosmetic company in Almeria in the southest of Spain.
Thank you for the detailed information! So the shave stick soap is part of their regular production while the Manantiales soap is more of a "boutique" production? While I was on the island I took a photo of an old abandoned building with an inscription on the wall ("Manantiales de la Toja 1905") - I thought this was the old factory but perhaps it was rather a spa of some sort?
Yes the shavestick is sold in supermarkets and great stores, it's dirty cheap (about 2€) and everybody knows it. The Manantiales soap in bowl is an old formulation of the stick, and it can only be bought at the Manantiales soap and Museum in the La Toja Island and in the webstore of Mannatiales.Quote:
Originally Posted by Oolong
You're right as always, the 1st factory was a part of the spa, and the spa was part of a resort. The 3 activities were in the same building, as you can see in the web of manantiales: ····· 1899 > 1904. El manantial se llena de vida __________________________________________________ _____________________
The spa&resort is the Gran Hotel La Toja now http://www.granhotellatoja.com/es/index.php
In the 1st years of XX century, la Toja started to sell the water and the salts, then they make the soap factory. Before the spanish civil war (1933) the factory was bought and the production was moved to A Coruna, the next province of the north, initially the factory was installed in Pasaxe, but in few years they moved to Culleredo when they stayed for years becoming the most important soap factory in Spain, but they make a complete range of cosmetic products: cologne, deodorant, toothpaste, body milk, shower gel,.... In 2007 Henkel closed the factory and moved the production of "la Toja" to Poland, only the salts are the originals from the La Toja island in Galiza, now they continue to be extracted from the water from la Toja
Oolong this thread is becoming a complete history of La Toja, well done
Gentlemen:
Razor Blades and More has a new supply of La Toja and it seems to be on sale. I have already ordered mine. If you are interested, here is the link:
La Toja | Razor Blades & More Co.
Oh, such wonderful toys. Thanks to my good friend rearviewmirror for bringing up La Toja.
Regards,
Obie
From what I understand, they got 35 bowls of it in. Enjoy Obie!
Bienvenido | Gifts And Care sells the bowls, the aftershaves and some spanish productsQuote:
Originally Posted by Obie
La Toja, Floid & Lea | Gifts And Care
Hello, du212:
Thank you for providing the additional website for La Toja. It's good to know. It's been bookmarked. I have also been interested for quite sometime in La Toja's aftershaves, but I'll save my question about those for a new thread and keep the focus here on my good friend rearviewmirror's original post — the soap.
Regards,
Obie
I received my La Toja Mannatiales soap a few days ago and have used it a couple of times. I think it is a really nice soap. Good cushion, excellent glide, moisturising and with a really interesting and unique fragrance. For me the lather is more finicky than MdC and eShave (my two favourite soaps). It seems to need just the right amount of water and quite a lot of lathering (similar to MWF).
The fragrance is related to that in the basic La Toja cream (red tube) but whilst I find the cream overpowering and quite a chemical smelling, the soap's fragrance is far more subtle and well-integrated.
All in all not the best soap I own but better than most I have tried.
Claude
My La Toja bowl arrived this last week... I have not had the time to try it yet. Indeed the smell is fantastic. I have an empty La Toja bowl as well and it still has the fantastic sent.. I have been using the La Toja cream for several months now.
Is the scent much different than that of the stick?
I don't have the stick, but from what i've heard from those who have both is they're similar but still pretty different.Quote:
Originally Posted by Lando
the scent of the La toja bowl is softer than the stick, but the same