Mama Bear soap challenge

I'm supposed to officially be on the 30 day regimen but I was tempted to use another soap to break up the monotony. I gave Amber Romance a shot and I worked up a mountain of lather really easily. I feel like it was a little less slick than the daily driver that I've been using for the 30 day regimen, but it got the job done. I think it's gonna be another few months until the wooden bowls are restocked but I can't wait so that I can order some full size pucks along with some of the personal favorites that were mentioned in this thread.

 

Sorry to hear that. I really like Mama Bear's soaps so far. My three that I use are Bounty (Royal Water cologne match) and her custom Obsession for Men soap and her "Aged Spice" soap for my Old Spice setup. Although, after that Aged Spice soap is used up I will be auditioning another brand. Not that I'm dissatisfied with Aged Spice, but I want to give a fair tryout for other artisan makers on such a classic scent.

Mama Bear will always get my business on the Bounty Soap and Obsession bath soap. I think I already have a virtual lifetime supply of the Obsession for Men shave soap (13 pucks) lol.

 

Mama bear soap's "awakenings"

Here is mama brar's description: "100% natural soap with Peppermint, tea tree and menthol... Not for the faint of heart.... this is going to cool your face!"

This is a highly mentholated soap, one of their coldest in fact. I do love peppermint, especially in the summer months. This gave a great splash of chill.

The lather was nice, but I wouldn't put it as high as some of their other soaps. If you are getting a menthol from mama bear, however, this would be in my top 2 along with rose ice.

Final results:
Scent: 8/10
Scent strength - 7/10 it was very nice, but not room filling.
Lather -8/10
Cushion - 8/10
Slickness - 9/10
Cooling sensation - 9/10
Lasting scent - 5/10 average. It went away without lingering.

Razor: Edwin Jagger 3d laser cut DE
Razor blade: feather platinum
Brush: Truefitt and Hill super badger
Soap: mama bear's awakenings
Almu: Razorock
Aftershave: Murray and Lanman florida water

 

I am on a pass-around from another group that contains only Mama Bear soaps. therebare a good many available and we can shave off a little to try.

Over the next few days I'm going to try small samples of:

Joop type
Caribbean bay rhum
Masonic Lodge
Bounty
Lime cilantro
KL shave soap

Did I make good choices? There are other scents but I was most interested in these.

 

I know a certain penguin who always recommends the lime cilantro.

That masonic lodge sounds interesting.

 

I tried Joop Type this morning and got a terrific shave. The scent is a dupe of Joop! cologne. I don't know that product - in fact have never heard of it - but the scent is pretty nice. Performance was good, too. I got a smooth, close shave. I used a badger brush and whipped up some nice lather in a short time. It wasn't as slick or cushioning as some soaps I have but still worked for a great shave. Immediate post shave feel wasn't great, but not bad either. I don't want to judge it after only one use, but my first impressions with Mama Bear's are positive!

I'll continue to post impressions as I work through those samples.

 

Her soaps all lather and cushion well (at least, all the ones I have tried...which would be about 30)

There are actually only 2 of those that I have tried: lime cilantro and Joop.

The joop smells very close to the cologne. Sue is very good at matching scents. Her cologne siaps are some if the best out there.

The lime cilantro was actually reviewed in this thread above. The scent left something to be desired.

 

What happened to the reviews? I was expecting this thread to be huge with 60 different samples up for review. As for me, I'm still a big fan of her Northwoods scent and it's one of my favorites out of all the soaps that I currently own.

 

Sixty reviews for one or a few kinds of soap is a pretty tall order. If it is only one soap formulation, then I would expect that the shaving characteristics would be the same for all the scents. @Mama Bear has 60 scents? That is a lot.

 

I slowed down because

A) the characteristics are quite similar

And

B) I have been insanely busy at work and simply haven't had as much time.

I will, However, give some final thoughts here in the next day or two

 

I stand by my scent opinions above.

I believe mama bear is the best glycerin soap out there. They are very high quality. The bath soaps are top notch as well. Overall, I prefer tallow for shave soaps, but if you like glycerin...this is what you want. If you like veggie and/or vegan...mama bear would be VERY high on a short list of soaps to get as well.

The customer service and sheer options of products are amongst the best of any soap maker out there.

Mama bear has very consistent quality from soap to soap. They all lather well. The cushion is quite good. If I could improve anything, I would say that the cushion could be a bit better (once again, I feel that tallow wins out here) and several of the scents could stand to be stronger (I like room-filling scents).

I think her very best soaps are the cologne scents and florals as far as strictly going by smell. She is incredible at making cologne scents, and if you want to match a particular fragrance, I believe Sue makes, pound for pound, the most closely matched cologne soaps on the market.

If anyone is interested, I do have quite a few unused samples available in the Shave Den classifieds.

 

This is one of the reasons why I'm glad that Mama Bear is around. I don't use tallow soaps or even veggie based soaps with lanolin so that eliminates a lot of soaps, but fortunately her soaps help to fill that void. I too prefer scents that fill the room but I'm thinking that the somewhat milder scents in her soaps might be better for my skin. I seem to have at least a mild reaction to every soap due to the fragrance/essential oils. I've been trying to use one puck at a time and stick to it until I finish it, but I'm gonna revisit Mama Bear for a few shaves to see how my skin reacts.