hello shavers,i am 50 years old this year and was unfortunately stuck with cartridge and goo shaving for 95 % of my shaving career.i have at least used a brush and williams/wilkinson soaps for the last 10 years.after finding a 61 fatboy and 53 nos canadian tech on ebay for cheap,(i love old cool stuff for my auto shop)i decided to try the tech,and now i m hooked.anyway my point and questions .i now have a few old school soaps and tabac is one of them,but have never tried old spice shave soap.for those who remember or still use it, was old spice a top soap like tabac? is it worth the big money when found for sale?,nostalgia? could it make a comeback?.i know when i lived in england in the late 70s my grandfather used it but i was too young to notice.penny for your thoughts,gary
I have some vintage OS and in fact I am using it this week. It sure does make a great cushiony moist lasting lather. I haven't tried Tabac but I believe OS is on the level of some of the finest soaps even though in its day is was just a common drugstore purchase.
Don't know if it was ever a top soap. I found a couple pucks at an antique mall 6-7 years ago, three bucks a puck. Almost finished with the second one . Scent is still there, whips up a wonderful lather. No idea what a puck is going for theses days. I probably couldn't afford it.
I saw a mug & puck at an antique store recently. Outrageous price, but it did still have scent. No clue about the performance.
I found a mug and NOS puck (in the wrapper!) for $6 at a local antique store last month. Initial shave with it was not stellar, but to be fair I should have bloomed it and did not. Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk
I have a vintage puck and sadly the scent is gone but the performance is very good, just a notch below Tabac.
I used Old Spice for 25 years, until it was no longer available. But I haven't used it in over 25 years, so it's hard to say how good it was. During the time I used it, I did try a couple of other soaps ( stuff available in my local drug store -- Williams and Yardley for example) but I always went back to Old Spice. I may have gone back to it because I started with Old Spice and had a special fondness for it. I really cannot say how it compares to some of the more modern soaps; but there are some pretty terrific soaps available today. In many ways, this may well be the golden age of wet shaving, just due to the variety of quality products available.
Not to hijack the thread, but is there a soap maker that makes a cloned version? If there is, is the scent similar to the original?
Route 66 has Retro Spice, Stirling has Stirling Spice, Soap Commander has Endurance. I cant comment on the scent's or how true they are though.
Hmm I had stirling spice sample , it didn't smell like old spice to me.. but maybe it did and I didn't notice. Weird. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
An experiment you might try @brit. Melt and pour glycerine based soaps can be melted in a microwave oven. Soften up an unscented puck, add aftershave, or even better EDC,EDT,or Perfume for highest concentration of scent oils. Don't know how tolerant the soap will be to added ingredients. You could end up with a soupy soapy mess. Another thing I seem to recall - grated Arko allowed to set out in grated form looses *some* scent. Then you might juice it up with AS and let it dry. Tallow based soaps don't take that microwave action like glycerine types.
I have a few pucks that I've been able to pick up cheap. It performs quite well and for me the nostalgia makes it a must have but not for the prices you see on eBay. Keep your eyes open in antique shops.
I have a NOS mug/soap in the original box. Still has some scent to it but I probably won't use it. Don't know why either, just not that big a fan of OS I reckon. But it sure looks pretty setting on the shelf.
I found a puck of Old Spice shave soap on Ebay in a package that had a collectible Old Spice Tin container (only sold in Europe) that the seller included 2 Aftershave bottles, a can of Old Spice foam shaving cream and a puck of Old Spice shave soap. In my other Shulton Shave Mug, I have been experimenting with 3rd party replica soaps. Now that I have an actual puck of Old Spice having been in use a few times (and sealed in a storage bag in between uses), I'm able to directly compare REAL Old Spice shave soap with the 3rd party replicas. I have so far test/tried the following: Artifact Soapworks Limited - Old Spice Type $7 (Doesn't smell like Old Spice....but pairs well with Old Spice and has a great post-shave feel and 'ok' protection but doesn't seem to lather up 'visually', but functions acceptably for me despite that.) Mamabear Soaps - Aged Spice $11 (Contains a few of the basenotes in Old Spice, but doesn't have the whole scent profile in it. Quality glycerin soap. Lathers divinely and functions as expected. This is the standard by which I think soaps should be judged. There might be better and worse shave soaps but she has a benchmark with these I think is what should be shot for.) What I have on deck: The Village Soapsmith - Old Spice Type $6 From the container, dry, it smells 'nearly' identical to the decades-old Shulton Old Spice shave soap! I am pushing through the Mamabear soap, nearly done, to get to this one so I can directly compare them. I would say The Village Soapsmith puck smells like it has a tad more spice that is like a cinnamon-ish tinge that is just a 'tad' stronger than what I'm smelling off the Shulton original, but DAMN the rest of the scent seems pretty dead on target. I smelled one and then the other back and forth and I think for a second The Village Soapsmith one is a bit "cinnamony" but then when I in turn smell the Shulton one, that scent is there too, just a tad less strong. Otherwise, man, these are really, really close smelling when they are dry. I will hopefully be trying this out in 2 weeks and will give my feedback. I will lather up a little of the original Shulton to directly compare the scent. I didn't bother doing a "duel lather" to compare the others because they obviously don't smell as close as this one does. The owners of the shop tried emailing about my feedback, many months ago when I bought the soap, but I never responded. I intend to eventually, but only after I actually try this out. I had no idea the Mamabear soap was going to last so dang long! Took forever to work that puck down. I won't be influenced on a product and want to be unbiased when trying it out. One thing that gives me hope about this soap is the ingredients used in The Village Soapsmith puck reads like an artisan designer soap: Water, Olive Oil, Coconut Oil, Castor Oil, Palm Oil, Sweet Almond Oil, sodium hydroxide, Collodial Oatmeal, Bentonite Clay, Fragrance Oil and Silk. That's one heck of a potentially good artisan soap for only $6. Each soap I discuss here is linked, just click on the soap scent title.
I have the Soap Commander Endurance in my regular rotation. I can't comment on how exact it is to the Shulton original because I don't have any, but my wife does say that it "reminds her of her grandfather"(he used Old Spice)...she means that as a compliment apparently!
Okay, On Friday I finally ran out of the Mama Bear's Aged Spice soap and today I put in the puck from The Village Soapsmith with their version of Old Spice scent. I did a shave this morning with this soap and the scent is the closest to the ancient Shulton Old Spice soap that I own. The only notes in this version that seem too faint to detect or might not be in there is the floral elements of the original soap. The "spice" notes are all there however. Nutmeg and what seems like faint cinnamon are just a 'tad' more strong in the Village Soapsmith version compared to the original, but when I smell them side by side, it's a very close approximation when it comes to the main set of spice notes. I have a beard around my mouth and chin, but still shave two spots under my bottom lip to maintain a set of lines in my beard for 'style'. So, I must soap up my beard hair with the shave soap. This means the scent of any soap I use settles into the beard hair and I can actively smell the soap almost all day. If I want to get a stronger whiff of the scent, I merely have to cup my hand over my mouth and nose then the soap scent is 'very' detectable. So, about an hour or so after shaving with this soap, the scent is still strong in my beard hair and seems to change a bit and smells much more like Old Spice than before. (The Old Spice Aftershave I think helps this, but at the very least, this scent is a fantastic approximation). IMO, this is the closest Old Spice scent I have tried yet out of the 3 different "Old Spice" aftermarket soaps I have bought. I anticipate buying PA's Cold Spice (for those summer shaves when I want a brisk shave experience). I'm hoping that PA's version is at least in the ball park. The original Shulton soaps are getting hard to come by and we all have to start treating those remaining soaps as keepsakes to only be used sparingly on occasion. It's important for us to find a viable aftermarket soap that fits our Old Spice shaving cups. The next part of my review is the quality of the soap itself: -First, this puck is very hard and not very malleable. In order to get a tight fit for this in the Shulton Cup, I had to carve a 1/5th inch slice from the top of the puck and separate it into pieces and put the pieces around the sides of the puck and push hard to force them into place. Then, after many uses, this will congeal into a solid puck that fits this cup. Picture from the vendor's page on Etsy: -Next, due to the toughness of the puck, I tried putting a little hot water on top of the puck and letting it soak for about 45 seconds but it still made this puck a tough one to build an initial loading lather. Out of the 10 different soap makers I have used in the 10 months of this old school shaving interest, this one is the most difficult lather to make. I might not have allowed enough time to soak to soften the top layers of the puck in order to achieve a properly thick lather. I will not give a final grade on the lather until I have given this soap a fair chance by using proper blooming and soaking techniques, but the final grade, by virtue of this being such a tough lather to make automatically will impair the score on the lather. -The lather I was able to build did not stay foamy or thick at all. The lather literally disintegrated into an almost non-existent appearance on my skin. It was not particularly 'creamy' to the eye (remember, when I say it is not creamy to the eye). -The protection is below average. The lack of a foamy lather is a sign in itself that this will give very little barrier between the skin and the blade. This bore out to be the case. I must reserve my score here because I was not patient in my lathering phase and tried to lather this soap as I would any of the others I tried. Without building a proper lather the protection score cannot be honestly given yet. So, until I do a more thorough examination of this soap and use it with more bloom time. I'm currently allowing a small amount of water to soak into the puck this whole morning and evaporate in the hopes that some more moisture soaks into this dense, dry puck. Perhaps that will also help to get a proper loading lather and it could in turn provide the protection this soap 'could' possibly be capable of. -The slickness of the soap I did lather up and apply was about as good as it gets. Even when rinsing off my face this soap still had a fantastic slickness. I had no trouble with my razor moving over my skin. I swear after the initial rinse attempt, I feel like I could have STILL run the blade across my skin. It took many more splashes of water than usual to rinse the soap off. The slickness was obviously there in spades. There was some irritation post-shave mostly likely due to the thinness of the lather and lack of creamy 'lift' it should give the blade. Due to this thin protection layer and remarkable slickness, the resulting shave was very, very smooth. So, this soap could be used by seasoned shaving experts to achiever a super-close shave. The risk of irritation though is there. Scores are out of 10 possible points: Scent - 9.5 It cannot be a 10 unless it has ALL of the notes of Original Old Spice, but this is the best one I have tried to date and smells absolutely wonderful with the aftershave. It's a very viable match for Old Spice!!! Lather - 3.5* *incomplete without more evaluation, but if the result is the same after more evaluation, it would be a 3.5. It literally is the least lather-friendly soap I have used for shaving, and that will effect the score ultimately but there 'might' still be room to improve this score with properly soaking/blooming. Protection - 3* *incomplete, as lather has a major impact on protection, I cannot give a score unless I have exhausted this aspect with more evaluation. There is again, just like the lather, more room for improvement and potentially even a top score if a proper lather can be achieved. Slickness - 10! Despite an incomplete lather and incomplete loading attempt, this soap has the slickest road for my razor I've come across out of 10 different soap makers. Could it be the silk in the ingredients that is giving this slickness? Silk is an ingredient I haven't seen in the other soaps I've shaved with so far, nor have I seen Bentonite Clay or Collodial Oatmeal. The clay and silk ingredients are most likely items that can effect slickness, while the oatmeal is most likely an ingredient to calm skin irritation. Although this soap does not 'appear' to be 'creamy' when lathered, it 'feels' very slick and smooth to the touch. Post Shave - *8 *Due to insufficient lathering, this score could improve. I'm about at the 2 hour mark post-shave. I think that my insistence on a completely thorough rinse of the soap might have not been the correct thing to do. Considering how this soap will likely take more effort and preparation (or even multiple uses) to lather correctly, it's very likely that the manufacturer of this soap fully intends for a small residue of this to stay on the skin for the purpose of calming any post-shave irritation. The various oils used along with the Bentonite Clay and Collodial Oatmeal indicate to me that this is more than just a simple soap, but also a skin conditioner. There is a likely reason this stuff was difficult to fully rinse and seemed to 'bind' to the skin to keep it slick when wet. In my next shave I will rinse decently but not to the point of excess in order to find out if the skin conditioning ingredients reduce irritation. There was a tiny bit of redness due to the lack of protection. My skin feels ridiculously smooth due to the thinness of the protection and ridiculous slickness. I wonder if the lather is meant to be this way, and if it follows through in my next few shaves, then this would seem to be a curiously crafted shave soap that seems to focus more on a surgically close shave and ingredients aimed at reducing the subsequent irritation, rather than trying to provide the classic 'cream' method that minimized blade/skin contact. The slickness was the absolute best I encountered so far out of all soaps, but it comes at a cost in that you must be seriously on your shave game to avoid irritation. This stuff is not forgiving, at least not from the lather I was able to build in 45 seconds of soaking and just over 1 minute of brush loading and subsequent lathering. If this evaluation stays as it is, then this is a curiously engineered soap that may be intended for experienced and skilled shavers. Multiple passes may induce irritation and a pre-shave oil is likely going to be needed if enhanced protection is desired, however, a pre-shave oil in my opinion will effect the very intention this soap seems to have been designed for. My scores do not necessarily indicate that this is a poor soap as I'm thinking it might have been engineered by this artisan to separate itself from the typical shave soap. Focusing instead on the closest shave possible and enhanced reduction of post-shave irritation. I will reserve my right to change my review after more attempts to lather this soap and use it multiple times to find out if this improves with more uses and softening of the puck. This cannot possible get a top score in lathering at this point due to the excessive effort it takes to make lather, but it could very well have the potential to give proper protection and creamy lather with more effort. We will see....
Route 66 Retro Spice doesn't even come close to the scent of OS. I have OS in a mug I used occasionally and and a puck still rapped in a box. Trust me when I say that Retro Spice, just for scent, does not match OS. Greg W.
