I'm interested to see if your opinion changes on any of these in a day or two. I know some of my least favorite soaps upon opening the box ended up being my favorites a few days later.
Did you find they needed less water than Stirling's? So many people liking them must be right. I am sure I am doing something wrong. There is a menthol soap from Mama Bear that I hope will be successful. How much soap are you using? I could be using too little.
On the contrary. I will do my best to get it to you ASAP. It truly is a pleasure just to be exposed to so much shaving variety. I will try to do my part to send it out as soon as I can. I might have a soap or two to trade out so will have to see how fast I can sample a few .
Stirling is the thirstiest soap I've ever used. I've never used as much water in any other soap than with Stirling. I have little slivers cut from some pucks of Mama Bears, probably enough for two shaves at the most. I press those down into a dish. Then I wet the brush, shake it out to where it's damp, and then begin to load. Add a little water as necessary. That works just fine.
Thanks for the tips I saw this on YouTube and he might explain why the soap dissipated. I did wet my face before lathering and like in his demo, the soap broke down. Will need to try not wetting before lathering.
I am very inexperienced with nearly all of these soaps. How much should I take? I am afraid of taking too much and too little. From some test lathering I think I was using, again, too little Mama Bear soap. Is 1-2 gr enough for a shave sample? If I may make a suggestion, we should either help us newbies on the first page with either a weighed amount or a recommendation of a 1/8 teaspoon or whatever the right amount would be. Sure, some soaps need more than others but for me this would help prevent failure when too little is used.
Does anyone have some photos to help with @Fly2High's question? @RyX took some good samples. Have you weighed them by chance?
I don't have a scale to weight my samples. For the hard soaps and croaps a sugar cube side chunk (1/2" on each side) gives at least one overlathered shave and probably two for Frugal folks. Creams from tubes were an almond blob - just about right for one regulation lather, assorted products, sample sized. Many of the now removed sample tubs had just enough for a single shave depending on how you whip one up.
With most soaps, you should be using approximately a pea-sized to almond sized amount of soap. The better the soap, the less you will need. Cream soaps and soaps that aren't "top soaps" will require an almond amount or even more. The weights translate from 1/3rd of a gram to 2 grams. I recommend starting with very little water no matter the soap and add water as needed. You can always add water...You CAN'T take it away. The amount above in the pics would equate to a small pea sized amount. I certainly could have made more lather, but this was enough for a full 4 pass shave and then some. The soap is Barrister and Mann. They make INCREDIBLY high quality soaps.
Cool guys . Thanks. That is perfect. That is kinda what I have started to do. On a side note, I tried the Col. Coks and followed your advice of using more soap and little water. Lather was just enough for 4 passs and touch up but I had to use about 3 gr of soap. It was rather thick and cushiony and had adequate slickness. It wasn't Stirling or Wheat State slick but it was enough and did have that slick residual feel when the lather was removed. The fact that it was hard to dissolve and needed so much from a smaller puck is what turned me off. Otherwise, we all liked the lime scent. It was like green Gummy Bears, green Lifesavers or lime soda
I have used col conks. It is not the equal of done of these other soaps. It's just ok. Useable, but not great. If you like lime, Stirling's Margaritas in the Arctic or Meissner tremonia dark limes are my favorites.
SRD, If you use enough, Conks is ok. I agree. I would suspect it to be as good or maybe a little better than the typical drugstore finds in the US. Then again most drugstores carry very little by me, unless your drugstore is Pasteur's. What I have learned over the last few months is AOS will get you hooked and is very good. Without mail order/internet, this is expensive. Being proactive and ordering online gets you a wealth of possibilities. For the amount I used of Conk, it is more cost affective for so many better soaps not to mention improved cushion and glide. I am glad I tried it but I doubt I will keep any in my den. As expensive as Castle Forbes Lime, you need so little in comparison that I think it is actually cheaper in the long run, not to mention so much better.
April 15 - Col. Conk's Lime Holidays and all, I have been busy to post anything. This is a hard weekend to get the pass around box. Col. Conk's Lime soap if very hard and waxy. I had a hard time putting a sample in my SS bowl. I even put hot water in the bowl trying to soften it but eventually, it did break free. I did not measure the amount of soap but did put a larger amount in at the recommendation of someone here at TSD. I am sure it helped. With the sample moving around, I had a hard time dissolving it. I placed hot water on the sample and then poured that back over the brush. I used JR #72 (French Vanilla) synth brush because it has the firmest backbone of any brush I have. After some time, it did dissolve and was extremely thick and creamy. No real bubbles were forming. It only took a dribble or two of water to get a thick, rich and somewhat shiny lather. Scent was like described above: pick your favorite green lime candy and insert that here. It was pretty strong but washed away when shaving was done. It was pleasant. Shaving went well. I test what I call, 'hydraulics' by placing some lather between my hands and squeezing them together to see how much resistance the lather adds. This is a new test for me. It provided nice resistance. Slickness was adequate. The soap wasn't as shiny as others but was enough. I did get a nice BBS shave. This was my last shave with the BIC Chrome Platinum even though it was only used for 2 shaves in total. I wanted a new blade for Easter. The negatives for this soap are that you need much more than most soaps to create a lather and use rather little water. Slickness was good but not up to the upper tier guys. At $3/2oz or $9/6oz, it is up there in price to so many better soaps. Add the difficulty bowl lathering, I think this soap will not be purchased by me. I do appreciate the test and would use it if I was on vacation or in a pinch if available locally.
You can melt Col Conk to fit in your containers since it's a glycerin soap. Put it in your container and then microwave it for 5 seconds at a time. I small little piece would melt quickly. Don't overheat it. Then it will harden in the shape of the container or at least where it can be stable in your bowl as you lather over it.
April 16 - Stirling Glacial Wintergreen This was my first Stirling Glacial and what a wonderful soap it was!!! The scent was bright and full of wintergreen smell. If you cannot smell wintergreen in this soap then you need a doctor because your nose if messed up. With my experiences with Conk's, I decided to load a bit more than I would normally, probably closer to 2 gr of soap into the bowl. Applied water and again poured this into Jr#148(Dark Chocolate) brush. The scent erupted even more filling the shower. I made the lather with rather little water to first dissolve the soap. With this paste, slow and methodical additions of water were done. I was not going to overshoot. Much less water than I have added in the past with Stirling yet more than what was used with Conk's resulted in a thick and shiny lather. It was not as voluminous as I had done in the past but was slicker than in the past. To me, I have been over watering and whipping and resulting in dry stiff meringue. Sure it took up lots of room but I whipped out and watered down the soap. I feel I hit the sweet spot when the resistance to whipping reached a maximum, a small addition yielded after this point a perfect lather. Will need to see if reproduction of this effort proves the process is sound. I shaved with a new Astra SP. Being Easter, I wanted a close shave. BBS resulted. Unfortunately, the alum stung but dissipated quickly. Stirling is a very shiny slick soap that also has lots of cushion. The hydraulic test proved it had loads of resistance when squished between my hands. As for cold, once applied, I felt like I just stepped outside on a -20 degree day. It was not enough to bring tears though . I was very happy with the chill. this will be on my to buy list when it is released.
Not my container since it is a stainless steel bowl. I went with a SS bowl because I have a tendency of dropping things and figured it would not break.
April 17 - Stirling Orange Chill this was the soap I was really looking forward to. I love orange scents and my recent introductions to menthol, I felt this would be a perfect soap. I used less soap than I did for wintergreen but maintained my low water start. Again, rich, thick and shiny lather with excellent hydraulic resistance resulted. I have never smelled an orange soap form Stirling other than Pharaoh's Dreamsicle. To me, the orange kinda leaned towards the orange scent slightly towards that form a pure orange scent. I was very pleased by the orange scent. After having experienced a B&M and Stirling 'Glacial' product, I will say I found the Orange Chill to be light in menthol. It was good if you only are looking for a chill feeling that you get from sticking your face in the freezer from a warm room. I got a nice cold breeze across it but I did not feel frozen. I realize I prefer a colder sensation especially since I never feel cold. With a 1 shave old Astra SP and the alum results form the day before, I was working real hard to slow my strokes down, keep an eye on angle and see if the Astra SP can give me a alum silent shave. Alas, it would not be today. My beard was rather short this morning. I shaved around noon yesterday and the Astra really get a very close shave. If it was not for work, I almost could have skipped. Even with all the care and caution, the alum stung a little. It was definitely less stinging than the day before. With this lather, I could barely feel the razor and blade gliding effortlessly across my face. It is possible that this blade is too sharp for my skin or the blade angle is too narrow for me to hit reliably. Whatever the reason, the soap was excellent. The lather was shinier than glossy wet automotive paint on a classic restored car, thicker than real maple syrup and placing it under the tires of a car could lift it and move it around. All that I could ask for in a lather was there. technique , blade or lack of growth was cause for my irritation. I whole heartedly recommend Orange chill to anyone looking for a cool feeling and excellent orange scent. This too will be on my to buy list.
With only 7 shaves available, how did you guys make the choice to swap so many soaps in/out of this pass around? I guess I lack experience in so many of them to be able to choose. I have one or two soaps I might pass in. Unfortunately it will take another shave or two to get there. Possibly Wed or Thurs. the box will be on to the next recipient. Frank
