Godrey Shaving Round Soap Review 01/07/17 One of my favorite aspects of DE shaving journey has been trying new and different products from around the globe. This morning I tried for the first time, Godrey Shaving Round Soap from India. I read in various places on the internet that this was a solid product and I knew someone traveling to India, so I asked him to pick up a puck if possible during his trip. He returned with a puck and I could not wait to try it. From initial impressions, the soap looked a bit underwhelming. It comes packaged in a blue and white box similar to Williams Mug Soap. Opening the box, the soap was wrapped in paper, which stuck to the bottom of the small puck. You can see some of the remaining paper in the photos. There were some dark specs on the soap, it looked chalky, and the smell was not very attractive. One neat aspect was that the soap was pressed with the logo on one side and the other had a key shape. I was thinking that I would not enjoy this product very much and that the quality was poor. That this was nothing more then some cheap, no-frills, utilitarian soap that was merely adequate to shave with. Boy where my initial impressions wrong! This morning I decided to give this little, light blue soap a try. I did not use any pre-shave products because I wanted to experience the soap directly in its most basic form. First I placed the Godrey in a small shallow glass bowl and bloomed it by submerging it completely in warm water. I proceeded to shower and washed my face with Cellar Door Bath Supply Co Haunted Woods artisan shave soap. Returning to my sink for my daily shave, I poured the bloom water into my palm and repeatedly rubbed it deep into the stubble on my face with 1 days worth of whisker growth. Using my new Wolf Whisker brush with a 24mm silvertip badger knot, I loaded the soap from the small bowl. It did not pre-soak the brush today, but ran it under the faucet to get it full of warm water, squeezing out the excess. I wanted the brush full of soap and spent probably a good 30 seconds loading. The soap performed nicely and it was relatively easy to get a good quantity into the brush. I lathered a bit in my Crown King dual chamber scuttle filled with warm water and decided to finish lathering on my face. Adding minimal amounts of water, the brush rapidly filled with a nice cushioning lather. I painted the lather across my face and it was soon covered with a nice thick layer. I decided to use my PAA Grackle DOC razor with a new Personna Blue comfort coated blade. The razor glided smoothly over my face and the slickness of the soap was just superb. I really was not expecting this at all. The scent also improved with the lather, but was just a mild, basic standard hand washing soap fragrance. Okay and inoffensive, but nothing too special or notable. To me there was a slight powdery scent which I liked, but again all relatively mild. I completed my first pass with the grain and rinsed my face. The soap was not on my face long, but there did not seem to be any degradation over time, at least for a reasonable period during a shave. My face had a nice residual slickness, which is something I look for. I followed up with two more passes, one across the grain and then one against. All felt excellent with no weepers or irritation. Rinsing off for the final time and then using cold water, I noticed my face still had a nice slickness and was BBS smooth. For the post shave, I used Thayers Cucumber Witch Hazel Toner followed by Aqua Velva Classic Blue Cooling Aftershave. No burn or negative feedback. Just a nice cooling tingle. In conclusion, this deceptive tiny puck is an excellent performer. It does not have any fancy scent like some of the artisan products, but it will not disappoint and it will leave your face feeling great. If you are considering Godrey, I highly recommend trying the soap. Your opinions will vary, but I was very surprised with this little blue gem! Rating Loading – Average. Nothing to note, fairly easy Lathering – Very Good Cushion – Excellent Slickness – Outstanding Scent – Mediocre Post - Outstanding Steve
The GODREJ soap is very good. I like the old-school scent and rich lather. The only issue if you can call it an issue is a bit drying.
I have a couple of different flavors of Godrej shaving cream and I absolutely love them, one is the classic scent and one is lime. I bought them on a whim from my neighborhood Indian grocery a few months back and was blown away by the prodigious lather and slickness and the awesome shave I got. Then you consider the price it's up there with Arko & a few others in awesomeness-per-dollar. I paid $4 for the tube, and I know in India it's something like 50 Rupees, which is a little less than $1. In my rotation I go between one cream and a bunch of soaps, and will be using my Godrej lime as my one-cream as soon as my Proraso Green tube is done. (it's almost done). Haven't tried the soap version of Godrej yet so I enjoyed your review.
Have heard good reports back about Godrej puck soap. Glad to hear it performed well for you. I have only used Godrej lime cream and as CliffDweller mentioned. It performed very well and is a great value too.
I'm embarrassed and am sorry guys for my stupid typo. Obviously the soap is Godrej not Godrey. I am not sure what I was thinking other then I wasn't. It seems others have had good experiences as well. I am surprised this soap does not get more recognition. Thank you for the comments. Steve
Excellent review, Steve! Thank you very much for posting it. I read information posted by others some time ago stating that the soap was really good, but it was pretty much limited to "this soap is great and lathers easily". Your review is far more in-depth, which is much appreciated. I have used the Godrej Lime, Deluxe and Menthol shaving creams, which are very good performers. It is good to hear the soap is in the same category. Indeed. There are many good products that seem to go unnoticed. Perhaps it is just that they are less frequently mentioned on the forums, but are widely used by large numbers of other wetshavers.
Nice looking containers. What kind of soap is it? I am assuming a hard puck? Does it come in various scents on just one? What does it smell like? Have you ever tried Biotique Palmyra shave cream? I don't know much about it, but was told this is a great product from India as well. Thanks for the recommendation. Steve
It seems the lime cream is well liked. I will have to but this on my list to try. I love lime & citrus in general scented products. Thanks, Steve
I have used Biotique Palmyra. Got great shaves with it. Better than some of the bigger name brand creams. But heard a rumor that it may contain questionable ingredients? The ingredients aren't listed on the container and people have tried to contact Biotique Palmyra to find out. But they never heard back or were told they wouldn't give them out.
Great review. I've been curious about the Indian market since seeing ohbrian's review of Trigodon. You weren't kidding about the soap's appearance, especially with that paper sticking to the bottom, but it really does sound like a great performer. I've never checked out any Indian grocery stores but now I'm inclined to go find one and take a look one of these weekends to see if they carry this soap.
Comes in 4 different scents I had one of each. Very clean and floral type scents to me. It is a hard vegan coconut based soap but I really like it a lot. I gave one away on this forum.
Godrej Lime scent is more subtle than say, Stirling Lime, which to my nose is a real powerhouse scent, but it's pleasant nonetheless. I noticed that if I sniff it while it's in the tube it has a faintly chemically smell, not unpleasant but not really lime-y. But then when you let it out of the tube to load & lather up, the scent opens up really nicely and it's very pleasant scent that doesn't stay much long after on your face but is enjoyable while you're using it. I shave a lot with Proraso Green cream and while the consistency and lathering experience are different for the two, they give pretty comparably excellent shaves, and Godrej is a little slicker. Not saying it'll become your favorite but especially considering the price I found it a very impressive cream with top-notch performance.
Thanks. Its definitely worth the effort to try. Not pretty, but does work great. I did not notice it leaving my face dry like some have noted. Steve
Good feedback on the lime cream. I'm going to use Proraso Green tomorrow. Another great value soap! Steve
You've picked up the older Trigodon ones I think. They've got some new ones as well. Will be ordering them soon and will get back to you about the reults.