A couple of them might have come from Rod when I made a soap order, the rest came from Amazon. I have only used the, with softer soaps, but they work excellently.
I'm an almond/vanilla scented fiend. Easily my favorite scents when it comes to soaps. Sadly, I've had trouble with fragrance oils before, but Stirling's Almond Creme looks and sounds like it would amazing. I'm probably going to go ahead and pick up a sample of it and see if it lights my face on fire or not. Here's hoping to furthering my Stirling experience.
Well, it is official. Stirling is my new favorite soap! Just finished my 6th shave with my first tub of Stirling and each experience has been better than the next. I've been a Cella user for the last 5 years and Stirling Soaps have now dethroned my reigning tallow champ. The Unscented with Beeswax is absolutely amazing with slick, protective lather that can take a lot of water. I'm usually fairly sensitive to most fragrance oils and some essential oils as well. I've never tried a soap with lanolin, so I hope I'm not allergic to that as I'm definitely going to be trying out Stirling's Almond Cream shave soap next. Thank you for your amazing shave soaps, Stirling!
@ezlovan : Your badgers seem like they have been a huge success. The knots you are selling have been getting a ton of good press; I know the ones I have are just fantastic. Your latest with this fan was a home run. Can we hope to see more models coming soon? Any hints?
I would like to get a Stirling soap fan knot badger, but I just can't go for the butterscotch. Not my cup o' tea. I'm also hoping for another handle option soon
Just get it in black. They make a black and butterscotch handle. I have the butterscotch and I love the knot and handle
My sample order came in yesterday. Amanda and Rod, thank you. I love the personal signed note appreciating me for my order. Just cutting into the package released the most wonderful scents. I feel all of them were wonderful. Of course, we were sniffing them like crazy through the package trying to get an idea of what they smelled like. For those that do not know, I ordered the following samples: Baker Street Dunshire Executive Man Piacenza Sandalwood Tuscany Vanilla Sandalwood Sharp Dressed Man Pharaoh's Dreamsicle They included a sample of Scots Pine Sheep body soap which I would have never of thought to try since I was fearful it might have a Pine-sol quality but instead it was more like a pine forest and very pleasant. It reminded me of Christmas and outings to cut our Christmas tree down. The pine scent and earthy notes are very different from any pine cleaner. Thank you. Being that today was V- day, I let my wife choose the soap. There was one or two that she did not care for (I think Tuscany and Pharaoh's Dreamsicle) but we only were smelling them through the wrapper. She decided on Piacenza. I was not sure if she liked the scent or if she wanted me to have 'patience' (the meaning of the word in Italian). Upon opening the wrapper the scent got stronger. Also other notes appeared. To me, there is definite scents of certain cooking spices but I have a lousy nose and cannot make them out. In all, I thought it was good. I will say it is not my favorite, right now, but it is a pleasant scent to me. I pulled out my unscented AOS Preshave oil and Post Shave balm. I wanted the Stirling scent to be unaltered. I found an empty beef bouillon container(3" x 3") that the soap fit in well. The brush though was a little short so it will need to find a new home. I dripped a bit of water onto the sample and ended up holding the brush still and moving the container to get soap on the brush. I got the tips of the brush covered in soap but upon examination of the soap, it barely looked touched. This stuff will last a while. Prior to this, the brush soaked for the duration of my shower and was shaken so it was damp but not dripping. I ended up adding water like crazy in a bowl while working up a lather. The scent was great and worked up a nice lather. I did end up adding too much water. I ended up forming soft wet peaks instead of them being stiff. The product always looked wonderfully glossy. I have not seen this level of glossiness from AOS or TOBS yet. Even though it went on wet , I was able to work it a bit more to stiffen it a bit. As thin as it was, the Merkur 34C HD with a new Derby Extra blade just glided effortlessly. Even in spots I retouched after having hit them moments ago showed good lubricity. This definitely leaves a nice slick face and rinses easily. I ended up doing 4 passes with some extra touch up and was not irritated at all. I almost had to ask if I was using a toy razor since it slid so effortlessly. This proved to be the lowest impact to my sensitive skin I have found to date. you have a customer for life. I am truly impressed with your product. Thank you Rod and Amanda for your personal touches and wonderful products. Sincerely,
Well, I'm addicted. These soaps are amazing and I can't hold back from buying more and breaking my minimalist streak, lol. Just purchased two full tubs of Naked and Smooth and Almond Creme. Cannot wait to get these into my shave den. Stirling is now my go-to shave soap as it has the best quality I've ever tried. And you simply can't beat their price.
Is it me or are Stirling soaps thirsty? The only other tallow soap I've used has been Cella and it took a lot of water to make a great lather. I found Stirling to be just about the same. I was amazed at how much water the lather could hold without turning into suds and running down my face.
Thank you. I figured about the same. I've only used Stirling a handful of times so far and still dialing in my soap-to-water ratio. Still easily the best tallow soap I've ever tried.
For what it is worth: I have now used my Stirling Barbershop 10 times. I weighed it when it was new before using it. After ten shaves (all were 3 passes) I have used .73 oz of the soap. Given the 5.8 oz starting weight - I should be able to get a total of 79 shaves. That seems to me anyway - to be quite a few shaves from one soap. At that rate, assuming my other Stirling soaps have a similar usage rate, shaving 3 times a week - it will take me 2.5 years to use up my Stirling soaps. That's my contribution to the corporate knowledge of this thread for the day.
You need more soap!!! Assuming my usage is similar per shave and I need to shave 6 times a week, my 9 Stirling samples (each 1.1 oz) should get me about 15 shaves per sample so I am good for 135 shaves which is about 22 - 23 weeks. OK, half a year ain't bad!!! Wait, people can get away without doing 3 passes? Have never experienced that yet and may never will. I envy you. Rod and Amanda must really love Italians who love their soap!!
In addition to my Stirling collection - which is still growing - I have a couple dozen other soaps. I'm not one of those guys who can just use one soap until its done. I need the constant variety.
