Col. Conk's

battle.munky, the easy way to find out if the trouble is hard water is to try lathering with bottled water. Like Teiste says, Bert's Bees and Herban Cowboy have rather poor reputations, I don't know enough about EJ Aloe to give advice on it.

Williams can be a fine soap, but it has a reputation as being finicky to get a good lather from.

Conk's is made by VDH, so it I don't know why you have trouble with it. Which VDH do you have success with?

Also, be sure to have a look at the following video on soap lathering if you haven't already seen it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OIsj58fqVjY

 

True that our Queen.

I don't know how big the samples are, but either spend a lot more time loading the brush, or melt the samples into a bowl or mug that will allow a bigger surface area to load the brush. If you choose to melt, just short bursts in a microwave, 5-10 seconds at a time.

 

Yup. And I was going to say I must be doing something wrong because I don't have a problem with any of my soaps dying out - TSD, VDH, Col. Conk, Old Spice, Tabac, DR Harris, Taylors, Ogallala, Vintage Blade, Woods of Windsor, Em's, Speick.......just to name a few.:happy102

 

Cool. Let me refer back to this and try to find the sweet spot on the other soaps. I got the VDH down though, 'Tis my favorite and lathers like crazy.

Teiste, don't feel you have to apologize, I respect your opinion and appreciate you shooting straight.

I have seen that video Bill, and that is where I learned to lather to begin with, and yes I do lather, just for fun Queenie. I even tried to lather a bar of coast :happy102 .....didn't work well, got lather but it wasn't shavable, just for the record. By the way that can't screw up a brush can it?

Let me mess around for a few more days and I'll report back. Thanks fo all the swift advice, let me try to apply it and hopefully I'll rectify the issue.

Trash nothing, shower soap now, that stuff smells good. I get your point though, just not for shaving.


Almost forgot Bill, I'm using VDH deluxe, the pink stuff.

:thanks

 

I emailed them and a nice lady named Sharla said they would send me out some samples.

 

Yep, nothing to it huh? And in about a week you'll get this nice little envelope with some shards on Conk in it and a catalog. They are a bit pricey compared to other sites but it is nice to see all the shave stuff in one place.

 

Thanks for the heads up on the fact that they have a paper catalog.

Just sent an email looking for a catalog. Nice to browse a site, but really enjoy sitting out back with a cigar and reading magazines/catalogs.

 

I got my samples of Conk.

I received sample vials of the lime AS, amber AS, and almond ASB. The lime smells a bit like Simple Green, but in a good way (if that makes sense). The amber has a great musk smell that I would love to have soap form. The almond smells like you would imagine. A sweet, lovely almond scent exactly like their almond soap.

I received only one soap sample. It was the almond scent, which I already have a full puck of. I have to say that if I had not tried this product beforehand, I would not buy it based on the sample they sent me. It smells dreadful. Very chemically and nothing, I mean nothing, like the full puck I own. It smells very chemically and gross. I threw it out.

 

The Col. Conk almond was one of the first shaving soaps I ever used. It is quite good, and smells great. Col. Conks is also fairly inexpensive, and so can always be used as a bath soap if you do not like it as a shave soap. I got mine where I purchased my DE razor, but it is widely sold and should not be too hard too find.

 

Does anybody have anyone to contact to ask for the free samples? I've sent 2 emails using the contact link on their site have have heard nothing back.

 

That's odd. I heard back from them just a couple of hours after I sent my message through their contact page.

The lady that emailed me back was named Sharla and the email address she used was info@colconkproducts.com.

Hope this helps!

 

I've had a couple of Col Conk's pucks lying around for a couple of months now, and just tried the almond. Felt pretty much like my VdH (see comments by others above) in other words fine for me. Odor a little stronger than I like, but not unpleasant. I also have a puck of the lime.

For the record, I'm one of those who gets great results with Williams, and can't understand why everyone doesn't, other than because of hard water.

 

+1 on the almond

 

I never heard anything back, but I did receive samples and a catalog a couple weeks later.

 

I sent an email on their site, it wasn't until almost a week later that they replied asking for my address. They must be busy with all these catalog/sample requests from this thread lol!

 

I emailed them again Tuesday using the address supplied by Dulouz this time adding my address. I still haven't heard anything back but hopefully some samples will show up at my door eventually. Ill reply back if I hear or receive anything.

 

Ok, I have tinkered with all of my soaps again and messed around with a few creams that I picked up. I feel that I must agree with Teiste. I find C.O. Bigelow to be very good cream and also The Real Shaving Co., both being far superior to the Col's products with the exception of VDH deluxe. VDH deluxe is perhaps the finest shaving product I know of simply due to it being so cheap (inexpensive) and apt at the same time. I do prefer the creams right at this moment though. I tried bottled water for all of my soaps and they all performed the same as with tap water. I also tried different temps in the bathroom, steam, etc. to no avail. The only one that worked was VDH deluxe, and of course the creams.

I am not by any means knocking the soaps as I plan on experimenting, but for me, YMMV, and I won't hate you if it does, The Col, EJ, Burt's Bees, Herban Cowboy, just didn't produce a consistant and persistant lather even after several different attempts with different methods and different hydration levels. And besides, the menthol in the Bigelow is kinda nice. I plan on getting some Iced Sub Zero soon along with some other soaps as they arise.