In praise of Stirling Soaps...

The Ben Franklin scent has become one of my personal favorites. At first, I wasn't sure if I liked it or not. But after using it for a while, I love the stuff! It does have a bit of a "root beer" scent- although not nearly as sweet as root beer. it is rather pungent taking a whiff off the puck. But after lathering, the scent transforms very nicely.

 

My order from Stirling arrived yesterday. I got one puck each of Sharp Dressed Man and Vanilla/Sandalwood. Included in the package was a sample of the Ozarks shave soap and Rosemary Mint soap. Since I am a relative newbie and have only used TOBS Sandalwood cream in tub, that will be the basis for my review. I did do a test lather of all three soaps last night and used the Vanilla/Sandalwood for the morning shave.

The soap was easy to load and produced a rich thick lather with my Whipped Dog 20mm Silvertip brush. The protection and slickness of the soap was much better the the TOBS cream I have been using. The sent of the Vanilla/Sandalwood was very pleasing to me with a very light sent post shave. Much more on the side of Vanilla than Sandalwood. I used my 34c and had my best shave to date. The overall experience I would give a rating of 8/10. I look forward to trying more of Rod's soaps in the future. As many have noted the quality of his customer service was fantastic.

Clint

 

As with most others, I've had great customer service from Rod, and got a few samplers from him to try out a few of his scents. The lather that I've made with Stirling soap is always thick and slick, and makes it easy to go over an area a couple of times with little lather. Sadly, something in these soaps makes me react, so the post-shave feel and cushioning isn't as good as other soaps I've used. That being said, I'll always highly recommend Stirling soaps to anyone looking for a good artisan soap at a great price.
I won't give a numerical value, as I've only been using shave soaps for about 3 months, but I'll describe what the scents were like for me.
Scents:
Anise: Nice strong black liquorice scent.
Frozen Tundra: Probably my favourite scent from Stirling; the smell is tough to describe, but Frozen Tundra is pretty much bang on; it reminds me of the smell of snowy ground in winter. The menthol level is great too; not a face-number like Glacial, but enough to cool you down
Glacial Wintergreen: The big freeze; love the menthol burn I get from this one, although I'd have liked a little more Wintergreen scent in it.
Black Ice: Nice amount of menthol, lighter than Frozen Tundra, with the same liquorice scent as Anise.

Rod's scent list is incredible, you could shave for years on his samplers alone.

 

Tried black cherry and vanilla sandalwood

 

I have only used the sandalwood
I got it courtesy of the traveling box tour.
it is a very nice soap, makes easy lather, smells good, feels slick, and my skin feels nice after.
GOT NUTHIN BUT LUV FOR IT.

 

Black Cherry
It lathers just as every other stirling soap. Thick. Slick. Protective. However the scent is exactly what you pay for! The whole bathroom smelled like black cherry. I had the nerve to wash it down with Black Pepper Lime Aftershave Splash. I smelled like a Cherry and lime popsicle for hours. Every kid I saw liked it. I don't know if I'd wanna smell like that all winter though. Summer most definately! I see that is safe for me to say that Stirling uses a consistent formula base which is why they all mostly perform the same. Which is good! I'd buy a puck of this once every two years. However my favorites like Sharp Dressed Man, Glacial Obsidian and Coconut Lime I'd have to have in an everyday rotation. Post shave was beget than usual, maybe cause I let the lather dry on the face then I revived it with water and more boar... I will try to repeat the same level of skin conditioning tomorrow. Afterall, I'm getting the "Godzilla" of razors.. the Stainless Steel Maggard MR8.

Scent: 8/10
Ease of Lather: 8/10
Slickness: 9/10
Lather Stability: 8.5/10
Skin Conditioning : 8.5/10

 

Had my first experience with Stirling soaps this week that I picked up in The Great Mystery PIF!!

Tuscany sample
So I'm really bad at describing scents and fragrance notes but I really like Tuscany. It's pleasant, light and spicy.
A few years ago I spent a summer in Puerto Rico and this scent reminds me of that summer for some reason.
I thought it was going to take a few tries to dial in but I was easily able to produce a thick, slick lather the first shot. The post shave was nice.

Glacial Spearmint sample
Smells like chewing gum. For some reason it was decidedly more difficult to lather than Tuscany but once I got there it was nice. It has a strong menthol kick. I really prefer menthol in aftershaves more so than soaps so I don't think this is going to be a winner for me.

I still have four more scents to try but so far I'm impressed with Stirling soaps.

 

I have to admit the Glacial Spearmint sample I had took an effort to get lathered properly but once I got it going it was great, and did it ever freeze my face off!

 

Since I used nothing mentholated today, for tomorrow it'll be the MITA which is also VERY nice and mentholated. I love that soap.

 

Stirling Soaps has a few new scents in!
GLACIAL OBSIDIAN is back!
Mogadishu Hope (new scent and new formula ONLY $5.00 -limited run... comes in a tin)!
GLACIAL ESKIMO TUXEDO (Sharp Dressed Man in Glacial)!
GLACIAL LAVENDER!

 

I'm still waiting for the Lemongrass & Cajeput soap....was supposed to be in stock 2-3 weeks ago...

 

2 Swirl Lather Stirling Soap(pt1):

I did it.

 

2 Swirl Lather Stirling Soap(pt2):
here's the second part... it in actual use

 

I just tried the above method with Stirling and Mike's. I was skeptical about the quality of lather that you could produce, but I managed to make lather that's just as good as any I've made in the past with them. I used 3 swirls instead of 2 (mother forgive me) and made enough lather for at least two passes with each soap.

 

Porter, glad to be of service. I was just trying to see what I could do. I learned something and shared it with everybody... what did I learn? How important heat with moisture is to soap.

 

I thought that you'd pick up as much soap as you would otherwise, with the hot water loosening up the soap, but I really don't think you do. Can't wait to try it on the Fat.

 

This is making me think that many soaps are a little bit overrated...That we can get good lather from many types of soaps. Just add more heat and let the water break it down before loading. Some may be fussier than others but the same rules apply: heat + moisture + time = softer soap more readily loadable. I think only creams load better... till a liquid shave soap hits the market. Lol. I'll try it on my hard to lather Ogallala Bay Rum tomorrow. I doubt I can get 8 passes with 2 swirls but I'm sure it'll load better than the std 30-60 second swirl everybody is accustomed to. (Won't video it though.) All this has done is shut down my itch for a Martin De Candre 200gm tub that I didn't really need (but kinda want).

BTW secondary observation... with this ultra hot water blooming technique I find the brush mostly picks up soap slime that's produced in the two swirls... it doesn't tear off whole mountains of soap... the brush doesn't get a chance to (so long as your not digging your brush in - I didn't... I just watched and let the brush suck up the slime). #shaveOn

 

Nice video RB X.
I'm still struggling with Glacial Spearmint so I may try that method over the weekend when I have time.
I usually soak my triple milled soaps similar to that but typically don't on softer ones - just using hot water from the tap, I've never tried the tea kettle.

Tried two more varieties...

Stirling Clean sample
Smells like Badedas soap but I don't know what Badedas soap is – I do like it, really a nice clean scent.
I don't see it on the site anymore so it may have been discontinued.
Performance is good, similar to Tuscany.

Electric Sheep sample
Scent was alright, kind of lemony I guess but nothing to write home about.
Performance was really great, I think the best of the lot so far.

 

I can't wait to try the Glacial Tuxedo. Being a SDM addict and a new found love for the freeze of glacial I had to do it. Now, he has so many new scents... My Den may be taken up with Stirling.

 

Gentlemen, who am I to brag and to call myself a genius when I know very little. I will say that it was my idea for Rod to create a lavender-scented Glacial soap. We discussed it back in the month of July.