The Czars Choice (Cilantro Lime) is awesome and I have 3 pucks of this but in the iced version. I have tried five of her soaps with this one being the best of the five and I also like her barbershoppe. Now this is aroma wise but I'm not really a melt & pour type of guy. I do like her bath bars over her shave soaps and her barbershoppe bath bar is the best version I have tried yet.
As most things I assume it's a personal preference/YMMV kind of things. Personally I don't care for them (meaning the shaving soaps) at all.
I tried several of them many years ago. I did not care for the formula/consistency. However, the scents were great.
I absolutely LOVE Mama Bear's soaps. Sandalwood Rose is my favorite scent of any shaving soap that I have tried. I like many other scents, and there are some that come close to being as good as the Sandalwood Rose, but none have surpassed it. I have LOTS of samples to try. I get the slickest lather with Mama Bear soaps. Even her bath soaps are very slick. She sent me a sample of a bath soap that had a great smell and it was slick enough to use for shaving. I already have a Stirling bath soap (Spice) and love it. I think Stirling Spice beats out Mama Bears Aged Spice. I'd say Mama Bear Bath Soaps are direct competitors to Stirling Bath Soap. YYMV
I also am a fan of Mama Bears soaps. I have heard of some people being sensitive to the fragrance oils used. The only one I have tried is the British Leather and the scent and performance is great so I will probably order more in the future.
I have only tried one. Patchouli. Its scent is very nice, but I learned quickly after buying that puck, that I hate hard soaps. Anything from a Croap to a medium is my happy point. I do not blame Mama Bear's soaps for why I do not prefer them, I think I just have a hard time lathering them. I have soft water so that is not the issue, I just stink at lathering a glycerin based hard puck.
Glycerine soaps tend to form a hard layer on the surface. Put some hot water on top and let it sit for a bit, then scrape the top layer of soap away. It should lather much easier then.
My apologies, I forgot to mention I bloom my soaps (except for creams obviously) and you are exactly right, it makes it much easier and then I slowly add water while lathering. I still have problems, maybe I just need a little more patience and I just need to work on my technique to lathering a hard soap. I read some techniques on here like using a pump method to add some air etc. Its just hard for me to get product within the brush... again patience
For me, using a wetter brush helped the loading/getting product into the brush. I may give my brush one good flick and that's it. I've even used enough water so that when I held the puck/container over the catch bowl, the suds from the puck ran over into the catch bowl. I also press down firmly and splay the brush on the puck going in circular motions, then I back off of the pressure and do it lightly so that the brush doesn't splay. Then, I go to the catch/lather bowl and basically stir and pump. I haven't had any issues lathering. Sometimes, I add more water from there - it depends on what the lather looks and feels like. Mama Bears soaps have produced the most lather and the slickest lather of the shaving soaps that I have tried. There are still several other brands I'd like to try. I hope that helps you. Let us know if/how it works or if you still get the same results.
Thanks Dubs and PlanofMan I think maybe it was because I was loading and then going to a face lather, and that it probably a no no with a hard puck load. That and I will try to splay more when loading to get more product up into the bristles.
