*** As always these thoughts are my own. I am not being compensated, coerced, held at gun point, and or have any stock in the products in the review. I am simply reviewing a product for which I paid for in the hopes that it will shed some light and insight on said product for those who may be curious about it. With these thoughts being my own please take what I say with a pinch of salt and a tall glass of water. YMMV. *** Martin De Candre Original Martin De Candre (MDC).... one of the most talked about "luxury" shaving products in the community. It is a soap with a reputation so mythical you would think that fairy dust and unicorn hair are the main ingredients. It is considered by many to be the pinnacle of shaving soaps and to others the most overrated thing to hit the wet shaving market. With every product you will have over the top fan boys as well as those who cant stand the product. If you are lucky and search hard you will find people (IMO like me) who while enjoying or disliking a product try to give an honest review without swaying towards one side more then the other. All right lets get this review underway. Price: I got my jar from Old Town Shaving Company for $69.95 + $5.75 shipping which brought the total price to a staggering $75.70 grand total. That scream you just heard was my wallet yelling for mercy. This to most people it quite a steep price and to those who can afford it will more then likely also agree that this is no small investment. For price I will rate this a 3/5... just middle of the road for me price wise and I will explain why and more as this review goes on. Packaging: Inside my envelope was a white box wrapped up in almost an industrial factory's worth of bubble wrap (this made me very happy as at this price any damage to the soap would have resulted in me going mental) to ensure that the box and soap arrived in tip top shape. For packaging I give this a 5/5. Visual Aspect/Looks: After you unroll the 20lbs of bubble wrap you see a decent size cardboard box embossed with the MdC logo on it. The box looks nice but it is just a box and not what I am interested in. Open the box and I see a piece of paper with instructions on how to use it, special care and maintenance tips, and recommendation's on what type of brush to use. Move the paper off to the side and pull out the jar. All right at the expense of sounding weird the jar is just beautiful (it's just a glass jar though.... what's so special about it?). I get it guys, it's just a jar with a sticker and a lid on it but if you have a jar in front of you and you really look at it just the way the stickers are put on look like someone really cared about it. It just has a classy look to it IMHO. For visual aspect and looks I give it a 5/5 as like I said it just looks elegant to me. Scent: You can get 3 scents of MdC (Original, Fougure, and Unscented). I got the original as the last jar I had was the Fougure and while I loved the scent I wanted to try the Original. The original is described as lavender on the Old Town Shaving site and while I do get lavender it is not what you think and not the only thing I pick up. This not your girlfriends typical lavender body wash or lavender scented candle. This to my nose is a raw lavender, it is more earthy like wild growing lavender then the lavender you normally find in shampoos, body wash, and candles. It is a hard to describe scent and the only thing I can compare it too is the dryer sheets that my grandmother used to use when I was little. I personally enjoy the scent so for scent I will give it a 5/5. Ease Of Lathering/Lather Quality: You often hear with MdC that you just have to look at the jar and it lathers itself as it is often quoted as the easiest soap to lather. Well I did my normal prep before I hopped in the shower which consists of soaking my brush and blooming the soap. After I am done with my shower I squeeze my brush out so it only slightly damp and I throw the bloom water from the soap onto my face to rehydrate the whiskers. I normally load for between 15-30 seconds with most of my soaps before I start to face lather. I was able to work up a great load on the brush in about 10 seconds. Went to the face to begin lather and this stuff just explodes into a rich creamy lather. My 4 pass shave had great cushion and glide and no dissipation at all. After my shave my face felt great. No drying or anything. For Lathering and Quality of Lather I give it a 5/5. No complaints in this department at all. Post shave feel was also very well and will rate the post shave feel a 4/5. Overall rating and some info and thoughts about MdC: Weight:200 Grams Ingredients: Stearic Acid, Cocos Nucifera Oil, Aqua, Potassium Hydroxide, Glycerin, Sodium Chloride, Parfum. Overall rating I have to give this soap a 10/10. I did not factor in price to the overall rating as price and if it is worth it will be different to each person. All right so I rated it a 10/10. It is a perfect soap to me. Amazing performance, classy look, lasts forever and a day. So who would I recommend this too and is the price tag worth it to me? No one and no. Here's why. While I will not recommend you to buy this soap I will encourage you to buy a sample or ask a friend who has some if you can try it out. Unless for sure you know you love this stuff I can not recommend something this expensive to anyone to just buy on a whim. If you get a sample or have the chance to try some and you like it then yes I will recommend it but not for a blind buy. On the other hand you could always resell it if you don't like it for little to no loss if you decide to buy it on a whim and don't care for it. But Ray, you rated it a perfect soap... it's one of your desert island soaps how can you think it's not worth it? Well I have two reasons. Number one is I got invested into it and believed all of the over the top hype. When I purchased my first jar I was expecting this soap to shave my face for me, cook me breakfast, give me a back rub, and sing me a lullaby each night. While too me the performance hype is spot on I was slightly underwhelmed. It is an amazing soap but I bought into the whole "soap to end all soap" mentality that surrounded this soap. At the end of the day this is a top notch soap IMHO no questions asked... but this is a soap I only buy when I can afford it and want a little "pampering"... I have been out of MdC since October and have just now got some back in the den and there is a reason. As well as this stuff shaves and performs.. as many days since I ran out where I wanted to have a MdC shave I still got great shaves without it. I missed it at times but in all honesty... post shave when all is said and done does it leave my face any smoother or better feeling then my $1 Arko stick? Nope. Not at all. While I enjoy using this and it is one of my favorite soaps you do not need to spend a ton of money on a soap to get a great shave. If you have the money go ahead and knock yourself out. Just don't get sucked into the hype that if you are not using a $75 soap that you are missing out on anything really special or that your current setup is inferior. Once again these are just my thoughts and opinions. I am neither right nor wrong as these are MY thoughts and opinions. YMMV.
Great review! Once again, this is like judging wine: one score with price factored in, one score based on the soap alone. Disregarding price, MdC is a winner. Period. I will maintain that if you never tried MdC, you have lost out. But if you don't want to spend that much, you'll live just fine with other soaps that perform as well. Almost. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Top-notch review, Ray! Thorough, honest and direct. Being a fan of the product myself ( I have a 200g jar of both the 'regular' and 'fougere' scent), I heartily agree with your observations on both the quality and attributes of the product, as well as the obvious financial stumbling block of paying $70 for a tub of soap. For me, buying MdC was an indulgence. By purchasing a jar and using it regularly, it also indulged my curiosity after hearing so many shavers rave about it. It may not be the 'perfect' soap for everyone. There are some shavers who don't care for the scent and others who find the soap causes post-shave dryness. Still others are simply NOT dropping that much coin on soap, either due to budget or principle.
A fantastic review, bro. When I read the price you paid my wallet jumped out of my pocket and is hiding in the house somewhere! lolllllll I don't think I know anybody who can review a product like you!!!
Nice job! I appreciate the humor and brutal honesty. You're just the type of guy I want on the next review crew.
Excellent review. And it re-enforces a couple of things for me: Please understand that I am in NO WAY passing judgement on people who buy this. I just have multiple artisan soaps, and an old classic, that give me "The Perfect Shave." I am always looking for new soaps, but at that price?? I have no clue what else to look for anymore, other than new scents.. We would have to have some sort of shaving renaissance for a dude's shave to actually improve. I just can't see buying it when I can buy a half dozen different artisan's soaps for the same price. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
Nice review. I plan on picking this up at some point to see for myself but just haven't gotten around to it yet. You're lucky to get a glass jar, MdC switched to a similar looking plastic jar earlier this year.
That's a shame. If I ever order from them again, it'll be the wooden bowl. Thanks for the review @Mr. Freeze93 ! Until you order soaps directly from MdC in France, you have not seen 5/5 packaging! I don't know who or what they have hired to package their orders, but he/she/it is a perfectionist
One comment I forgot so I'll add now: the soap lasts forever! (hyperbole alert!) I purchased two jars several years ago and have used both fairly regular in my daily rotation—and both only have a slight concave dip in the center of the puck. It doesn't take much to lather a brush. New 200g jar of the original scented …. Recent photo: Same jar, after several years and MANY shaves later…
FYI. Sometimes it pays to go to the source. Martin De Candre is having their summer sale now offering a 10%discount on purchases. A jar of MDC Fougere costs $56.17 delivered.
I agree and if you go in with a buddy you can further reduce the cost per jar shipped. It is one of the few soaps, I will have in my rotation at all times.
Good point and thank you for bringing up longevity of the product. I am not someone who likes to go back on his word or change his mind but factoring how long my last jar lasted (3 years+) I think I may be singing a different tune on if it is worth it to me now. Factoring in the giant price tag but as well as how long it lasts it is actually similar to buying a puck of Tabac for me.
It does seem that cost/shave on some of the higher end soaps seems to actually be quite low. That is something I often forget when considering buying a product. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
This is the only "high end" soap I have used so I cant compare to others but I am a "load it like you hate it" guy and like I said my last jar lasted something like 3 years and 2 months. I get about 150 days out of a puck of Tabac so comparing it to MdC, Tabac is in the long run more expensive.
Glad you enjoyed the review. Well seeing as they are having a sale I obviously need to buy 2 jars... you know.... to save money?
