I was recently asked if I would be interested in sampling a new soap in return for an honest review. I agreed and let me first say that I have no vested interest in this company; I am not being compensated for this review and promise to give my honest opinion regarding this product. The soap I have been asked to try is from the company: Moon Soaps. Her (this is a one-woman-run company) website is moonsoaps.com where you will find the ingredient list for this and all her soaps. The soap I am going to review is Havana. This will be a multiple-part review, as I do not believe one can give an educated opinion after a single use. Havana comes in a hefty, brown, hard-plastic bowl. There is an interesting label, which immediately calls to mind a cigar ring. There is also a side label, which I find useful, as I store my soaps stacked. There is also an easy-to-read ingredient list. You'll notice right away, that coconut oil is the first ingredient. I am going to say right off the bat, that I find coconut oil tends to be drying. I am going to reserve judgement for now. The ingredient list is filled with words I can pronounce and recognize. Fifth ingredient is Tallow. From the website: "locally sourced tallow (rendered in house)" Interesting. I am curious whether or not this process makes a noticeable difference; operative word being "noticeable". There is 6oz of shave soap. There's quite a lot of soap in this jar. If you, like me, have a rotation of shave soaps, you can expect this to last for a while. Retail price for this soap is $17.00. Doing the math, that works out to $2.83/oz. I'll leave it up to you, whether or not you think that is a good price or not. The soap is soft. It appears to be hand-packed. I could easily press my fingers into it. Regarding the scent: From the website: "Havana is an intoxicatingly fresh and masculine scent mix of Tobacco and Bergamot, with middle notes of Vetiver, Spice, Musk, Warm Vanilla, and Aged Teakwood" At first whiff, my nose caught the scent of coconut; not overwhelming, but present. Bergamot and Tobacco are the primary notes. I am not yet getting a significant nose of vetiver. It should be noted, that I consider myself a connoisseur of vetiver. We'll talk more of the scent in part 2. It was not my intent, nor will it be, for the purpose of this review, to see how little soap I could load. That's not my style and I believe the reader will get a more honest review, if I approach this soap like I do all my other soaps. The ONLY exception is that for this preliminary lather, I did NOT bloom the soap. I used a Simpson CH2 Synthetic brush. I easily created a thick and shiny lather. You'll notice right away the micro-foam. There are still, however, air-bubbles present. Using a wet finger, I tested the slickness. Good-very good. The lather seemed to be stabile and in the brief time I had it in my palms, showed no signs of dissipating. I will test this more rigorously tomorrow. When I pressed my palms together, the soap adhered to itself and created some nice peaks. I then rinsed off the lather. The soap-scent lingers even after preparing dinner and washing dishes and while I type this. That's a strong scent. That's all for part 1. Tomorrow, the shave... Thank you for reading.
Thank you for taking the time to post the review. Good review. Might look around and purchase some. I got more than I need now, though.
I'm anxious to read part II. I've been thinking about grabbing a tub of their Old School shave soap. Unfortunately she doesn't do samples. I want to hear how it performs during and after your shave. The pictures of the lather with that amazing sheen is so promising. Sitting on the edge of my seat.
Looks like you have done a good job her site crashed. If anyone can get in touch to let her know it might help her. @Primotenore. 0848h up and running again.
Opens fine for me. But I really want to hear part 2 of the review..........<===Smacking my lips and rubbing my hands in glee. Eeewwww. That’s gross. The glee thing.