I recently decided that i wanted to try out soap shaveing for the first time. Croatia being Croatia the choice is poor at the best of times,the budget low as it gets, and even finding a shaveing soap in a store is a pain. So i was quite pleased when i stumbled upon a soap in a local "lady store" and my happiness was even more when i saw the price at 15 kuna, that's under 5$ US. Hey it's wilkinsons I guess it isn't going to be too bad. So i I gave it a go that evening, soaked my brush, got my bowl, applied the soap on the bristle generously and tried to get a nice lather...once...twice...third and final time. The lather was thin, quickly disapearing and could get only a very thin layer on my face...so I shaved with my shaveing cream, although the smell was interesting a bit leomon and lime meets urinal cake, but not that bad. Did anyone have any experience with this soap? Maybe i'm doing something wrong, I tried changeing the amount of water, and working on it longer but nothing to be pleased of could be achieved.
Their soap sticks are great but the bowl is not very well received. As you've found out it doesn't work very well.
There are a lot of good shaving products available online, and more to the point there are a lot of great reviews on this site of soaps and creams, alot of which are very well priced (Im UK based and similar story here not much available on the high street) But if on a budget the Palmolive shave stick is great (50p here in UK) im sure Jeff AKA - CRACKSTAR would have a good idea what products are good and available in your part of the world.
Yeah the Palmolive cream is good I have some and there a few people using it on this site. i have some Polish creams LIDER and WARS both are very good. (and very cheap) about 2.79zl each
Although I've never used the soap myself, thin lather might (emphasis on "might") be caused by too much water. Just my two cents.
It's not a well liked soap. It's an extremely tough soap to get to lather. And to me it smells like a fancy Urinal Puck. That being said, with a lot of practice and hard work it actually can make a decent lather. Things that helped me were to cover it with hot water for about 5 minutes. Then Pour of all the water. Shake your brush a couple of times. Swirl you brush around on the puck, once you feel your brush is well loaded, keep swirling you brush on the puck for another 30 sec or so until the foam on the puck starts to look a little creamy. Then it's ready to be worked into decent lather in the bowl. It takes a little work to get this to lather, but it's not bad once you get your technique down. The most important step after you get it to lather, is to revel in your glory and throw the puck away as there are so many better soaps available at less cost out there and then promise yourself that you will never buy it again.
Quite honestly I don't like the Wilkinson bowl soap at all. Although I use mostly creams, I still enjoy using good soaps also, and that is not a soap I would recommend for several reasons. I have no problems getting it to lather, but I find the scent is not to my liking and there is also a lack of skincare. The Wilkinson sticks on the other hand, are a lot better. (at least to me) They smell very nice, and they have the same great lather and skincare as the Palmolive sticks. In Croatia, I don't know if they are available - I know in Poland they are, as well as Germany and Austria, and I believe also in the UK.
I've used the soap before, it's quite common in some stores here in Alberta. The key is to load a *LOT* of soap on the brush, and add water little by little as you basically beat the living snot out of the soap in a bowl. Face lathering I could never do with it. It takes a great deal of work to get a lather from this, but it's not too bad in performance.
Justin, you just taught me something. However, that scent is not nice at all to me. I also wish my skin wouldn't feel so dry and abused afterwards. If I use the stick version, I get very comfortable-feeling shaves with a lot of defense against dryness and irritation. Here in Montreal almost every pharmacie carries the Wilkinson bowl. I wish they would bring in the sticks!
Hey Monkeylord, the Wilkinson bowl soap isnt worth one Lipa In Croatia you can find some very nice shaving products locally. Palmolive Classic and Menthol shaving cream for example. The Brinell creams are even better in my opinion. Ralon Classic shaving cream may be not everyones taste (smellwise), but it is a quite useable cream.
I tried the blue bowl some time ago (sent to me from a friend in Canada). It's not worth the time or effort. Lousy stuff, imho.
Well the wilki blue bowl is in the trash bin, I took the advice i got here and got myself a Palmolive shave stick. The stuff foams in an instant and it was a nice shave all in all. i think I'm going to continue to use it but not as much as my cream...somehow cream feels better, though the palmolive soap will stay on
This one got donated when I weeded out my collection. The stick is OK but sadly not the bowl from my experience.
