In case you don't have time to read: it's great. I know plenty of you guys have experience with this stuff but I have to share my own. I've had this puck of vintage Colgate Cup Soap for a couple of years. Not sure of the date; it seems to be post-1953 (no "Peet" on the puck) but pre-1980s Mug Soap reformulation. It came in an antique cup, so no box to examine. I hadn't used it yet mostly because I wanted to get better at lathering, but also for other inertia-related reasons. I also have an Old Spice mug I haven't used, so Friday night I got a wild hair, decided the mug and soap were made for each other, and said, "This is it." The puck is too small for the mug, and I wanted a good fit, but we don't have a grater...what to do? Yep -- apple corer. It worked like a champ, but I'll get a grater before doing this again. I made several passes to break chunks into smaller chunklets and scraped it all into the mug. Due to the unrefined size of the chunks, the texture, and the age-yellowing of the soap, it looked like a bowl of chopped tuna. Whenever I rinsed my hands of soap particles, I got a slickness that reassured me and set high expectations for the shave. Add water and commence to mashing the chunks down. I poured excess water from the mug but didn't worry too much about drying it out; extra hydration wouldn't hurt and would evaporate out in due time. It wasn't pretty, but I went to sleep with dreams of vintage, tallowy lather. The next day, it was still not pretty, but now also crusty. No worries. Set my Vie Long boar/horse blend to soak while I shower. Afterwards, cover the soap with some of that water while I shake but don't squeeze out my brush. So, with a soaked but fairly dry brush, I pour the water off of the soap, load for about 15 seconds, then head to the bowl. Hm, lather looks good, add a little more water. Looks good, add a little more water. I went through this 3 or 4 times, playing chicken with the lather, trying to push it as far as I could. It just kept taking water, getting thicker, and filling up my bowl and brush, until I finally gave in, afraid to keep going. "That'll do, soap. Let's shave." Wait, one more pic: Okay. The puck has a basic soapy scent, but it loses that once lathered, leaving only a slick lather. (Razor for this shave was a '54 Super Speed with a Wilkinson Sword which already had a few shaves on it.) First pass WTG is fine, very nice. Second pass XTG, great. Still a lot of lather there, and it feels so good... Now understand, I'm a two-pass shaver, and I always get good results from that. I never go ATG chasing a BBS. Fast-forward to a little while later: I'm grinning and telling my wife to feel my face. She gives me "that look" but indulges me. Her eyebrows raise (in a good way) and she says, "Ooo, you've never been that smooth. Like a baby's butt." Back to the shave: Yep, ATG. There was still plenty of lather, it was still feeling so nice and my blade was still gliding across my face, so I dove into a third pass ATG. I won't start doing it every day but it felt good. THEN I lathered the back of my neck for a single pass. THEN I still had enough lather left to play with it for a minute before cleaning up. In short, it's great stuff and I look forward to using it up. Thanks for reading.
Great story. Thanks for taking the time to put it all together. I have not had the opportunity to use the Colgate SS. I hope to be able to find some one day in the wild.
Thanks. I've heard how good vintage Williams is but I haven't tracked any down yet. One day.... I do like modern Williams also, so I expect the vintage, by comparison, will be like getting an original text versus one that's been through the photocopier a thousand times.
If you like modern williams then you will be blown away by vintage williams. It lathers like crazy and is very slick.
Nice review! Vintage soaps for the most part, have wonderful performance, the scent may be gone, but the quality of the lather makes up for the lack of scent IMO. I am waiting on a puck of the green Palmolive/Colgate soap I won on the bay a few days ago. Haven't tried it, but am looking forward to it. Some other great vintage soaps are: Vintage Williams Yardley (both the shaving stick, and soap in wooden bowl) Royal London (hard to find, but wonderful lather)
Thank you. The lack of scent doesn't bother me. I don't typically wear a scented aftershave or cologne because I don't want it following me around all day. I will make exceptions -- I recently started a nice friendship with Tabac - but I'd rather have a clean slate. I really just stumbled on to this puck of Colgate because I wanted the cup it was in, but I'll be getting some more vintage soaps. I'll keep your mentions in mind, as I wasn't familiar with Yardley or Royal London.
Yardley comes in several types. The wooden bowls have different designs, some are a black label, some are green, I managed to find a Yardley Shaving Stick, and a NIB Black Label soap at a local antique store $5 for both. A few years ago they were selling on the bay for around $100, but they can be found for reasonable prices nowadays. Vintage Williams is another one that can be found locally sometimes for a decent price. The Royal London soap is one I found, but had a hard time finding very much info about it, but the lather is one of the best I have seen.
Very nice! I've used a pocket knife before and it works pretty good. I like using old vintage soaps even if the scent has faded. Nicely done.
