I am in the Boston area for a wedding and there is an AOS in the mall just down the street. I picked up a refill of their soap in sandalwood. I have an empty Old Spice mug I am going to put it in. The girl at the store claims the soaps are triple milled, but when I said I was going to grate it into the mug, she said I could melt and pour it. Can I really melt and pour this or should i grate it?
First ingredient is sodium tallowate. I don't know if that's melt-able or not. I would say grate it, unless someone here knows firsthand. Melting MIGHT work, grating you know will work.
You absolutely can not melt these soaps as you would a melt and pour soap. You MIGHT be able to cut it into small pieces, mix it with water, and double boil melt it...but if you put it into a microwave you will get a useless soap puck that looks and smells like a burnt marshmallow. A friend of mine tried this before I could explain to him why it wouldn't work. AoS employees, for the most part, are not the most knowledgeable bunch, but that doesn't stop them from offering incorrect information as if they knew what they were talking about.
"You can melt and pour it" she says. Coming from AoS, why does it not surprise me? I've only met one AoS salesperson that had a clue. By the way, you're going to like the soap - good stuff.
Hmm, I wonder if they have changed the ingredients. The first one listed on this is potassium palmitate, and it doesn't have tallow anything on the list. It does have glycerin about halfway down the list. I bought a grater recently just for grating soaps, so I will grate this as well. Now the only empty mug I will have is the large Burma Shave one. That is going to be filled with Cella soon.
hmm... if they did change the formula, it was done recently. I'm looking at the box from the puck I picked up last year. Potassium Palmitate is ingredient #3.
She did say her boss told her you could melt and pour. I told her that I thought they should only be grated. She thanked me for letting her know that. I looked at a limited edition Thiers Issard straight they had. The blade was the same as my Dovo flowing but I don't think it had any spine work. The fancy scales were light colored wood it looked like and it was $250. It had a leather sheath with it. I don't see it listed on tier site, I'm guessing it us only available in the stores.
They changed the formula about a year ago. They used to be made by Valobra and were tallow based, now they're made in the USA and are veggie based.
The Valobra shave stick would be closest to the old AoS soaps, as it is a triple milled tallow soap. Their regular soaps are soft Italian soaps.
Yes, stores started getting the new veggie formula in Jan of this year. The staff has not been educated about the change, and some shoppers have been told that it's just a change in packaging or ingredient order. But as you found out, this is not the case. The old tallow-based formula can still be found from some vendors. (The lavender formula appears to be easier to source than other scents.) The new formula soap is made from a Palm oil base by P&G in the USA. While not as popular than the tallow-versions, the performance reviews are excellent. We soap fiends always cringe when formulas change, but the veggie AoS fortunately did not make the soap "nose dive" as some other re-formulations have (eg Pen's). One positive is that the distinctive "clay" smell that irk some about the tallow versions is not as prominent with the new formulation. Have fun in Beantown!
The tallow-first AoS soaps are/were my favorite. I just love the clay scent. I picked up a few pucks of "old stock" lavendar and one of sandalwood when they reformulated(should have bought more). I hear the new formula is good, but lacks the clay scent that I love.
I am having a good time in Beantown. Yay Bruins. It looks like like the sun is going to come out for the wedding pictures this afternoon too. I don't know if it's possible for the old formula to be much better than this. I don't have a mug with me, so I loaded the brush with this Sandalwood delight and headed for my face. The first thought I had was, wow that feels really creamy. I have a1960's vintage Wilkinson blade in my Merkur Sledgehammer Slant. One WTG, one XTG, and some ATG buffing and I am now smoother than a baby's backside. I used a warm face cloth to wipe off the remaining bits of lather them ran my palm ATG to check, and noticed how moist my face felt. A cold rinse, some Thayers alcohol free, a pass all over with an Alum block, followed by Pinaud Clubman, and I can't stop Faceturbating. I know it's a bit pricey, but I think this will always be in the rotation. Now to see if I can find some old formula.
I have just grated the puck into an Old Spice mug. This soap was fantastic with the Merkur Slant, tomorrow I will see how it performs with my Dovo Flowing.
So! lets say someone "hypothetically" tried melting the AOS soap prior to finding this site/forum; and realized it wasn't melting after 40 seconds and took it out, is it ruined? By the way, the soap started to burn and bubble up when I (I mean my hypothetical friend) took it out. It is Sandalwood, but stunk like hell and the top was sort of "ruined" but I cut it off and was left with what appeared to be warm but intact soap! Can I still use it? How would I kn ow it was no good? I am new to DE shaving (a few months) and was told by the clerk I could melt it in the microwave (who was I to question a professional, I'm just a noob). Finally, when you say grate it, I assume your using a cheese grater? After doing so, is there a way to get it back to a solid unit? How fine is it grated? I have a cheese grated that can do 4 different size, fine like parmesan, a little less fine, thin stringy slices like pizza mozzarella, and sliced! (I know that's sounds like a stupid question, but I wouldn't think you could grate soap to begin with!?) Thank you for any advice! Stay Safe! RWM info@bobmacs.com www.bobmacs.com
The soap with the burned part cut off should be fine, but the only way to really tell is to try it out and see. The majority of the folks who work at The Art of Shaving know next to nothing about the poducts that they sell. Once you grate the soap (using a cheese grater) all you have to do is press the flakes into a container and they should meld fairly well. Using a very small amount of water can help the flakes smoosh easier, but it's not really necessary. Mozzarella cheese size should be just fine.
If any of you guys have had a hard time finding the old art of shaving soaps with tallow, I found a nice stash here. Both the original and sandalwood scent are the old and discontinued tallow based formula.
