I placed an order from PAA on this new formula & soap creation that has supposedly equal performance, if not better to the top tallow based soaps in the market today. I personally have no experience with any PAA soap products but, saw a very nice review from @mantic, the sharpologist "Lather just explodes off the brush within seconds. Performance as good as the best tallow-based soaps. Exceptional post shave feel." ~ Mantic 59, Sharpologist and a couple other reviewes on other forums plus this forum here and it piqued my interest. Plus the clever and aggressive marketing prowess of Mr. Smyth/PAA, I decided to take a chance. I ordered just one set from the Black Label Premium line in the Sauvage scent. Yes, a little pricey but, I figured why not. I'm a through and through tallow man with a couple of vegan based soaps from Grooming Dept, WSP & Wickham as those are the ones that stand out performance wise as far as vegan based soaps goes. Looking forward to this new offering as it is out for delivery today so, I wil be putting in a shave tonight with it and throwing out any feelers for anyone else who's inline to try this new base out. Sounds like it has the goods, ingredients below: "CK-6 is made up of some very Exotic Butters, Oils and Waxes from around the world: Kokum Butter, Cocoa Butter, Shea Butter, Jojoba Wax, Bacuri Butter, Cupuacu Butter and Murumuru Butter!" Hopefully, it performs as it's been hyped up to be....
I've used the Crown King soap from PAA before and I loved it! It's definitely a good soap all around and super easy to lather. If you're venturing into the non tallow world give French soaps a try as well like Pre De Provence there's also Caties Bubbles which is a great vegan soap. Sent from my XT1710-02 using Tapatalk
First initial impressions with the soaps performance with last night's shave. I cut and pasted from another forum.... That's about a thumbnails worth of product mashed into my bowl..... Lather starts quite quickly within the first 10-15 seconds.... 30 seconds in and the lather starts to get the volume I'm searching for... A minute in and we have a rich and creamy lather with good peaks and body..... No air, just a smooth and full lather... Before anything, I need to correct a statement in my prior post about the a/s splash bottle. Sorry Gents, there is no Pour reducer. It looked like it did have one but, once I broke the seal there was nothing. My apologies. As you can see with the lather shots, the soap was very easy to build and can take on quite a bit of water. As I added more and more water, the lather became thicker and richer but, not a full on dense and wet lather. It was creamy and hardly any airiness to it as it still managed to have a nice full bodied look in the bowl and on the brush. I would have to agree with one of the posters here that stated the scent is a bit different in the tub as to compared to when you start to make your lather. In the tub you get a nice similarity to the Classic Sauvage scent with a slight floral sweetness and musk vibe that is very pleasing. But, as you build the lather and apply it, the scent takes on a more powdery sweetness and that musk and flowery note seems to get lighter though, you can still catch light whiffs of it from time to time. Not bad, just different. Performance was very good. Cushion is solid not the best but, certainly above average. The soap allowed for a very nice glide and helped the blade on the shavette move along effortlessly. Once I cleared the initial layer of soap and hair, there was plenty of residual slickness left on my skin if I wanted to do a quick 2nd stroke to catch a couple stragglers. Another thing I would like to point out is that this soap has tremendous staying power once applied to the skin as I took a phone call as I was about to start my 2nd pass. I chatted for a couple of minutes and no dryness anywhere from the lather. No reapplication of lather was necessary and I just started the 2nd and last pass of the shave. It stayed hydrated throughout the whole shave. Very impressive. Post shave was very, very good. I won’t say excellent or superb because I believe it wasn’t there yet. But, I felt no irritation or dry feeling when all was said and done. My skin felt soft and supple and nicely hydrated. Did it feel Grooming Dept/Shannon’s/Wholly Kaw hydrated? No, but it was very close. And to be fair, sometimes it takes a couple of shaves and lather builds to get the ratios right with soap and water. So, I won’t definitely say it’s better or worse because I want to put some more time with it and one shave cannot give one a definitive answer. I’d probably like to try a bit more product next time and see how that goes. One more thing. The soap is like a croap but, more to the harder side. So yes, you can load your brush directly from the tub without much issue at all. It’s also just soft enough where you can scoop out a bit and place it into your bowl as I did. My first time with a PAA product and honestly, no disappointments with their premium soap line. The shave was great, the protection was great and the end result was great. It is a bit pricey, so one has to take that into consideration. Can it be a number one? In my den, that’s a tall order as you saw what I consider to be world class performers. No easy task, only time will tell. I look forward to putting the Doppleganger series to the test....
Got a 2nd shave in with the Doppelganger soap and it delivered a very nice lather with really good post shave feel. I used just a bit more product this time, about a finger nail and a half worth. Made all the difference from my first use with it. Dense, creamy and rich with excellent peaks and body. A 3 pass shave with the Old Type that was effortless and smooth. No nics or irritation to speak of. Post shave was definitely better than the first shave as my face was really soft, supple and moisturized. The extra product and a bit more agua really did it for me. An exceptional finish that was comparable to some of my top tier soaps. I'll get another shave in as 3 is a charm and if it yields the same results as this shave, PAA might have a serious contender here imho.....
Watching to see what the final verdict will be... Also curious, the Grooming Dept soaps seem to be out of stock everywhere I look, in addition I thought their site previously had a production schedule that I'm not seeing anymore. Do you happen to know if they have stopped production for whatever reason? Never seen this. What do you mean by "reaches i.b."?
Thanks for the review! Glad to see PAA coming up with a new formula, several other artisans have announced new bases recently (Lisa's, WK, GD) and i think its great that they are willing to experiment and make their products even better.
I wil chyme in with a quick thought on the LPL. I only have one of their soaps, the Santal Oud and it is an excellent performer. A very dense, rich and extremely well lubricating lather that can be produced quickly. It's a tallow based soap that for me offers top notch performance and outstanding post shave feel...
Today I with with Atomic Age Bay Rum's CK6 formula. I'm no expert at bowl lathering as I mostly do face lathers. Here are my impressions. (I could have put more lather on the brush, but left some in the bowl for people to look at to get an idea.) This lather is some thick stuff and even more thirsty than the previous Crown King formula. Very custard-like. Takes a lot of water to thin it out to a regular consistency. First, I soaked the soap in water for as long as it took me to brush my teeth. Then I only needed to load the brush for 3-4 seconds (7-8 swirls) and that is the lather I got. I could have kept building that lather into fluffier volumes than the picture shows. I should have shown you a picture of the 3rd pass's added water and re-lather in the bowl. I went through 2 passes with a small brush knot and still had PLENTY of lather from just that same initial small loading. I still felt like I over-loaded the brush after realizing how far the lather could be stretched. I think those guys in the videos who load CK soaps for like 60 seconds are pretty nuts. That's like pouring half a bottle of shampoo in your hands to demonstrate how to wash you hair. I could have gone for poofing up the lather a lot more. You can see how in the bowl the remaining lather is pretty thick and could explode even further if I pushed it. I just like that custard consistency on the first pass then I start adding water to make it slicker for the subsequent passes. I think this soap could be a pretty good value if used to its potential since it can make so much lather with so little soap (the previous CK formula is also good at making lather with light loadings). I think the shave seems a bit more 'oily' if I had to use a description. There is a thicker consistency to the CK-6 formula. I think it's more protective than the last formula. The slickness seems about the same to me. The post-shave is really good. I enjoyed the shave a lot. The scuttle's heat I think contributed to making the lather a bit thicker, but I have used the previous CK forumla with my other scuttle and this CK6 is DEFINITELY thicker.
I’m a sucker for Creed Aventus. And well, the recently released new Gray Label Doppelgänger CK-6 formula with the famed Creed Aventus scent was available so, I bit. I really wasn’t going to purchase another CK-6 soap but, I can’t resist the Aventus elixir. And honestly, this one delivers in the scent especially with the cologne/as splash and Star Jelly gel. As I’ve stated before, much better than average in performance and the scent is pretty good with decent projection and good longevity. I used a bit more product than usual with the soap and the lather was actually very good with excellent slickness and protection. Post shave was still just a notch below compared to my tallow based soaps but, very respectable. Another really good addition to PAA’s CK-6 line....
Great review (as are all of your reviews) Str8on2. Thank you so much for posting. Unfortunately the soap is a little richly priced for me.
Good luck and enjoy. It's actually a very good performing soap, I just prefer a tallow based soap as my skin reaps more of the benefits and residual effects that it has to offer. But, I will say that as a purely vegan soap it only is perhaps behind just Grooming Dept and maybe Wickham 1912 formula. Those 2 aren't slouches so, that's saying something about the CK-6 formula. It's a great performer with good scent strength. I may have seemed to play it's performance down in previous posts but, it delivers in lather, ease of use and great protection.