Jeeves of Hudson Street shave soap-New soap review

Discussion in 'Shave Soaps' started by thevez2, Mar 31, 2016.

  1. thevez2

    thevez2 uses Gillette's new Tarantula Razor - 8 blades!!

    Jeeves of Hudson Street shave soaps are made locally in Buckner, Missouri. I recently met the maker of these soaps, Bryon Postlethwait, at our recent Missouri Wet Shaver’s Meet-up. I bought one of his soaps, Conservatory, and it really is a game changer in the Shaving Soaps scene. After just a couple of uses, it has burst into my Top 5 soaps and I have well over 60 different soaps in my den.

    Being that I have over 60 soaps in my den, I had finally come to the decision to come up with a Top 5 list, and work on reducing the amount of soap in my den, paring down to just the ones I love. As such, I really had no interest in trying any new soaps. As such, I was a bit hesitant to give Jeeves of Hudson Street a chance. At the meet-up, Bryon pulled out some of his soaps for us to smell and did a test lather for us to see. I put a little lather on my fingers and it felt pretty nice, so I decided to give it a shot. Plus, I always try to support the local artisans. Of everything he had, Conservatory seemed to be the most pleasant to my nose. It’s a light, soft spring forest kind of scent. Hard to pin down, but it’s quite nice and not overpowering.

    I loaded up my boar brush from the tub and proceeded to lather up for my first shave in a bowl. I found that the lather was very easy to make. As normal, I went in with a brush on the drier side and added water until my lather came together. When I first put the lather to my face, I instantly noticed a difference from this soap to almost every other soap I have tried. The lather just felt better on my face. My instant reaction was that this lather just felt…. ‘soft’. There was no harsh or drying soap feel that some lathers have. It was more of a nice creamy feel. What it made me think of is the feeling that I get when I apply lather from Vintage Old Spice shave soap. Yeah, it was that good. I instantly knew this soap was in a class all by itself.

    The shave was great. Obviously there was lots of cushion in the lather. The slickness was great. My benchmark for slickness is Williams shave soap. And slickness is, mor me, the most important attribute a soap can have. So far nothing I’ve tried has ever surpassed Williams for slickness. But, the two that have come the closest are Mystic Water and Stirling. I’d say the slickness from Jeeves of Hudson Street is just a hair behind Stirling. So not the slickest I’ve used, but definitely among the best.

    The shave quality was absolutely amazing. I was using a Weck Med Prep SE razor with a blade that had over two weeks on it. The shaves were starting to get a bit rough. Yet, on this shave, there was no roughness at all. And I had the closest shave that blade has given me since it had 2-4 shaves on it. I could not believe what a difference that soap had made in the closeness of my shave. When I was done my skin was so smooth, I was really in awe.

    The post shave feel was very nice. My benchmark for that is Mystic Water, which leaves my face feeling very soft and moisturized. Jeeves of Hudson Street was tops when it comes to leaving my face feeling soft and smooth. The best I’ve felt in that regard. It was slightly behind Mystic Water in the moisturizing department. It was not drying at all, it just did not quite leave my skin feeling as moisturized as Mystic Water. But post shave feel is way better than most other soaps that I’ve tried.

    I’ve used it a few more times and found that is doesn’t matter if you come at this soap with a wet brush or a dry brush, either way it comes together nicely. Some soaps have a very narrow water window, and if you step outside that window the lather will be lacking. This was not the case with Jeeves soaps. The lather performs well in a wide range of wetness.

    The ingredients are: Water, Stearic Acid, Tallow, Babassu Oil, Cocoa Butter, Potasium Hydroxide, Sodium Hydroxide, Castor Oil, Fragrance and/or Essential Oils and Glycerin.

    This soap uses Babassu Oil which comes from the babassu palm. Babassu oil is quickly becoming a replacement for coconut oil in soapmaking due to it’s non-drying properties. I think this ingredieant is a big part of what makes Jeeves soaps so great.


    Pros: Soft, cushiony, and slick lather gives great shaves with great post shave feel.

    Cons: The names of the scents don’t give me an idea of what the scent is.

    Price: 9
    The babassu oil is more expensive than coconut oil, so some of the price is due to the higher ingredient cost. But you also get a full 7 oz of soap for $18, which works out to about $2.57 per ounce. This puts it inbetween the cost of Stirling and Mystic Water. So while it’s expensive up front, it’s an averagely priced soap.

    Quality: 10
    Scent: 8
    Lather: 10
    Efficacy: 10
    Slickness: 9
    Moisturizing: 9

    Definitely in my Top 5 soaps. This is well worth a try if you are looking for a new soap
     
    Paul Turner, brit, youngunn and 11 others like this.
  2. som

    som Well-Known Member

    Thanks for an interesting, detailed review! Added to my short (but growing) list of soaps to try.
     
    Spyder and crackstar like this.
  3. Drygulch

    Drygulch Snowballs

    I had my pictures ready and just needed to spend a few minutes writing my review on this soap as well. Hope you don't mind @thevez2, but I will add on to your review. I met Brian at the same Wet Shaver's meet up in Kansas City. Another note on the owner, this is a Veteran owned company, and it is what he does for a living. He is all in on soap making. I picked up to scents, Cherry Blossom and Turkish Bath. Cherry Blossom is a floral scent, rather than a candy like sweet scent. Turkish Bath is a barbershop scent, similar to Sterling barbershop, but with a little different spice to it. The thing that struck me on the scents is that they are subtle, and you still smell the soap through them. Sometimes soap scents are like a punch in the face they are so strong. These are nice and enjoyable, without being overpowering. I have used the two soaps with Boar, Synthetic, and Badger brushes now. No issues on making fantastic lather with any of my brushes. I do Straight Razor shaving, so I typically make my soap a little wetter than with a DE. I have been very impressed with the slickness and cushion of these soaps. I have about 20 soaps, and Jeeves of Hudson Street is in my top five as well. I second the recommendation to try them.
    IMG_3336.JPG IMG_3335.JPG
     
    Paul Turner, Shaver X, Spyder and 2 others like this.
  4. thevez2

    thevez2 uses Gillette's new Tarantula Razor - 8 blades!!

    Here is my lather:
    [​IMG]

    Nice thick application on the face:
    [​IMG]

    And it's nice and stable. Even the post shave lather looks thick and nice enough to shave with!
    [​IMG]
     
    brit, Spyder, Mike Brown and 4 others like this.
  5. Drygulch

    Drygulch Snowballs

    One other thing I like on this soap is that it isn't picky. Some soaps work better with certain brush types, or can be tricky to get the water ratio right. I haven't had a bad lather with this one yet, and I only have one other soap I can say that about.
     
    Paul Turner and Spyder like this.
  6. crackstar

    crackstar Israeli Ambassador to TSD

    Awesome-looking lather! :)
     
    Paul Turner and Spyder like this.
  7. richgem

    richgem suffering from chronic clicker hand cramps

    Needs more tarantula. I mean... uh... cow bell.

    The soap sounds tempting.
     
    Last edited: Mar 31, 2016
  8. crackstar

    crackstar Israeli Ambassador to TSD

    loll
     
    Spyder likes this.
  9. Spyder

    Spyder Well-Known Member

    Great review. I have their bay rum. I agree with your assessments on shave qualities 100%.
    I'll have to check out the Turkish bath, as Stirling barbershop is one of my favorite soaps.
    Thanks for bringing this soapmaker to our attention again:)
     
    Paul Turner likes this.
  10. Shaver X

    Shaver X Well-Known Member

    Wow, excellent reviews. Many thanks for that. It looks like Jeeves has a top-notch product. I like that they have both individual soap cakes and soap in containers. In my opinion, the subtle scents are also a very good thing. Nothing is worse than a shaving soap that doubles as a bug bomb.
     
    Drygulch and MarshalArtist like this.
  11. KLF

    KLF Doctorin

    I would like so much to try it but I have so many soaps already and more on the way. I'll wait a few years before buying again. Looks like great lather.
     
    Shaver X likes this.
  12. Shaver X

    Shaver X Well-Known Member

    You could always donate your excess inventory to kav so he could donate it to homeless veterans. Then you would have room for a new soap and the vets would be able to shave. :)
     
    youngunn likes this.
  13. Ruger1512

    Ruger1512 New Member

    Can anyone tell me how this soap works in very hard water?
     
  14. thevez2

    thevez2 uses Gillette's new Tarantula Razor - 8 blades!!

    What's your definition of very hard? I have hard water and it works just fine.
     
  15. Ruger1512

    Ruger1512 New Member

    I work at a plant that some water sampling and the lab that we have says it's over 10 gpg but that's as high as their test goes
     
  16. thevez2

    thevez2 uses Gillette's new Tarantula Razor - 8 blades!!

    My water hardness is 210-230 mg/L

    180 mg/L = 10.5 gpg


    Sent from my Spider-Phone
     
  17. Ruger1512

    Ruger1512 New Member

    I think I'll be getting some of this soap. Have you tried any of the mystic waters soaps? I can't get that stuff to make anything but big bubbles to save my life with my tap water. I've gotten it to work with distilled water but that's too much work for a shave.
     
  18. MarshalArtist

    MarshalArtist Psychiatric Help 5¢

    I know he was able to get good lathers in Afghanistan. He's the guy that did the How to Lather videos on the Mystic Waters site.
     
  19. Ruger1512

    Ruger1512 New Member

    If the water that they use in Afghanistan is processed like the water we had in Iraq it's pretty soft. Not sure how soft but it took a lot of extra time to rinse off
     
  20. thevez2

    thevez2 uses Gillette's new Tarantula Razor - 8 blades!!

    Mystic Water is my favorite soap. I've had no problems lathering it in hard water.

    And yes, that is me in those videos, lol.

    I will say that Jeeves soaps are easier to lather than MW.


    Sent from my Spider-Phone
     
    jwr3265 likes this.

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