Here is my in-depth review of Mornington Shave Co soaps. If you want the short version, skip to the bottom for my summary. I heard about Mornington Shave Co and checked out the website (https://www.morningtonshave.com/). The ingredient list looked promising, with lots of ingredients that seemed to lend themselves to a good soap. Here are the ingredients: Stearic Acid, Green Rooibos Tea Brewed In Aloe Vera Juice, Tallow, Potassium Hydroxide, Castor Oil, Glycerin, Sodium Hydroxide, Allatoin, Cocoa Butter, Shea Butter, Kokum Butter, Royal Jelly, Lanolin, Vitamin E, Licorice Extract I haven’t seen the Royal Jelly or Liquorice extract in soaps before, and the other ingredients looked good, so I PM’d the owner, Camden, and asked him if I could buy a couple samples off of him to try out. In the spirit of full disclosure, Camden gave me a good deal for the samples, but I’ll try to be as subjective as possible for this review. I’ve had about 15 shaves with this soap over the last couple weeks, both with DE’s and straights. Anyway, here is what are the categories I’ll be reviewing: Scent: Very subjective, so I’ll just try to describe and give a strength level. Slickness: How slick was it? Did slickness last between passes? Lather stability: How long did the lather stay around? How “thick” was it (Does it disappear)? Protection/Cushion: Did my face feel irritated while I was passing the blade along it? Post-Shave: Is my skin moisturized/feeling “good” after the shave? Price: These soaps are 15-16 dollars for 6oz in a PLASTIC TUB (I incorrectly said that it was a glass jar). I didn’t actually get a tub, so I can’t really speak to their thickness/lid type. Scent: I got Foresta Di Rosa, Abstergo and Chauler samples, his three current scents in his line up. I’ll add that he has an unscented version, which I’m very grateful for as a person with sensitive skin who likes having unscented soaps. I would say all of these scents are “light” in scent strength, and don’t stick around after the shave-I can’t smell them on my face or hands about five minutes after the shave. I don’t mind this, and didn’t get any irritation from any of the scents, which is relatively rare for me, so I like this scent strength, personally. Camden is working on Aftershaves, so far as I know, so look forward to those. Foresta Di Rosa: I would call this a sweeter-type rose scent-The website says it has Rose,Cedar,Musk and Patchouli, but I mostly get a sweet type of rose, although admittedly I don’t have a great way of describing scents. Chauler: This one has a kind of sweet vanilla scent, although there is a little bit of sandalwood and amber that come through (notes described from the site). The sandalwood isn’t prominent, but mixes with the amber/vanilla note. Abstergo: This one is described as an Italian barbershop type scent: Notes are Rosemary, Lavender, Patchouli, Oakmoss, Cedar and Amber. This one was my favourite scent-I usually don’t like barbershop scents, as they’re too powdery for me, but the Cedar and Amber mix with the combination of the herbal/barbershop notes to make the scent more than barbershop, but kind of herbal/warm. God, I’m really starting to drone on. Alright, so we’re finally getting to the soap: It’s a croap. Cella-like consistency, maybe just a touch firmer. There. Latherability/Stability: This soap lathers best (I found) with a fairly dry brush, then slowly adding water. It then lathered easily for me and made a solid lather that didn’t dissipate for me. It wasn’t quite as thick as lathers I’ve gotten from soaps like B&M and Stirling, and it would thin out slightly during the shave, but it also didn’t dissipate or cause any issues for me. It reminded me of a Tabac lather-not the thickest but very creamy. Like I said, the lather thickness wasn't an issue in performance at all, but it wasn't quite yogurt thickness, if that is important for people Slickness: This was a fairly slick soap, and my razor always glided well over my face when I used it. If you hydrate the soap properly (not difficult), you’ll have a good amount of slickness. It’s not quite as slick as my slickest soaps (again, B&M and Stirling for me), but was definitely up there in slickness. I didn’t have any issues going over areas again with my razor, both with or against the grain. This was due to the solid slickness and the protection this soap gave (see below). Protection: This is where this soap really shines-whenever I was shaving, I never got any irritation while the blade passed over my face or any residual irritation between passes. This soap really did a great job in the protection department. The level of protection it has, combined with good slickness made shaving with it very enjoyable. In one case I had irritation from a rough blade I should have swapped out, and this blade helped mitigate that irritation. Post-Shave: After the shave process, my face consistently felt moisturized and with no irritation throughout the day. It also had a “supple-ness” that denotes a very good to excellent level of post shave. SUMMARY: A croap-consistency soap with light scents, good slickness and very good to excellent protection and post-shave. I would say this soap is a strong competitor with the top-of-the-line artisan soap makers out there nowadays. It’s not my absolute top all around performer, but I would say that it is making its way into the top 5 for me, which includes soaps like Mike’s, B&M, and Tabac. The lather thickness isn't quite yogurt-like thickness and thins somewhat, but this didn't affect performance for me. For $16USD for 6oz, you're getting a good deal on both soap quality and quantity. I can definitely see myself picking up one of these soaps once they are available to Canadians, and wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it to people.
CORRECTION: I have been informed that these soaps come in plastic tubs and NOT glass jars-sorry for any confusion or if anyone bought the soap because of that factor.
