Ogalla Bay Rum Shaving Soap - OLD FORMULA!!! ..I bought the ogalla soap based on some members liking the After Shave and Cologne.. And the scent IS wonderful - earthty - spicy - all that one can expect from a classic like BayRum.. But thats all it is in this soap - a nice scent. When lathering you get heaps of... foam.. No other word to describe it.. very light, airy fluff.. That with a crackling sound just dissapears.. Just 30 seconds after you apply this fluff to your face its gone... without a trace.. well it leaves your skin rather slippery, but its unusable as a shaving soap.. Maybe a base for superlather.. I have tried all my skills in Lathering - less water, more water, more soap, whipping in bowl, directly on face, I even got a boar brush to try.. but alas - same result.. I did once get a sticky goo when I used almost no water and swirled the soap for like 5 minutes.. It too was useless.. I soo much wanted to like the Ogalla - but NO!! So gents - save your money.. It may be a nice scent, but thats all there is..
Interesting review I agree on a few things, but disagree on a few others. When I first got this soap, I lathered it up, same airy/frothy lather, same lack of lather lifespan, same worry about getting a good shave. But I figured I'd at least try it. Lathered up the face once, then had to relather b/c most of the first lather I put on disappeared. But, then I started to shave. Picked up my trusty HD and cringed w/the expectation of hair being pulled and razor skipping. Made the first downward swipe from my sideburn and regardless of the definitely mediocre presentation of the lather I got virtually no hair pulling/razor skipping/irritation AT ALL. Felt my bare skin where I'd just shaved and there was still a super slickness to my skin. Not at all like some creams where you don't DARE make another pass on a patch of bare skin w/out relathering. Shaved my first pass w/good success, especially if I splashed a bit of water on my face where some lather had gotten especially thin. Lathered up for my second pass and noticed two things. 1) The lather actually looked better than the first pass and didn't dry as quickly and 2) I got a better lather by building it on my face instead of the bowl. Finished my shave, rinsed off, then finished my post shave routine. One other thing I noticed about this soap is that the scent doesn't linger around afterwards, AT ALL. This may be good for some who want part of their morning to be bay rum but not the rest of it. Others may wish the scent stuck around a bit. The second day I used this stuff, I filled the entire tupperware tub that the soap was in w/hot water and let my brush soak in the same tub (I use little glad throw away tubs for my soaps) and then dumped out the water gave my brush a couple of good shakes, charged my brush really well w/about 20 swirls and then proceeded to take my time and build a good lather directly on my face. Much better lather presentation, lasted a bit longer, but my skin was no slicker than my first shave w/it. This is definitely a good soap for people that like to blade buff at the end of a shave. No need to relather w/this stuff, the most you'd have to do is wet the skin where you're buffing a bit more and that's it. I only have 2 real complaints about this soap, and they're both kind of double edged swords if you know what I mean. 1) This stuff makes your skin so slick that if you're the type to pull parts of your skin taut to shave it, you might not be able to w/this soap. It makes your skin too difficult to hold onto to do this. 2) While the lather obviously has some staying power problems, I found this soap to be a bit difficult to wash off. The lather rinsed fine, but I had to do a couple of warm water rinses in order to get the slick layer of soap or whatever off of my skin. Keep in mind, I'm not saying it left my skin oily or anything, but when you wash it off you can definitely tell when you've gotten it all off b/c your skin is no longer slick. I bought a full puck of the original bay rum, and I got a generous sample (about a half puck each) of the other two scents. I liked the original bay rum the best, the one w/limes & peppercorn second and the cedar & sage last. But YMMV as I'm not a big cedar fan. So, if you're the kind of person that needs a soap that creates a really good looking lather I'd stay away from this soap. But IF you're the kind of person that can deal w/a not so good looking lather, but a really slick soap w/good scents, this might be your ticket. Oh yeah, one last thing. I don't think these are hard milled soaps, but at the same time I don't believe they're glycerin based. Because of this, these soaps CANNOT be melted. Almost ruined my cedar & sage sample by trying to. ~Joshua
I'm disappointed to see a bad review here. This was my first soap purchase, and after a few months of trying out various soaps and creams, Ogallala is one of 3 favorites. I purchased the Ogallala Bay Rum sampler box: 5 scents total. I have used 4 of them to this point. I have never had a problem getting good, lasting lather, while I've had to fight with other soaps and creams. The scents are just right for a great shaving experience, and to add to the bouquet of your wash room. Ogallala Bay Rum is another in the line of great craft soap makers that outshine many of the mass-produced products out there. I would highly recommend spending a couple bucks to try this product for yourself. Reading the reviews from over a year ago, I'm thinking that something in the recipe has changed. The previous poster mentioned that he could not melt his puck. I have melted and poored all of my samples into mugs or bowls, no problem.
About the new Formula from Ogalla And yes, youre right - Ogalla has absolutely changed their soaps.. Nowdays its a good nice soap that works very good.. But at the time the first two reviews were written (about the old formula) it was not.. Ive changed the title of my old review to try to point this out.. Hope this helps! *********************** About the new formula... The scent is still one of the nicest Bay Rums out there (IMHO).. And now its a good soap.. A tad hard to lather but overall very good...
I was sent a whole puck of the bay rum & lime with an order of the cologne. Unfortunately it really is not up to par with other artisan soap makers. Ease of lathering - Sure, the lather exploded from my shave brush but it was 'fluffy". Think cotton fluffy not dense at all. Life span of lather - The fluff remained in the bowl for moments before evaporating. I tried adding more water...less water....nothing helped. Moisturizing - the one pass I made with my HD and Dorco blade did very little. When I washed my face to continue with a different soap, my face appeared very dry. Lubrication - zero Protective - also zero. Scent - reminded me of floor cleaner. Price - $5 a puck if purchased, free if you get it thrown in with an order. Would I buy again - Not really. If given the choice to use Edge gel or this, I would go with the Edge.
