To preface my review, I have no connection, personal or otherwise, with Haslinger soaps or Italian Barber (the site from which I found some of my information). I am a traditional wet shaver in on an endless quest to find high quality shaving soaps. Haslinger of Austria has been manufacturing shaving soaps since the late 1800s. Haslinger Schafmilch Shaving Soap With Sheep Milk And Lanolin soap comes in plastic wrap. Its appearance is a cream white colour. It is a hard soap, but soft enough to dent with your fingernail. I have used this soap about a dozen times now. My razor is a Gillette Heavy Tech and I use Astra SP blades. Ease of lathering: (10/10) I have done several lather tests with this soap and in short, this soap is a lather monster. In every instance it very quickly produced a great lather with just a few swirls of my shaving brush. In this regard, I have tried hard, medium and soft brushes (boar and badger) and in every case it was very easy to load the brush. After no more than 15 seconds of swirling the brush I had a full brush. I have soft water, so your YMMV depending on your water hardness. I am generally a face latherer. I also tried this soap on my palm with different brushes. I did not try bowl lathering. There is no need to bloom this puck. The lather was thick and creamy. I would not call it a thirsty soap but you can adjust the consistency to your own preference. For these reasons I gave it a 10/10 for ease of lathering. Life span of lather: (9/10) The lather lasts a long time. Once applied to my face the lather showed no sign of deterioration, though after a few minutes it started drying…as would any soap. I easily had enough lather for several passes. Again, adjust your water content to achieve the right consistency that is right for you. General skincare: (8.5/10) There are several ingredients in this soap that have great moisturizing properties for my skin. It is a tallow based soap. I don’t have dry or sensitive skin and I generally apply a post shave balm. Again, depending on your skin type you may need/want to moisturize with an AS balm (YMMV). Lubrication: (10/10) Haslinger Schlafmilch soap is very slick. It reminds me of MWF in terms of its slickness. It makes it easy to get a great shave with little irritation. How protective: (8/10) Always a difficult thing to judge. I am not an aggressive shaver and my razors are fairly mild (Gillette Heavy Tech with Astra SP blades). While the lather is slick, it is not ultra-protective, but it still performed very well. Scent: (7/10) The scent is advertised as “Sheep Milk and Lanolin”. I don’t know what sheep milk smells like, so I can’t comment on that point....and I can't really detect the lanolin (as a scent). There is a very mild perfume scent, but it is not unpleasant and it dissipates quickly with rinsing. It is not a scent free soap. Price: (9.5/10) On the Italian Barber website this soap is priced at $13.30 CDN / $9.95 USD for a 60g (59 mm diameter - 22 mm height) refill puck. (About the size of a Williams puck…maybe a bit smaller). I understand in Austria/Germany where this is produced the pucks are very inexpensive (around $5). Would you buy again: (10/10) Absolutely. In fact Haslinger makes several other soaps (I will eventually write a review on each one). I would easily put this soap on par with MWF, though I don’t believe the puck has the lasting power of a MWF puck. Overall: (9/10) I am impressed! For me this is an absolutely great bargain and it is an awesome soap in terms of lather and post-shave properties. The only drawback for me is that it does not come in its own metal or glass tin. If this was to be a daily soap I would probably put it in an Old Spice mug but because I have about 20 soaps in my rotation I prefer glass or metal tins for storage. I only have positive things to say about this soap. This one will make it into any wet shavers list of “Top 10 High Performance Soaps”!
Great review. I have this soap. It is a great performer. I dont think its as good as mwf but its a very good option for those that have trouble lathering mwf.
An excellent, very thorough and well written review. I have heard good things about the Haslinger soaps, and now have some detailed information to go on. Many thanks for that, Rusty blade!
Thank you for taking the time to write up a thorough review. I have the Haslinger Coconut and it is also a good performer.
I have the Sandalwood. I really like how it lathers for me both face and bowl. I have HARD water so loading takes a bit longer. I pretty much agree with your review of Haslinger soaps. Very nice review by the way.
Nice review, well written I have two Haslinger soaps (Honig and Ringelblume) and I really like them. They lather easily, smell nice and perform great. And, as you stated, they are relatively inexpensive. You can get a 60g (2 oz) puck for about $4 here. But in terms of price vs. performance I found a new champion lately: nothing beats La Toja at $2 per stick (not counting the shipping cost from Spain)
Thank you for the great write up and review. I have the Haslinger Sandalwood and find it to be a very good soap.
I was thinking I would write a review on each of the 6 Haslinger soaps that I have (Schafmilch, aloe vera, coconut, calendula, sage, sandalwood) but I think there would be a fair bit of repetition...my only comments would be on different scents. This is a great product line...yet you don't see that much chatter about Haslinger soaps on the forums compared to some of the more popular soaps/creams. Great price, great lather. My only disappointment with this soap is it doesn't come with cool looking glass or metal containers to stack on my shelf.
I agree it really is a good product does not get a lot of press. The scent of the sandalwood is so faint it could almost be described as unscented.
