I haven't noticed that with the tallow based one.I shaved yesterday with one of those and was great,nice lather and cushioning(with face lathering btw).Now I wanna try the new formula one.....:ashamed001
Did you order the Arko? I will give you mine. Mama Bear has great sticks. They are the "clear" kind, which I prefer.
Yeah, I've got two coming. Thanks though, and if it turns out I like it, I may hit you up for it - I hate seeing things not getting used....
The La Toja stick works really well. The scent is not memorable, but not bad at all. But the performance of La Toja is great. I've gotten really great shaves with it. Just thought I'd throw that out since you mentioned La Toja in your original post.
I have used the Erasmic in bowl which I assume is the new version which is glycerine based. Works fine of course but tallow version seems to lather better( I am not a believer that tallow is ALWAYS better). Honest to god I still think Arko is much better. Too many Arko haters out there but dont care! I love the certain crowd that praises D.R. Harris, Penhaligons, Floris, Joris, Trumpers, C&S, etc. Overates them b/c of there high cost. Kind of comical but I believe there is that belief that spending more achieves a better shave in which I would/should think that if I dropped a chunk of change on a soap it should as well? Oh well! Big dogs need to stay in business somehow and as most high end retailers know.....there is a sucker born every minute. Edit: before the basher begin....I do think that the overpriced stuff works fine....in fact Joris, Trumpers(old and new), D.R., etc work fine and are good soaps but really just aint worth it!
Mate, you just called people who like high priced soaps "suckers". That qualifies as bashing in my book. I don't overrate any soap because of its cost. One of the best soaps I have ever used is VDH Deluxe; I think it's better than most of the soaps I've tried. I have a homemade soap from a member on SRP that I got for FREE, that IS better than many soaps I have used. But Penhaligon's, Tabac and D.R. Harris, for me and a great many other people, work better than Williams, ARKO, and most other soaps. Why would you insult anyone because of that? No one has ever said "people that like ARKO are suckers." No one said that ARKO is a bad stick, in fact. They HAVE said that the scent is pretty powerful, and it is. To me, it smells like a bathroom cleaner the janitor at my elementary school used. Why would I want that on my face every morning? If you don't have that same experience, great! Enjoy your ARKO, and let me enjoy my shaves, with both expensive AND cheap products, without insulting me.
Didnt mean to offend you. Changed my edit btw. I guess my point is that regardless of how high a product sells for there will always be a demand. Why drive a vette when you can drive a Ferrari? Ferrari must be good b/c its expensive? I was basically trying to say cost has 0 relevance when it comes to the quality of shave soaps. Thats it I think Plisson brushes are overpriced as well as Floris products but thats another thread
I would have to agree with you, except with regards to Coates Lime. That is some AMAZING stuff! Clearly it would be worth AT LEAST $200/tub.:happy102 It's almost as if the gods themselves dropped this shaving jewel in our laps! (Note: The Coates Lime issue is an ongoing joke between Shawn and I - to clarify, I DON'T think it is worth $200/tub - maybe $2, but not $200. So I hope no newbie goes out and buys an overpriced tub on my recommendation here.) Regarding shave sticks, though, I have downsized what I use, and of the soaps I am keeping, most are shave sticks, and I consider them some of the best products out there - Speick, Palmolive, Irisch Moos. Of those, and of all my soaps, the Irisch Moos is the moost D) expensive, and it came in under $20 shipped. My second favorite cream right now is Tom's of Maine Mint - which was selling for cheap before it was discontinued and could be had at local organic food grocery stores. The shaving brush that is quickly becoming my favorite is my relatively inexpensive QEDSelect silvertip brush. The only "cheap product" I just can't get to work for me is Williams Mug Soap. No matter how hard I try, I just can't get a good lather from it. Why go expensive - there is an ABUNDANCE of really great, quality products that can be had for $15 and under. I set the limit at $15, because my TOBS Mr. Taylor cream is still my absolute favorite for creams.
::mat Thar she blows! Thar's the Original Topic!!! So, aside from Harris and maybe some artisan glycerine sticks, I've pretty much hit the end of that road, huh?
Sorry about that. Sounds like it...And color me impressed! I thought I loved sticks...How's the Lea/Bea? Worth a search? I've got a couple of Wilkinson sticks on the way...they were so cheap I ordered two from some guy in Poland (who, by the way, got WAY too much of my money last week. CRAZY cheap prices, and a really good inventory of stuff. Lider Active and WARS and stuff). If I can find your address (hint hint) I'll reroute one your way.
Bea/Lea is the same,but for some reason they changed their name,It used to be Lea,changed to Bea and now is Lea again.They work really good,a nose behind to La Toja shaving stick(and we know HOW GOOD is La Toja) Wilkinson shaving stick is nice but not as Palmolive or old Erasmic or Speick. Its a middle of the road shaving stick,like Arko I would say.
:happy102 No problem...it's not like I've never been guilt of that myself... :ashamed001 I'll let you know when they get here....I thought they were just different scents of the same soap, but maybe not after reading Teiste's post... :happy088
After reading a few different people praising Arko, I picked up two sticks. I love this stuff. I know some people are turned off by the scent, but there's something about it I really like. It starts strong and fades into a nice, clean scent. The price is amazing. It has an amazing lather that just seems to explode off the brush. It may just replace my MWF, and I love my MWF. I might take one of my MWF pucks and rework it into a shave stick.
I did just that awhile back- actually did a mix of MWF and Tabac since I didn't have a whole lot of MWF to begin with. It turned out well. Here's the thread- there's a little trick to making tallow based shave sticks (don't use a heavy hand) so if you want some advice, give me a pm. http://www.theshaveden.com/forum/showthread.php?t=12251 BTW- Arko is awesome...I agree. It is in my top 3 favorite soaps now...
I am pretty much using sticks exclusively now, I currently have Speick, La Toja, Tabac, Irisch Moos and D.R. Harris Arlington. I picked up the Harris and Tabac new off the BST on another forum for $21 shipped, I thought it was a pretty good price. I agree with boy that the Harris is overpriced but man is it some nice stuff, the one I have lists tallow as the second ingredient. I am planning on ordering some Arko and Palmolive sticks soon, working on getting a tallow version of Erasmic. Cheers, David P.S. While Tabac and Irisch Moos are very similar they are not the same formula.
