Could be water quality. Mines city tap and generally soft. Mineral content is mostly silica (sand) so I don't have to fight hard water issues. I still have an Omega Pro #20248. It's the big chrome handle with a boar knot dyed to look like badger. I enjoyed the stiff breakin process. After it softened, I tried a vinegar rinse to "clean" it. It got too soft and I hardly ever use it now. My latest new knot, an Omega Pro #10098 is great for the tall loft and scritchiness. I do mostly bowl lather and save badgers for creams or well hydrated hard pucks. I figured out I can get a badger to load if I use the same soap multiple times and it softens a little. Not owning a label maker I can tell which are the samples I pulled from The Box & those packaged by others. I had two samples of Coates Lime, but only one of DD coconut lime verbena. Same here. Last months Focus was using the same soap for a weeks shaves. A novel experience for me! Most times I haven't used the same soap twice on a week. Having so many samples to still try can make me nose blind if I don't choose one within the first half dozen sniffs.
Glad to do it. I hope you find some you like. Likewise, I appreciate the shavette. It is hanging on a stand next to my sink and is my ultimate goal. I've been advised to work through my DEs SEs and straights first, which I am doing, but it beckons me daily! I got to participate in a pass around of the Pannacrema Nuavia and the soap & scents are fantastic. Once I work through the tons of soaps and samples I've acquired in the last few months, I will probably pick up a tub of the Verde or Blu for myself. I'll have to check out some of the others you mentioned.
Through a series of misadventures including buying a brand new straight that was no where near shave ready, my first wet shave was with an ElCheapo half DE blade shavette. I know it was an ill advised move. Didn't stop me from moving forward. Later I got into straights,DE's, and SE's. Trial by fire! Don't let that shavette scare you. Yes it's an open blade with absolutely no guards. There's no cap to ride and that thin DE blade will punish improper technique. There's no harm, even some great advice in developing your overall technique before trying a shavette. On the other hand, that thing is setting there, staring at you...
This morning I tried the soap smooth Reiz. Nice smell, a little citrusy and a bit of a cool feel on the face. I'm not a big menthol guy, but this soap had a nice touch of something cool that I really enjoyed. Where this soap fell down for me is that the lather dissolved on my face so quickly that by the last part of a pass, there was not enough lather to easily tell where I had shaved and where I hadn't. It also didn't have enough residual slickness for a touch up pass without relathering. I got a good shave from it, but it doesn't make my top tier.
Very possible, Frank. I'm struggling a bit getting a consistent lather from the small samples pressed down in my bowl. It's a lot tougher than loading the brush from a tub and then going to the bowl. If anyone has any tips, I'm all ears.
I've not measured my soap use, either volume or weight. Seems I get best results using samples when I commit to using the sample by scooping it all into my bowl and going for lather. If there's any left over it's a bonus round and maybe another lather available. If I try to estimate an amount needed or choose to use a portion my guess is off. The results being enough lather for a 7 pass shave or substandard lather giving a negative impression of what could be a good soap. Hence the "load the whole sample" idea.
Yeah, I am probably cheaping out on myself trying to squeeze multiple shaves out of each sample and make them last. Now that you say it, it seems ridiculously obvious that this is the problem. "Doh!" Frank is not the only one around here who it a bit on the frugal side. I might give him a run for his money! Thanks for straightening me out, Rick. Sometimes I can be my own worst enemy!
Come to think of it, this may have been my problem "under guessing" route 66, as so many report getting such a good lather with it.
I didn't try samples of Route 66 soap until The Box. Straight to a tub of Barbershop Hop thanks to Charlie @wristwatchb last December. It's never failed to give great lather. The scent is good & strong as I like my products.
We're finally most of the way unpacked from our move, and I'm almost certain I lost the majority of the samples I took from the box... At least I got to sniff a bunch of stuff, and got a few other soap vendors on my radar.
I haven't made my way as far through the samples as I should but the pass around quickly made me a fan of Stirling and I purchased my first tub recently. Im sure there are some more purchases due to the passaround to come. Sent from my SM-G930P using Tapatalk
Well the straight learning continues as 2 WTG passes with the JR108 boar whipping up the Stirling Orange Chill into a nice lather. Although I've never had a problem with whipping up a good lather with Stirling @RyX's suggestion of using the whole sample and keeping or tossing the "bonus leftover soap" that you didn't need for a lather made whipping up the lather much faster and easier. I did have some hard soap left over in the bowl but questionably not enough to try and squeeze out another lather with it. Seems that by trying to guess the right amount and not waste soap I've been limiting what some of the soaps I've tried so far could achieve. Seems simple and stupid in retrospect, but trying to get the most out of each sample was totally counterproductive. Besides, since my SAD has put me in a position to have enough soap for the next decade, trying to squeeze an extra shave out of a small sample is just dumb. Lesson learned. In an unrelated thought, I have discovered (as has been mentioned before) that by the end of the passaround (i.e. where I was), soaps that were not sealed in closed containers had their scents intermingle to the point where it didn't give you a true representation of the true scent of some of the soaps. I would suggest in future passarounds to consider that it be a requirement that all soaps stay in the closed sealed container in the box (as opposed to ziplock bags). I understand the desire to want to make more room to add more containers, but putting those soaps in small, sealed tin containers would prevent this problem, particularly for those vendors putting in soaps and wanting a fair representation of their soaps out there. If I participated in another passaround I'd be glad to chip in for some smaller tin containers to keep each sample sequestered from the others. (Stirling sells very compact 4.5 oz tins). Just a thought.
Today's first observation is that @RyX did me a tremendous favor in encouraging me to put the whole sample in the bowl and go for broke rather than to be stingy and try to stretch them out. This has changed the quality of lather I'm getting dramatically. Oftentimes it means that I have to throw away a small portion of soap because it is not enough for a second full shave. Before this felt wasteful, but now I have realized that one good shave and tossing a bit of extra soap beats two mediocre shaves by a mile, and then some! Thanks, brother!
Now on to soaps - I have learned that for DE shaving, many soaps will do, but for straight razor shaving you have to be a lot more picky about the slickness and lather quality. It makes you a much more opinionated and discriminating soap user. I still consider myself a bit of a soap newbie, but here are today's small observations. I tried MDC today, which made me wonder what all the fuss is about. it's a good soap, but for my straight razor dollar, I'd take Stirling over it any day. Washed the brush and bowl out after two passes, and went for Glacial Wintergreen for the remainder of the Shave. Maybe I'm just used to the slickness and feel of Stirling. Maybe I've just got that lather dialed in better. Maybe I'm missing something. Or maybe people just get excited over what other people get excited about. Maybe YMMV. I'm open to thoughts and opinions on this one.
Glad my little bit of learning helped you in getting better test results using sample sized quantities. Another member dropped a quote of mine in his sig.file. "Life's too short for getting mediocre shaves" I still consider myself a newb on many facets of this whole huge field we call our hobby. MWF is one of those products that have a Love It or couldn't get a decent lather fan base. I did get it to lather from my Pass Around sample. If it was my "use it all" idea, or the naturally decently soft water from my city - I found it acceptable. That's it, just OK. No gourmet scent or superior qualities. The ceramic tub is nice to view in SOTD photos. Guess those that do squee about it may share a skin or beard type that benefit from the lanolin or some other quality. If I came across a puck in the fancy tub at 50% off retail I'd pick it up. My next step would be to experiment with adding some AS to give it a scent.
Once again thanks to Perry and all who contributed here for the great pass around. When I received the box, I was still a soap newbie and took a test sample from about 75% of the soaps, as I had no idea what I might or might not like and I wanted to try everything I could. Yesterday I did some more "weeding out" of a number of the samples that I no longer find to be keepers, and realized that my definition of a "keeper" has really been shaped by experiencing the large number of soaps in the pass around. I also realized that the more soaps I've tried, the more the bar has been raised as to what a "keeper" is. There are so many good soaps, that without sampling a large variety and comparing them (which the pass around allowed me to do) it is hard to distinguish the ones that are true standouts. I've also learned that some "standouts" for others are not necessarily standouts for me, and vice versa. I think if another pass around were to happen, I'd only end up trying 30% of the soaps, as I now have honed in on what I like and what I'm looking for. What a great learning experience and a great outcome! Still more soaps to review, but about 10 less than there were yesterday. Today's sample was L&L grooming. I've heard a few folks on other forums absolutely rave about this soap. Although the scent wasn't a standout for me (every soapmaker has scents that I like and scents that I don't), but the lather was rich and thick and held up well for 3+ passes. This is a soap that I might like, given the right scent.
Going through more Pass Around soap samples. Yesterday was Stirling Electric Sheep. Unlathered, the scent is extremely potent, and smells to me like a strong citronella candle. However, once it is lathered it mellows out a bit. Not my favorite Stirling scent, but as always, great Stirling performance. Today's shave was Mystic Water Raspberry Lemon. This scent smelled strong as a sample but really was hard to pick up much scent once lathered. Also, the lather was extremely slick, with plenty of residual slickness between passes, so performance was great. However, I was not able to make a thick dense lather from the soap at all. Having experimented in the dark ways, I am finding That I value slickness over dense lather, so this wasn't a huge problem, but most of my top soaps allow me to take the lather in either direction, depending on how much water I choose to add. This one did not.
That was my one full tub take-away from The Box. I like the scent from the puck, and find the lather very good. There was mention of a reformulation that made lather better for hard water users. I think the tub I got was previous formula. I have soft tap water so lathering isn't an issue. My enjoyment of this one leads me to considering their other tallow/lanolin soaps.
My water is municipal, but I know it contains a ton of calcium. I wonder if this is an issue. I may need to install a water filter for the bathroom sink
