EASE OF LATHERING: This soap is incredibly easy to lather, a few swirls on top of the soap and even a soft and relatively floppy brush like the Kent BK4 produces a veritable mountain of lather. Whilst many soaps are able to quickly produce lots of foamy but ultimately insubstantial lather which need some tweaking to get right, the Yardley soap produces a thick lubricating lather straight away. The ease and speed of lathering is one of the stand out points of a soap which has many great features. LIFE SPAN OF LATHER: The lather produced by this great soap is wonderfully stable. As I already said, the soap produces a rich, voluminous lather right away and thankfully this lather has incredible staying power. The lather produced by soaps is thinner and less stable than most creams, not so with the Yardley soap. This soap can absorb an incredible amount of water without breaking down at all. MOISTURISING: Whilst there may be more moisturising soaps available, this soap suits my oily skin perfectly. It leaves my skin feeling wonderfully soft and comfortable after a shave. It shows no tendency to dry the skin out, nor does it make my skin more oily. A perfect balance. LUBRICATION AND PROTECTION: Ths soap scores a perfect ten on both counts. As mentioned earlier the lather is incredibly stable and the soap is very forgiving when it comes to soap/water ratios. This means that you can mix a thick protective lather for a straight razor shave or add more water if you want extra lubrication. This soap is virtually foolproof and whatever you decide to do in terms of soap water/ratio you will be rewarded with a rich lather that is both slick and incredibly protective. The lather produced by Yardley shaving soap rivals that produced by any shaving cream, and it eclipses any other soap This soap is so good that I got rather silly with the number of passes I performed the first time I used it, but after I rinsed the lather away there was no razor burn or redness my skin just felt amazingly comfortable. SCENT: This is an old soap and I honestly don't know how the passage of time has affected the scent. However what remains is still very strong. The scent initially has a medicinal quality, but there are definitely floral undertones in there. After the shave the scent transforms into a classic barbershop scent along the same lines of Erasmic cream. It won't interfere with any cologne one may choose to wear, but it has a tendency to linger on the skin. PRICE: This soap cost me 6GBP on ebay, but given the fact that Yardley shaving soap is a finite resource it is worth much more than this. Based on its performance I would say this soap is easily worth ten times what I payed for it, it really is that good. WOULD YOU BUY AGAIN? Hell yes. In case I have failed to convey just how good this soap is, let me say it one more time: THERE IS NO MODERN SOAP THAT IS ANYWHERE NEAR AS GOOD AS THIS! SUMMARY: This really is an amazing product. All in all this soap shows just how inferior modern products are, there is nothing remotely comparable to this soap. Tabac is a wonderful soap in it's own right and is the one available soap that comes close to the Yardley product, but side by side the Yardley is the hands down winner. Easy to use, incredibly forgiving and capable of providing the best lather and subsequently the best shave you have ever received, this incredible soap ia a reminder of just how good the products of yester year were. Like many of you I embraced my AD's and have built up a huge collection of soaps and creams. But whilst I have this product in my rotation, everything else is just going to be gathering dust. Sure, I'd like to be able to save this soap for special events, but it's just too good not to use. The discussion thread for this review can be found here.
