This was somewhat of a blind purchase that occurred because the artisan participated in a lively thread on the board. I'm a huge fan of artisan engagement because when done right, good things can happen. So I message The owners of Black Tie and asked for a recommendation which by the way was spot on.

So before hitting the buy button a lot of inner thoughts were going on in my head, thankfully I got no responses to my inner questions which means all is well. My initial thought was unscented...great I have to do it myself. So why is that so bad? After thinking about it for a couple of minutes I came to the conclusion that it was not bad. As a matter of fact that is absolutely excellent. Why? I'm the first person to grumble when;

The scent isn't strong enough, or

The scent faded after a week/month/year.

Now I have control of that. The second big advantage, I now have an excellent unscented soap to change at my leisure, or not. Want a new smell, buy the oil and change it up. Lastly, this soap fills a void for me. LPL seems to have moved to a cream which was a mistake in my books. A hard soap that explodes with slick lather and great post shave feel is getting harder to find. Black Tie fills that void nicely.

Who's this soap best suited for? Those with scent sensitivities (the soap is unscented out of the hopper). Those who want a heavy scented soap (do it yourself) and those who want a lightly scented soap (do it yourself). A pleasure to deal with the artisans and an excellent soap all the way around. Changing a scent is as easy as ordering a new oil.

This soap is firm to the touch, but add some water, and the lather is ready to go. Thick slick no nonsense later. I'm on city services so the water is average. Can't speak to harder water but this lathers like a champ.

Skin feel was excellent, no burning, or anything strange. Went on nice and thick and left my skin feeling moist/ hydrated.

This soap was very, very slick. I would not recommend running a razor over an unprotected area, but if you had to, this soap could manage it, it was that slick.

See my thoughts below.

Absolutely no problems on that front. Well hydrated, soft skin.

I could use an extra star on this one, for $27 CAD shipped you get an LPL level soap.

An excellent soap regardless of price.

The only possible knock could be the small glass jar. On the positive, it comes in a small glass jar. I liked it, but some may not.