Reviews

Product summary

Black Tie Shaving Soap

Hardtop01 ·08-04-2017, 04:47 PM

Product price

$22

Product merchant

dominicr


General thoughts
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.

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

Slickness
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.

Scent
See my thoughts below.

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

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

Quality
An excellent soap regardless of price.

Packaging
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.

Comments


dominicr · 08-07-2017, 03:04 PM · in reply to #87
We'll be changing over to a plastic jar for the soap. The glass proved to be a little heavy for shipping. Also, was there further comment on the scent as indicated?
Hardtop01 · 08-07-2017, 03:34 PM · in reply to #87
My apologies, the comments actually appear in "my thoughts" although upon re-reading the review I glossed over it. The scent which is a tobacco/cigar type scent was excellent.. that nice middle ground between cigar smoke and tobacco leaf scent. Interesting thing that I can't really explain, the scent doesn't hit you in the face but rather lingers on your face and in the background. I don't have any other soaps that do that. It's like getting the middle and base notes up front without having to go through the top notes (usually carried by the menthol and or alcohol).
Lipripper660 · 03-10-2018, 04:05 AM · in reply to #87
Great suds. I have El Jefe and Casino Royal. Use them as a pre shave and often use the soap unscented. My son just stole my El Jefe for a beard oil.
dominicr · 03-15-2018, 02:55 PM · in reply to #87
Thanks Lipripper660. I take it by that moniker you're a fisherman?
Lipripper660 · 03-15-2018, 09:48 PM · in reply to #87
Yep! Headed out tonight for two days of steelheading. No shave until Sunday morn. Perhaps Black Tie will fill the bill!