A Few Words About The Newest Grooming Department Soaps....

Got some of the latest GD soaps and finally tried my new Islands In The Sun and Before The Fire. Both are nothing short of outstanding on all dimensions. Incredibly, Mohammad and GD have upped their game. These new bases are totally unbelievable. And imo, seriously blow away anything and everybody else out there right now. All his hard work and dedication to perfection and developing and producing the highest quality product has definitely paid off. Well done!
As always...YMMV....

Grooming Dept just light years ahead of others when comes to quality of many bases. WK DM Tallow is outstanding but then there is Mo....

Grooming Dept just light years ahead of others when comes to quality of many bases.  WK DM Tallow is outstanding but then there is Mo....

Agree. This latest batch of GD pushed WKDM out as my #1 base.

I would have use Grooming Dept if he has a lesser formula and focuses on just one or two.

Over the months, I have use a few GD soaps; mainly duck tallow, normal tallow and vegan.

While they were great, their scent isn't for me (yes, personal preference), and they were a pain in the ass to get.

To me, they were averagely in the top tier category; excellent but nothing outstanding.

Grooming Dept just light years ahead of others when comes to quality of many bases. WK DM Tallow is outstanding but then there is Mo....

While I agree they are very good soaps, "light years ahead" is a huge overexaggeration if you ask me. Many soaps out there give me just as good in shave performance/post shave and many have way better scents. Just my opinion...

Grooming Dept just light years ahead of others when comes to quality of many bases.  WK DM Tallow is outstanding but then there is Mo....

While I agree they are very good soaps, "light years ahead" is a huge overexaggeration if you ask me. Many soaps out there give me just as good in shave performance/post shave and many have way better scents. Just my opinion...

What are your issues with GD scents?

Grooming Dept just light years ahead of others when comes to quality of many bases.  WK DM Tallow is outstanding but then there is Mo....

While I agree they are very good soaps, "light years ahead" is a huge overexaggeration if you ask me. Many soaps out there give me just as good in shave performance/post shave and many have way better scents. Just my opinion...

Yeah, I don't get it either. Many artisan soaps are extremely good these days and GD is one of them. But the bases are all so close that I am now just looking for enjoyable scents amongst the top tier soaps. I ordered the DFS soap and am hoping for a good result.

Grooming Dept just light years ahead of others when comes to quality of many bases.  WK DM Tallow is outstanding but then there is Mo....

While I agree they are very good soaps, "light years ahead" is a huge overexaggeration if you ask me. Many soaps out there give me just as good in shave performance/post shave and many have way better scents. Just my opinion...

What are your issues with GD scents?

Well, of the ones I've tried, it's a number of things. After the Fire was good but burned my face a bit. Ambrosia was awesome, but also lit me up even worse. The Mallard's are too gourmand. Pleasant, but not my preference of scents for shaving with. I thought Angel was just bad. It reminded me of walking into a tobacco shop or gas station where they have that section of cheap incense sticks. All the different incense smells mixed together. Flight and Wonderland were okay. I just didn't like them enough to buy a full jar. I liked Magnolia at first, but it was so strongly scented I got tired of it quick. I think that's all of them that I've tried. At this point, all of the soaps I use perform very well for me so I only keep the scents that I really enjoy. I am curious about the incense and rose scent. Maybe I'll pick that up eventually if I can catch it in stock.

1. Grooming Dept’s soaps don’t need to be light years ahead to be the very best.
   
2. Being the very best for some of us (like me) doesn’t make them the very best for all of us.  Skin chemistry and water content are two big sources of YMMV for shaving soap.
   
3. Being the very best today doesn’t make them the very best forever. Mohammad is a superb soap maker, but he has some superb competitors too.
   

I am now trying out B&M Vespers, the new Excelsior base, at a leisurely pace. For me, Vespers is at the moment running neck-and-neck with the non-Lusso based GD soaps.  (I don’t have enough experience at this time to make a more precise comparison than that.)  OTOH the Grooming Dept V35 pre-shave is at the moment light years ahead of any other pre-shave I have tried.  V35 has a huge, positive effect on the shave for me.

What makes GD soaps so superiour isn’t the scent as all unscented these days. Even the cushion and glide, while superiour aren’t light years ahead of competition. The single greatest property of GD soaps is the cumulative post shave skin effect. NOTHING tried to date can compare and nearly all other sosps can only boast of not deteriorating skin over time vis-a-vis GD enhancing skin ydration and tone. For those dealing with substandard water, suggest going distilled: it is inexpensive and delivers considtency to lathering.

Would be curious to have dfoulk chime in here as few if any have as much unbiased soap experience