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

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.

I have to agree with you. Most artisans end up offering two bases not only because it’s less confusing for consumers but it’s also easier to run a business this way. He should stick with a vegan and non-vegan formula and LEAVE IT ALONE. This way he can focus his efforts on fulfilling orders and other shaving products like the preshave. If I were him I’d pair down scents offerings to no more than 5 tops and do fun stuff with seasonals. Order fulfillment and availability is holding him back from doing really amazing things. I’d love to see more of his products readily available for purchase on westcoastshaving.


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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

I am not dfoulk, but I have tried quite a few soaps in my eight years of this journey and I, also, think this is one of the best soaps, there is. Nevertheless, I would not characterize it as having the best post-shave compared to other soaps, or it being 'light years ahead" as there are a few others that are excellent.
Everything comes down to a personal preference and we will not all like the same thing. If you enjoy what you are using that is what is most important.

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.

In several instances it appears allergies to the ingredients was the issue rather than any issues with the scents themselves then...

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.

In several instances it appears allergies to the ingredients was the issue rather than any issues with the scents themselves then...

Yeah, twice. And unfortunately, those were the only 2 I really liked. The 5 other ones I tried were either "meh" or I just didn't like at all.

GD makes good soaps for sure but in reality based subjective thinking, in no single area are they "light years ahead of the competition". B&M Reserve, Ariana & Evans, CRSW Glide and WK Tallow are all on par and in most cases superior. Like others, I have only found one GD scent that I like that has not given me some sort of irritation, something I rarely get from other soaps. If GD Tacit (unscented) ever gets restocked I will buy that one in a heartbeat. Post shave of GD leaves my face feeling a little greasy and quite sticky. I'm positive I would not want to use a GD soap for extended periods due to that cumulative effect. GD in no way matches the slickness of CRSW Glide in either initial or residual. Too many choices of bases and super limited availability unlike B&M, A&E, CRSW and WK which have a couple of bases, plenty of scent options and you can buy them NOW (and receive them shortly thereafter).

Don't get me wrong, I'll be back for other GD soaps at some point but way to many good performing soaps to make such declarations as put forth in the posts above.

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

I'm confused by your last line there. What qualifies as "unbiased" soap experience? What makes his opinion any more unbiased than anyone else's here? Unless you're a shill or super fanboi for a soap artisan, I would say most thoughts and reviews you read online are pretty unbiased.

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

I'm confused by your last line there. What qualifies as "unbiased" soap experience? What makes his opinion any more unbiased than anyone else's here? Unless you're a shill or super fanboi for a soap artisan, I would say most thoughts and reviews you read online are pretty unbiased.

Agreed, and from my understanding he (dfoulk) likes to "add his 2 cents" to certain soap makers formula. If they listen then he hypes them quite a bit.

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

I'm confused by your last line there. What qualifies as "unbiased" soap experience? What makes his opinion any more unbiased than anyone else's here? Unless you're a shill or super fanboi for a soap artisan, I would say most thoughts and reviews you read online are pretty unbiased.

I'll answer for him. Allot of the negative remarks are Reddit stools. You have a pretty heavy review of Mo's stuff but you have bought or traded for almost 10 tubs according to the posts above. That's allot of tubs for a base that burns your face or smells funny. If I have a bad experience I may by a different tub from a soap maker but I'm sure as shit not going towards 10.


Mo makes really good stuff. Like Wholly Kaw he misses the scent mark for me allot more than hits. I trade for his stuff and unload it if it doesn't work.

Facts are this. He makes more soap than Talbot or Bufflehead and eats allot of shit anyway for not making more. Especially on Reddit allot of the fanboys will defend sick dogs, multiple label issues, sickness, cheating spouses and a host of other excuses for missed windows for creation or distribution of soap. They get a pass that it's real life and everybody has enough soap. Mo has a much smaller operation than most of those guys.

Definitely not a fanboy since I never made a direct purchase. The half dozen soaps i have gotten have been in trades but the hypocrisy thrown at Mo is off the charts. If his base burns your face or smells funny don't buy 10 tubs.

Another set of facts. The guy makes soap and that soap sells.....fast. Also, I have found on the secondary market his soaps sell faster and for more $$$$ than any of the larger outfits like Declaration, B&M and MLS. Actually insert anyone not a European soap in here.

If he ever decided to put a business model in place for growth coupled with the shrinking purchases now that the boom has ended would be scary for allot of guys. You can see already a number of changes in the market from a number of soapmakers in this regard.

GD is a top tier base and top tier in a number of differing bases. That in itself is worth mentioning. Scent wise probably the weakest in his game followed by his overhead of offerings.

My advice like it was previously. Make the soap, cure the soap and label the soap. Then jump online and say what day it will go on sale. You don't do preorders so just tell it like it is. Quarterly small batches will be made and sold and to keep an eye on social media for sale dates. No promises not kept. No posts on when the next drop is....and so on.



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dfoulk has been hosting the largest ongoing soap passaround aware of for the past 2 years for one, with soaps from every major and about every minor producer included. So having literally hundreds of experiences with the various soaps and not being paid to opine, nor compensated on sales nor having a YouTube/blog franchise would make him a top unbiased expert in my opinion. Do you know others?

While most give honest reviews of their experience, if that experience is limited to a relative few soaps, the opinion is statistically questionable. For example, while possessing extremely sensitive skin and having used well over 100 soaps, would still say my perspective is limited

Finally, while scent is an element of a soap, it has nothing to do with performance so would place it last on any list of performance properties. It would be good to have reviewers separate out the elements and opine individually to know which should be prioritized in making an informed decision based on the review

DanLaw, you didn't answer my question. How does trying a lot of soaps equate to be unbiased? A lot of us here have tried hundreds of soaps. I just don't understand how his opinion is any more valid than anyone else's.

jaxstraww, I really couldn't care less about your opinion, but who ever said I bought full tubs?