A serious question on Soap/Cream Reviews

I've rarely bought a product that I hated, in part because I do some research and read posts and blogs and try to focus on posts/blogs written by people who seem to have similar tastes to my own. What I have a fair amount of, however, is average product that doesn't cut it (no pun) If I shave with a soap that is an average performer or is under-scented to the point of no scent then I am not shaving with one of the many products I have that are super performers or smell freaking awesome and then thats one less great shave out of a finite number of shaves I have left. Life is too short for less than awesome shaves - I won't call them bad shaves because I haven't had one of those for some time now. I think there has to be some significant batch variability with some artisan soaps - I hear people rave about the scent of a CRSW that I find to be virtually scent free, same with the new MLSW, same with OSP - all great performers but where's the scent? Maybe some batches get scent and others miss out, I don't know because I can't compare their batches to mine and I' likely not going to go and buy a second tub of the same soap to see if one has more scent than the other. Now Barrister & Mann has scent - love it or hate it you'll not find somebody claiming that he can't detect any scent in one of those soaps.

I've rarely bought a product that I hated, in part because I do some research and read posts and blogs and try to focus on posts/blogs written by people who seem to have similar tastes to my own.  What I have a fair amount of, however, is average product that doesn't cut it (no pun)  If I shave with a soap that is an average performer or is under-scented to the point of no scent then I am not shaving with one of the many products I have that are super performers or smell freaking awesome and then thats one less great shave out of a finite number of shaves I have left.  Life is too short for less than awesome shaves - I won't call them bad shaves because I haven't had one of those for some time now.  I think there has to be some significant batch variability with some artisan soaps - I hear people rave about the scent of a CRSW that I find to be virtually scent free, same with the new MLSW, same with OSP - all great performers but where's the scent? Maybe some batches get scent and others miss out, I don't know because I can't compare their batches to mine and I' likely not going to go and buy a second tub of the same soap to see if one has more scent than the other.   Now Barrister & Mann has scent - love it or hate it you'll not find somebody claiming that he can't detect any scent in one of those soaps.

Actually, my tub of B&M Seville had a very faint scent ;o) But I agree with you. I very rarely dislike my purchases. They are usually awesome, or average, as you describe. Products that are average are not kept.

I've rarely bought a product that I hated, in part because I do some research and read posts and blogs and try to focus on posts/blogs written by people who seem to have similar tastes to my own.  What I have a fair amount of, however, is average product that doesn't cut it (no pun)  If I shave with a soap that is an average performer or is under-scented to the point of no scent then I am not shaving with one of the many products I have that are super performers or smell freaking awesome and then thats one less great shave out of a finite number of shaves I have left.  Life is too short for less than awesome shaves - I won't call them bad shaves because I haven't had one of those for some time now.  I think there has to be some significant batch variability with some artisan soaps - I hear people rave about the scent of a CRSW that I find to be virtually scent free, same with the new MLSW, same with OSP - all great performers but where's the scent? Maybe some batches get scent and others miss out, I don't know because I can't compare their batches to mine and I' likely not going to go and buy a second tub of the same soap to see if one has more scent than the other.   Now Barrister & Mann has scent - love it or hate it you'll not find somebody claiming that he can't detect any scent in one of those soaps.

Actually, my tub of B&M Seville had a very faint scent ;o) But I agree with you. I very rarely dislike my purchases. They are usually awesome, or average, as you describe. Products that are average are not kept.

Really? I'd be happy to send you another one.

Actually, my tub of B&M Seville had a very faint scent ;o) But I agree with you. I very rarely dislike my purchases. They are usually awesome, or average, as you describe. Products that are average are not kept.

OK, now I have heard one person claim that a B&M soap was lightly scented to their nose. Will Barrister_N_Mann has very kindly offered to replace the tub. Thats the excellent customer service I was talking about in another post.

You can call me a B&M "fan boy" if you like but none of the artisans that I've mentioned have ever offered to do that for me when I've mentioned in DFS posts that I find their soaps are lightly scented, not even when I have communicated with them directly by email on the subject (OSP).

On the off chance that those artisans might decide to offer me replacement tubs of soap, here is a list of soaps that I've acquired over the last 4 or 5 months that I find to be under scented to the point of being virtually unscented:

Obsessive Soap Perfectionist - Bay Rum
Obsessive Soap Perfectionist - Sandalwood
Cold River Soap Works V2 - Bergamot & Bay
Cold River Soap Works V2 - Vetiver Moderne
Mickey Lee Soap Woks - Reunion
Beaver Woodright - Balckbeard
Caties Bubbles - Menage a Lavande (this had some lavender scent but was far from the lavender bomb it was promoted as)

All of the above soaps are great performers and earlier versions of MLSW and CB have also been well scented - lets see how many offers of replacement tubs of soap I receive.
Mark

Actually, my tub of B&M Seville had a very faint scent ;o) But I agree with you. I very rarely dislike my purchases. They are usually awesome, or average, as you describe. Products that are average are not kept.

OK, now I have heard one person claim that a B&M soap was lightly scented to their nose. Will Barrister_N_Mann has very kindly offered to replace the tub. Thats the excellent customer service I was talking about in another post.

You can call me a B&M "fan boy" if you like but none of the artisans that I've mentioned have ever offered to do that for me when I've mentioned in DFS posts that I find their soaps are lightly scented, not even when I have communicated with them directly by email on the subject (OSP).

On the off chance that those artisans might decide to offer me replacement tubs of soap, here is a list of soaps that I've acquired over the last 4 or 5 months that I find to be under scented to the point of being virtually unscented:

Obsessive Soap Perfectionist - Bay Rum
Obsessive Soap Perfectionist - Sandalwood
Cold River Soap Works V2 - Bergamot & Bay
Cold River Soap Works V2 - Vetiver Moderne
Mickey Lee Soap Woks - Reunion
Beaver Woodright - Balckbeard
Caties Bubbles - Menage a Lavande (this had some lavender scent but was far from the lavender bomb it was promoted as)

All of the above soaps are great performers and earlier versions of MLSW and CB have also been well scented - lets see how many offers of replacement tubs of soap I receive.
Mark

I stopped using Caties Bubbles soaps, for various reasons, but scent strength was my top. I liked Celtic Knot, but it was a 2 out of 10 scent strength. Purple Grapefruit was even worse, maybe a 1 out of 10 and the replacement sent to me was 1.5 out of 10. Throw on top the consistency issues last year (I received several tubs that were virtually goo, just disgusting gloppy goo) and I'd had enough with the brand, especially since the post shave was mediocre and I found the slickness also mediocre. Now, perhaps the newer versions are better, but honestly, I do not want to pay an even HIGHER price per ounce for Caties after I found it to be lacking in many ways for my use case, so its probably out for me.

CRSW has had pretty decent scent strength to me, perhaps I just got lucky.

Great thread and many solid points.

I typically carve time out to post a review based on a positive experience, even more if something that doesn't get a lot of mileage. Negative reviews I will share if asked by the community or there is a post asking for feedback on any given product.

I most often will also contact the particular vendor or artisan directly prior to posting negative comments as well to turn it into a constructive dialogue and let them respond to any critique.

In addition, the reality is these days I haven't stumbled on a lot of big misses. Comes down to preference, not performance and that is definitely a YMMV area.

I can honestly say that I don't have bad soaps in my arsenal. I read reviews, but I'm a feel guy, so I take the chance. Mostly because I know what scents I like and I don't venture into the unknown.

Actually, my tub of B&M Seville had a very faint scent ;o) But I agree with you. I very rarely dislike my purchases. They are usually awesome, or average, as you describe. Products that are average are not kept.

OK, now I have heard one person claim that a B&M soap was lightly scented to their nose. Will Barrister_N_Mann has very kindly offered to replace the tub. Thats the excellent customer service I was talking about in another post.

You can call me a B&M "fan boy" if you like but none of the artisans that I've mentioned have ever offered to do that for me when I've mentioned in DFS posts that I find their soaps are lightly scented, not even when I have communicated with them directly by email on the subject (OSP).

On the off chance that those artisans might decide to offer me replacement tubs of soap, here is a list of soaps that I've acquired over the last 4 or 5 months that I find to be under scented to the point of being virtually unscented:

Obsessive Soap Perfectionist - Bay Rum
Obsessive Soap Perfectionist - Sandalwood
Cold River Soap Works V2 - Bergamot & Bay
Cold River Soap Works V2 - Vetiver Moderne
Mickey Lee Soap Woks - Reunion
Beaver Woodright - Balckbeard
Caties Bubbles - Menage a Lavande (this had some lavender scent but was far from the lavender bomb it was promoted as)

All of the above soaps are great performers and earlier versions of MLSW and CB have also been well scented - lets see how many offers of replacement tubs of soap I receive.
Mark

I stopped using Caties Bubbles soaps, for various reasons, but scent strength was my top. I liked Celtic Knot, but it was a 2 out of 10 scent strength. Purple Grapefruit was even worse, maybe a 1 out of 10 and the replacement sent to me was 1.5 out of 10. Throw on top the consistency issues last year (I received several tubs that were virtually goo, just disgusting gloppy goo) and I'd had enough with the brand, especially since the post shave was mediocre and I found the slickness also mediocre. Now, perhaps the newer versions are better, but honestly, I do not want to pay an even HIGHER price per ounce for Caties after I found it to be lacking in many ways for my use case, so its probably out for me.

CRSW has had pretty decent scent strength to me, perhaps I just got lucky.

I just had my first shave with a Catie's Bubbles soap today, a sample of LPV. Mine was also a goopy mess, very hard to load the brush. I like the scent, but it was on the weak side. I'm hoping it will harden up a little bit now that it's out of the sample container and will give it another go.

Very true grim. In my first impressions of Mystic Water, I said exactly that - in my very hard water conditions, it dried up on my face, dissipated before finishing a pass, and didn't work well during the shave (but now with a water softener it's one of my favorite artisan soaps). Instead of defaming or verbally bashing me (as some people did over my comments on CRSW), Michelle took the comments well and set out to improve the way that her product performs in hard water. I agree that there is intrinsic value in negative reviews, but people don't always react this way. Some brands in particular are immune to criticism largely because the powers that be on particular forums simply do not tolerate criticism. Because of this, I suspect that people do indeed keep quiet in order to avoid negative consequences.

I haven't listened to that Sharpologist podcast but it's clear that he's on to something.

That's the brand that almost got me banned on another forum.

OK, now I have heard one person claim that a B&M soap was lightly scented to their nose. Will Barrister_N_Mann has very kindly offered to replace the tub. Thats the excellent customer service I was talking about in another post.

You can call me a B&M "fan boy" if you like but none of the artisans that I've mentioned have ever offered to do that for me when I've mentioned in DFS posts that I find their soaps are lightly scented, not even when I have communicated with them directly by email on the subject (OSP).

On the off chance that those artisans might decide to offer me replacement tubs of soap, here is a list of soaps that I've acquired over the last 4 or 5 months that I find to be under scented to the point of being virtually unscented:

Obsessive Soap Perfectionist - Bay Rum
Obsessive Soap Perfectionist - Sandalwood
Cold River Soap Works V2 - Bergamot & Bay
Cold River Soap Works V2 - Vetiver Moderne
Mickey Lee Soap Woks - Reunion
Beaver Woodright - Balckbeard
Caties Bubbles - Menage a Lavande (this had some lavender scent but was far from the lavender bomb it was promoted as)

All of the above soaps are great performers and earlier versions of MLSW and CB have also been well scented - lets see how many offers of replacement tubs of soap I receive.
Mark

I stopped using Caties Bubbles soaps, for various reasons, but scent strength was my top. I liked Celtic Knot, but it was a 2 out of 10 scent strength. Purple Grapefruit was even worse, maybe a 1 out of 10 and the replacement sent to me was 1.5 out of 10. Throw on top the consistency issues last year (I received several tubs that were virtually goo, just disgusting gloppy goo) and I'd had enough with the brand, especially since the post shave was mediocre and I found the slickness also mediocre. Now, perhaps the newer versions are better, but honestly, I do not want to pay an even HIGHER price per ounce for Caties after I found it to be lacking in many ways for my use case, so its probably out for me.

CRSW has had pretty decent scent strength to me, perhaps I just got lucky.

I just had my first shave with a Catie's Bubbles soap today, a sample of LPV. Mine was also a goopy mess, very hard to load the brush. I like the scent, but it was on the weak side. I'm hoping it will harden up a little bit now that it's out of the sample container and will give it another go.

I wouldn't count on it hardening up. I left mine out for days and days and they remained gloppy and just gooey, sort of in between a soft soap and a cream. I hope yours dries out and its usable.