Dragonsbeard review and pass around

AJSharp I am fine either way haha. Have enough soap / pre-shave to last to see if Frank will make is own or even do a collab in the future.

DB

Took another go at this soap today in combo with my Grooming Dept Preshave 2.0 and a BBS-1. First time ever achieving a two pass BBS shave. Seems like this combo is crazy good. Maybe a collab is in order for an EOS pre-shave or your own brand Dragonsbeard .

Hi Henery

I wouldn't do a collaboration for a pre shave but with that said just so you know I've been working on a pre shave for a while now so it's in the works and of course it will have the EOS Complex in it but also I have my own take on what a pre shave product should be and when it's up to my standards and ready for testing I'll forward it to you to give it a whirl and see how you like it.

Regards!

Dragonsbeard

Thanks for the reply Frank! Can't wait to see what your take on a pre-shave is. I hadn't ever put much thought into it and even now the Grooming Dept Pre-Shave I only bought recently, used twice, and hadn't had any other experience. It will be interesting to see what your thoughts on the matter end up as in a final product.

Dragonsbeard

Thanks for the reply Frank! Can't wait to see what your take on a pre-shave is. I hadn't ever put much thought into it and even now the Grooming Dept Pre-Shave I only bought recently, used twice, and hadn't had any other experience. It will be interesting to see what your thoughts on the matter end up as in a final product.

I'll make sure to stay in touch on it my friend!

Here is my review of the soap from the pass around.

Packaging: The container is simple yet elegant. In the pass around I scrapped out the soap to put in a lather bowl.

Scent: First impression from the tub is chocolate mousse or tootsie roll. Upon lathering it up it unfolds a little so you might be able to distinguish the sandalwood and oud. Scent strength is medium similar to a lot of soaps i've tried. Personally, I like the scent and strength.

Lather: This soap base is in collaboration with Oleo which I have not used before so I am not sure how the lather and slickness of Dragonsbeard compares to Oleo. That said the soap performed very well. Easy to lather and didn't need much soap when using a synthetic brush (a little more with badger as to be expected) and the lather itself on par with other  soaps that I use (WK, Mikes, NO, Stirling).

Shave: I shaved 4 times using this soap, once with .84 Game Changer, once with CG L2 SS, and twice with the Blackbird. All shaves were good, comfortable, etc. and again on par with other soaps.

Post Shave: What this soap brings to the table, according to Dragonsbeard, is post shave and in my opinion is where it sets itself apart from my other soaps. Of the 4 shaves I did not use aftershave twice, a splash once, and a balm once. Today, the 4th shave, I did not use any aftershave and my face feels great. No dryness, moistened/hydrated to the touch, no greasiness or heavy feel on the face.

Overall: Great soap and even better post shave. I will look to pick up a full tub of the soap and the matching aftershave even though it's probably not needed.

Thank you for setting up this pass around.

PS - the soap is on its way to the next participant.

Five Shave Follow-up

Sorry to take so long getting back.  Over the period of about a week, I did five consecutive shaves with the DragonsBeard Soap and Skin Food Splash.  One of them was BBS, two of them missed the BBS mark by a hair, and two were DFS.  I used my favorite pre-shave on all five shaves, as I do on every shave.  But except for fragrances, I used the Skin Food Splash almost exclusively during post-shave.  The exceptions were two shaves where I had a nick or two that had stopped bleeding before shave’s end, but I applied some witch hazel before the splash, just to be safe.  All these practices were intended to maintain the fairest possible comparison with my “normal baseline” while isolating the effects of the Dragonsbeard soap and splash.

Well, the effects were excellent, both for the soap and the splash.  The soap scent is masculine, enjoyable, and not heavy, and everything good about the soap scent is even better in the Skin Food Splash.  For me, soap slickness and protection were excellent, and the ghost lather was exceptional.  I had zero problems buffing or touching up problem areas.  With hindsight, I did not dial in the optimal soap water ratio on the first shave, but the soap performed well anyway.

I hate to bring this up, but there was one weird aspect to my experience, and I feel reluctantly obligated to report it.  What I observed was a subtle skin burn during every shave, but a burn that substantially dissipated by the end of the shave.  At first I thought it was me shaving with the wrong angle or some other technique mistake.  But I experienced this during every shave, and even while using my go-to equipment, which is not normal for me.  Moreover, on the rare occasions when I do get burned, it never dissipates so quickly.  My hypothesis (aka “my guess”) is that I may be mildly allergic to something(s) in the soap formulation, but other thing(s) in the formula – things that perhaps work a bit slower – act to heal the skin and counteract the burn.  And to be fair, when the Skin Food Splash is added into the picture, it fixes everything - better than new, and quickly!  The splash has been remarkable for me, and between its superb performance and delightful fragrance, I regard it as a real treat. 

Having said all this, let me stress one thing.  The ride for me personally may have been a bit bumpy, but at the end of the day, I still walked away with close shaves and very healthy, comfortable skin.  I can’t be absolutely certain how essential the splash was, but that’s only because it was so effective and so pleasant that I was unwilling to wait before using it.  

In my mind, both Dragonsbeard products are clearly top-shelf, and IMO they are both great values too.  The soap is pricey, but you get 6.5 oz of top-shelf soap for the money – much more than many well-loved $25ish artisan soaps.  OTOH, while the Skin Food Splash is expensive per ml, it is liquid magic IME. For a splash, it’s pricey; for liquid magic, it’s a bargain.

Congratulations Frank.  Thanks to you and Vida for creating such fine software.


EDIT: No Burning; Here’s Why

My first five shaves always included a pre-shave along with the Dragonsbeard soap.  I did another week of consecutive shaves with Dragonsbeard alone because it occurred to me that the soap and pre-shave might have interacted to generate the burning I felt.  It proved to be the case that the burning was gone when using Dragonsbeard alone. 

In this series of shaves I used the Skin Food Splash on day one, but I used it because I love it so much, not because I needed it.  After day one, I used no post products other than fragrances - no astringents, splashes, or balms.  I also used an aggressive razor twice (Muhle R41) and two razors I would call mid-aggressive, a Game Changer .84 and a Rex Ambassador set on 3, 3.5, and 4.

Well my skin feels great, and this is after a week of deliberate stress testing.  My skin never felt dry or needing blood medicine either.  I don’t think it gets any better, and I am very glad to be able to provide this update.

Here is my review of the soap from the pass around.

Packaging: The container is simple yet elegant. In the pass around I scrapped out the soap to put in a lather bowl. There is a little lip that makes the opening slightly more narrow than the rest of the tub so I wonder what if any impact that would have on lathering directly in the tub. Certainly no impact when scrapping out for bowl lathering.

Scent: First impression from the tub is chocolate mousse or tootsie roll. Upon lathering it up it unfolds a little so you might be able to distinguish the sandalwood and oud. Scent strength is medium similar to a lot of soaps i've tried. Personally, I like the scent and strength.

Lather: This soap base is in collaboration with Oleo which I have not used before so I am not sure how the lather and slickness of Dragonsbeard compares to Oleo. That said the soap performed very well. Easy to lather and didn't need much soap when using a synthetic brush (a little more with badger as to be expected) and the lather itself on par with other soaps that I use (WK, Mikes, NO, Stirling).

Shave: I shaved 4 times using this soap, once with .84 Game Changer, once with CG L2 SS, and twice with the Blackbird. All shaves were good, comfortable, etc. and again on par with other soaps.

Post Shave: What this soap brings to the table, according to Dragonsbeard, is post shave and in my opinion is where it sets itself apart from my other soaps. Of the 4 shaves I did not use aftershave twice, a splash once, and a balm once. Today, the 4th shave, I did not use any aftershave and my face feels great. No dryness, moistened/hydrated to the touch, no greasiness or heavy feel on the face.

Overall: Great soap and even better post shave. I will look to pick up a full tub of the soap and the matching aftershave even though it's probably not needed.

Thank you for setting up this pass around.

PS - the soap is on its way to the next participant.

Thank you sir for the kind words and excellent review! I'm glad you enjoyed the soap and the post shave. If you do get the soap and aftershave I think you will see the aftershave which has a bigger dose of the EOS Complex will enhance the post shave even more and you'll get even more Oud out of it than in the soap. I'm going to make a solid cologne soon in the same scent and its even stronger. Also when you get the soap now it has a new black jar and lid and the label is now fixed and looks a lot better than the one that you just used that came from the Maggard shave meet where we had a problem with the lid and label. Growing pains LoL.

Regards

Frank

Five Shave Follow-up

Sorry to take so long getting back.  Over the period of about a week, I did five consecutive shaves with the DragonsBeard Soap and Skin Food Splash.  One of them was BBS, two of them missed the BBS mark by a hair, and two were DFS.  I used my favorite pre-shave on all five shaves, as I do on every shave.  But except for fragrances, I used the Skin Food Splash almost exclusively during post-shave.  The exceptions were two shaves where I had a nick or two that had stopped bleeding before shave’s end, but I applied some witch hazel before the splash, just to be safe.  All these practices were intended to maintain the fairest possible comparison with my “normal baseline” while isolating the effects of the Dragonsbeard soap and splash.

Well, the effects were excellent, both for the soap and the splash.  The soap scent is masculine, enjoyable, and not heavy, and everything good about the soap scent is even better in the Skin Food Splash.  For me, soap slickness and protection were excellent, and the ghost lather was exceptional.  I had zero problems buffing or touching up problem areas.  With hindsight, I did not dial in the optimal soap water ratio on the first shave, but the soap performed well anyway.

I hate to bring this up, but there was one weird aspect to my experience, and I feel reluctantly obligated to report it.  What I observed was a subtle skin burn during every shave, but a burn that substantially dissipated by the end of the shave.  At first I thought it was me shaving with the wrong angle or some other technique mistake.  But I experienced this during every shave, and even while using my go-to equipment, which is not normal for me.  Moreover, on the rare occasions when I do get burned, it never dissipates so quickly.  My hypothesis (aka “my guess”) is that I may be mildly allergic to something(s) in the soap formulation, but other thing(s) in the formula – things that perhaps work a bit slower – act to heal the skin and counteract the burn.  And to be fair, when the Skin Food Splash is added into the picture, it fixes everything - better than new, and quickly!  The splash has been remarkable for me, and between its superb performance and delightful fragrance, I regard it as a real treat. 

Having said all this, let me stress one thing.  The ride for me personally may have been a bit bumpy, but at the end of the day, I still walked away with close shaves and very healthy, comfortable skin.  I can’t be absolutely certain how essential the splash was, but that’s only because it was so effective and so pleasant that I was unwilling to wait before using it.  

In my mind, both Dragonsbeard products are clearly top-shelf, and IMO they are both great values too.  The soap is pricey, but you get 6.5 oz of top-shelf soap for the money – much more than many well-loved $25ish artisan soaps.  OTOH, while the Skin Food Splash is expensive per ml, it is liquid magic IME. For a splash, it’s pricey; for liquid magic, it’s a bargain.

Congratulations Frank. Thanks to you and Vida for creating such fine software.

Thank you sir for the detailed excellent review. I love to hear feedback as I make more soaps I can take the feedback and use it to continue to make the ETHOS Grooming Essential products better and better.
I love the fact that you noticed a little burn and yes it could be your slightly allergic to one of the ingredients but it's my guess based on the fact you said it goes away quickly especially after using the Skin food splash is what your feeling is the exfoliation that the Camels milk and one other ingredient in the EOS Complex that will help get rid of dead skin cells so it's like a mini skin peel. It will only do that until your skin begins to get normalized so I'm interested in the long term effects of the soap on your skin so please stay in touch.
I'm already working on a 2nd Version of the soap which probably won't be out until after the 1st of the year but it should have some pleasant surprises in it as well as version 2 of the Skin food splash.
I'm also glad you noticed the " Ghost Lather residual " It was very important to me that the soap had it and that should also be enhanced on the next updated version. Please stay in touch and as soon as my website is up I'll be posting updates on more product releases that are coming up.

So thank you!

Looking forward to the upcoming releases

I used the soap this week via the passaround and have sent it along to the next recipient. Here are my thoughts:

- packaging is cool, I like the mostly black motif and the label looks sharp against it.

- personally the lip in the tin is not my favorite, I didn't lather in the tub but it looks to be similar to the tub shape that Catie's Bubbles used/uses and I've had some issues with lather getting caught up under there. Its really not the end of the world, would just be my preference for an opening without that lip.

- scent: I'm not the best with scents but its very interesting to me. First thoughts are cocoa, dried fruits kindof like I would associate with pipe tobacco, some rose maybe? It has a creaminess and some resiny sweetness to it but its not a sweet scent. I really like it, and I would probably like it more if it wasn't so damn hot here right now. Scent strength isn't overly strong and to me it stays about the same throughout the shave, and I can get hints of it throughout the day which I really like. I will be interested to see if other scents are brought out with this base.

- soap/lather: consistency of the soap seems similar to other soaps with a good butter/fat content, i.e. Grooming Dept. Loads and lathers easily, comes together very nicely when you gradually add water. Seems like it can handle a good amount of water. I lathered with a couple different brushes and thought that lather with a synthetic was my favorite, I ended up with a great unctuous feeling lather that didn't break down at all. Very good initial and residual slickness, no issues during any of the shaves.

- postshave is really awesome, I went with no aftershave for 2 out of the 4 shaves and didn't have any issues which I think has only ever happened with one, maybe two other soaps. From a scent standpoint I could see this being a tough one to pair an AS with (unless of course you have the matching AS), but one day I did use Tallow & Steel's Dark and thought it went together pretty well. This stuff really leaves your skin feeling soft and nourished afterwards, and it lasts. As a comparison, one day in the middle of the week I used Oleo's "regular" canard base soap, which I think this is based off of. Lather of the canard was similar and slickness during the shave was almost as good, but the postshave on the Dragonsbeard is definitely a noticeable step up. All those goodies in the ingredients list really seem to be doing their job.

In the end, this is a really really good soap and I'm glad to have been able to try it out, thank you again bgolfo for putting this together. My one criticism would be that for me personally, 6.5ounces of soap is a lot to go through. In terms of value per ounce its fine, but for me I tend to not buy tubs of soap that large because I will never make it through it when used in rotation with other soaps. I would happily pay a little more per ounce for 3ounces rather than twice that much.

Thanks all, hope you have a great holiday weekend.