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OK, gents, the soap and the aftershave arrived at my place yesterday afternoon, and I had my inaugural shave with the soap this morning.
Packaging is nice, and the scent of the soap off the puck is pleasant. To my nose, the scent in the aftershave is slightly different, likely because in the soap the scent notes have to compete with natural scents from the other ingredients of the soap. Straight off the puck, those "other" scents seem to make up about 15-20% of what I smell (not unpleasant, just changes the scent a little bit from what is in the aftershave). I can't really describe the scent, except to say that it's a woody, maybe earthy, complex cologne scent. There is a faint resemblance of the scent to chocolate or cocoa, which I consider a plus.
So, this morning I scraped a bit of soap off the top of the puck, placed it into my lather bowl, and went to work. I always bowl lather, but I load the soap directly onto my brush, so I wasn't sure how much soap to put into the bowl; I just used about the same amount as I used to use when I used creams, maybe a tiny bit more.
Well, it was plenty. The soap lathered up very quickly. I added water about 3 or 4 times, a little bit at a time, until I had a lather that looked like it would be perfect for my needs. I am an open blade shaver, and today's shave was with a folding Feather SS shavette loaded with a Schick Proline blade.
The soap in the container is a dark brown, and the lather never really turns white, but has a tan-white color to it, sort of like B&M Lavanille, although not quite as dark. The lather coated my face nicely and I was ready for the first pass.
Glide was good, and cushion seemed to be really good, too. It was almost like I couldn't feel the blade on my face, even though I was using an open blade razor. I got a nice smooth first pass. Rinsing showed good reduction and a nice face feel. It felt very slick; I don't do passes without relathering, but if you are the kind of person who likes to touch-up without relathering, it feels like it would work well.
Second pass lather was not as dense as the first pass lather, but it was plenty slick and provided for an easy, smooth second pass. There were maybe two places on the neck/jawline that needed a quick touch-up, and I was done.
The aftershave splash did reveal a couple of small areas of sting, which I don't normally have. This might be a bit counterintuitive, but I think I got those small areas because the cushion was really good. Let me explain. My suspicion is that I pushed too hard on these small areas (dense growth around the chin) because blade feel was muted by the cushion. Let me be clear, though; these tiny areas of sting were not something that anybody could see, and there was certainly no weeping or cuts. Just what I would refer to as a mild razor burn. On the right side of the chin, the area was maybe 3 mm in diameter and on the left side, even smaller, so we are certainly not talking about any major damage here, lol.
The aftershave smells amazing. It dries down really fast on the face. On first application I feel like I didn't use enough, and it dried down before I could spread it all over the face and neck. So I added a bit more. After dry down my face was soft and smooth.
About 25 minutes after the shave, to me the scent was still quite powerful, so I asked my wife whether it smelled like "too much." She said not at all. I then put my face close to hers and asked, "Can you smell it?" Her answer to that was, "It smells really good."
So, all in all, a real winner here, both the soap and the aftershave. My only concern is that for about 30 minutes after I applied the aftershave my nose was acting up a bit. I have a lot of scent allergies. I am most allergic to cedar and juniper, but I'm also allergic to sandalwood. I know this scent has Oud in it, and I wonder if there's a bit of crossover. I'll see, after the next shave, whether this scent may turn out to be a "no-go" for me because of my stupid allergies. But make no mistake, it smells really nice.
Packaging is nice, and the scent of the soap off the puck is pleasant. To my nose, the scent in the aftershave is slightly different, likely because in the soap the scent notes have to compete with natural scents from the other ingredients of the soap. Straight off the puck, those "other" scents seem to make up about 15-20% of what I smell (not unpleasant, just changes the scent a little bit from what is in the aftershave). I can't really describe the scent, except to say that it's a woody, maybe earthy, complex cologne scent. There is a faint resemblance of the scent to chocolate or cocoa, which I consider a plus.
So, this morning I scraped a bit of soap off the top of the puck, placed it into my lather bowl, and went to work. I always bowl lather, but I load the soap directly onto my brush, so I wasn't sure how much soap to put into the bowl; I just used about the same amount as I used to use when I used creams, maybe a tiny bit more.
Well, it was plenty. The soap lathered up very quickly. I added water about 3 or 4 times, a little bit at a time, until I had a lather that looked like it would be perfect for my needs. I am an open blade shaver, and today's shave was with a folding Feather SS shavette loaded with a Schick Proline blade.
The soap in the container is a dark brown, and the lather never really turns white, but has a tan-white color to it, sort of like B&M Lavanille, although not quite as dark. The lather coated my face nicely and I was ready for the first pass.
Glide was good, and cushion seemed to be really good, too. It was almost like I couldn't feel the blade on my face, even though I was using an open blade razor. I got a nice smooth first pass. Rinsing showed good reduction and a nice face feel. It felt very slick; I don't do passes without relathering, but if you are the kind of person who likes to touch-up without relathering, it feels like it would work well.
Second pass lather was not as dense as the first pass lather, but it was plenty slick and provided for an easy, smooth second pass. There were maybe two places on the neck/jawline that needed a quick touch-up, and I was done.
The aftershave splash did reveal a couple of small areas of sting, which I don't normally have. This might be a bit counterintuitive, but I think I got those small areas because the cushion was really good. Let me explain. My suspicion is that I pushed too hard on these small areas (dense growth around the chin) because blade feel was muted by the cushion. Let me be clear, though; these tiny areas of sting were not something that anybody could see, and there was certainly no weeping or cuts. Just what I would refer to as a mild razor burn. On the right side of the chin, the area was maybe 3 mm in diameter and on the left side, even smaller, so we are certainly not talking about any major damage here, lol.
The aftershave smells amazing. It dries down really fast on the face. On first application I feel like I didn't use enough, and it dried down before I could spread it all over the face and neck. So I added a bit more. After dry down my face was soft and smooth.
About 25 minutes after the shave, to me the scent was still quite powerful, so I asked my wife whether it smelled like "too much." She said not at all. I then put my face close to hers and asked, "Can you smell it?" Her answer to that was, "It smells really good."
So, all in all, a real winner here, both the soap and the aftershave. My only concern is that for about 30 minutes after I applied the aftershave my nose was acting up a bit. I have a lot of scent allergies. I am most allergic to cedar and juniper, but I'm also allergic to sandalwood. I know this scent has Oud in it, and I wonder if there's a bit of crossover. I'll see, after the next shave, whether this scent may turn out to be a "no-go" for me because of my stupid allergies. But make no mistake, it smells really nice.
