Mike's Natural shaving soap Barbershop - my opinion

So it was about time I finally did try some Mike's Natural shaving soap, wasn't it :-)


I have now used the Mike's Barbershop two times, and normally I prefer to use a shaving soap/cream 3 times, before I post my opinion about it, but I felt in the mood this evening for some writing on DFS, so here goes...

I should have received a couple of Mike's natural from a friend, but for some reason they never showed up.....

So I bought 7 Mike's Natural from Maggard razors and 3 Mike's Natural from Mike's own web shop.

Pine & Cedarwood
Lime (one extra, the Lime tin from Maggards was ruined)
Bay Rum
Barbershop (one extra for my father)
Sweet pumpkin Spice
Hungarian Lavender
Orange, Cedarwood & Black Pepper
Vetiver

Got the 6 from Maggard Razors, and must admit, my temper was quite in the red, when I opened the parcel from Maggards.
There was 4 cm free space to the left in the parcel, and they only found it necessary to wrap the entire stack of Mike's in one big bubble wrap, instead of wrapping each tin.

4 out of 7 (I ordered two Barbershops, one for my father also) of my Mike's Natural tins were smashed together so the lids were pushed down over the midway ridge (or what ever you call that line, that keeps the lid in place on the side of the container)

I could not remove the lids with my fingers. I had to hold the tin sideways and with all my force and wet cloth do my best to part the lid from bottom container. I managed to get 3 lids off, but the 4.th Lime had a lid that was completely pressed over the ridge on the side of the container, so it was impossible to get the lid off.

I had to use a knife and after some hard work, the tin was quite damaged and bruised and looked like it was dropped from a 2.nd floor apartment to the ground. I did my bst to bend it into shap again, but I will also have to give this to my father - jst not cup of tea using a brand new shaving soap, that looks like it just came from world war 3 battle.

I contacted Maggard Razors concerning this matter, and they saidf they were sorry, but they didnt agree that using bubble wrapping on each tin would have done anything to avoid the problems with the tins I received. I wrote them back, that I disagree with this argument, since it simply makes no sense at all.

When I order from Cold River Soap Works, Larry wraps each CRSW tin in a separate bubble wrapper bag, and so far the 17-18 tins I have received from Larry has all been in near perfect shape. Only time I received bruised CRSW tins was when I bought my first 3 CRSW from a Euro shop, that DID NOT wrap each tin individually in bubble wrap.

I have bought 4-5 times from Maggards Razors in the last 2-3 months, and I'm not sure I'm buying more from them, when they can't even bother to pack shaving soaps individually, when the shaving soap is in tin container.

Now on to my opinion about the shaving soap.

The Barbershop scent is quite nice, I enjoy it. It's medium strong, not weak, not overly strong. Pleasant. Barbershop scent ise it's very nice, but B&M Seville is clearly better in my view.

I did not soak/bloom the puck for the first shave.

I used a 2-band Shavemac D01 2-band 26 mm bulb and I was surprised just how hard Mike's Natural shaving soap are. Not triple milled hard, but almost Martin de Candre hard. Harder than Barrister & Mann, sort of like Cold River Soap Works Select or even slightly harder.

I had to load the brush for quite some time to pick enough soap up on the brush.
Still had doubts whether I loaded enough. But I loaded the brush for 3-4 minutes. Not hard loading, but medium hard loading.

The next shave with it, I bloomed the puck, and that made the loading far more easy. This puck benefits from soaking/blooming in my opinion. Makes loading far more easy. And fast.

Well on to the lather.

I face lathered for both shaves.
The lather was not the most volume filled I have seen. Not thin, but not something that explosed into rich volumes of lather.
I had to work with this soap for it to start building up.
This soap is thirsty and needs a lot of water.

Took me 5-6 minutes to build a lather I liked, not difficult like MWF to build, but one of more difficult thirsty soaps in my collection.

I got a dense thick moist lather. But not a lather with the big thick dense foamy peaks, that I get from Barrister & Mann for instance.

But a quality lather none the less. A said very moist, almost pearly looking on the skin. No bubbles, just a thick dense lather, that sits close to the skin.

Cushion and performance was great, slickness also very good.
Post shave feel up there with the best shaving soaps I own and have tried.

But the soap didn't wow me, like for instance Cold River Soap Works v2 did, when I first usd it. Like my 3 Nuavia's do. Like I Colonialia does.
The lather in texture actually reminds me a bit of my favourite all time soap, I Coloniali - but I Coloniali beats Mike's Natural in all areas in my opinion.

With that said, this is not a bashing of Mike's Natural shaving soap.

Mike's Natural is fantastic shaving soap.

But I just felt like when I saw the new James Bond Spectre and the (now old classic) The Matrix. I had such high spectations, that I could almost only go away disappointed. And I did.

Mike's Natural is, as said, a fantatic shaving soap.

I would rate it a 9/10 overall. This is great score, fo any shaving soap.

Problem is that I have several other shaving soaps in my den, that beats Mike's Natural - giving me a slightly better protection, easier slightly better lather, slightly better post shave feel, slightly better presentation and slightly better slickness (even though Mike's Natural have excellent slickness)

Will I recommend Mike's Natural shaving soap ?
Most certainly, YES !
It's an amazing shaving soap.

Is it better than Caties Bubbles, CRSW, I Coloniali, B&M Glissant, Tabaula Rasa, SDM and LPL ?

No, but it's very close. I need to use a couple of other Mike's Natural, perhaps they will have a slightly improved performance.
I have only used it for 2 shaves........but normally my verdict is spot on after 2 shaves. The third shave just confirms my opinion from the first two shaves.

Mike's Natural Barbershop rating:

Presentation: 7/10
Scent: 7/10
Lather creation: 6/10
Lather quality: 8/10
Cushion & protection: 8/10
Slickness & glide: 9/10
Post shave feel: 9/10

My overall rating: 9/10

Claus, thanks for sharing your impressions.


I guess you have one more American tallow soap to try.

So it was about time I finally did try some Mike's Natural shaving soap, wasn't it :-)


I have now used the Mike's Barbershop two times, and normally I prefer to use a shaving soap/cream 3 times, before I post my opinion about it, but I felt in the mood this evening for some writing on DFS, so here goes...

I should have received a couple of Mike's natural from a friend, but for some reason they never showed up.....

So I bought 7 Mike's Natural from Maggard razors and 3 Mike's Natural from Mike's own web shop.

Pine & Cedarwood
Lime (one extra, the Lime tin from Maggards was ruined)
Bay Rum
Barbershop (one extra for my father)
Sweet pumpkin Spice
Hungarian Lavender
Orange, Cedarwood & Black Pepper
Vetiver

Got the 6 from Maggard Razors, and must admit, my temper was quite in the red, when I opened the parcel from Maggards.
There was 4 cm free space to the left in the parcel, and they only found it necessary to wrap the entire stack of Mike's in one big bubble wrap, instead of wrapping each tin.

4 out of 7 (I ordered two Barbershops, one for my father also) of my Mike's Natural tins were smashed together so the lids were pushed down over the midway ridge (or what ever you call that line, that keeps the lid in place on the side of the container)

I could not remove the lids with my fingers. I had to hold the tin sideways and with all my force and wet cloth do my best to part the lid from bottom container. I managed to get 3 lids off, but the 4.th Lime had a lid that was completely pressed over the ridge on the side of the container, so it was impossible to get the lid off.

I had to use a knife and after some hard work, the tin was quite damaged and bruised and looked like it was dropped from a 2.nd floor apartment to the ground. I did my bst to bend it into shap again, but I will also have to give this to my father - jst not cup of tea using a brand new shaving soap, that looks like it just came from world war 3 battle.

I contacted Maggard Razors concerning this matter, and they saidf they were sorry, but they didnt agree that using bubble wrapping on each tin would have done anything to avoid the problems with the tins I received. I wrote them back, that I disagree with this argument, since it simply makes no sense at all.

When I order from Cold River Soap Works, Larry wraps each CRSW tin in a separate bubble wrapper bag, and so far the 17-18 tins I have received from Larry has all been in near perfect shape. Only time I received bruised CRSW tins was when I bought my first 3 CRSW from a Euro shop, that DID NOT wrap each tin individually in bubble wrap.

I have bought 4-5 times from Maggards Razors in the last 2-3 months, and I'm not sure I'm buying more from them, when they can't even bother to pack shaving soaps individually, when the shaving soap is in tin container.

Now on to my opinion about the shaving soap.

The Barbershop scent is quite nice, I enjoy it. It's medium strong, not weak, not overly strong. Pleasant. Barbershop scent ise it's very nice, but B&M Seville is clearly better in my view.

I did not soak/bloom the puck for the first shave.

I used a 2-band Shavemac D01 2-band 26 mm bulb and I was surprised just how hard Mike's Natural shaving soap are. Not triple milled hard, but almost Martin de Candre hard. Harder than Barrister & Mann, sort of like Cold River Soap Works Select or even slightly harder.

I had to load the brush for quite some time to pick enough soap up on the brush.
Still had doubts whether I loaded enough. But I loaded the brush for 3-4 minutes. Not hard loading, but medium hard loading.

The next shave with it, I bloomed the puck, and that made the loading far more easy. This puck benefits from soaking/blooming in my opinion. Makes loading far more easy. And fast.

Well on to the lather.

I face lathered for both shaves.
The lather was not the most volume filled I have seen. Not thin, but not something that explosed into rich volumes of lather.
I had to work with this soap for it to start building up.
This soap is thirsty and needs a lot of water.

Took me 5-6 minutes to build a lather I liked, not difficult like MWF to build, but one of more difficult thirsty soaps in my collection.

I got a dense thick moist lather. But not a lather with the big thick dense foamy peaks, that I get from Barrister & Mann for instance.

But a quality lather none the less. A said very moist, almost pearly looking on the skin. No bubbles, just a thick dense lather, that sits close to the skin.

Cushion and performance was great, slickness also very good.
Post shave feel up there with the best shaving soaps I own and have tried.

But the soap didn't wow me, like for instance Cold River Soap Works v2 did, when I first usd it. Like my 3 Nuavia's do. Like I Colonialia does.
The lather in texture actually reminds me a bit of my favourite all time soap, I Coloniali - but I Coloniali beats Mike's Natural in all areas in my opinion.

With that said, this is not a bashing of Mike's Natural shaving soap.

Mike's Natural is fantastic shaving soap.

But I just felt like when I saw the new James Bond Spectre and the (now old classic) The Matrix. I had such high spectations, that I could almost only go away disappointed. And I did.

Mike's Natural is, as said, a fantatic shaving soap.

I would rate it a 9/10 overall. This is great score, fo any shaving soap.

Problem is that I have several other shaving soaps in my den, that beats Mike's Natural - giving me a slightly better protection, easier slightly better lather, slightly better post shave feel, slightly better presentation and slightly better slickness (even though Mike's Natural have excellent slickness)

Will I recommend Mike's Natural shaving soap ?
Most certainly, YES !
It's an amazing shaving soap.

Is it better than Caties Bubbles, CRSW, I Coloniali, B&M Glissant, Tabaula Rasa, SDM and LPL ?

No, but it's very close. I need to use a couple of other Mike's Natural, perhaps they will have a slightly improved performance.
I have only used it for 2 shaves........but normally my verdict is spot on after 2 shaves. The third shave just confirms my opinion from the first two shaves.

Mike's Natural Barbershop rating:

Presentation: 7/10
Scent: 7/10
Lather creation: 6/10
Lather quality: 8/10
Cushion & protection: 8/10
Slickness & glide: 9/10
Post shave feel: 9/10

My overall rating: 9/10

Nice write up Claus. I am a huge fan of Mike's and his Barbershop is tops in my book. IMO, BETTER than Catie's Bubbles and LPL and CRSW. I agree that I Coloniali is better.

Nice review and thanks for sharing. That's a shame about the dented tins. Maggard's usually does a good job with packing items. That is one negative thing about Mike's though. I would much prefer plastic tubs over tins.

I will have to disagree with you on a couple soaps you listed there. Just my opinion, but I think Mike's blows Catie's Bubbles and LPL out of the water.

Nice review and thanks for sharing. That's a shame about the dented tins. Maggard's usually does a good job with packing items. That is one negative thing about Mike's though. I would much prefer plastic tubs over tins.

I will have to disagree with you on a couple soaps you listed there. Just my opinion, but I think Mike's blows Catie's Bubbles and LPL out of the water.

+1

Hi Claus, thanks for your excellent review. I like Mike's as well but, as you say its not better than several other soaps that i find myself reaching for over Mike's regularly so Mike's doesn't get used as much as I'd like. I think you also may have had some residual negative energy hanging about from the affair of the lids and the vendor's response. Some vendor's are unfamiliar with the old saying that the customer is always right and seem more willing to lose a customer than to concede that perhaps they themselves erred. Their loss i suppose. There really is no excuse for poor packaging from a supposedly reputable vendor these days.

I haven't bought any Mike's for a while but it used to come in either tins or pucks/blocks that you could press into your own container.
Cheers,
Marko

Excellent review, Claus.

I'm just not a fan of tins in general. Many of them get dented, and I'm a bit OCD with my shaving stuff, it's annoying to see dents... lol.

I prefer the usual plastic containers. Tiki, CB, PAA and Stirling etc has excellent packaging. I also like B&M's latest packaging (I like most of his artwork and I find them high quality), however the material gives me the impression that it can be a bit more brittle than the others.

Anyway Mike's is a good soap. Rustic and charming. I have the Hungarian Lavander and Barbershop and it's reliable.

Thanks for the review

I am very surprised that Maggard's did not take care of you? They are my favorite vendor and have always been more than accommodating with me. I too finally ordered some Mike's Soap and I must say, I was VERY disappointed. I have tried tweaking my lathering method at least 6 times and the soap simply does not load well into any of my brushes, absolutely horrible lathers with this stuff. B And M despite its reputation for being a thirst soap busts at the seams for me, Catie's Bubbles, Shaver Heaven, Maggard's Soaps, PAA, Stirling all lather with ease. Never again for Mike's.

I am very surprised that Maggard's did not take care of you? They are my favorite vendor and have always been more than accommodating with me. I too finally ordered some Mike's Soap and I must say, I was VERY disappointed. I have tried tweaking my lathering method at least 6 times and the soap simply does not load well into any of my brushes, absolutely horrible lathers with this stuff. B And M despite its reputation for being a thirst soap busts at the seams for me, Catie's Bubbles, Shaver Heaven, Maggard's Soaps, PAA, Stirling all lather with ease. Never again for Mike's.

Funny how YMMV really does vary in wet shaving!

I think Mike's Natural is a far superior soap (for me) and performs better than the 6 soaps you mention above which I have also used extensively.
One of the first artisans and still one of the best Imo.

I'm with vtmax regarding Mike's as I've already said before. Its definitely one of the best if not the best soap I've ever used. If you think B&M is thirsty, Mike's is thirstier. Gunsguitars69, have you tried adding more water?