Mike's Natural Soap

I like Mike's and I have hard water. I spend plenty of time lathering and am always happy with it. It does make other soaps seem easy to lather by comparison. I especially appreciate the longevity of a tub. I do buy the bars as they are a little better value.

One thing I don't care for, and it's just me, is that the soap tends to get soggy on me. If I don't rotate to a different soap for more than a couple of days Mike's can get really soft. Other soaps do this too though. Nothing beyond what some soaps are like brand new though. Which I think actually illustrates the value all that much better now that I think about it.

His barbershop isn't for me. I really didn't care for it. I do love me some Orange Cedarwood and Black Pepper.

Todd,

Are you blooming this soap? I'm just curious because I haven't seen how sogginess could be an issue with these soaps yet as they lean towards harder. They certainly aren't as hard as say Soap Commander, but they aren't as soft as Caties Bubbles. I do not bloom this soap. I just leave the puck dry, take my brush which has been soaking and get it mostly damp, and just start swirling, adding water as the soap turns into gel on top of the puck. I keep adding drops of water until that gel gets a bit more wet and once my brush is loaded with very shiny lather, I take it to my face, adding in more water as I go if needed. I do also let this puck (as well as all pucks I use) sit out to dry for 24 hours.

No.

I shave in the shower though. I tend to leave the tub I'm using upside down to drip dry after I shave. So I'm probably not the average use scenario. I don't soak any soap before using it but I don't exactly leave whatever opened soap I'm using in optimal conditions to dry between uses either. I do only have one soap open in use at a time and then put the one I was using prior up on a towel rack open for a day or two out of my shower. Generally I'll use the same soap for two or more days in a row.

Sometimes I'm not the only person using my shower every day. So it isn't always dry or in the order I might have left it the next day. I don't ask. I do sometimes wonder what the hell is going on in there that's so complicated to explain how I find it some mornings. I don't know.

In my experience it's similar to Tabac. Tabac is a little bit harder when brand new but eventually gets to an almost setup butter consistency after several uses. Never soft enough to pour say, but it definitely absorbs some water and swells up a bit.

I laughed at your second paragraph haha.  Well that definitely explains some of that. My Tabac is really firm. I’m kinda blessed with my setup because I have a half of a long Two sink countertop and that is all mine. I get out the shower shave and then leave things cleaned up but still out in the open air.

Great addition to this thread SCShaver

Mike's and Mystic Water are the two artisans which i have the most soaps with MW edging out Mike's by 2 soaps. I guess it's not surprising, but these two artisans are whose shampoo bars I also enjoy the most. Mike's probably edges out MW in performance on the shampoo bars though

A gentleman on the forum suggested a trade of a sample of one of my mikes soaps for a sample of his mike’s coconut and bay rum. I’ll update the thread with my thoughts once Ive used them a couple times. Hopefully he will update the thread with his thoughts on the pumpkin spice and we can keep this thread lit.

Another Mike's soapster here. Good Stuff for sure!

I’ve never tried Mike’s but after reading the last few pages I will be trying some in the near future


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I’ve never tried Mike’s but after reading the last few pages I will be trying some in the near future

Clint, you really should try it as it is a fantastic soap, my friend.

Ok I have Mikes Barbershop and Mikes Pumpkin Spice in hand.

Mikes Barbershop: Incredible scent off of a full puck. Better than the sample I had. This has a very stark similarity to Maggards Barbershopp and Strop Shopp Barbershop only I feel like the Mikes smells just a bit more clean and fresh? Scent strength is probably about a 5.5 or 6 out of 10 on it too. Really classic American barbershop scent that I can't wait to shave with.

Mikes Pumpkin Spice: WOW. What a stout, crazy incredible holiday scent. All I can think about when I smell this is the holidays. It smells like a nice spice cake, or a nice spice cookie, and some pumpkin, very tasty smelling if that makes sense. The Scent strength on this one is incredible, probably an 8 out of 10 off of my puck. It is absolutely phenomenal and just what the doctor ordered. Pumpkin pie in a shaving soap tin.

Thrilled with these. I'm waiting on a sample of Coconut and Bay Rum so I'll update on those. If you are into clean masculine scents Barbershop is your jam, but if you are into cookies, pies, fall scents, Pumpkin spice will knock your socks off.

It's great that you are enjoying Mike's, SCShaver !  This was the first artisan soap that I tried back when I started this 3 years ago and it is still a favorite of mine.  I pulled out Mike's Wild Honeysuckle yesterday morning after reading some of the new posts to this thread the night before.  As I expected, nothing but slick, rich, shiny lather for my shave without any issues or irritation.  I really enjoy the scent of this, the newest of Mike's scents.  I also have a tin of Sweet Pumpkin Spice(along with a host of other Mike's scents) and need to dig it out now that we're full swing into Autumn here in Southwestern NYS.

FYI, I just checked and Mike has Orange, Cedarwood, and Black Pepper as well as Coconut scents up for pre-sale right now if anybody is looking for those two scents.   He also has Vetiver in stock in both the bar(this is new) and the tin.  If you are a vetiver fan, this is one to grab.  I enjoy it quite a bit myself, but it is definitely vetiver, dark and smoky with a little bit of sweet.  This is one of my favorite vetivers and very unique compared to the other vetiver soaps that I have.

Edit:

I just noticed that Shampoo Bars and Jasmine Olive Oil Bath Soap are up for pre-order, also. I've tried the Shampoo Bars in the past and they are very good.