It has been quite a while since anyone posted in this Murphy & McNeil thread, so I thought I would resurrect the thread with a review of their recent release of Gotland in the Kodiak base. Only the initial batch of Gotland will be produced in the Kodiak base, so I grabbed a tub as soon as they were released. While I like Aion, I prefer Kodiak.
The Gotland scent is a creation of Black Mountain Shaving. It is named after the Swedish island of Gotland in the Baltic Sea. The island is known for their roses, so the scent is rose forward, but it also has a supporting cast of other scent notes that prevents the scent from being overly floral. The scent notes are described as:
Top- Rose, camomile, bergamot
Middle-Guaiac, hedione, juniper berries
Base- Agarwood, papyrus, Vanilla, musk, nutmeg, coriander
I find the scent to be mid-strong off the puck, but it opens up once lathered. It is a beautiful scent; I find myself removing the lid just to smell the aroma.
Fortunately, the performance of the Kodiak base is also superb. I have always considered Aion and Kodiak to be elite bases, but this newest release of Kodiak is even better than past versions.
The soap is easy to load and lather. I bowl lather. I bloom the soap for about 10 seconds using a tablespoon of hot water. Then pour the bloom water into my lather bowl. I soak my brush and squeeze and shake out all excess leaving it damp. Then I load the brush directly from the tub for 10 seconds using medium pressure and vigorous swirling. I then dip the loaded brush into the lather bowl containing the bloom water and agitate vigorously for 30 seconds. With my best soaps, that 30 seconds is sufficient to produce a smooth lather suitable for painting on my face.
The lather has excellent slickness, both primary and residual. I normally do a 4 pass shave: WTG, XTG, ATG and clean-up. I usually reapply lather between passes, but there was sufficient residual slickness that I could do my clean-up without relathering. Lesser soaps will not allow me to do that.
The lather has a luxurious feel on the face and provides sufficient protection for a BBS shave free of irritation, even though I have sensitive skin.
After my four-pass shave, I reapply one final lather and allow it to soak into my skin while I am cleaning up my shaving gear. Then I gently remove the excess with a damp microfiber cloth. My face felt great after the shave and continued to feel great for 24 hours after the shave. Only my very best "super-elite" soaps will provide 24 hours or more of face conditioning. Thus, I am happy to proclaim Gotland in the Kodiak base as a super-elite soap by my evaluation criteria.
Remember that only the initial batch of Gotland will be in the Kodiak base. While I suspect the Aion version will be good, it might not come up to the level of Kodiak.
![[Image: C8M88OH.gif]](https://i.imgur.com/C8M88OH.gif)
