Review: Wholly Kaw Chypre Rose Concerto tallow soap and Alcohol Splash

Loading: Super easy to get enough soap on your damp brush for three/four passes. Maybe 20-30 seconds of loading and it was done. Reminds me very much of Barrister and Mann Latha soaps. Looks very similar in the tub as well.


Performance: Great. Slick and thick lather that handles a ton of water very well. Not much more to ask for in a soap.


Post Shave: I usually prefer soaps that have lanolin as I can get pretty dried out. Not an issue with this stuff. It does have three different butters in it so it worked great for me.


Aftershave: Same as every other alcohol, water, fragrance and menthol splash. Fairly cold which was nice on a humid day and the menthol doesn't mess with the scent at all.


Scent: It's obviously rose forward but blended very well. Doesn't smell anything like a florist shop. It's a very nice warm rose scent. If you like rose this is something you need to try. If you are on the fence and not sure of you like the smell of roses in your shave stuff then I think this would be a great soap to try out.


Final Thoughts: I don't notice a lot of Wholly Kaw soap being used around these parts (or I just don't remember seeing it) so I thought I would do a short review. As anyone who knows me can attest, I am a huge fan of rose. This is one of my favorites out there. The guy who runs Wholly Kaw is pretty great as well. always answers any questions and happens to only live a couple minutes from me. Whenever I have ordered anything he has a friend drop of the goods at my work so we both don't have to deal with shipping. My next soap purchase will be Jamestown Gentleman in the tallow base. The original vegan fromula is great in it's own right but the tallow is top tier for me.

Final Thoughts: I don't notice a lot of Wholly Kaw soap being used around these parts (or I just don't remember seeing it) so I thought I would do a short review.

Tim, thanks for the review! Haven’t used Wholly Kaw myself, but I have read some good things about their soaps and splashes. As you said, it’s a brand that doesn’t come up very much. Glad you shared your thoughts and experience!

It's really good stuff. If you used the vegan formula without knowing it was vegan there is no way you could tell. The tallow formula is just off the charts.

It's really good stuff. If you used the vegan formula without knowing it was vegan there is no way you could tell. The tallow formula is just off the charts.

I don’t know a lot about Wholly Kaw, but I somehow think that their whole thing in the beginning was doing vegan soaps. So I’m sure they have perfected that formula. But it’s nice that they have tallow as an option, too.

Some good things have been said especially about their scents Jamestown Gentleman and Fougére Bouquet. Those are on my (very long) acquisition wishlist…

When I was at Maggard's I was able to sniff their inventory of Wholly Kaw products. Like you said Matthew, the Jamestown Gentleman and Fougere Bouquet aftershaves were the standouts to me. I didn't pull the trigger on them though. This was before Maggard had any of their new tallow soaps. I prefer tallow based so here's yet another artisan to add to the try list. Thanks for the great review HuckKing723, it sounds like Wholly Kaw might be a good addition to the underrated shaving stuff thread as you mentioned, you don't here much about them.

When I was at Maggard's I was able to sniff their inventory of Wholly Kaw products. Like you said Matthew, the Jamestown Gentleman and Fougere Bouquet aftershaves were the standouts to me. I didn't pull the trigger on them though. This was before Maggard had any of their new tallow soaps. I prefer tallow based so here's yet another artisan to add to the try list. Thanks for the great review HuckKing723, it sounds like Wholly Kaw might be a good addition to the underrated shaving stuff thread as you mentioned, you don't here much about them.

Glad to hear that the hunch I’ve had seems to be right (regarding those two scents). And yes, Wholly Kaw could well be on the “underrated” list, as it doesn’t seem get a lot of attention on the forum.

Good review, but the fragrance seemed to me a reserve, not for me.