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A Few Words about What the Puck

I preface this post with the following acknowledgement, price/value is probably the most personal,YMMV aspect of this or any hobby.
That being said, I felt compelled to write a few words about the What the Puck line from RR after this morning's shave.
I recently joined the leap year restraint and in preparation ordered another 100 of my blade of choice and wanted to grab some tri-milled soap just to make sure I could supplement my artisan croap stash if it started to look a little low in year 3. I decided on WTP as 400 grams for under $21 shipped of tri milled soap was just too good to pass up and as it was from RR I was certain at the very least it would be a passable and not horrible soap. RR states that the puck can be dropped in a cup and left open no worries which I like. I still have a really cool old coffee cup I used when I started wet shaving in my 'shave like grandpa did' early pre-artisan soap phase, so I grated and pressed the green label puck into the cup. Since it is a hard soap, I bloomed while in the shower,(NOTE:Never bloom a croap as in Stirling/BM/MM etc..., you are literally pouring money down the drain), loaded my brush for no more than 30 seconds with my cashmere synth and went to work on my face. I don't excel at descriptive writing but I will state that the lather was much easier to obtain than my croaps and the cushion, glide and even post shave was pretty close in quality than what I would get with my Stirling, BM or MM. In fact, in a blind test I would not be surprised if I didn't go for the WTP more times than not, it was that good. I have read people compare What the Puck to PdP. I do not find any resemblance between the two products (YMMV). I was not a fan of PdP, it had very little post shave and IMO left my face feeling pretty dry and I felt the lather to be weak and easily dissipated. I ended up gifting that soap about a year after I purchased it.
The only area WTP is lacking is in the scent and scent strength. Scent was pleasant and clean smelling but there really wasn't enough to notice even with a face full of it.
Look, I have no problem at all dropping $15-$30 on a quality soap/croap, this is a pretty cheap hobby all things considered so basking in the luxury of a well crafted shave soap in the morning is one of the simple pleasures in my life but I have to ask myself if a $10-$20 premium for croaps is worth it for me long term especially since the we really don't know the shelve life of croaps. Would I pay $60 vs $10 for the equivalent weight of MdC? I would be hard pressed to convince myself that the soap would be 6 times better than WTP or a croap would be 3-4 times better. When the 4 years is up, I will probably have WTP as my daily and just 1 or 2 of my favorite croaps/scents for weekends or special occasions.
 
I, too, was pleasantly surprised by the performance of WTP soap. I don't bloom it, either. It actually loads pretty easily.

Interestingly, the lather is not as dense, thick, and rich as my usual lathers, but it shaves just as well. Slick, good cushion, and a pretty good post-shave. Incredible bargain.

I have only tried the Orange Sunrise, but the scent of this one, at least to my nose, is nice. It's a bright orange citrus scent without much else going on, but I like it, and the scent is plenty strong (I don't know about the blue or the green soaps, as I have only tried the orange).

In short, surprisingly good soap that punches well above its weight class.
 
I gambled on the three pack when they were on sale. I used the blue, and whole not a fan of the scent, the performance was solid. I bought some extra orange and lime. Can't wait till I get to then eventually, as I 3017 soaps.
 
For the price I think it's the best for me. I don't bloom it. It's the only soap always next to my sink, if I don't like what I am using....I wash my face and rescue with this. Now, I ordered some recently and they sent a CROP....I am depressed the nice triple milled is over.... I guess I will join the UK brothers mourning Palmolive sticks
 
Now, I ordered some recently and they sent a CROP....I am depressed the nice triple milled is over....
the original razorock "blue barbershop" was sold both as a hard soap and a tub of soft cream, you may have just ordered the wrong one. The newest versions of "what the puck" hard soaps are now named - blue label, black label, green label, and gold label.

The blue label is supposedly the same as the original blue barbershop, but the black, green, and gold labels are not the same as the original orange and lime. black is powdery barbershop, green is powdery and woody, gold is italian citrus/ADP/XXX
 
I have used the WTP Lime hard puck quite a bit. I'm not that good at breaking down all of the nuances of a soap's lather, but I know this: RazoRock "What The Puck" easily produces an abundant, rich lather, and gives a great shave. Everybody has their favorites, and we all may look for something a little different in a shave soap, but for the life of me, I don't understand what's not to like about these soaps. Sometimes I think it would get better reviews if it were in fancy, unique packaging, and cost 4 times as much.
 
Sometimes I think it would get better reviews if it were in fancy, unique packaging, and cost 4 times as much.
That's pretty funny and true. I enjoy the several RR soaps that I have. Used some of the Santa Maria Del Fiore Firenze
today. About 11 bucks for 8.5 oz on sale a while back.
 
I preface this post with the following acknowledgement, price/value is probably the most personal,YMMV aspect of this or any hobby.
That being said, I felt compelled to write a few words about the What the Puck line from RR after this morning's shave.
I recently joined the leap year restraint and in preparation ordered another 100 of my blade of choice and wanted to grab some tri-milled soap just to make sure I could supplement my artisan croap stash if it started to look a little low in year 3. I decided on WTP as 400 grams for under $21 shipped of tri milled soap was just too good to pass up and as it was from RR I was certain at the very least it would be a passable and not horrible soap. RR states that the puck can be dropped in a cup and left open no worries which I like. I still have a really cool old coffee cup I used when I started wet shaving in my 'shave like grandpa did' early pre-artisan soap phase, so I grated and pressed the green label puck into the cup. Since it is a hard soap, I bloomed while in the shower,(NOTE:Never bloom a croap as in Stirling/BM/MM etc..., you are literally pouring money down the drain), loaded my brush for no more than 30 seconds with my cashmere synth and went to work on my face. I don't excel at descriptive writing but I will state that the lather was much easier to obtain than my croaps and the cushion, glide and even post shave was pretty close in quality than what I would get with my Stirling, BM or MM. In fact, in a blind test I would not be surprised if I didn't go for the WTP more times than not, it was that good. I have read people compare What the Puck to PdP. I do not find any resemblance between the two products (YMMV). I was not a fan of PdP, it had very little post shave and IMO left my face feeling pretty dry and I felt the lather to be weak and easily dissipated. I ended up gifting that soap about a year after I purchased it.
The only area WTP is lacking is in the scent and scent strength. Scent was pleasant and clean smelling but there really wasn't enough to notice even with a face full of it.
Look, I have no problem at all dropping $15-$30 on a quality soap/croap, this is a pretty cheap hobby all things considered so basking in the luxury of a well crafted shave soap in the morning is one of the simple pleasures in my life but I have to ask myself if a $10-$20 premium for croaps is worth it for me long term especially since the we really don't know the shelve life of croaps. Would I pay $60 vs $10 for the equivalent weight of MdC? I would be hard pressed to convince myself that the soap would be 6 times better than WTP or a croap would be 3-4 times better. When the 4 years is up, I will probably have WTP as my daily and just 1 or 2 of my favorite croaps/scents for weekends or special occasions.
I have the WTP blue and I really enjoy it. One CON about the soap is that it is very drying on my skin. I always have to use a post-shave after because my skin does not like it as much. It's usually the same thing with most commercials soaps like Derby or Palmolive. The performance of WTP is great but I do enjoy the fatty nature of artisan soaps a bit more for my skin.
 
I do have 3 of them pucks, Barber Shop, Orange and Lime. They are great soaps and what I like about them is they are triple milled so they will last forever. Just like almost any Razor Rock products very cheap but not cheap results I call those soaps best bang for the bucks.
 
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