Both Gothique and Leviathan are new to me- love them both. You have to laugh at the mushroom comments. If you like fougere scents there is nothing else in the same realm as Gothique. Its the best there is.
Tub-sniffing? Really?Leviathan is one of those scents I will open the tub just to stand there and smell a few times. LGC is, too. Stirling Satsuma etc.
I've changed my mind about the hardness of this "soap". Excelsior is harder. I found this from having to pile up the soap on the edge of the tub to the middle and it was not easy to do with omni which has a wet dough consistency in the tub- it is definitely more croap than a soap.
I was thinking that also. My tub of Seville is at least a year old. I don't know how long it was on a shelf prior- but i assume not long since i bought it not long after a restock- so 1 year old is a reasonable assumption. Omnibus could be the same hardness after 1 year, but i won't be finding out, at least with this tub of Leviathan. I have a new tub of Seville in omnibus, but i won't be touching it for a while. I've been trying hard to 3017 this last lump of excelsior Seville just to be done with it.How long have you had your Excelsior?
I find that nearly all soaps become harder over time. I even have some that started out as croaps that are now quite hard after several years. About the only soap I have that refuses to harden is the original formula by Murphy and McNeil. I sill have a few tubs that are still quite soft and have to be scooped out rather than loaded from the tub.
Because "water" is the first listed ingredient in Excelsior, the soap should become harder as water evaporates. Unless your tub of Excelsior is recent, it may be harder than when first opened, leading to a false comparison with Omnibus, especially if the difference is minor.
You think a Black Friday sale will occur at Maggard’s?Looks like Maggard has Angelique soap and Fougere Gothique splash in stock. Get em while they're hot.
You think a Black Friday sale will occur at Maggard’s?
I believe Will is making an effort not to hurt his customers
Hmm. I have not been successful in making this soap load well from a bowl. It's so gooey I can't get a solid little lump in a shave bowl, only a bunch of stringy pieces that my brush picks up without lathering.Forgot to get a picture, but I am now four shaves in total. I went back to the badger and no longer feel the need to buy another synthetic. I am looking forward to trying Omnibus with boar during the upcoming Decemboar. This stuff rinses out of my two band as easily as it does off my face.
I have moved from tub loading to scraping some out with my fingernail like I do with pomade. Smooshing it into the bowl has eliminated the potential of pulling hairs. This base takes so much water that I spray down the lather a lot just to generate the proto lather. This base takes a moderate amount of time to build, but the danger of over aerating it is non existent. I have weighted my usage now and this is a 80 shave tub for me and I am considered a light loader somehow. That makes this the most expensive soap in my collection, next to Zingari Man, per shave. By quite a lot, more than SV. This is not a complaint, just an observation to consider when reordering.
After four shaves, I am already comfortable recommending this base to anybody. I have no reaction to anything including the fragrance. I believe Will is making an effort not to hurt his customers, but if I find out differently I will update my review.
Amazing concept isn't it? Sell a product that you know your customers won't have a reaction to using, or in the case of other artisans, tell your customers if one product burns your face then buy a different scent.
lol what? What exactly isn't fair and to whom is his statement unfair toward? Nobody said or suggested anything about discontinuing or restricting anything. He was complimenting Will's efforts to formulate a base to be reactive to as few people as possible and recognizing that it is, in fact, a greater effort than stating "just try another scent".I do not believe that your statement is fair. There are millions of shavers and every one is slightly different in their allergies, sensitivities, and scent preferences. There is absolutely no way that any soapmaker can know whether their products will be suitable for use by every potential customer. Thus, the best advice is to discontinue use if you experience irritation. I doubt that any artisan is intentionally trying to harm anyone, so the concept is far from novel.
I am highly sensitive to scents containing lime, lemon, grapefruit, clove, cinnamon, menthol, and peppermint. Suppose I were to successfully lobby regulators to remove all products containing these scent notes from all shaving products. That would eliminate hundreds of the products from the marketplace, including most citrus scents, bay rum, chypres, numerous aftershaves, etc. Many shavers love scents containing these scent notes and have no problems using them. Telling millions of shavers they cannot access those scents because they irritate my skin would be grossly unfair.
Likewise, there are those who are allergic to lanolin and glycerine, although I am not. Should those ingredients be banned from all soaps because a small percentage of the population is allergic?
Suppose regulators prohibited the use of any and all animal based fats in production of shaving soaps because some folks have adapted a vegan lifestyle and believe use of animal fats is cruel. That would remove nearly all of my favorite soaps from the marketplace.
Lest you think the situation is far-fetched, perfumers in the EU were forced to reformulate their perfumes because oakmoss essential oil, one of the more common ingredients used in perfumery, was found to cause skin contact rashes in a small percentage of the EU population. New regulations have thrown the perfume industry into disarray, altering both the formulas and the aromas of many world-famous perfumes. Should the sensitivities of the few control the purchases of the many? It is not like people were dying because they applied perfume.
I had a friend with a severe allergy to tree nuts. While dining at a friend's home, he inadvertently consumed a trace amount of nut, even though both he and the host were well aware of his allergies. Unfortunately, he had left his Epi pen and home and he was dead of anaphalactic shock before help arrived. Although that was tragic, I am not suggesting that all nuts be removed from the marketplace. I love peanuts, walnuts, cashews, almonds, and other nuts. I am snacking on walnuts as I write this.