Tabac the original, the one that was also reformulated to non tallow some time ago
[EXPERIMENT] Seeking Testers for the New Formulation of Mitchell’s Wool Fat Soap
- Thread starter AJMiami
- Start date
Tabac the original, the one that was also reformulated to non tallow some time ago
Shave 5 (with a shave or 3 left)
34C/Astra SP
Made-rite Lucite with 22mm TGN Finest
G5 scuttle
Two passes and touch ups with a cold water splash
This’ll be my final report. Nothing new. I still feel it isn’t the equal of the two tallow pucks I have used. It takes a little longer to get this lather to its optimum as well. If I ever find myself without soap and jonesing for something like the MWF of old, I’d spring for a puck, barring another detrimental reformulation!
Thanks again for letting me try it!
34C/Astra SP
Made-rite Lucite with 22mm TGN Finest
G5 scuttle
Two passes and touch ups with a cold water splash
This’ll be my final report. Nothing new. I still feel it isn’t the equal of the two tallow pucks I have used. It takes a little longer to get this lather to its optimum as well. If I ever find myself without soap and jonesing for something like the MWF of old, I’d spring for a puck, barring another detrimental reformulation!
Thanks again for letting me try it!
Third shave with the New Fat. Decided to not shave for a day, and only used the New Fat. Pulled out the trusty Gillette Fatboy adjustable for the entire shave. The other new addition to this shave was a Simpson Trafalgar 3 synthetic. The New Fat likes synthetics, it seems.
When it isn't being asked to deal with straight razors, it isn't a bad soap, and it looks less bad when it isn't being directly pitted against the tallow version of itself.
Instead of making the new soap look good, it instead highlights how much better the old soap was and is. Someone new will try the New Fat and find it a very good soap with a pleasant, if somewhat artificial scent. They will wonder why anyone once thought of this a top tier soap but privately, they will probably admit that it's still a decent soap at a decent price, and then will move on to the next scent that pleases them.
I don't think the performance of the new soap itself is good enough to maintain the original's cult-like following. Ease of lathering may be enough to draw in more users than it loses.
When it isn't being asked to deal with straight razors, it isn't a bad soap, and it looks less bad when it isn't being directly pitted against the tallow version of itself.
Instead of making the new soap look good, it instead highlights how much better the old soap was and is. Someone new will try the New Fat and find it a very good soap with a pleasant, if somewhat artificial scent. They will wonder why anyone once thought of this a top tier soap but privately, they will probably admit that it's still a decent soap at a decent price, and then will move on to the next scent that pleases them.
I don't think the performance of the new soap itself is good enough to maintain the original's cult-like following. Ease of lathering may be enough to draw in more users than it loses.
Shave 6:
Lupo 95 OC
Derby Extra - 1
The edges of the sample are starting to crumble, so I may get another 2 or 3 shaves out of it.
I can say that the post shave feel is not as nice as the old formula. It's almost as if there is less lanolin in it.
Head to head I would take the tallow formula. If I never used the tallow version before I would be satisfied with the veggie version.
But it is a sad fact of life that nothing lasts forever; so enjoy the tallow MWF while you can.
Personally, I think veggie Tabac is a better reformulation than the MWF one.
Lupo 95 OC
Derby Extra - 1
The edges of the sample are starting to crumble, so I may get another 2 or 3 shaves out of it.
I can say that the post shave feel is not as nice as the old formula. It's almost as if there is less lanolin in it.
Head to head I would take the tallow formula. If I never used the tallow version before I would be satisfied with the veggie version.
But it is a sad fact of life that nothing lasts forever; so enjoy the tallow MWF while you can.
Personally, I think veggie Tabac is a better reformulation than the MWF one.
Received my sample but I've already shaved so it's on deck for tomorrow. Not sure if it was the USPS sorting machine but, it's literally flat as a pancake so it'll take some doing to get the shavings out. I might chill it first.
I did go back and try the troublesome puck I had just to refresh my thoughts. Good lather but dissipates immediately on the face and not slick at all. It's been assigned to the shower. Also started a newly acquired tallow puck purchased from Bullgoose (8717 if that means anything) and it is great. I'll be reporting back tomorrow.
I did go back and try the troublesome puck I had just to refresh my thoughts. Good lather but dissipates immediately on the face and not slick at all. It's been assigned to the shower. Also started a newly acquired tallow puck purchased from Bullgoose (8717 if that means anything) and it is great. I'll be reporting back tomorrow.
I didn't think of chilling it - that might just work!
I put the baggie inside a bowl and then turned the baggie inside out, the flakes were easy to peel off the baggie and into the bowl -- then it was simple to press the shavings into a thin puck with my fingers.
I've had three shaves and there's enough left for several more
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4th shave with the new Fat. Did the first two passes, and thought to myself, this really isn't a bad soap after all. Then I did the third pass with the tallow Fat. The difference was very noticable indeed.
So, if it's been a while since you used the old tallow formula, the new one won't be a disappointment, once it's dialed in. It's almost as good in every respect.
So, if it's been a while since you used the old tallow formula, the new one won't be a disappointment, once it's dialed in. It's almost as good in every respect.
If you haven't already come across them before, Signature Soaps (UK based) have a truly wonderful rose and geranium scented vegan shaving soap. Their soaps are wonderful.
If you want a rose scented MWF. Friends of mine have soaked their cakes with some water and a few drops of essential oil. The cakes would soak up the water and essential oil and would smell of whatever was added.
But guess what.....
So......... No shave..... AND..... I cant really smell , but , from what I could smell , its was similar to what I remember the old smelling like..... ( truthfully I am a little lacking on remembering what the original smelled like..... atm )
- Thread starter
- #110
Can’t believe it took a week to get there. Glad you got the sample
First - thanks to @AJMiami for putting this together. That had to be the nicest smelling envelope that has ever graced my mail box.
I've had an opportunity to do back to back shaves with the old and new formulas, one shave each so far. I don't know what's happened but I can't seem to get slick lather from either one. Lathering is no problem. Both provide nice lather, but once the blade scrapes off the lather, there is no slickness left from either.
I recently started a new puck of tallow, and I'm not sure if any shave has gone well. It seems that my old, crumbly puck performed better, but that's gone now.
This is just the first shave from the new formula, so I'll give it a few more rounds.
I've had an opportunity to do back to back shaves with the old and new formulas, one shave each so far. I don't know what's happened but I can't seem to get slick lather from either one. Lathering is no problem. Both provide nice lather, but once the blade scrapes off the lather, there is no slickness left from either.
I recently started a new puck of tallow, and I'm not sure if any shave has gone well. It seems that my old, crumbly puck performed better, but that's gone now.
This is just the first shave from the new formula, so I'll give it a few more rounds.
I know , right !! It surprised me too......
Agreed. This ran through my head each shave.
As I started to lather my sample this morning, it broke apart and started swirling around my salsa bowl. I decided that my test of veggie MWF was done.
If I had to pick one, I would choose the tallow version. But someday in the near future, that won't be available to buy anymore. Hopefully, the formula will be tweaked amd improved. My wish list includes more lanolin, and a stronger scent.
A big thanks to @AJMiami for graciously sending out samples for us to try!
If I had to pick one, I would choose the tallow version. But someday in the near future, that won't be available to buy anymore. Hopefully, the formula will be tweaked amd improved. My wish list includes more lanolin, and a stronger scent.
A big thanks to @AJMiami for graciously sending out samples for us to try!
Worked like a charm
First shave today with the sample. Easy to load with my Omega Jade Boar and lots of lather. Shaved with my James Johnson 15/16 quarter hollow. Good cushion and slickness. Very satisfactory.
I forgot to add, when sniffing the dry soap I sense a difference in scent from the tallow formula but once lather is made there's hardly any difference.
Second shave. Loaded Semogue 2000 and shaved with GC 84 OC with a low mileage Kai. Same as before, good cushion and slickness. But today's shave confirmed what I suspected yesterday. This lather dissipates to an airy consistency rather quickly. More so than the tallow. I still have quite a few shaves left in the sample but I'm back to tallow tomorrow.
I promise that as soon as I feel better im gonna shave.. I am Still feeling sick and just have no energy to shave ....
Fifth and final shave with the New Fat and my final conclusions. (The remainder of the sample is now with my brother in law, who also uses the Fat, and wanted to evaluate it for himself).
Bias Alert! I considered, and still consider the Old Fat to be one of the greatest shaving soaps ever made. It is against that standard that I judge the New Fat, and though I have attempted to judge it on it's own merits, the old formula is still very much 'the elephant in the room,' when any type of comparison to other shave soaps is involved.
THE PROS:
It's an unexpectedly good soap. They did a good job making it almost like the old MWF. When I read the ingredients list, I expected this soap to be hot garbage.
Once dialed in, it performs well, perhaps even more consistently than the original. Usage rate seems to be about on par with the original, though I would expect the original to last longer as a harder soap.
It's not as drying as I would expect. Probably due to the lanolin content. I would class it as somewhat drying, and a little less drying than most palm and coconut based soaps out there.
The scent. After five uses, the scent has largely turned into a MWF dupe. To me, they smell near identical.
THE CONS:
The lather starts to break down by the second or third pass. Not necessarily by getting thinner, but by breaking down into an airy, foamy type of lather. It's easy to correct by adding a bit more soap and reworking the lather. Ironically, this same problem affects some users of the Old Fat, though in the initial stages of lather building, not after the lather is made. The same fix applies, add more soap. If the lather is dry and flaky, add more water.
Slickness. The Old Fat (for me) was the king of slickness. Something about the combination of tallow and lanolin produced an über slick soap. Maybe the reduced amount of oleic acid has some effect here?
Post shave. The New Fat falls flat on it's face here. It retains the skin softening effect, attributed to the lanolin content. The skin moisturizing effect that also accompanied the Old Fat is completely gone. Along with it is that 'greasy' or 'glass-like feel' as it's described by haters and lovers of the old formula Fat. Again, this is probably related to the removal of a lot of oleic acid from the revised formula.
Looking at the differences between the two ingredient lists, the stuff that was left out of the new formula seems to be tallow and some coconut oil, some synthetic scents, water softeners, emulsifiers, chelating agents, and pH balancers. Some of these have been replaced by alternatives. These are just the ingredients that didn't carry over to the new soap.
Summary.
I think the New Fat has a broader appeal to the average wet shaver. It's less likely to offend or otherwise distress the new user.
Naturally, it does so at the cost of everything that made it unique and beloved by entire generations of wet shavers.
Unfortunately, there is no soap waiting in the wings to replace this foundational pillar of a traditional shaving soap, in the price bracket it occupied. The original Fat wasn't so much an extraordinary soap in itself, as it was an extraordinarily well-balanced soap.
In this respect, the New Fat is almost as well balanced as it's predecessor. (When measured against itself anyways). The ratio of cushion vs. slickness vs. scent vs. post-shave remains about the same, even if most of these have taken a step backwards from the original.
Recommendation. I always used to recommend the Old Fat as a must try. One of the great traditional shaving soaps. Once dialed in, it had no equal.
The New Fat is a good soap. You've got to spend in the $25 range or higher to find soaps that beat it. But in itself, it doesn't bring anything to the table that other soaps don't already do. I can't say as it's a better soap than any of the other $15 soaps out there. If it had been introduced as a shaving stick or an alternative option to the original, it would have probably gained a better acceptance among the wet shaving forumites.
Dear Mitchell's, do us all a favor and strip the "original 1893 formula" off the packaging. It was never a fully accurate statement with regards to the shaving soap, but it at least gave us a touchstone to reassure ourselves that we were still getting the same product that was initially advertised. The new shaving soap is only the same in regards to scent and lanolin inclusion, and most rational people ought to be able to agree with me on this.
A special thanks to Ariel for putting together this test-a-thon, and for inviting me to the party.
I was biased against the new formula, and had a set of preconceived notions of how the new formula would stack up. It ended up being better than I expected, if not as good as I had hoped for.
Bias Alert! I considered, and still consider the Old Fat to be one of the greatest shaving soaps ever made. It is against that standard that I judge the New Fat, and though I have attempted to judge it on it's own merits, the old formula is still very much 'the elephant in the room,' when any type of comparison to other shave soaps is involved.
THE PROS:
It's an unexpectedly good soap. They did a good job making it almost like the old MWF. When I read the ingredients list, I expected this soap to be hot garbage.
Once dialed in, it performs well, perhaps even more consistently than the original. Usage rate seems to be about on par with the original, though I would expect the original to last longer as a harder soap.
It's not as drying as I would expect. Probably due to the lanolin content. I would class it as somewhat drying, and a little less drying than most palm and coconut based soaps out there.
The scent. After five uses, the scent has largely turned into a MWF dupe. To me, they smell near identical.
THE CONS:
The lather starts to break down by the second or third pass. Not necessarily by getting thinner, but by breaking down into an airy, foamy type of lather. It's easy to correct by adding a bit more soap and reworking the lather. Ironically, this same problem affects some users of the Old Fat, though in the initial stages of lather building, not after the lather is made. The same fix applies, add more soap. If the lather is dry and flaky, add more water.
Slickness. The Old Fat (for me) was the king of slickness. Something about the combination of tallow and lanolin produced an über slick soap. Maybe the reduced amount of oleic acid has some effect here?
Post shave. The New Fat falls flat on it's face here. It retains the skin softening effect, attributed to the lanolin content. The skin moisturizing effect that also accompanied the Old Fat is completely gone. Along with it is that 'greasy' or 'glass-like feel' as it's described by haters and lovers of the old formula Fat. Again, this is probably related to the removal of a lot of oleic acid from the revised formula.
Looking at the differences between the two ingredient lists, the stuff that was left out of the new formula seems to be tallow and some coconut oil, some synthetic scents, water softeners, emulsifiers, chelating agents, and pH balancers. Some of these have been replaced by alternatives. These are just the ingredients that didn't carry over to the new soap.
Summary.
I think the New Fat has a broader appeal to the average wet shaver. It's less likely to offend or otherwise distress the new user.
Naturally, it does so at the cost of everything that made it unique and beloved by entire generations of wet shavers.
Unfortunately, there is no soap waiting in the wings to replace this foundational pillar of a traditional shaving soap, in the price bracket it occupied. The original Fat wasn't so much an extraordinary soap in itself, as it was an extraordinarily well-balanced soap.
In this respect, the New Fat is almost as well balanced as it's predecessor. (When measured against itself anyways). The ratio of cushion vs. slickness vs. scent vs. post-shave remains about the same, even if most of these have taken a step backwards from the original.
Recommendation. I always used to recommend the Old Fat as a must try. One of the great traditional shaving soaps. Once dialed in, it had no equal.
The New Fat is a good soap. You've got to spend in the $25 range or higher to find soaps that beat it. But in itself, it doesn't bring anything to the table that other soaps don't already do. I can't say as it's a better soap than any of the other $15 soaps out there. If it had been introduced as a shaving stick or an alternative option to the original, it would have probably gained a better acceptance among the wet shaving forumites.
Dear Mitchell's, do us all a favor and strip the "original 1893 formula" off the packaging. It was never a fully accurate statement with regards to the shaving soap, but it at least gave us a touchstone to reassure ourselves that we were still getting the same product that was initially advertised. The new shaving soap is only the same in regards to scent and lanolin inclusion, and most rational people ought to be able to agree with me on this.
A special thanks to Ariel for putting together this test-a-thon, and for inviting me to the party.
I was biased against the new formula, and had a set of preconceived notions of how the new formula would stack up. It ended up being better than I expected, if not as good as I had hoped for.
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