This topic come up from time to time, so I thought I'd share my experience.
Being deployed, lots of care packages make the rounds here, especially this time of year. We generally open them up and everyone gets to go through them, pulling out things they want/need. Well in a recent care package, I found a bar or Ivory Soap. Being a convert to bar soap a few months back, I snagged it right up. It's probably been about 20 years since I've used Ivory bar soap. When I unwrapped it and smelled it, there was something vaguely familiar about the scent. Yes it has that typical fresh, clean, soapy smell... but still I know that scent. Then it hit me. It smelled very similar to Williams Shave Soap.
Then I started to recall the old ads (see below) about shaving with Ivory soap, so I decided that next day, I was going to shower with my Ivory soap and then shave with it, just to test it out.
I loaded off the bar of soap for 30 seconds then proceeded to face lather. I found that it lathered pretty easily and produced a decently thick lather. On the face it was a bit thinner than it looked on the brush. It provided nice glide and cushion. And it rinsed easily and was not sticky on my face. Towards the end of the first pass, it started to break down a little, but it certainly lasted long enough to shave. Due to the scent, I was comparing it to Williams the whole time I was shaving. The result?
Ease of Lathering: Edge Ivory
Quality of Lather: Equal
Glide & Cushion: Equal
Lather retention: Edge Ivory
Moisturizing: Edge Ivory
Now, I'm not trying to Bash Williams here. I use it and I like it. I get great shaves from it. My main purpose here, is to highlight Ivory soap, and say that it can be used as an effective Shave Soap. Will it become part of my soap rotation? Probably not. But would I use it again? Definitely. If all other soaps went away and all that was left was Ivory... I'd be perfectly happy using it.
In reading previous threads about Ivory, many dismissed this and said they'd never try it. I'd suggest reconsidering and giving it a try. I'm curious to hear other's impressions of it.
From Mr. Razor:
Being deployed, lots of care packages make the rounds here, especially this time of year. We generally open them up and everyone gets to go through them, pulling out things they want/need. Well in a recent care package, I found a bar or Ivory Soap. Being a convert to bar soap a few months back, I snagged it right up. It's probably been about 20 years since I've used Ivory bar soap. When I unwrapped it and smelled it, there was something vaguely familiar about the scent. Yes it has that typical fresh, clean, soapy smell... but still I know that scent. Then it hit me. It smelled very similar to Williams Shave Soap.
Then I started to recall the old ads (see below) about shaving with Ivory soap, so I decided that next day, I was going to shower with my Ivory soap and then shave with it, just to test it out.
I loaded off the bar of soap for 30 seconds then proceeded to face lather. I found that it lathered pretty easily and produced a decently thick lather. On the face it was a bit thinner than it looked on the brush. It provided nice glide and cushion. And it rinsed easily and was not sticky on my face. Towards the end of the first pass, it started to break down a little, but it certainly lasted long enough to shave. Due to the scent, I was comparing it to Williams the whole time I was shaving. The result?
Ease of Lathering: Edge Ivory
Quality of Lather: Equal
Glide & Cushion: Equal
Lather retention: Edge Ivory
Moisturizing: Edge Ivory
Now, I'm not trying to Bash Williams here. I use it and I like it. I get great shaves from it. My main purpose here, is to highlight Ivory soap, and say that it can be used as an effective Shave Soap. Will it become part of my soap rotation? Probably not. But would I use it again? Definitely. If all other soaps went away and all that was left was Ivory... I'd be perfectly happy using it.
In reading previous threads about Ivory, many dismissed this and said they'd never try it. I'd suggest reconsidering and giving it a try. I'm curious to hear other's impressions of it.
From Mr. Razor: