Green Mountain Shaving Soap?

[VitosClassic]

or that a forum with 35K members, knows what it's talking about.

I have plenty of "non-B&B vendor/hobbiest" soaps that are proven and not Marketed on B&B....but they are discussed and proven, so I don't get your point. I don't buy a product because it is attached to B&B, I but it because it works.

go ahead, buy all the etsy and ebay soaps you want...you may find 1/10 are good, you may find 3/10...but I'll take my chances (not that they are chances) with products discussed on here.

I hope you enjoy your soap and I'm glad it works for you, but I still won't put any money towards it at this time. As I said above, more power to you and others who are wiling to take a risk buying these unknown soaps, I hope you find some hidden gems.

I am not referring to 35K people, I am referring you, having not tried the soap, giving an uninformed opinion to the OP. TBoner, having tried to product, says it didn't lather well for him and said he has hard water. You, having never tried the product, offer that it must not be good because there isn't enough chatter on B&B.
I didn't buy mine from Etsy or Ebay, but if the where I bought it were relevant to the conversation, I bought directly from the manufacturer. The original poster might at least benefit from an actual recommendation of an alternative that you may have tried.

 

[brucered]

I've tried a few local, non eBay, etsy soaps and have had zero luck with quality lather and shaves, so I'm very skeptical when it comes to soaps that are not discussed at least a little bit on here. I'm not waiting for any "fan boys" to talk about it, just more then a few who have success would suffice.

A cpl people have already commented on the soap quality here and have not spoken well about it.

as for alternatives, there are plenty and I'm sure the OP is aware of them. He asked for opinions on the soap and I can't offer any direct. But if you look back, I sent the first to bring up the "talked about" soaps, but I have always stood by that thinking.

and FYI, I never said these un talked about soaps can't be good....just that I won't race out to buy them, there is a big difference.

 

[Chadao]

Agreed. I usually get called out for saying it, but its so true.

Sounds reasonable to me.

 

[VitosClassic]

A cpl people have already commented on the soap quality here and have not spoken well about it.

I have seen one, who admits his water quality is not optimal. Perhaps I missed the other. I am just saying that it sounds foolish to speak poorly of a product you haven't tried. I have tried it and it works well for me. LeisureGuy, while not a review, spoke well of it in his blog. I just don't understand your motivation to comment negatively on a product you haven't used. That's all.

 

[brothers]

Tim, thanks for taking one for the team here. Because I know you, your experience with the Green Mountain tells me it's definitely not something I want to have to deal with.

 

[brucered]

I have seen one, who admits his water quality is not optimal. Perhaps I missed the other. I am just saying that it sounds foolish to speak poorly of a product you haven't tried. I have tried it and it works well for me. LeisureGuy, while not a review, spoke well of it in his blog. I just don't understand your motivation to comment negatively on a product you haven't used. That's all.

Sorry, it was 1 person who tried and used and then someone said LeisureGuy mentions it but doesn't review it...so take that for whatever you want (I don't know who Leisureguy is and have never read his or anyone's blog for that matter)

I am not out to get this soap maker or motivated to comment negatively about it. In fact, I don't think I ever made an comments directly towards it. I never once claimed to have used it or made suggestions to that effect and I have nothing against them. My thoughts and opinions are generalisations and a I am entitled to them and am allowed to voice them. I've been burned on ebay, etsy and unknown and local soaps before, they never seem to work for me and I do no like seeing fellow B&B members getting burned by them like I have. That is not to say this or any of the other unknown soaps I comment on are junk, I just want others to be cautions when buying them.

The more soap makers and companies that make traditional shave soap, the better. It puts the pressure on all the others to make a better product for us.

 

[TBoner]

BTW, I know I mentioned my water, but I can make great lather from the following soaps:

Tabac
DR Harris
La Toja
Valobra stick
Speick
Palmolive
Arko
QCS
TOBS
T&H
P.160
Cella
Valobra soft soaps
3P
Proraso
...

I could go on. Water aside, great soap makes lather.

 

[brothers]

At one time I decided I couldn't get good lather from soaps because my water is hard. I began to use and recommend distilled water, which is not hard water. Now I never use anything but tap water and am achieving wonderful lathers from all of my soaps. It turned out to be my lathering technique was inadequate, and my brushes were being underutilized. In other words, I just had to make the journey from point A to point Z and there wasn't a shortcut. It is a struggle, but it is definitely worth the trip.

 

[VitosClassic]

This is more specifically what was said by someone who has a popular shaving blog, Michael Ham...

"I bought a few of the Green Mountain shaving soaps, and today I tried the first: Lavender Grapefruit. Green Mountain pucks are triple-milled and an interesting shape. It worked fine in my Marvy hard-rubber mug show: with my 24mm Whipped Dog silvertip (which is a bargain at $26 shipped), I got an excellent lather immediately: brush fully loaded, nice fragrance, though light. I added a bit of water as I worked up the lather on my beard, which improved it further."

If anyone is at all interested in actually trying the product, here is a bit about how the product was developed from their website: http://www.gmsoap.com/?mainID=3&subID=11&sub2ID=27&type=default

Again, I am currently using the product and the lather is actually quite nice and the quality of ingredients is light years beyond some of the more plebian products mentioned above. If you are satisfied with the quality and performance of Arko and Palmolive, I wouldn't recommend wasting the time or the money. Enjoy!

 

[TBoner]

Again, I am currently using the product and the lather is actually quite nice and the quality of ingredients is light years beyond some of the more plebian products mentioned above. If you are satisfied with the quality and performance of Arko and Palmolive, I wouldn't recommend wasting the time or the money. Enjoy!

I'm not sure which plebian [sic] products you mean. I consider T&H soap and the current TOBS formulation less than Harris, which is a lesser soap than Tabac/Speick, but my point was that all of them give me better lather than Green Mountain. You seem to have taken it very personally that other people don't love the soap you love. Sorry about that.

 

[VitosClassic]

I doesn't matter to me I you like it or not. I just happen to think you are wrong. I think (like so often on forums) someone asks for an opinion (from people who have used the product) and you get lots of ill informed persons (see reply #4,#5, #6) who haven't used the product giving worthless opinions and people like yourself (see post #9) who have had an epic fail (that was likely the result of pilot error or procedural breakdown) insisting that it must be the product.

Plebian or Plebeian are both considered correct, due to the fact that both plebe and pleb were commonly used variations of Plebius.

 

[Alacrity59]

Keep it cool guys.

1. Let's be accepting that some people need evidence from several sources before they are willing to part with a hard earned dollar.
2. Let's be cognizant that people have varying opinions as to what a great soap is. I personally like Williams. It is tougher to lather for me than Proraso. I'm willing accept this as I value other characteristics. But if you value a quick lather it is a fail.
3. Let's not jump to conclusions that if a soap does not work for somebody that they don't know what they are doing or have hard water or other circumstances.

Good and fair points have been made. Again, keep it cool.

 

[Azarius]

They say a picture speaks a thousand words, and as you can see in my picture below, the Green Mountain Soap produces a nice, rich, luxurious lather with virtually no effort.

This is not a hobbyist made product like so many of the soaps that have gained in popularity. This is a product made by a small Alabama based soap producer who has been making soap in their modern facility since 2001 (began making in 1974).

With over 3 years of testing, a panel of 30 wet shaving enthusiast who served as guinea pigs, this is not another made in the garage formulation. This is a true triple milled tallow based shave soap that does not have any of the negatives that you may find in some of the other products, such as burning caused by improper pH levels or sub par fragrance oils.

Pros: Lather, Moisturizing
Cons: Their shopping cart needs a better shipping module, as it currently thinks each product ships individually. This can be a negative to those who are tight on money. I must say that their customer service promptly refunds the difference as soon as it hits the shipping department.
Price: 10. At only $11.99 for a 4.25oz (120g) puck it is a bargain when comparing it to other tallow based soaps.
Quality: 10 . The best soap I have used to date. I have some Martin de Candre on it's way which is suppose to be the greatest soap, but it also cost 5 times as much.
Scent: 10. Subtle, yet noticeable.
Lather: 10. Even with ice cold water the soap exploded in the bowl into a nice dense lather.
Efficacy: 10. Based on the first use and looking at the puck, there is no reason why a single puck would not last a daily shave one year even if this was the only soap in their rotation.
Moisturizing: 10. The tallow and naturally produced glycerin leave your skin feeling like silk.

 

[blzrfn]

So, essentially this is the best soap you have ever used? Wow, that is impressive for a soap that barely gets any talk on the boards.

 

[MickToley]

From my experience testing soaps that are not talked about, I'll say that there are many that work great.

Not to take this thread off topic, but I rarely see Malaspina soaps/creams discussed, and they're one of my top lathering soaps/creams.

 

[ltjaw]

Thanks for the review, Arley.

 

[TBoner]

Yes, good review Arley. I'm almost tempted to drag mine out of the closet and try again. I will concur that the post-shave facefeel was great, even when the lather itself wasn't, much like MWF, which of course is a soap that has received similarly polarized and polarizing reviews. Makes me wonder if water differences are key here...? I'll have to at least give these soaps another test lather or two since I still have them.

 

[soapbox]

Green Mountain Soap just released the shave soap after three years of R&D (some of which took place on B&B, mostly via the Clown House). So if you haven't heard of it before, that's why.

Full disclosure: my parents own Green Mountain Soap and make the soap themselves in Alabama. I encouraged them to research a shave soap after discovering proper shaving in 2007. The R&D started in late 2008 and finished in 2012.

 

[mblakele]

Four years? Coincidentally, that is roughly how long it took Williams to develop his original shaving soap.

 

[soapbox]

Four years? Coincidentally, that is roughly how long it took Williams to develop his original shaving soap.

Not quite four years, but yeah, it took a while. They've been making bath soap since the mid 1970s, but shave soap is a whole different animal. So, three+ years isn't unreasonable. I think it was 35 separate recipes that were tested/iterated. Many of my B&B friends were very generous with their time and comments.