So I have tried a lot of soaps, as in virtually everything readily available. My favorites have changed drastically as I was exposed to different soaps, artisans and old standbys. One old standby I never tried was DR Harris. An opportunity came up to trade for a puck of Windsor so I made the trade.
The review:
I've always read good things about DR Harris so I had high hopes. The puck arrived and as with any new soap I do about 3 or 4 test lathers. I was surprised to see how much work was required to get a finished lather from this soap. The lather was ok, it wasn't overly dense nor was it overly light. Head to head I would give the nod to Valobra over any of the European hard pucks with the exception of Saponificio Varesino who stands heads above the rest.
Anyway, back on track, I shaved with it for the first time this morning. The scent is very nice, smells like Terre d'Hermes, could this possibly unseat my beloved L&L Trismegistus? So after several test lathers and having an idea of what to expect I loaded up my B3 Declaration for 45 sec. Went to my Symmetrical Pottery Dottie lather bowl and started. It behaved as expected from my tests, it took a long time to build into a servicable lather (no it's not my water).
1st pass was ok, slickness was average. I figured out quickly blade buffing was not going to be an option - residual slickness was average. Cushion was a tick above average, I had no irritation. 2nd pass went off without a hitch, much of the same. I did add a tiny bit of water to see if that would help, it didn't.
On to the head shave, at this point I noticed the lather was starting to thin out which is not a good sign. I applied the lather to my melon and it was very draggy. The lather had almost completely dried. Frustrated I rinsed my brush and bowl, loaded up some Boellis for 20 seconds and was rewarded with mounds of lather to finish my head shave. Finished up, cleaned up and there was a very noticable tightness difference between my head and face. I used Pitralon Polar after shave which is one of the best and that didn't even help my very dry feeling face - shave with Windsor only
Final thoughts:
I really wanted to like this soap, but in the vast number of soaps I've used - to ME - it is unusable. For average slickness, ok cushion, average residual slickness and poor post shave I couldn't justify spending money on it. The lone redeeming quality is the scent but with identical scents from far better soaps it diminishes the appeal more. Try Trimegistus if you want Terre d'Hermes scent, Arlington smells like Acqua di Parma - I suggest trying Stirling Piacenza, Marlborough has a strong sandalwood note - I would suggest Sudsy Soapery Sandalwood & Myrrh for better performance. All of these are the same price (or less) as a refill puck but granted won't last as long but I don't care about that. I need my shaves to not suck
This soap vs other European pucks I eluded to earlier, spend the extra couple bucks and get some Saponificio Varesino or Valobra. The only knock on Valobra is the scents available, C&S 88 and O&C are made by Valobra as is the old AoS Sandalwood soaps.
Our feelings towards a soaps performance is relative to a certain degree. If you switch from Col Conk or TOBS to this stuff it will seem like the greatest thing since sliced bread. But imo, DR Harris is just not in the same league as Stirling, Declaration Grooming, Wholly Kaw, Sudsy Soapery or many of the other artisans these days. Even what I consider average artisan soaps gave me a better shaving experience but to keep it fair and in the same realm - old standby's like SV, Valobra and even Tabac performed vastly better. YMMV as always but my Windsor puck hit the trash and I'm wishing I had the aftershave back I traded for it
The review:
I've always read good things about DR Harris so I had high hopes. The puck arrived and as with any new soap I do about 3 or 4 test lathers. I was surprised to see how much work was required to get a finished lather from this soap. The lather was ok, it wasn't overly dense nor was it overly light. Head to head I would give the nod to Valobra over any of the European hard pucks with the exception of Saponificio Varesino who stands heads above the rest.
Anyway, back on track, I shaved with it for the first time this morning. The scent is very nice, smells like Terre d'Hermes, could this possibly unseat my beloved L&L Trismegistus? So after several test lathers and having an idea of what to expect I loaded up my B3 Declaration for 45 sec. Went to my Symmetrical Pottery Dottie lather bowl and started. It behaved as expected from my tests, it took a long time to build into a servicable lather (no it's not my water).
1st pass was ok, slickness was average. I figured out quickly blade buffing was not going to be an option - residual slickness was average. Cushion was a tick above average, I had no irritation. 2nd pass went off without a hitch, much of the same. I did add a tiny bit of water to see if that would help, it didn't.
On to the head shave, at this point I noticed the lather was starting to thin out which is not a good sign. I applied the lather to my melon and it was very draggy. The lather had almost completely dried. Frustrated I rinsed my brush and bowl, loaded up some Boellis for 20 seconds and was rewarded with mounds of lather to finish my head shave. Finished up, cleaned up and there was a very noticable tightness difference between my head and face. I used Pitralon Polar after shave which is one of the best and that didn't even help my very dry feeling face - shave with Windsor only
Final thoughts:
I really wanted to like this soap, but in the vast number of soaps I've used - to ME - it is unusable. For average slickness, ok cushion, average residual slickness and poor post shave I couldn't justify spending money on it. The lone redeeming quality is the scent but with identical scents from far better soaps it diminishes the appeal more. Try Trimegistus if you want Terre d'Hermes scent, Arlington smells like Acqua di Parma - I suggest trying Stirling Piacenza, Marlborough has a strong sandalwood note - I would suggest Sudsy Soapery Sandalwood & Myrrh for better performance. All of these are the same price (or less) as a refill puck but granted won't last as long but I don't care about that. I need my shaves to not suck
This soap vs other European pucks I eluded to earlier, spend the extra couple bucks and get some Saponificio Varesino or Valobra. The only knock on Valobra is the scents available, C&S 88 and O&C are made by Valobra as is the old AoS Sandalwood soaps.
Our feelings towards a soaps performance is relative to a certain degree. If you switch from Col Conk or TOBS to this stuff it will seem like the greatest thing since sliced bread. But imo, DR Harris is just not in the same league as Stirling, Declaration Grooming, Wholly Kaw, Sudsy Soapery or many of the other artisans these days. Even what I consider average artisan soaps gave me a better shaving experience but to keep it fair and in the same realm - old standby's like SV, Valobra and even Tabac performed vastly better. YMMV as always but my Windsor puck hit the trash and I'm wishing I had the aftershave back I traded for it
