Item Description
I received a puck of Charismata's Barber Shoppe soap as a PIF from a forum member, for which I promised to submit a review of the soap. So here it is.
This is a small-production artisanal soap whose major claim to fame at the moment is that it features Sodium Tallowate as its primary ingredient. This puts it in a rare and dying category of shaving soaps - the vaunted "tallow first" arena. Over the years, tallow-first soaps have slowly been phased out, either pushing tallow down the ingredient list or removing it altogether. Tallow, as you might know, has a very loyal following who believe it to be essential to the shave experience, and I would agree. My favorite soaps are all tallow-based - Penhaligon's old-formula English Fern, Tabac, MWF - the list goes on.
It goes without saying, then, that I was keen to try this handcrafted tallow-first soap. Sadly, despite its promise, proclaimed so proudly in the ingredients list shown on the website, I am left a bit underwhelmed by the whole experience.
I shaved four consecutive days with this soap, using two different brushes and three different razors. Each time, I found it to produce a thin lather which does not provide as much efficacy as one might expect from a tallow-first soap. The lather has little staying power, and tends to dry quickly, disappearing from my face in the short time it takes to strop my straight prior to the first pass. By comparison, I do not have the same problem with Tabac, MWF, or Pen's.
The scent, also, leaves something to be desired. The Barber Shoppe smells a bit synthetic, with no prominent note that might normally be associated with a barber shop (powdery-talc comes to mind, but is not present in this soap). It does fade quickly and did not interfere with my daily scent.
My face never felt torn up after the shave, so I know it was working, but it never quite felt moisturized, either. It was just kind of ... meh. Functional, but not superlative. It's a shrug of the shoulders soap, and life is too short to a) drink mediocre beer and b) use middle-of-the-road performing soaps.
This is a small-production artisanal soap whose major claim to fame at the moment is that it features Sodium Tallowate as its primary ingredient. This puts it in a rare and dying category of shaving soaps - the vaunted "tallow first" arena. Over the years, tallow-first soaps have slowly been phased out, either pushing tallow down the ingredient list or removing it altogether. Tallow, as you might know, has a very loyal following who believe it to be essential to the shave experience, and I would agree. My favorite soaps are all tallow-based - Penhaligon's old-formula English Fern, Tabac, MWF - the list goes on.
It goes without saying, then, that I was keen to try this handcrafted tallow-first soap. Sadly, despite its promise, proclaimed so proudly in the ingredients list shown on the website, I am left a bit underwhelmed by the whole experience.
I shaved four consecutive days with this soap, using two different brushes and three different razors. Each time, I found it to produce a thin lather which does not provide as much efficacy as one might expect from a tallow-first soap. The lather has little staying power, and tends to dry quickly, disappearing from my face in the short time it takes to strop my straight prior to the first pass. By comparison, I do not have the same problem with Tabac, MWF, or Pen's.
The scent, also, leaves something to be desired. The Barber Shoppe smells a bit synthetic, with no prominent note that might normally be associated with a barber shop (powdery-talc comes to mind, but is not present in this soap). It does fade quickly and did not interfere with my daily scent.
My face never felt torn up after the shave, so I know it was working, but it never quite felt moisturized, either. It was just kind of ... meh. Functional, but not superlative. It's a shrug of the shoulders soap, and life is too short to a) drink mediocre beer and b) use middle-of-the-road performing soaps.