Classic Shaving Sandalwood Shave Soap

I think this soap gets a bad rap. I've managed to whip it into a nice, dense, opaque lather that stuck around for quite a bit longer than I would ordinarily need to shave. The scent is not that great (a little sweet and cloying) but it seems to work just fine. It melts nicely too, so you can custom fit it to a bowl. Not as bad as the original post would lead you to think, but I would have to say that Proraso or something from Saint Charles Shave would probably be better value.

I figured I'd give this soap a second chance before I rated it. Tried it two more times this week and consistently disappointed. From the start it burns my face , dries quickly, smells only ok, and lathers poorly. Am now using as a hand soap for which it isn't all that suitable either as it seems to dry my hands out pretty quickly. Won't be buying their soaps again.

I have used a combination of the Classic Shaving Soaps and the pure Glycerin Classic Shaving Soap and they, both combined (at least for me), give an incredible shave! No doubts here. I microwaved a bar of each for 10 seconds at a time (just to be very safe), mixed the liquids of each bars carefully together and Le Voila! Great stuff. I used unscented (with carefully applied essential oils in the mug itself ), but scented should give the same result. Nice lather, and it stays on the skin in nice tiny bubbly foam! Anyway, I feel that the product is just fine for me. It has consistently given me VERY nice and close shaves. And by the way, I can actually call a very knowledgable person on the phone and always get a very cordial, accurate, and detailed answer. If the dimensions of an item is not listed or any other issue, they will get an exact measurement for you. They really do go out of their way in customer service! Anyway, I give this product and seller "two thumbs up!"

I cant seem to get good lather from the soap unless I use a LOT of soap. It still is not the same as my proraso red tube. I know that soaps can generate good lather from what I read like Mitchells and Tabac so I got some of that stuff but this stuff is not as good.

I had been using Williams shaving soap with my Sensor, then found B&B and went back to DE. This pointed me to Classic Shaving where I bought a Merkur Classic and some of their Classic soap in lime (I LOVE lime! ). I had high hopes for the soap but was disappointed when it performed no better than the Williams for five times the price. Not that it performed poorly, but I expected better. The scent was OK, but didn't seem to last much beyond the initial lathering in the mug. Certainly I didn't smell it on my face. This was sort of a bummer since even the Gillette Edge lime gel (now seemingly and sadly discontinued) kept me in limes throughout my shave. Yeah, I did like the Gillette - I added some water and it worked really well for me.

The next disappointment was when I noticed the cake was gone after a week and a half! Williams lasted a month! The soap appears to have a lot of air whipped into it - sort of like Ivory. I wonder it if floats? My Col. Conk seems to be a solid cake. I wonder if it will last better?

This morning I tried Derby cream and found it hugely better than either this soap or Williams. I'm going to have to try the Col. Conk lime soap next. I suspect I'll just take that cake of Classic out of the mug and try to store it somehow against the day when I'm desperate for shave soap.

What a letdown!

I got a free puck of the sandalwood soap when I ordered a shaving mug from classic shaving. I liked the smell of the soap but once the lather was built the smell would vanish. I didn't have the irritation problems that others have reported, but I never could get as smooth a shave as with other soaps I have used. The soap overall is good, but there are better ones available.

I rank these higher than williams but lower than most soaps out there. Any quality triple milled soap easily blows these away. I personally rank Mama Bears, SCS, QED, and Honeybee Spa soaps above the CS soaps.

The soaps used to be offered in triple packs and were a decent value. With the elimination of the triple packs, I never ordered another puck.

I too get very good results from Classic shaving soap. It was the first soap I used when I started wet shaving, at the time i did get poor results but as it was the only soap I had i stuck with it. Over a few weeks I must have learnt how to get a great lather with it, now it is easy to whip up a very dense lather. I consider it to be a top quality product and in fact prefer it too MamaBear soaps.

Understanding the above reviews, I strongly disagree. In my opinion this product is top notch. I have used 4 pucks of soap so far and I can honestly say that I love them. the lather I get with my Vulfix 2234 is nothing short of luxurious. I have used 2 pucks of Lime, a bay rum, and currently using Mocha and they are awesome. I have a nice large mug and presto the lather just feels wonderful on my skin. I have enjoyed the product so much that I placed an Order for virtually all the different variants of this product. Furthermore, I have recommended these soaps to quite a few friends and people with whom I work with and they have stated the same thing.

Look, I understand that this soap just isn't well liked around here, but I have to say that I consistently get good results with it. I don't have the aeration problems reported by others. I can't explain why. The lather I get, while not the densest is far from thin. It lubes pretty well, and it moisturizes better than the C&E soaps. The lather works up super quick and with minimal effort. I use quite a bit of water. My only real gripes with it are the price (at $5 for a smallish soft milled puck that gets used up quickly), the scent (which is barely there), and the fact that it seems to dry on the face more quickly than some soaps but certainly not the worst in that category either.

For me, this has been the most fool proof of soaps. I can lather it well in the soap bowl, in the lather bowl, or on my face. I can use it easily with boar brush, pure badger or best badger (haven't tried silvertip). Works OK with small amounts of water, better with more.

I've used this soap for years. It is currently in regular rotation with C&E, Mama Bear, Honeybee. It holds its own. The Sues are more affordable (and more aromatic), the C&E more luxurious. Granted, I haven't compared it to Tabac, Kent wool-fat, Gold Dachs or the other legendary soaps mentioned here from time to time, but then some of those are quite a bit more expensive. I probably won't restock when my current supply of 6 pucks runs out, mainly because of price. If it weren't for that I'd buy it again no doubt.

I agree with all previous reviews. The Classic Shaving bay rum soap smells nice, but the stuff disappears on your face in no time. Initially, I was able to get a pretty good looking lather going, and I had high hopes. Those hopes faded, along with the lather, soon after the lather got to my face. I didn't have any adverse skin reaction, as some have had, but the soap itself is very sub par. Give me mama bear over this stuff any day of the week.

Drew

Very similar results as Joel got. Too much aeration in the lather, and it also left my skin rather irritated afterwards. The scent smells decent, but tends to go away rather quick once it is latherized in a bowl. The cake is too small for the $5 pricetag.

I'm not particularly impressed with this one. It would be hard to add to the compendious review above, so I'll just state that I find the scent to be weak and nondescript, and the lather to be rather pedestrian. It gives a decent but not a memorable shave, and there is much better to be had.

Gents,
I got a small cake of the Classic Shaving Sandalwood soap in a few days ago, and have gotten the chance to use it a few times, and lather it many times.


As some of you may remember I had an irritation problem with Classicshaving's soap with the previous formula. Much to my delight there was ZERO irritation from this soap and Ray's claim of having dramatically decreased potential irritation is right on in my opinion.


Scent - In cake form it smells quite nice. Although it smells nice, you have to get your honker pretty close to it in order to bask in the sandalwood delight. Unfortunatly once lathered, it seems to lose it's scent, and in fact changes its scent a bit. When lathered it is not very luxurious (scent wise) and is very lightly scented. Off hand I cannot think of a scented soap with a lighter fragarance.


Price/value - Personally I do not feel this soap is a very good value. It seems to get used up much quicker than other soaps, and is a terribly small cake for $5. Here are a few pics of the size difference between the classic shaving sandalwood cake soap $5 and the QED Violetta shave soap in a plastic tub $9.50...


As you can see, the QED soap dwarfs the classicshaving soap.

Latherability - The Classicshaving soap lathers quickly and easily, with minimal effort... here are a few pics...




Here are two pics of the Shavemac XXL Silvertip hanging from its stand full of classicshaving sandalwood lather...



Shave - Unfortunatly like the former version of this soap, I found it nearly impossible to get a decent lather built up on my face, and once I did, it would quickly evaporate away. I found this to be extremly frustrating, and annoying. I played around with this soap QUITE a bit and eventually had to relegate it to a bathing soap (which might I add works exceptionally well as a bathing soap.)

Here are some pics of the lather drying out on my face, bowl and in the Shavemac brush after about 30 seconds to 1 minute...








Because of my poor experience with the classicshaving soap, and because of the tremendous results I have been having with this shavemac brush I decided to lather up with some T&H Trafalgar shaving cream as well as some QED Violetta to compare with the classicshaving soap.

Here is the T&H after a few stirs..


Once it got going after 20 seconds or so, the lather was so profuse, and so dense, you could plop the huge brush in the bowl and the lather would support it...


Down the bucket...


Side shot...


As you can see the T&H was a heck of a lot richer and denser than the previous classic sandalwood pictures.... now onto QED Violetta.

To show you just how amazing this Shavemac XXL Brush is with some QED shaving soap, simply feast your eyes gentlemen! BTW, I suggest you compare these pics to the pics from the QED Rose thread where I lathered the soap with my Vulfix #41. As you can see, the shavemac does a jaw dropping job at creating uncanny amounts of lather in about 30 seconds.


Look how creamy and rich this is...


This thing looks boss on the stand full of QED Violetta Lather. I really REALLY like this stand, as it allows me to hang the brush up while shaving, without making ANY sort of mess. It is VERY easy to retreive from its stand, and looks marvelous stored on it.


QED Violetta lathered on my face...




You simply cannot go wrong with the shavemac brush / qed soap combo. I am becomming quite a cheerleader for shavemac... this brush I got is really amazing, and I think I might have to get 1-2 more.

NOTE: The shavemac brush, and the aforementioned praise is focused on the Pre-2005 shavemac's, when they had a different, stiffer, superior bristle to that of current shavemacs.