Item Description
Jeeves of Hudson Street shave soaps are made locally in Buckner, Missouri. I recently met the maker of these soaps, Bryon Postlethwait, at our recent Missouri Wet Shaver’s Meet-up. I bought one of his soaps, Conservatory, and it really is a game changer in the Shaving Soaps scene. After just a couple of uses, it has burst into my Top 5 soaps and I have well over 60 different soaps in my den. Here is my review.
Being that I have over 60 soaps in my den, I had finally come to the decision to come up with a Top 5 list, and work on reducing the amount of soap in my den, paring down to just the ones I love. As such, I really had no interest in trying any new soaps. As such, I was a bit hesitant to give Jeeves of Hudson Street a chance. At the meet-up, Bryon pulled out some of his soaps for us to smell and did a test lather for us to see. I put a little lather on my fingers and it felt pretty nice, so I decided to give it a shot. Plus, I always try to support the local artisans. Of everything he had, Conservatory seemed to be the most pleasant to my nose. It’s a light, soft spring forest kind of scent. Hard to pin down, but it’s quite nice and not overpowering.
I loaded up my boar brush from the tub and proceeded to lather up for my first shave in a bowl. I found that the lather was very easy to make. As normal, I went in with a brush on the drier side and added water until my lather came together. When I first put the lather to my face, I instantly noticed a difference from this soap to almost every other soap I have tried. The lather just felt better on my face. My instant reaction was that this lather just felt…. ‘soft’. There was no harsh or drying soap feel that some lathers have. It was more of a nice creamy feel. What it made me think of is the feeling that I get when I apply lather from Vintage Old Spice shave soap. Yeah, it was that good. I instantly knew this soap was in a class all by itself.
The shave was great. Obviously there was lots of cushion in the lather. The slickness was great. My benchmark for slickness is Williams shave soap. And slickness is, mor me, the most important attribute a soap can have. So far nothing I’ve tried has ever surpassed Williams for slickness. But, the two that have come the closest are Mystic Water and Stirling. I’d say the slickness from Jeeves of Hudson Street is just a hair behind Stirling. So not the slickest I’ve used, but definitely among the best.
The shave quality was absolutely amazing. I was using a Weck Med Prep SE razor with a blade that had over two weeks on it. The shaves were starting to get a bit rough. Yet, on this shave, there was no roughness at all. And I had the closest shave that blade has given me since it had 2-4 shaves on it. I could not believe what a difference that soap had made in the closeness of my shave. When I was done my skin was so smooth, I was really in awe.
The post shave feel was very nice. My benchmark for that is Mystic Water, which leaves my face feeling very soft and moisturized. Jeeves of Hudson Street was tops when it comes to leaving my face feeling soft and smooth. The best I’ve felt in that regard. It was slightly behind Mystic Water in the moisturizing department. It was not drying at all, it just did not quite leave my skin feeling as moisturized as Mystic Water. But post shave feel is way better than most other soaps that I’ve tried.
I’ve used it a few more times and found that is doesn’t matter if you come at this soap with a wet brush or a dry brush, either way it comes together nicely. Some soaps have a very narrow water window, and if you step outside that window the lather will be lacking. This was not the case with Jeeves soaps. The lather performs well in a wide range of wetness.
The ingredients are: Water, Stearic Acid, Tallow, Babassu Oil, Sodium Hydroxide, Castor Oil, Fragrance and/or Essential Oils and Glycerin.
This soap uses Babassu Oil which comes from the babassu palm. Babassu oil is quickly becoming a replacement for coconut oil in soapmaking due to it’s non-drying properties. I think this ingredieant is a big part of what makes Jeeves soaps so great.
Pros: Soft, cushiony, and slick lather gives great shaves with great post shave feel.
Cons: The names of the scents don’t give me an idea of what the scent is.
Price: 9
The babassu oil is more expensive than coconut oil, so some of the price is due to the higher ingredient cost. But you also get a full 7 oz of soap for $18, which works out to about $2.57 per ounce. This puts it inbetween the cost of Stirling and Mystic Water. So while it’s expensive up front, it’s an averagely priced soap.
Quality: 10
Scent: 8
Lather: 10
Efficacy: 10
Slickness: 9
Moisturizing: 9
Definitely in my Top 5 soaps. This is well worth a try if you are looking for a new soap.
Being that I have over 60 soaps in my den, I had finally come to the decision to come up with a Top 5 list, and work on reducing the amount of soap in my den, paring down to just the ones I love. As such, I really had no interest in trying any new soaps. As such, I was a bit hesitant to give Jeeves of Hudson Street a chance. At the meet-up, Bryon pulled out some of his soaps for us to smell and did a test lather for us to see. I put a little lather on my fingers and it felt pretty nice, so I decided to give it a shot. Plus, I always try to support the local artisans. Of everything he had, Conservatory seemed to be the most pleasant to my nose. It’s a light, soft spring forest kind of scent. Hard to pin down, but it’s quite nice and not overpowering.
I loaded up my boar brush from the tub and proceeded to lather up for my first shave in a bowl. I found that the lather was very easy to make. As normal, I went in with a brush on the drier side and added water until my lather came together. When I first put the lather to my face, I instantly noticed a difference from this soap to almost every other soap I have tried. The lather just felt better on my face. My instant reaction was that this lather just felt…. ‘soft’. There was no harsh or drying soap feel that some lathers have. It was more of a nice creamy feel. What it made me think of is the feeling that I get when I apply lather from Vintage Old Spice shave soap. Yeah, it was that good. I instantly knew this soap was in a class all by itself.
The shave was great. Obviously there was lots of cushion in the lather. The slickness was great. My benchmark for slickness is Williams shave soap. And slickness is, mor me, the most important attribute a soap can have. So far nothing I’ve tried has ever surpassed Williams for slickness. But, the two that have come the closest are Mystic Water and Stirling. I’d say the slickness from Jeeves of Hudson Street is just a hair behind Stirling. So not the slickest I’ve used, but definitely among the best.
The shave quality was absolutely amazing. I was using a Weck Med Prep SE razor with a blade that had over two weeks on it. The shaves were starting to get a bit rough. Yet, on this shave, there was no roughness at all. And I had the closest shave that blade has given me since it had 2-4 shaves on it. I could not believe what a difference that soap had made in the closeness of my shave. When I was done my skin was so smooth, I was really in awe.
The post shave feel was very nice. My benchmark for that is Mystic Water, which leaves my face feeling very soft and moisturized. Jeeves of Hudson Street was tops when it comes to leaving my face feeling soft and smooth. The best I’ve felt in that regard. It was slightly behind Mystic Water in the moisturizing department. It was not drying at all, it just did not quite leave my skin feeling as moisturized as Mystic Water. But post shave feel is way better than most other soaps that I’ve tried.
I’ve used it a few more times and found that is doesn’t matter if you come at this soap with a wet brush or a dry brush, either way it comes together nicely. Some soaps have a very narrow water window, and if you step outside that window the lather will be lacking. This was not the case with Jeeves soaps. The lather performs well in a wide range of wetness.
The ingredients are: Water, Stearic Acid, Tallow, Babassu Oil, Sodium Hydroxide, Castor Oil, Fragrance and/or Essential Oils and Glycerin.
This soap uses Babassu Oil which comes from the babassu palm. Babassu oil is quickly becoming a replacement for coconut oil in soapmaking due to it’s non-drying properties. I think this ingredieant is a big part of what makes Jeeves soaps so great.
Pros: Soft, cushiony, and slick lather gives great shaves with great post shave feel.
Cons: The names of the scents don’t give me an idea of what the scent is.
Price: 9
The babassu oil is more expensive than coconut oil, so some of the price is due to the higher ingredient cost. But you also get a full 7 oz of soap for $18, which works out to about $2.57 per ounce. This puts it inbetween the cost of Stirling and Mystic Water. So while it’s expensive up front, it’s an averagely priced soap.
Quality: 10
Scent: 8
Lather: 10
Efficacy: 10
Slickness: 9
Moisturizing: 9
Definitely in my Top 5 soaps. This is well worth a try if you are looking for a new soap.
