Gentlemen's Best Signature Line Shaving Soap

I don't leave reviews that often but i felt the need to rate Rays Gentlemens Best. With the help of this soap i am starting to realize i prefer soaps over creams. His Signature serirs has a very manly scent. The Chilled version has a citrus smell to it. I love the wood bowls it comes in. I highly recommend this product.

I may have made a mistake when i used Gentlemen's best as my first real soap. It makes rich mounds of lather that don't dry easily and gives me a shave like i never thought i would get.

The smell of GB signature series awakens my girlfriend in the morning with a smile when i kiss her good bye and i catch myself smelling my hands until the scent fades.

Before I get into the actual review of the product, I will tell you that I'm friends with Ray. I struggled with my opinion of this product for a while. Because he's a friend, I wondered if I liked this because of my friendship, or if I really like it based on merit. So, While I was wrestling with those issues, I came to a realization about a week ago (I'm over 3 weeks into my experience with it). The fact that I've used only one other soap since I got the Gentlemen's Best Signature Series soap helped me realize that the soap is THAT good. There's no way that I'd continue to use this product out of a friendship with someone that has no way of knowing if I actually was using it or just telling him what he wanted to hear. I have a LOT of really good soaps in my shave den, and I just keep reaching for this one every day... I think there might be something wrong with me

For reference, I'm very stingy with my numbers in ratings feeling that 10s are reserved for the top 1% of products and 5s are for middle of the road products. I've given products that I really like a 78%, which I consider to be a nice score. I try to avoid hyperbole, but I know I'm not perfect in that regard either. With that frame of reference, let's begin

Price: At first glance, I thought the $22 was too expensive for this soap (before I used it ). Then I got a chance to use it, and realized that this soap is every bit as good as any soap on the market. After 3 weeks of almost exclusive use, I'm just starting to notice some signs of use. It's a cold process veggie based soap, so I'm still not sure about longevity. However, The performance, the scent, plus the fact that Ray (I'm assuming he does this himself) uses a laser to engrave his nice wood bowls more than justifies the price. Whatever potential value concerns there might be in the soap and bowl is MORE than made up for with a $8.50 refill. I have paid $30+ for refill pucks before. Price = 9

Quality: This soap performs every bit as well as ANY product that is currently on the market. It took me a little bit of time to work out the soap to water ratio, but in fairness, I was breaking in a new boar brush at the time. I'm not sure how to separate quality from efficacy, but here's my thoughts. It has a great scent (complex which is surprisingly so for a small start up business with their first attempt), it performs exceptionally well, and comes in a nice wood bowl. What more can you ask for? Quality = 9 because it's not quite to the level of Penhaligon's old formula English Fern, but it's very nice

Scent: This is obviously very subjective, but it just so happens that I really like this scent. I'm picking up on sweet orange, Oak Moss, and Bergamot... I'm sure there are other components, but I'm not a hound dog... There is a complexity to the scent that is reminiscent of DR Harris's Arlington. NOTE: THIS DOESN'T SMELL LIKE ARLINGTON AT ALL. It just has complexity that reminds me of it. It is an "up close" scent that my wife really enjoys as well. Scent = 10

Lather: Pics are needed

After loading



Lathered up and ready to go


Note the tall self supporting peaks and the consistency of yogurt. This soap lathers up just like you would expect from a top notch product. Lather = 10

Efficacy: I told my brother one time, "you don't shave with your eyes". I feel that a lot of times guys judge a product based on how good the lather looks. Via PM, I discussed with one member how he was disappointed because he had a product that lathered up really well but shaved terribly. You won't have that problem with this. Some of you guys might know that I don't care for Tabac (from a performance perspective - I actually like the scent), so it may come as no surprise that I think the GB blows it away. However, hopefully it will serve as a way for some to judge my standards. Loads of cushion and super slick... Efficacy = 9

Moisturizing: We are having an unnaturally cold winter, and I'm using this stuff daily and not having any issues with my face drying out. In fact, my face feels great, moisturized, and healthy. More so than just about anything else I've tried. Moisturizing = 9

Conclusion: This product is THAT good in my humble opinion. I love the scent and the performance has not surprised me at all. Some of you know that Sue manufactures this stuff for Ray, and she should be commended on executing his vision and formula. She has nice stuff anyway, but I think this is better than anything else of hers that I've tried. Like I asked in the title, is this an AD killer? I have used a lot of stuff, but I've not used anything this consistently since starting my wetshaving journey (started with Tabac and Proraso Cream early on). It is exceptional in my opinion, and well worth adding to any shave den.

I feel like I've been fair with this review based on the merits of the product itself, but bear in mind that he and I are friends and weigh my opinions with that understanding. Also, bear in mind that I'm working on my 4th week of SOTDs with only one variable: the razor. Every shave has been consistently Gentlemen's Best Soap, AS, and EdT with my Semogue LE '09 boar brush



Discussion thread for this review found HERE