Gold-Dachs Spezial shaving soap

This is a very good soap and exceeded my expectations.

Price: 6 - relatively expensive given weight.

Quality: 9 - excellent overall

Scent: 7 - relatively strong scent. Soapy to me. I'm fine with it.

Lather: 10 - thick, fantastic lather. Wow.

Efficacy: 10 - probably the closest, most consistent shaves of any soap I've used to date.

Moisturizing: 8 - Very good, not great.

I love my Gold Dachs Spezial Rasier-Seife (Natural shaving soap).

Price: Decent for what you get.

Quality: I think this is a very high quality product. The soap is great, and I like the little aluminum case that screws in on top, which makes it nice for travel.

Scent: I can't really describe scents very well, but it's very pleasing to me.

Lather: Lathers very easy. I had no problem getting a great lather the first time. It's really easy to whip up a lather in the aluminum case, which gives you plenty of room.

Efficacy: This soap repeatedly gives me a close, comfortable shave without irritation. I noticed this even more when I picked up wet shaving again, when I was still learning, because I would always get better results with Gold Dachs.

Moisturizing: Doesn't dry out my face or anything like that.

One of the very best soaps that I have ever tried, Gold-Dachs lathers up richly on the face and makes for a close, comfortable shave. The smell is just clean, I'd say. The puck in the travel tin is small yet long-lasting. Too bad that this product is not more widely available. I believe that Dovo has a similar product, or has taken over Gold-Dachs---not sure. Anyway, try this soap. You will be pleased.

This is a great soap, plain and simple. Despite its being a veggie soap, it lathers very easily, and makes for a slick, cushioned shave. The higher pH of the soap seems to soften the whiskers a bit better than the average, and I get a close, comfortable shave every time.

This soap is easy to like, but I don’t love it.

Pleasant soapy lavender type smell. Easy to lather. Slick – it has more slickness than most soaps out there. The lather has a viscosity to it like thick oil (that is a plus). Shaves nice. In efficacy I rate it above Trumpers, on par or above DR Harris, and below Tabac and AOS. Even with the neat viscosity, it cuts close like MWF. I also rate it higher than many french soaps. This soap could easily be a daily work horse. The characteristics of this soap would be optimal if you are using a cartridge. I was using a DE with Feather.

The high pH element did come into play for me. I usually lather and then pour a cup of coffee while my bear softens. In that time my face started to burn. If I don’t leave the lather on for several minutes I don’t have this problem.

This one is worth a try.

Price: The tin sells at Amazon for about $25.00 Pretty pricey, but I happened to have a $25.00 gift certificate. The puck is very small compared to other products.

Quality: Excellent a first rate product. It certainly feels luxurious.

Scent: Perfumy, yet very subtle and low key.

Lather: You'd think there was tallow in the stuff.

Efficacy: Very slick. +1 on the whisker softening properties. Makes for an easy shave.

Moisturizing: Leaves the face feeling very soft, and quite delicious.

I've used it twice so far, but from the moment I first started to lather, it felt special.
I tend to not like non-tallow soaps. Maybe it's just a question of what I'm used to, since I started wet shaving with tallow. I don't miss the tallow with this one. I just wish it was a little cheaper/or came in a bigger puck.

Except for the scent, this soap rises to the top in every category. Of course scent is subjective, so you may find it to be very pleasing. I don't find anything offensive in it, but there is nothing special about it like some of the three Ts.

As for the lather --- simply amazing. Very creamy like a shaving cream yet slick like a soap. This is the most effective soap I've used.

I found the lowest price at Em's Place.

Edit: My review above was based on the sample included in the comprehensive sampler kit. After receiving a full size puck of Gold Dachs, I found the scent much more pleasant. The sample had a stale, musty edge to it that is not present in the real thing. As such, I've revised the score assigned to "scent" in my ratings.

I was also unimpressed by the lather at first but it lathered up nicely on the face. The smell is great and the packaging is elegant. Don't worry too much about the price - I bought mine in Germany and it was expensive there as well, maybe 12 euros.

Thanks Jeff for the post. I thought I would try this soap as I do not usually use soap except my Valobra shaving stick. I bought my tin of Gold-Dachs from Alfred at the Classic Shaving Store as the price was right $16 (CDN). Do I like this soap! Firstly, the tin is a great idea especially when traveling. At first the soap in the tin looked unimpressive but when I went to smell it is a great scent. I got down to business using my Simpsons Chubby 2 and my gold Stant.

I soaked my brush in my mug for 30 seconds and began to swirl the brush in the tin for 15 seconds to charge the brush and again the scent was very pleasant. Following that I went to work by building the lather directly on my face and it became a thick and very moist lather within 30 seconds.

Having built a nice working lather that did not look like a typical shaving soap lather, I went to work using my Gold Slant with a Feather and again, this soap was very impressive. The lather was nice and slick and my brush was charged for 3 passes. There was no burn, redness, or weepers as this soap is very good at moisturizing. Overall, this is the best soap I have tried and I will be using this very regularly.


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Excellent Soap! Of all the soaps I tried so far, this one has the best whisker-softening effect. Super-great, moist and very dense lather, great fresh smell. To me, the Golddachs is not harsh on the skin, even if I take my time. This soap works best with very sharp blades; the milder blades sometimes tend to skip- or slide over the softened whiskers if the cutting angle is not optimal, especially on the problem zones on the neck. Price seems to be a bit steep at first, but the soap lasts a long time.

Great, great, great. Smells like soap, lathers like cream, puck is small enough to fit one of my containers without modification, unlike many of the high-end refills. I bought the 2-pack that comes individually wrapped in a cardboard box, not the tin can for which I have no use.

To me this is a mysterious soap. Following my regular soap procedure didn't work out like I expected: I couldn't build a good lather in my bowl (unlike with my beloved Tabac or GFT rose soap which always deliver lather explosion); only when I started building it directly on my face did I get a good moist lather. As this soap has quite a high ph (intended to soften the whiskers very fast according to the manufacturer) I shaved immediately after lathering up. Very, very smooth shave without any irritation. Only two passes resulted in BBS-ness.
This is a great travel soap, as it enables me to shave quickly and safely without the need of a separate bowl. The small aluminium screw-on box is very neat and handy. Like the scent as well.

I can't forget the first time I shaved with this soap. I was a bit disappointed when I saw the packaging, just a plain metal container, but did I ever freak out when I wrapped my brush around this soap, did I ever love the scent, and lather and everything about it. Just the price and lack of availabilty are a drawback.

Jeff