Olivia Zeder (Cedar) shaving soap

This soap has been fairly aggravating, but I've finally managed to get it to be fairly usable. Let's look at the individual categories and sum it up at the end.

Price: A handmade soap at an affordable price (€5 a puck). The price is quite good, but you'll need tons of this soap. That makes it become a bit more expensive in usage.

Quality: It's a soap, what more can we say? Mediocre due to bad usability/latherability and the frustration it gave me, but it works very well on my skin. Even better than other soaps.

Scent: I had the same as with Tabac and Cella. At first a lot of doubt, because the fresh puck had a strong smell that gave me almost a headache (like those "forest scented" toilet fresheners ). After using it a bit the puck's more moderate and very nice. The lathered/foamed up soap smells very nice and the whiffs flying by my nose from my face after shaving are pleasant.

Lather: Or should we call it foam? This soap is terrible in lathering and ranks well at the bottom of my soap collection. Olivia's WM Kingkong does a far better job (at a reasonable level, still not fantastic), but the non-WM Zeder has been aggravating. What works for me is an almost dry brush with a watersoftened puck (no water on top, because that'll give you foam). You'll need to load up tons and there's an extremely small area between "loaded up" soapstyle and watery foam. The resulting lather has no real staying power (I lather up parts of the face now before shaving with this soap....) and there's very little lather. The worst of all my soaps and it's a shame, since the soap itself is nice. I think I used up about a quarter of a puck getting to a half-decent solution for me.

Efficacy: After finally being able to lather it up half-decent, it does its job well. Shaves smoothly and does its job. Not a top-score due to the frustration (which I can't use in the mornings ) and bad lather.

Moisturizing: Brilliant. And I mean it. Once you get it to more-or-less do what it should, this is top notch in the moisturizing department. I have a dry skin and this soap leaves it feeling well and that is after shaving. Olivia's soap is a real winner here.



Well, to summarize: Lathering sucks. Uses tons of soap, gives nothing in return. I do get great lather from all my other soaps, but it could be a skill-deficit. This is a great soap when it comes to the skin care. So if you're an experienced latherer and can take on many soap challenges, take a shot. It's not a very expensive puck, but you'll use it up more rapidly than others.

I'm a very lucky man indeed to have a great friend who always sends me nice European-made soaps and creams. This lovely soap, which is made by www.olivia-seife.de surprised me. First of all, most of these soaps are amazing in skincare, they all smell very nice, but as a rule, they're not big latherers. This one, if you use a little extra water, and a bit more soap will give you plenty of rich, cedar-scented lather, and you'll get a smooth as silk close and let me emphasize COMFORTABLE and gentle shave. Absolutely a soap for me to get again.

Jeff