Pitralon Shaving Soap (Czech version)

Picked up a tub on sale from Phil at Bull Goose a few months ago and it has been sitting in back storage. Last week I took it out and gave a go. The lather builds quickly with boar or badger. The lather has an odd texture. It is something like marshmellow cream but slick not sticky. I have found the shaves to be good. It doesn't dry out my skin. There isn't much of a fragrance so take that for whatever it is worth.

Essentially, I find Pitralon to be a good, but not great, soap. For the money you do get a larger than normal tub. So if you are looking an above average soap to add to the mix, you might want to give this Czech soap a try.

I won a tub of this soap from Jordan at Against the Grain Shaving http://www.againstthegrain.ecrater.com/ in one of their contests on B+B but lost custody of it pretty quickly to my wife, who added it to her shave den as soon as it showed up. I've been a bit of a soap snob lately, but shame on me because this turns out to be a pretty good shaving soap.

Packaging - comes in a nice plastic tub with a tight-fitting screwtop lid. Definitely worth saving and re-using.

Price - $14.95 seems decent for a shave soap, until you realize this is a huge puck - 160 grams versus AoS's standard 95 gram soaps. Great value.

Lather - rght off the bat, I was suprised by how little water it needs - hitting it up with a dryish brush, it lathered nicely after about a 15-second swirl. Adding a bit more than a tablespoon of water made the lather way too bubbly and wet - I started over and added almost no water, ending up with a perfect lather on the 2nd try.

The lather is extremely slick, especially for how little water was in it. Razor slid through the hairs with no hesitation or catching. Unfortunately, the trade-off is a lack of cushioning - Fatboy on 7 left a few weepers and a bit of neck irritation that got worse over the week. I'd suggest a milder razor with this soap.

Moisturizing - most non-tallow soaps leave me a bit dry and needing extra balm/moisturizer afterwards. Not so with Pitralon, my face was smooth and soft all day even after an Aqua Velva splash.

Scent - They call it a "classic lavendar scent". I call it the smell of a Communist-era bathroom cleanser. Thankfully, the scent is extremely faint and fleeting but there is a weird undertone that pops up occasionally. I'm going to mill this into a stick, and when I do I'll add some EOs to mask it.

Overall, highly recommended.