Item Description
I had really high hopes for this one. Admittedly, I was a little skeptical of olive oil based soaps after reading all the troubles guys on here had with the Tade shaving soap, but I decided to ignore all that and buy this soap anyway. That was a mistake. After trying this and another "shaving soap", I'm convince that it is impossible to make a shaving soap containing moderate to large quantities of olive oil. The lather just won't hold. Tellingly, none of the big names in wetshaving products use olive oil in their shave soaps.
The ingredients are as follows:
Saponified olive oil, coconut oil, palm oil, spring water, fair trade shea butter, olive butter, rhassoul clay, patchouli, frankincense and bergamot essential oils
One thing I will say about this soap is that I really dig the smell. It's sort of earthy, citrusy, and incense-like all at the same time. Very unique and different from any other soap I've tried. I guess that makes it even more disappointing.
I tried twice to get this soap to lather to no avail. I even ran it under hot water for a couple minutes and scrubbed it to try to remove any hard coating and get down to the good stuff that would give nice lather. Unfortunately, that didn't help. I was able to get a very weak lather out of this, but the lather started breaking down into a thin, very bubbly, airy foam and then disappeared entirely in less than a minute. I didn't bother trying to shave with it because I knew what that would result in. Nicks, cuts, and nasty razorburn.
To date, I've tried nearly a dozen different shaving soaps and have never had this problem with any other soap besides this one and the Celestial Sensations soap. Neither one of these will work as proper shaving soap. This is another case where I really have to question whether the maker bothered to properly test this stuff or understands how shaving soap is supposed to work. Considering the professional website and packaging, I'm surprised this is the case.
I think handmade cold process soaps of this type have a lot of potential to be good products, but if the "shaving soap" we're talking about can't produce lather suitable for shaving then it's pretty much worthless. I really hope the maker reformulates this soap and does a little more research about how a shaving soap is supposed to work before doing so. Soliciting feedback on the beta test soap from B&B members would probably be a good idea as well. I emailed the maker suggesting reformulation a few days back, but have not received a response yet.
With shipping charges, I spent about $15 on this soap. Since it doesn't work for shaving, I might use it in the shower. If I do, it will be the most expensive bath bar I've ever used by far.
The ingredients are as follows:
Saponified olive oil, coconut oil, palm oil, spring water, fair trade shea butter, olive butter, rhassoul clay, patchouli, frankincense and bergamot essential oils
One thing I will say about this soap is that I really dig the smell. It's sort of earthy, citrusy, and incense-like all at the same time. Very unique and different from any other soap I've tried. I guess that makes it even more disappointing.
I tried twice to get this soap to lather to no avail. I even ran it under hot water for a couple minutes and scrubbed it to try to remove any hard coating and get down to the good stuff that would give nice lather. Unfortunately, that didn't help. I was able to get a very weak lather out of this, but the lather started breaking down into a thin, very bubbly, airy foam and then disappeared entirely in less than a minute. I didn't bother trying to shave with it because I knew what that would result in. Nicks, cuts, and nasty razorburn.
To date, I've tried nearly a dozen different shaving soaps and have never had this problem with any other soap besides this one and the Celestial Sensations soap. Neither one of these will work as proper shaving soap. This is another case where I really have to question whether the maker bothered to properly test this stuff or understands how shaving soap is supposed to work. Considering the professional website and packaging, I'm surprised this is the case.
I think handmade cold process soaps of this type have a lot of potential to be good products, but if the "shaving soap" we're talking about can't produce lather suitable for shaving then it's pretty much worthless. I really hope the maker reformulates this soap and does a little more research about how a shaving soap is supposed to work before doing so. Soliciting feedback on the beta test soap from B&B members would probably be a good idea as well. I emailed the maker suggesting reformulation a few days back, but have not received a response yet.
With shipping charges, I spent about $15 on this soap. Since it doesn't work for shaving, I might use it in the shower. If I do, it will be the most expensive bath bar I've ever used by far.
