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Taylor of Old Bond Street

Pros: good price attractive wood bowl great smell
Cons: none
the best sandalwood I have found love the wood bowl, this is my daily soap.
Price
4.00 star(s)
Scent
4.00 star(s)
Lather
4.00 star(s)
Quality
4.00 star(s)
Efficacy
4.00 star(s)
Moisturizing
4.00 star(s)
Pros: Outstanding lather
Cons: Drying
The ToBS sandalwood soap was one of the first shave soaps I ever purchased, having only recently converting to a traditional wet shaver. Overall I have been very pleased. I found it to lather better than my AoS or mystic water hard soaps, and the scent is very pleasing. I was accustomed to the AoS sandalwood scent, which was very warm, woody, and masculine. The ToBs sandalwood is a bit flowery/soapy smelling compared to the AoS interpretation, but no less pleasant. The only complaint I have is the soap seems to dry my face out unless I re wet it after every pass before re lathering. I also purchased their sandalwood cream, and prefer this for its ease of lather and fragrance longevity over the hard soap.
Price
3.00 star(s)
Scent
4.00 star(s)
Lather
5.00 star(s)
Quality
4.00 star(s)
Efficacy
4.00 star(s)
Moisturizing
3.00 star(s)
Pros: Scent, Lather, Moisturising properties
Cons: A little pricey
This was the first shave soap i ever bought and although it was pricey at nearly $45 the bowl will last a long time and the refills are much cheaper.

The lather this creates smells incredible, lasts the whole shave and produces enough easily for 3 passes. I have been using this now for a month nearly every other day and i haven't even scratched the surface so although pricey i think this will last for a long time.

I love how this leaves my face after shaving and the scent is strong enough to smell but subtle enough that it doesnt overpower any ASB or EDT if you want to wear that.

Highly recommended.
Price
3.00 star(s)
Scent
5.00 star(s)
Lather
4.00 star(s)
Quality
4.00 star(s)
Efficacy
4.00 star(s)
Moisturizing
5.00 star(s)
Pros: Beautiful bowl, refills are cheap, easy to lather
Cons: Grooves on the side of the bowl tend to pick up soap residue
I love that the bowl is large enough to get a decent initial lather going which I can then finish off directly by face lathering. No need to keep a second bowl for building lather on the already crowded shelve.
Price
4.00 star(s)
Scent
4.00 star(s)
Lather
4.00 star(s)
Quality
4.00 star(s)
Efficacy
4.00 star(s)
Moisturizing
4.00 star(s)
For a dedicated cream shaver trying to ween his way off his adiction, I can find no better soap to beat the habit than this one. I used my small Muehle shaving brush which I thought would be too soft but it whipped up a soft creamy lather. I am a merkur de user with the yellow gilette 7am blades. The marriage of these 2 is giving me not just super close shaves but on a regular basis, day in, day out which I was never able to get with a soap.

My skin feels moisturised after the shave not dry or 'tight' in any way. As I mentioned in previous threads on the forum, I would never claim to be an experienced soap user and I have struggled to get a decent lather in the past. I have found the answer to all my problems with this sandalwood soap.
Price
4.00 star(s)
Scent
5.00 star(s)
Lather
4.00 star(s)
Quality
5.00 star(s)
Efficacy
4.00 star(s)
Moisturizing
4.00 star(s)
I find this soap to be a very..... decent soap, but nothing more.

Price: Not particularly bad, but for the same price you can get better.

Quality: Overall, good but it just needs a little something more.

Scent: Much has been said about how TOBS Sandalwood is not 'real' sandalwood, but I really enjoy the scent of this stuff.

Lather: You can get a good lather going from a puck of this stuff, it just takes a bit more work than some other soaps.

Efficacy: This is the weakest point of the soap. It's decently slick, but I feel the cushion leaves something to be desired. I'm not quite sure why, but I seem to get slightly more irritation when using this soap than better ones.

Moisturizing: Not overly so, but I haven't had a problem with dryness while using this puck.

Overall, this puck is great for a superlather with some unscented cream. This lessens the irritation I get at the end and preserves the great smell. If I could only have one puck of soap though, this wouldn't even make the short list.
Price
4.00 star(s)
Scent
4.00 star(s)
Lather
3.00 star(s)
Quality
4.00 star(s)
Efficacy
3.00 star(s)
Moisturizing
4.00 star(s)
Am going through abit of a sandalwood phase at the moment so am loving this soap. I always face lather and with a few swirls of a damp brush you get a rich creamy lather in no time at all. I find it very slick and the lather doesn't dry out. My face feels great afterwards, a nice splash (dr harris sandalwood at the moment) finishes up a very comfortable shave indeed. The Taylor creams get alot of attention and rightly so but I really do think this soap doesn't get the credit it deserves and my next purchase is going to be the lavender soap from taylors.
Price
4.00 star(s)
Scent
5.00 star(s)
Lather
5.00 star(s)
Quality
4.00 star(s)
Efficacy
4.00 star(s)
Moisturizing
4.00 star(s)
Excellent Scent. See my ratings. Others are much cheaper, with nearly same ratings in quality, lather, efficacy and moisturizing.
Price
5.00 star(s)
Scent
4.00 star(s)
Lather
4.00 star(s)
Quality
4.00 star(s)
Efficacy
4.00 star(s)
Moisturizing
4.00 star(s)
I agree with most of the other reviews but alas, Tabac has spoiled me on other soaps. This is a great smelling, middle of the road performer. If you like Taylor's Sandalwood cream then this should be your next soap purchase. This will make it into my rotation when the weather warms back up because it isn't the most moisturizing soap out there but it is definitely worth keeping around to get your Sandalwood fix on. :biggrin:
Price
5.00 star(s)
Scent
4.00 star(s)
Lather
4.00 star(s)
Quality
4.00 star(s)
Efficacy
4.00 star(s)
Moisturizing
3.00 star(s)
Excellent performer for the price. You play slightly more up front to get the wooden bowl, but the re-fills are very affordable at under GBP7 ($14 US / Canada) and they last forever. Most of all, it's a quality Taylor product.

I was a bit concerned about the wooden bowl and wood rot given this is a fairly wet process, but it's very well treated and continues to be in excellent shape.

This product must be lathered in a seperate bowl, like other soaps and creams, to get good results. If you later directly on the hard soap, your skin may find the result too concerntrated and complain, this was my initial mistake with soaps. Some creams may be more forgiving in this aspect.

The sandalwood scent is very subjective as others in this community have stated in the past. This is my 1st sandalwood so I can't really compare to anything else, but I mainly detect soap scent, followed by some slight woody undertones. It's very agreeable, and I really do like it.

To date, this product (in combination with Taylor's pre-shave oil) has given me the closest shave ever. I can at times manage to squeeze one extra day (5 instread of 4 complete shaves)from my Feathers using this soap. Moisturizing properites are very acceptable.
Price
5.00 star(s)
Scent
4.00 star(s)
Lather
4.00 star(s)
Quality
5.00 star(s)
Efficacy
5.00 star(s)
Moisturizing
4.00 star(s)
The second soap I ever tried after Mitchells/Kent, IMHO it is probably the finest shaving soap you can buy for sustained quality, aroma, lather and moisturising. In the years that I have been using it, I have probably gone through 20 cakes of it and it never fails in quality. Love the stuff!, Price wise, a snip at £6.00/$12 a refill, knocks other well known London soaps off the shelf!
Price
5.00 star(s)
Scent
5.00 star(s)
Lather
5.00 star(s)
Quality
5.00 star(s)
Efficacy
5.00 star(s)
Moisturizing
5.00 star(s)
This too was my first soap since I made the switch to DE wet-shaving. JUst used it for the first time this week, and I must say it was incredible. As also was stated above, I didn't know what sandlewood should smell like either, and even if all of the sandlewoods are not the same Taylor's scent is still very pleasant; and dare I say yummy.

The lather was rich and creamy, and provided great cushion and protection. I am quickly becoming a soap fan.

The only downside for me so far is the price. Over $30 for the soap and bowl, but I must say the bowl is nice to have.

Highly recommend.

-Jeff
Price
3.00 star(s)
Scent
4.00 star(s)
Lather
4.00 star(s)
Quality
4.00 star(s)
Efficacy
4.00 star(s)
Moisturizing
3.00 star(s)
Taylor of Old Bond Street Sandalwood Herbal Shaving Soap is one of the many offerings of a hard milled ~100g cake in a wooden bowl. In this case, the soap fills the bowl up to the rim. The presentation is nice, and on the upper end of the scale. It is priced accordingly as well (street = ~$22 for soap & bowl, ~$12 for soap refill)

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This was the first soap/cream product that I got after switching from electric/Mach 3/canned foam. I had no idea what sandalwood should smell like, so I took this as it. However, I now know this to not be the case now. Additionally, every manufacturer seems to have their interpretation of what a sandalwood scent should be. See Scotto's Sandalwood Week review thread for more information on other manufacturers' products & scent interpretation. I am fine with the scent of Taylor's sandalwood in this soap. It winds up being fairly neutral, so I can use it to layer with different bath soaps, aftershaves, EdTs, etc.

Taylor is one of the 3T's for a reason. This particular soap makes a very thick, rich, hydrated lather. It has never failed to produce lather in this manner for me either. Here are some example photos:

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I find the shave that I get to be very good with this soap. There is enough cushion from the lather, but a good amount of glide as well (I primarily use straight razors). I think it is a worthy addition to anyone's shave den because of it's performance and complementary fragrance.

Here is this review's discussion thread.
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