What's new

The Gentlemens Quarter Desert Ironwood

Item Description

I first ran into Colleen Hurley just over a year ago at Straight Edge Razors. She is a soapmaker and was interested in restoring straight razors. Soon, she was an active member at SRP and sending me soap samples to shave with. After a few misses, she started knocking home runs! So far, Desert Ironwood is my favorite, but I haven't found a bad one in the bunch!

Price: TGQ soaps are priced competitively (I don't have the current price list) and I paid $5.95 for my 3 oz rounds. You can email her for a new price list and an update on available products.

Quality: Nothing missing here. It's a high quality glycerin soap with EO fragrance that is hypo-allergenic.

Scent: Desert Ironwood is a man's soap. No question. It's spicy with Patchouli, heart of clove, cinnamon, black pepper and a touch of bergamot. My first experience with this soap was as a bath soap. It immediately became a favorite.

Lather:
TGQ soaps generate a luxurious lather. Not soapy or wet, but more of a dry lather. Load your brush and build the lather directly on your face. You may be concerned about it being dry, but no worries. It definitely does the job.

Efficacy: Mission accomplished! The job of a shaving soap is to provide a lather that builds a cushion and protects the skin, and yet allows the razor to glide and cut through the beard. The lather may look dry, but it's just fooling you!

Moisturizing: It's hard to find a soap that really moisturizes, at least to the point that you don't feel the need to apply something at the end of the shave. This comes as close as anything I've tried.

Conclusion: You don't have to be an "old English" company to produce a quality shaving soap. We learned that with Will G and our three Sue's! Now it's time to meet Colleen!

Colleen does not currently have a website up and running. You can contact her here: [email protected]

Unless reviewing this soap, please do not comment to this thread. Discussion for this thread can be found here!

Randy

Latest reviews

OK, I am fairly new to the TGQ line and ordered several samples to try and here is what I have observed.

1. To describe the TGQ scents in a word? Intoxicating. I picked up samples of 5 different scents. Bay Rum w/ Orange, Oak & Moss, Desert Ironwood, Leatherneck, and Toasted Almond. With the exception of the Almond scent, which I find has a very "synthetic" smell to it, all of the scents have an allure to them. Some of them I am not quite sure that I like but I find myself coming back to them and sniffing the hell out of 'em just to make sure. :001_smile I think that I have settled on Desert Ironwood and Leatherneck as the standout favorites of the scents that I received. Both very masculine and unique in their own right. Their scents are fleeting as you rinse them off (which I have come to expect from most soaps). During the shave their presence is sufficient.

2. These soaps take a bit more water to generate a healthy lather than some other soaps. When the ratio is right, they produce a wonderfully thick, creamy lather. Bubbles are almost non-existent when they are whipped up correctly. I wasn't overly impressed with the amount of lather they produced but I certainly wasn't dissatisfied either....enough for 2 strong passes and an average 3rd.

3. Here is where I find these soaps a bit puzzling. When my razor is pulled across my face, it wasn't the smoothest feeling shave that I have had. In fact, the first thing I thought was, "Wow, this is a bit rough for a glycerin soap". Not a bad experience but just not quite as smooth as I was hoping for. HOWEVER, after finishing with my 3rd pass, I was SO pleasantly surprised to find my face with absolutely ZERO irritation! No weepers, no nicks, no burn....NOTHING! And this was all performed with a week-old Red Persona blade. I have been following up my shaves with the TGQ soaps with a bit of Ogallala's BR, Limes and Peppercorns skin toner and have been getting some of the most pleasant and satisfying results that I've ever had wet shaving.

Highly recommend.
I've never had a blade travel so smoothly over my face before. The scent is manly nothing artificial or fruity about the scent. Highly recommended. A bluechipper of soaps. Moisturizing is excellent as well. It gets under rated because the scent and efficacy impress you first.
Price
3.00 star(s)
Scent
5.00 star(s)
Lather
5.00 star(s)
Quality
3.00 star(s)
Efficacy
5.00 star(s)
Moisturizing
4.00 star(s)
Not much to say here that hasn't been said. This stuff plain rocks. Can't say enough about it.

Scent overwhelms you
Lather is fantastic with a slight tingle for me
Wife loves it (also a plus)
Perfect for a Gillette SS

All around best buy soap here. The gem of my collection and I havent even bought a full puck yet!
Price
4.00 star(s)
Scent
5.00 star(s)
Lather
5.00 star(s)
Quality
5.00 star(s)
Efficacy
4.00 star(s)
Moisturizing
5.00 star(s)

Item information

Added by
rtaylor61
Views
852
Reviews
12
Last update

More in Shaving Soaps (Reviews)

More from rtaylor61

Top Bottom