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The Gentlemens Quarter Desert Ironwood

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.
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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!
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Got the Desert Ironwood in a sampler. I love the scent, its as deep clove spicy type smell to it. I think it lingers for about and hour or two, not overpowering just real subtle. Medium to strong scent during the shave that I liked.

I hand/face lathered this sampler puck, I got some nice thick lather and a good shave. I recommend this product.
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I bought this soap based on the strong recommendations from experienced forum members. It seems that Colleen's soaps are favored heavily among all the glycerin soaps. She also is treated as a goddess over at Straight Razor Place.

Anyway, I received the most slick, manly scented, bbs shave!

Little to my knowledge, the subtle, yet strong, masculine scent of Desert Ironwood had been lingering heavily all over my face. The pleasant scent lingers on and on for about 2 hours, yet only so that someone will need to get up close enough to smell.

Well, you can imagine this drives SWMBO absolutely CRAZY!! She just kept sniffing me and commented how clean I smell...

This soap has serious SEX appeal!!!

Other gentlemen have stated this as well. Now I know why Colleen calls herself a mistress - a soapmistress that is. And "every gentleman deserves a mistress".
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TGQ's Desert Ironwood is my favorite soap. Autumn Spice is a close second, followed by Highlander. (I really need to get a badger brush so I can really experience the lather the way it should be.)

In putting together my first order, Colleen worked with me to determine which soap scents would work best for me, according to the types of fragrances I like. I've had the Desert Ironwood, Autumn Spice, Orange Patchouli, Highlander, Bay Rum w/Sweet Orange, and Lime Margarita. The only one that didn't work for me was the Lime Margarita.

In the future, I see most of my soaps having the TGQ label on them.
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I got some of collen soap and cream last month I tryed the autum spice shaving soap and the highlander shaving cream I think that they are both great I will be buying more I dont think you can go wrong with these products.:cool:
As with the original poster for the review of Desert Ironwood, I, too, was first introduced to it as a bath soap; I imagine that both of us received a sample piece when purchasing another one of her shaving soaps. I was captivated by the smell, and vowed to purchase a cake of it with my next order.

Well, I recently made a joint order from TGQ with one of my friends, and made sure to purchase a large 3oz cake of Desert Ironwood. As with the bath-soap sample, Colleen added a small glass vial of Desert Ironwood cologne; not after-shave, not Eau de Toilette, but full-fledged Cologne.

I approached the shaving soap exactly as I do my others (TGQ Leatherneck and QED Wild Rose): 40 swirls of a damp-but-not-dripping badger-hair shaving brush on the face of the soap cake, applying slightly-greater-than-light pressure; my intent was to "charge" the brush, rather than develop any lather -- that would come later.

Once the brush was "charged" with Desert Ironwood, I moved it to a Sterling-silver bowl and began twirling the brush around the inside of the bowl (normally, I build shaving-soap lather directly on my face, and shaving-cream lather in a bowl; however, I felt like experimenting). Immediately a lather began to erupt! I slowly added dribs-and-drabs of hot water, then continued twirling the brush, and after several iterations of this process I had created a bowl-full of heavy, creamy lather.

As I brushed the lather onto my face, I was struck by the heady scent and by the weight of the lather on my face. Sometimes lather feels wet or warm, or just plain cries-out for attention by virtue of its aroma. Not so, with Desert Ironwood.

Shaving was extremely enjoyable; each of the three passes was as effortless as the one before, and I found that I was shaving somewhat more slowly. Was it because of the scent, which demanded my attention? Perhaps it was because I found my attention wandering from the task-at-hand, and needed to slow down in order to restore my focus.

To finish, I used the matching Desert Ironwood cologne... when I poured the contents into the palm of my hand, I really wanted it to be in a shot-glass; know what I mean? I felt and smelled great!

TGQ's Desert Ironwood shaving soap, as with the rest of the product line, is worth every penny of its price and, IMNSHO, produces a better lather than any other shaving soap I've tried.
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I am a huge new fan of the TGQ line -- I have "Desert Ironwood" Cream and 3 soaps "Highlander". "Lime Margarita" and "Savon de Comte". They lather great and give me the closest shaves I have experienced----it is 11 hours since I shaved and I still don't feel any stubble. (that with a 6x Derby). If you haven't tried Colleen's soaps --- you need to try them.

Dick
I have 4 soaps of Colleen's as a first time buyer: Desert Ironwood, Orange Patchouli, Bay Rum and Highlander.

Not crazy about the scent of this particular soap, but so far all the other aspects of her soaps are top notch... and bar none, at least for me, TGQ soaps deliver the most abundant lather I've ever generated with a soap.

Great stuff!!!
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I have three of Colleen's soaps. Desert Ironwood, Highlander, and Bay Rum. The scent of each is superlative.

I've never been brave enough to read the 1000+ post thread on her soaps over at SRP. I just figured that if they talked about it that much I should try it.
Price
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Scent
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Lather
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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
Price
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Scent
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Lather
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Quality
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Efficacy
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Moisturizing
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