Wild Lavender

This review is for Mystic Water Wild Lavender shave soap.

Anyone who spends time around Badger and Blade knows there is a cadre of members who really like this brand of soap. I am one of them. Michelle has formulated a wonderful shave soap and knows her work. Where many artisan shave soaps lack completely in lather building and particularly stability, Michelle has conquered these issues and has a fully retail ready product.

The first full cake of Mystic I used was the Lily of the Valley scent. I have to say this is the single best shave lather I had ever used. It honestly still is. I wanted to try another scent variety and being a lavender fan I had to try hers. It did not disappoint.

First I have to lump the quality and price categories together. At $9.91 per 4oz. cake this is a real bargain. One of the best values there is.

Scent. Ah, the most subjective category. I love lavender. And while I do not mind the big, herbaceous garden type lavenders I have always appreciated the subtle mint notes of Bulgarian type lavenders. This one is a lavendin hybrid I believe but in any case has an almost delicate, light mint note in the background that I really, really like. It abated a bit as I used it up but the scent was never poor or boring.

Lather. This is where I will deviate a bit from the Lily of the Valley. Whereas that one was always straight forward and yielded tremendous lather, the Wild Lavender was a bit finicky. This is not to say it was hard to lather but I will admit I had to work at it most times. It had only one sweet spot and if you missed it, you missed it. The lather would still work but would not be as stable or rich as the best efforts. And when you hit that best spot it was just as good as LotV. Which is to say, phenomenal. I simply thought it was a bit tricky to get dead on so the rating numbers reflect it.

Efficacy. Again, VERY good. No roughness unless you mucked the lather. Even when you did this soap has amazing skin conditioning properties. Mystic provides superb glide and when lathered properly a comfort matched only by the very best of soaps.

Moisturiising. Mystic is simply one of the best. And Wild Lavender was just as good as LotV in this regard and only the slightest bit behind the unscented version. I will leave it at superb and done.

Mystic Water shave soap, particularly Lily of the Valley, has fast become the standard to which I hold any other shave lather I try. Including other Mystic scents! Wild Lavender is not quite as stable or efficacious as its stablemate but is a very good shave lather all in all. I highly recommend you give Mystic Water a try.