Wilkinson Sword Shave Stick

I have several stick soaps that are particularly good when I've had a day or two growth, and also pack well for vacation. Wilkinson was the first stick I tried. I was put off initially by the color. I have no blue soaps but this one. The scent is clean, but not spectacular. It lathers like a pro, though, producing copious amounts from a small application. My stick has lasted for a while too, as the soap is very hard. I'm waiting to use this up before I try my Palmolive.

Introduction

Last year in the summer I decided to go with my bike to Aachen Germany, to look if I could still find something that I hadn't bought yet. In the end I only came back with a Wilkinson Sword Shaving Stick, where I had read great things about.

This shaving stick is also often nicknamed the Mitchell's Wool Fat in stick form, that is because it contains Woolfat.

Packaging

The Wilkinson Sword Shaving Stick comes in a small carton box, and on the sides you can find shaving soap translated in seven languages, like German, Spanish, Dutch and French.



For the rest there is nothing special about the packaging, and it just contains the shaving stick packed in tinfoil with an useful holder to hold the shaving stick.



Performance and scent

I have used the Wilkinson Sword Shaving Stick quite often, and almost already finished the first one. To use the shaving stick you simply make it wet and apply it straight to your face, and then you just start face lathering.



The performance of the Wilkinson Sword Shaving Stick is really outstanding, and creates an rich thick lather enough for two or three passes. The quality of the lather is really superb, and it provides a very good glide and protects the skin very good and also doesn't dry the skin out.

Describing the is quite hard, but it would be best to describe it as an mild soap scent, which I personally think smells very pleasant.

Price and availability

In Germany you can buy the Wilkinson Sword Shaving Stick for € 1,45 from the Rossmann drugstore, I don't know if you can buy the Wilkinson Sword Shaving Stick locally outside Germany.

But I do know you can buy two of them for £ 5,00 from Connaught Shaving or £ 2,99 for one from Maguires Barbershop, and for people who life in the USA, West Coast Shaving sells the Wilkinson Sword Shaving Stick for $ 6,00.

Conclusion

Wilkinson Sword offers with this shaving stick a outstanding shaving soap which is from high quality, and offers a great value for your money.

When comparing this shaving stick to the Palmolive Classic Shaving Stick its definitely worth paying the extra money for this shaving stick, because it performs better than the Palmolive Classic Shaving Stick.

By the way, this isn't the same shaving soap as the normal Wilkinson Sword shaving soap in blue bowl, which I heard isn't great shaving soap.

Following 4 days using the Erasmic Stick shaves, I had to go for something much better. Erik (Gustav) suggested the Wilkinson Sword as he's also working on that one. (http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthread.php/339009-Wilkinson-sword-shave-stick-a-little-known-gem-of-a-shave-stick)



I used the Wilkinson Sword Shave Stick in the past with success. I knew that I was getting into one of those fantastic products that is cheap and good. The size of the stick is the same or almost the same than the Palmolive Euro Shave Stick. I know that the Palmolive Stick (Euro) is cheaper but the Wilkinson Sword scent is better IMO.

So, how is the product? Very easy to lather, easy to compare it to Palmolive, Arko or Speick. A bit of water and it's perfect. It's not very thirsty compared to other sticks and the lather is very slick and protective! It's one of those products that you don't get any headaches and it simply works. I have to give it to the Germans for that, they do extraordinary stuff when it comes to shave sticks!

I did 1 shave as superlather. I used a sample of Edwin Jagger Menthol shave cream and it worked wonders. The lather was maybe 1 notch thicker and it was awesome as usual. The menthol from the EJ cream made it extra special but it was mild compared to pure EJ Menthol.

I then moved on the Uberlather shave. Just to see if that extra slickness would improve anything. I did not notice anything major which would suggest that the stick already has enough glide to make fantastic lather.

In the control group, I tried Arko as I referenced to it earlier. Arko is a good, cheap product and it's easy to obtain. The lather is good but not great compared to Wilkinson. Don't get me wrong, Arko is a workhorse, Wilkinson Sword is a bigger and faster horse, that's all.

Going back to the scent, I would say a clean, soapy scent. It's mild but still there. The only fault that I could find was that it melts a bit too quick compared to other sticks. I guesstimate between 65-70 shaves for that one compared to Speick where I was over 100 shaves it it.