Williams shaving soap

This was the first soap i ever purchased to test lather. i quickly found that VDH and Arko and creams were much thicker, but after awhile i came back to try Williams again, and found the sweet spot. it lathers up like crazy, maybe not as luxurious as others, but its so slick, i don't care. i get really close and comfortable shaves with it because its so slick. now every time i try something else, i come straight back to Williams. i have a marvy green rubber mug i keep my Williams in, fill it with hot water and soak my brush in it for a few minutes, then i drain and swirl my boar brush about 5-10 times on the puck. i go straight to the face from there and work up great lather. when i am done shaving, i squeeze out any extra lather that is left in the brush and put it on the puck and let it dry for next time. works great. love this soap.

Price: Can't beat the price of this stuff and it's widely availible

Quality: Not the best out there but pretty damn good for the price

Scent: Nice clean, manly scent. Not for everyone and can get monotonous quick if used everyday

Lather: Not the easiest soap to lather in my experience but once you get the hang of it it's a glorious soap.

Efficacy: Works great for me. Thick creamy lather with good lubrication

Moisturizing: Not bad but you may want something else for dry winter months

great for newbies to learn and experiment with (this is one of the ones I tried at the beginning). Granted not good for moisturizing, but good enough for a shave.

Williams was the first shaving soap I used. Originally trying to get a satisfactory lather almost brought me to tears. Used as is, this can't ever be categoriezed as a moisturizing soap. In fact I gave it an 8 for lathering, and the only way to get that (I later found out) is to soak the puck for at least an hour before using it the first time.

Used by itself it will dry quickly on the face and is a very poor moisturizer. However, here is why I will still be using Williams. Used as a base you can mix it with almost any cream and get it to lather in even the hardest water.

Williams used by itself requires me to add about 12 drops of liquid glycerin in to keep it from drying out in the middle of my shave.

Overall not the best shaving soap, but with alot of potential if you want to be creative.

A mediocre soap. Little glide and cushionning. Takes alot of effort to create a pathetic lather. Residual film present on the face after multiple rinsing and rubbing. Lather on the face will dry up fast, so you better hurry and shave quickly (i do sections at a time). Smells nice but still kind of generic. Bought it once and never again. My face is worth at least a Proraso. Was fun to learn on. Try it and see. Cheers, Carlo.

Hard to lather and once lathered and applied to face it does not protect the skin from nicks and irritation very well and is full of large air bubbles (I can lather other soaps just fine). Much better as a hand soap at the sink than as a shaving soap. Try Arko or Palmolive for a better tallow shave soap at a reasonable price.

There can be no middle ground with Williams! I shunned it due to the many poor reviews, but on a whim I picked up a puck about a month ago. Sniffed it, found the scent to be mildly citrus but mostly clean and soapy. Plopped it in a mug, let it soak in hot water while I showered, then went to it with a boar brush, lathering in a bowl. I was completely surprised at the ease with which the soap lathered, and the quality of the lather it produced. Very slick and acceptably cushiony, the only "ding" is that it doesn't have any moisturizing properties. Not nearly as luxurious as MWF, or as creamy as Palmolive, it is nonetheless a perfectly suitable, utilitarian shave soap. I have since bought a couple of more pucks and grated them into a soup mug for easier loading. I use Williams as a base for superlathers with TBS Maca Root and KMF creams.

This is a good first soap to get frustrated practicing making a good lather!!Lots of reviews on this product so I'll keep it shortros - price point, availability, does it's job in a mediocre way, isn't needlessly over perfumed.Cons - doesn't readily lather up, it is not very special -it wont be anyone's favorite, that's for sure.

A couple of months ago I picked up a puck of williams at CVS. I figured I'd give it a shot and see how awful it was first hand. Well last night I was bored so I thought I'd try it out.

I wanted to give it a fair test so I treated it just like any other of my soaps. I splashed a little water on top of the puck and let my brush soak while I showered. After the shower I shook out my brush pretty well and poured the few drops of water that hadn't soaked into the puck into my bowl. I swirled the brush on the puck until it looked well loaded, probably 30-45 seconds of scrubbing. I went to the bowl and started building lather.

At first I thought, Oh I see what everyone is talking about...the lather was weird, kinda dry and it would fade away as I stopped swirling. I kept adding water to get it to the right consistency and it just kept taking water. I must have added maybe 30ml of water and it wanted more. The lather was overflowing from my bowl (which is pretty big) so I had to scoop some out and toss it so I could add more water. Finally I got it to the nice loose peaks consistency I like and went for the shave...

The lather went on ok. not as rich and creamy as most soaps but it had cushion and I couldn't see my skin under it. It seemed like the bubble structure was a bit bigger than other soaps but in the same realm as most vegetable soaps. The lather was not very slick but it was acceptable, after the blade went over an area my skin was dry and tacky, which was not so nice. However, I did a full 3 pass WTG, XTG, ATG shave with touch-ups and got a mostly BBS shave (progress with red personna).

So, my verdict. It's not awful! for $1.99 it gave a $5.00 performance
It was not hard to lather at all, took a lot of water but I usually consider that a good thing. Am I going to toss my other soaps and start using williams exclusively? no way. Is it better than arko for the same price? no arko is way better. If I wasn't into ordering soaps online and just wanted to pick up a soap at CVS then yes using williams would be acceptable (VDH deluxe is not a soap and is therefore a cheater in my book ) Plus if I ever need to shave while camping I think it might double as a mosquito repellant.

Price: at a $1.05 a puck at my local grocer I can hardly ding it here

Quality: Puck is well formed and hard as a milled soap should be. It does show chipping or cracking overall the quality of the product appears to be consistent.

Scent: This scent must be an acquired taste, I think it smells horrible and have a hard time believing others find this scent pleasant.

Lather: I was able to get what appeared to be a rich creamy lather out of this puck.

Efficacy: ahh this is where Williams really fails. I find that it probably would have been more effective for me to lather with a bar of Irish Springs than this soap.

Moisturizing: Nope... If anything it dries my skin out...

To think I used this soap for years not knowing there was bettert soap out there. When I ran out I would use bar soap, and I didn't notice much difference (other than the bar wouldn't fit in the mug).

when i first got this soap i hated it because i couldnt get it to lather worth anything. i tried and tried off and on for months keeping it in my rotation. i finally got fed up and tossed it in the trash til i read a little more on lathering it. i fished it out and decided to give it another try. turns out i just wasnt giving it enough time. it takes me twice as long to whip up lather with Williams as any other soap. so i learned to be patient with it and stir the hell out of it til my arm is tired then you get some good shaving lather and a DFS to boot.

I've had an unused puck of Williams just sitting in the shelf for something like 8 months. Never thought of using it, since I was still new at this and it has a rather bad reputation.

Something moved me to try it last week. It lathered fine, and shaved fine. Had a second try yesterday, and again it was fine.

It does dry a little quicker than other soaps, but no biggie. A little pass with the brush on the chin (last place I tend to shave) takes care of that.

It costs a buck, and it's fine. Obviously not a luxurious product to pamper yourself with, or a go to soap, but I could use it occasionally when I feel like "slumming".

Thanks to B&B members this soap reached our shores too (the Netherlands). Because of all the polarizing comments on Williams I didn't expect much of it and indeed the first few lathers were not very impressive. But with only a little more work and determination (and a little less water) Williams provided me with a nice and protective lather. It didn't dry out nor fell apart and was maybe not the best lather ever but certainly more than adequate.

I love the scent; nothing special but that makes it suitable for every day use, which lots of my more luxurious soaps are not. This is an absolute no-nonsens soap that does its job simply good. Nothing more and nothing less. It puts a smile on my face every time I use it and it is too bad it is hard to get overhere. Moisturizing? A soap by itself never is or it wouldn't work as such but Williams doesn't dry my skin at all. It leaves indeed my skin feel smooth and soft.

Williams Mug Soap was one of the first soaps I bought when I returned to DE shaving. I had a terrible time with it. I liked the smell but I could never get a good lather with it no matter how hard or long I tried. I had put it away resolving to use it as a shower soap but I never got around to it. Recently, I read a post by another member who recommended that the puck be soaked in hot water for a few minutes before shaving and then, after the water is dumped, to build the lather with an almost dry brush adding water as needed. The result was amazing. I began getting rich, creamy lather and plenty of it. The scent was still one of my favorites and I was getting great shaves. Now it is in my permanent rotation.

I just read more of the reviews on this soap than I intended - all of them. There seems to be some division in appreciation of this product. I fall into the "love Williams" category. I love the price, the scent, the efficacy (i.e. effectiveness) and the quality of the product. The most frequent complaint, even of those appreciative of WMS, is lathering. I milled this soap in a cheese shredder, with no intention of changing the lather-ability of the soap but to fit it into my shave bowl. This soap is hard and it is dense so plan some time cutting this stuff up if you choose to do this. I finally got it shaved enough to mold to my bowl, added a touch of water and set it aside till the next morning. The improved ease of getting a good lather was remarkable. Volume nearly doubled so I was dealing with a soap with half the density of the original puck. I was able to get a really good lather in less than a minute with a rather soft badger brush. If you are one of the many that have problems with lathering this soap, give this a try before pitching it.

The scent is entirely personal. If you dislike lemon verbena, don't bother with it. I would like patchouli or sandalwood but it comes in only one flavor - one that I like as well.

The quality of the soap it very good. It is a well made long lasting piece of soap.

Efficacy; it is a shaving soap and does what a shaving soap should do quite well. It has excellent slip and allows you to glide your razor over you face comfortably bloodlessly and without undue razor burn. I sometimes put too much attention on the perfect shave and the razor burn I get is due to my stupidity, not the soap.

Lather break down or dissipation; yep, that happens but the soap is still on your face and it hasn't dried out and the slip is just as good as when the lather was nice and puffy. The product lying directly on your skin it what makes it work, not the beauty of the lather not touching the skin. If it bothers you, just swipe it with the brush and all will be psychologically cool again. I usually do a complete pass with one lathering where the lather has thinned on part of my face with no difference in feel or slickness. I lather again before a pass in the opposite direction. I personally don't like thick lathers because they tend to fall off the razor and make a mess anyway.

Moisturizing; I wasn't sure how to rate this - give it a 5 because it doesn't dry or moisturize my skin or a ten for the same reason. I gave it a ten. Let's say half of us have dry skin and half of us have oily skin while the company is trying to market to the whole shaving population. If I were the company, I would develop a product that did neither. A shaving soap should perform as a good shave soap, not a skin conditioner as there are many skin conditioners available for people who want to condition their skin. I think they made a good decision there.

Packing, nostalgia, longevity of the product; they are all cool nice to haves, but I didn't consider them in my rating. Price was not an overwhelming consideration, less than availability even. If it were free and I didn't like it I wouldn't use it. I tried to rate the soap just on its shaving qualities. .

If you find it irritating, age the soap some before you use it, you may have a freshly made puck and if the saponifaction isn't complete, the lye may be the irritant. I like to buy several at a time so there is plenty of time to completely cure. This is a more likely problem with high volume soaps.

I really do like and recommend WMS and believe it to be a quality product and think it is worth using long enough to learn how it behaves so you can get as good a shave as it can afford.

Williams is just so good, good, good to me. I absolutely love this soap because it is CHEAP, locally available, and the smell is just freakin' awesome. I can lather up a nice thick creamy slick lather in minutes upon my face or in my mug. After shaving with it my face feels refreshed and very soft. I have accomplished many near perfect shaves with Williams...(I say "near perfect" because either my DE technique needs further honing or I need to move on to a STR8 to conquer the trouble spots on my face). Yes..I would even trust Williams to get the job done with a STR8.

In sum....as long as Williams is still in production....there is no need for me to pay more than 10.00 for a puck of fancy soap! And yes, I went there about the whole expensive soap thing.....

I tried this one as I always see the good, the bad and the ugly with this soap. It got me interested.

I had a go at this one for a full week and I get good lather out of it. The best lather seems to be when I use a minimum amount of water with this soap.

Sure, it smells like citronella but I kinda like it. It light anyways and disappear quickly.

There's tallow in there to help the lather. I know, not all tallow soaps are great but this one work great. If you look at the price and what you get, you can't really beat that! If I look at how my lather look like regardless of the price, then, no, it's not the best lather I had in my life.

I still think this one is worth trying and works quite well. I charge the brush in a cup and then face lather with it.

Overall, I would buy again!

This is a soap that requires a bit of "manning up." You must soak the soap thoroughly. You must work at the soap hard, for much longer than other soaps. You must use copious amounts of water - more than you've used for any other soap.

Put some work into it, and Williams will do the job. True, the scent isn't great, rather lemony at best once it is in lather form. It does not moisturize at all. It does not perform as well as soaps such as Tabac, or even VdH.

But it's a bit over a buck, what were you expecting? Lay down your dollar and change, practice your wrist movements, SOAK that soap and brush in hot hot water, and go to town.

You may be pleasantly surprised.