Hello all,
I purchased this soap as a potential future replacement for TABAC, and have been very successful and happy with it in the few shaves that I managed so far!
First of all, to the best of my knowledge, the ingredients of the soap in the bowl are not the same as the ones of the soap in the stick. I am posting here the ingredients that I found online for the stick, and the ones that I see on the bowl (and can confirm), and highlight some differences in bold font.
Stick:
Bowl:
Anyway, I am not a chemist, so I do not know if there would be any perceivable differences (I see for example that potassium stearate is the potassium salt of stearic acid).
I found ARKO to lather best after letting it bloom a bit, because otherwise it may be hard to get the lather to soak up enough water and it will feel pasty. Here is an example of my lather.
Also, it was hard to get the soap to lather in its own bowl, because it is not placed firmly and keeps rotating when trying to load the brush. So I squished it into my own wooden bowl and now it sits super tight.
To the best of my experience, the ARKO soap feels more tallow-heavy than TABAC. I can feel the glide due to the tallow between passes, and it gives me an excellent post-shave sensation, my skin feels like glass to the touch. Protection-wise, I would rate the two soaps roughly the same, in fact, ARKO might be just a tad better because of the tallow slickness. ARKO also explodes with lather a bit easier (when done correctly, see blooming remark above); TABAC is already super easy to lather with, but ARKO is simply ridiculous in that aspect, I need to pay attention not to overdo it. However, one aspect where I give TABAC the upper hand is that it feels milder and more comfortable on my face during the shave. ARKO gives me a slight burning sensation towards the end of the shave, that does not translate to any irritation fortunately, but may certainly give the impression of doing so. Perhaps there is too much salt in it or something like that. The ARKO scent is a bit overwhelming in the first uses, but it did not bother me and recently I have even grown to like it! I like the TABAC scent better though!
I do not know how long it will last, probably less than TABAC, but it is cheaper too, so it is hard to tell which is better value.
Overall, I think that this is a very good soap to have! I see that I can buy a 12-pack for 24 euros, which is more than 1kg of soap and I will probably go for it.
I purchased this soap as a potential future replacement for TABAC, and have been very successful and happy with it in the few shaves that I managed so far!
First of all, to the best of my knowledge, the ingredients of the soap in the bowl are not the same as the ones of the soap in the stick. I am posting here the ingredients that I found online for the stick, and the ones that I see on the bowl (and can confirm), and highlight some differences in bold font.
Stick:
Potassium Tallowate, Stearic Acid, Potassium Cocoate, Aqua, Sodium Palm Kernelate, Glycerin, Parfum, Paraffinnum Liquidum, CI 77891, Tetrasodium EDTA, Etidronic Acid, Disodium Distyrylbiphenyl Disulfonate, Amyl Cinnamal, Citronellol, Geraniol, Hexyl Cinnamal, Linalool.
Bowl:
Potassium Tallowate, Potassium Stearate, Sodium Palm Kernelate, Aqua, Glycerin, Potassium Cocoate, Parfum, Paraffinum Liquidum, Tetrasodium EDTA, Cl 77891, Etidronic Acid, Sodium Chloride, Disodium Distyrylbiphenyl Disulfonate, Linalool, Limonene, Citronellol, Geraniol.
Anyway, I am not a chemist, so I do not know if there would be any perceivable differences (I see for example that potassium stearate is the potassium salt of stearic acid).
I found ARKO to lather best after letting it bloom a bit, because otherwise it may be hard to get the lather to soak up enough water and it will feel pasty. Here is an example of my lather.
Also, it was hard to get the soap to lather in its own bowl, because it is not placed firmly and keeps rotating when trying to load the brush. So I squished it into my own wooden bowl and now it sits super tight.
To the best of my experience, the ARKO soap feels more tallow-heavy than TABAC. I can feel the glide due to the tallow between passes, and it gives me an excellent post-shave sensation, my skin feels like glass to the touch. Protection-wise, I would rate the two soaps roughly the same, in fact, ARKO might be just a tad better because of the tallow slickness. ARKO also explodes with lather a bit easier (when done correctly, see blooming remark above); TABAC is already super easy to lather with, but ARKO is simply ridiculous in that aspect, I need to pay attention not to overdo it. However, one aspect where I give TABAC the upper hand is that it feels milder and more comfortable on my face during the shave. ARKO gives me a slight burning sensation towards the end of the shave, that does not translate to any irritation fortunately, but may certainly give the impression of doing so. Perhaps there is too much salt in it or something like that. The ARKO scent is a bit overwhelming in the first uses, but it did not bother me and recently I have even grown to like it! I like the TABAC scent better though!
I do not know how long it will last, probably less than TABAC, but it is cheaper too, so it is hard to tell which is better value.
Overall, I think that this is a very good soap to have! I see that I can buy a 12-pack for 24 euros, which is more than 1kg of soap and I will probably go for it.