Barrister & Mann - please try some samples!

[Havok305]

So I have been looking for my perfect soap and picked up some samples from B&M. I got it in before my trip to Hawaii along with some Mike's but didn't want to start using the samples until I got back so I can do some comparing. I am fairly new to wet shaving, so I haven't tried 30 different soaps.

I have tried the following: DR Harris Arlington, Tabac, Prorasso Green, Speick Stick, Mike's Natural Soap, TOBS creams, Col Conk BR
Have on the way: Stirling and Mama Bears

That being said, take my opinion for what its worth. YMMV, etc....

I wanted to finish my Mike's Barbershop before I switched to another sample to give it a fair shake. The first few days of Mike's weren't great with lather, but the 3rd day I had great lather. I figured it out. Was getting some DFS's.

Today, I tried the B&M Bay Rum. This scent is amazing, it is a relatively soft soap, so I just mashed it into my bowl. This thing lathered instantly. I mean WOW, I was impressed by it. Felt the lather and it was the best I have ever made. My previous favorite was Tabac. The lather provided great slickness, a very close and comfortable shave.

Granted this is a little more expensive than your typical soaps. You pay $10-12 for @3.75oz. Compared to @$12 for 5oz of Mike's, or $5.00 for the 4oz Stirling Soaps.

Looking forward to finishing off this sample and trying the rest. If the performance continues, this will be my go to soap.

 

[dushea]

Yea, this soap is legit. Still trying to find my favorite scent, but it'll def have a place next to Mikes.

 

[mctmatt]

1+ Barrister and Mann shave soaps are my new number 1 in my shave den.

 

[bassopotamus]

It's funny, I've been mmeaning to order from them for a couple months, but every time, something comes up. Perhaps this will be the push

 

[wagstaff]

Too much good soap in the den .... i'm very curious about this stuff, too. But my Mike's and Strop Shoppe stuff will last a long while now. Nice problem to have, I know, but the raves for this stuff are hard to ignore.

 

[Burnside]

Damm u guys. Thanks to these threads I want to order Stirling and BM. The problem is I already have more soap than I can use!!

 

[Deez]

I would also like to add that not only are their soaps amazing, but their service is top notch. Placed an order on Sunday night for a couple of tins, and boom, they were here on Wednesday. Also, there was a hand written thank you note on the receipt from Will.

 

[Havok305]

I pretty much stopped blind buying. Going sample crazy. This stuff is the best I have used. I'm going to give Mike's more time after I finish the B&M Bay Rum sample, but man this will be tough to beat.

Just order samples, you can thank me later.

 

[rbaloha]

Could someone provide an honest assessment that compares B&M to Mike's. IMO it would benefit shavers deciding which one to order.

 

[Starkicker]

Could someone provide an honest assessment that compares B&M to Mike's. IMO it would benefit shavers deciding which one to order.

To date, I have tried:

Mikes: Barbershop, Lily of the Valley, Lavandin & Eucalyptus, Lime, Hungarian Lavendar, Peppermint & Rosemary, O/C/P
B&M: Ferox, Lime lavender and Cedarwood (LLC), Seville, Cheshire

Scents (mind you, this is very subjective)
Of the ones that i've tried, I only really disliked B&M's Ferox and LLC. In LLC, I found the Cedarwood to be too overpowering and Ferox to my nose smelled like Vicks Vaporub. I traded them off as fast as I could. That said, I wasn't ecstatic about Mike's scents other than Lime and Hungarian Lavender. I could use them all, but if given the chance I would trade them for something else. Mike's Lime and Hungarian Lavender are great but I find when I smell both soaps, I can detect a faint clay scent. I'm sensitive to smell of clay (that damp earthy smell) and would prefer that it not be in my soaps but that said I dont have any kind of skin reaction to it so I'm still free to use them. With B&M, all you get are the scents. That said, I would say that Seville is probably one of my favourite scents and I would have to give the scent points to B&M; Seville and Cheshire smell better than Mike's Lime and HL. I can still smell Seville after i've finished shaving and have cleaned up!

Performace (Lather-ability and post shave feel)
Mikes I find is a little more finicky to get a decent lather. I've had many issues with trying to get a decent lather and i'm still trying to nail it down. The shave is great, nice and close and my face feels great post shave. It's not MWF great, but pretty close. B&M on the other hand is ridiculous when it comes to lather; it lathers up like crazy and seemingly a little goes a long way. The shave is really close and the post shave feel is great. I use MWF as my benchmark and it's not as good as MWF, but it too is pretty close.

Given the choice, I would have to say that I prefer B&M over Mikes for the particular scents I like.

 

[bassopotamus]

To date, I have tried:

Mikes: Barbershop, Lily of the Valley, Lavandin & Eucalyptus, Lime, Hungarian Lavendar, Peppermint & Rosemary, O/C/P
B&M: Ferox, Lime lavender and Cedarwood (LLC), Seville, Cheshire

Scents (mind you, this is very subjective)
Of the ones that i've tried, I only really disliked B&M's Ferox and LLC. In LLC, I found the Cedarwood to be too overpowering and Ferox to my nose smelled like Vicks Vaporub. I traded them off as fast as I could. That said, I wasn't ecstatic about Mike's scents other than Lime and Hungarian Lavender. I could use them all, but if given the chance I would trade them for something else. Mike's Lime and Hungarian Lavender are great but I find when I smell both soaps, I can detect a faint clay scent. I'm sensitive to smell of clay (that damp earthy smell) and would prefer that it not be in my soaps but that said I dont have any kind of skin reaction to it so I'm still free to use them. With B&M, all you get are the scents. That said, I would say that Seville is probably one of my favourite scents and I would have to give the scent points to B&M; Seville and Cheshire smell better than Mike's Lime and HL. I can still smell Seville after i've finished shaving and have cleaned up!

Performace (Lather-ability and post shave feel)
Mikes I find is a little more finicky to get a decent lather. I've had many issues with trying to get a decent lather and i'm still trying to nail it down. The shave is great, nice and close and my face feels great post shave. It's not MWF great, but pretty close. B&M on the other hand is ridiculous when it comes to lather; it lathers up like crazy and seemingly a little goes a long way. The shave is really close and the post shave feel is great. I use MWF as my benchmark and it's not as good as MWF, but it too is pretty close.

Given the choice, I would have to say that I prefer B&M over Mikes for the particular scents I like.

I'll have to give B&M a go. Your assessment of Mike's kind of matches mine. I want to like it more than I do. The clay smell really monkeys with the scents for me as well. It doesn't lather for me real easily either. Part of it is that I have really bad water, but it just seems kind of picky.

 

[Allegrabene]

I have to finish a tin of mikes before going with this stuff but as soon as that happens ill pulling the trigger. Just need to find out which scent

 

[Deez]

As far a scent goes, I have the Solstice and Vetiver/Heather/Clary Sage. I think the Solstice smells like Arlington or XXX, but I catch one more scent in the Solstice,maybe pepper or something. It pairs great with 4711 A/S. As far as the V/H/CS, to me it smells like a lilac bush, but I could be completely off on that.

 

[volleymh9]

I would also like to add that not only are their soaps amazing, but their service is top notch. Placed an order on Sunday night for a couple of tins, and boom, they were here on Wednesday. Also, there was a hand written thank you note on the receipt from Will.

+1 here. I emailed Will a question about buying soaps with containers and it was less than 5 minutes before he responded saying he'd be getting tins in a week. I consider the quality of the shave to be just as good if not better than with Mike's, easier to lather, and the scents are unique. they have a very clean/refreshing quality to them. B&M has joined the top-shelf in my den with Mike's and MW

 

[Havok305]

B&M Bay Rum is excellent, I paired it with Captain's Choice Cat of Nine Tails last night.

Their sample pack offers all their scents for $10.35. My initial thoughts are B&M performance > Mike's performance. I still have 5 or so Mike's samples, maybe the Barbershop doesn't perform as well as the others, who knows. I will report back as I continue trying both sets of samples. B&M lather beats Tabac lather, and I really like Tabac lather. So easy to generate a good lather, and I have hard water in FLA.

I picked these soaps up by chance from a recommendation on a Bay Rum, and I am glad I took the chance. I would like to try this against MWF and MdC, but I have so many samples in and coming, it will have to wait. I have heard horror stories about lathering MWF. I don't want shaving to turn into a chore.

So far, I would reorder B&M and Tabac. I can live without Harris, Proraso (once I find a nice menthol).

Here is what the sample pack brings:
Cheshire
Solstice
Seville
Lime/Lavender/Cedarwood
Vetiver/Heather/Clary Sage
Bay Rum
Unscented

7 samples, approximately 1/2 oz. each.

 

[mattdenicola]

Could someone provide an honest assessment that compares B&M to Mike's. IMO it would benefit shavers deciding which one to order.

Order both!

Really, though, I find Mikes and B&M to be very similar performers. I have posted this elsewhere, but they have similar consistency, thirst level, and lather quality ... Much more similar than any other two soaps are to each other - at least for my den. If you blinded me and took away the scents, I'm actually not sure I could tell the difference just from the lather. Mikes is a bit firmer, and wants a bit more water. But the difference - for me - is minimal.

The scents on both are nice, but I do find there are a couple I much prefer. With Mikes it is the Hungarian Lavender and Vetiver. With B&M it is the Ferox and Cheshire.

 

[kingfisher]

As far a scent goes, I have the Solstice and Vetiver/Heather/Clary Sage. I think the Solstice smells like Arlington or XXX, but I catch one more scent in the Solstice,maybe pepper or something. It pairs great with 4711 A/S. As far as the V/H/CS, to me it smells like a lilac bush, but I could be completely off on that.

Amazing how people perceive scents differently. I have the V/H/CS and to me it smells like a campfire.

 

[dushea]

Order both!

Really, though, I find Mikes and B&M to be very similar performers. I have posted this elsewhere, but they have similar consistency, thirst level, and lather quality ... Much more similar than any other two soaps are to each other - at least for my den. If you blinded me and took away the scents, I'm actually not sure I could tell the difference just from the lather. Mikes is a bit firmer, and wants a bit more water. But the difference - for me - is minimal.

The scents on both are nice, but I do find there are a couple I much prefer. With Mikes it is the Hungarian Lavender and Vetiver. With B&M it is the Ferox and Cheshire.

+1, the scents between the two of them vary greatly, so much so that they'll both happily live side by side in my den. My faves from B&M (Seville and Cheshire) are very different than what Mike offers (faves being Barbershop, Coconut and Lemongrass) and vice versa.

As a side note, I asked B&M for more citrus scents. As a reply, they had some grapefruit essential oils (these guys don't like to use fragrance oils) from their Ferox batch that they're thinking about using for that purpose. If they came out with a TOBS Grapefruit scented shaving soap, I KNOW I'd buy multiple and I'm sure they'd be a hit.

 

[rbaloha]

It is very interesting how shavers are obsessed with scents. Personally I prefer unscented since oftentimes scents could be skin irritants.

My question about B&M vs. Mikes is strictly about creating lather quickly and easily and shaving performance.

 

[Deez]

Amazing how people perceive scents differently. I have the V/H/CS and to me it smells like a campfire.

I wish I could get campfire out of it, that's the kind of scent I was hoping for since it is a vetiver.