I have the distinction that I scarf the last tub of Limited Edition Dragonsbeard when it came up for sale at west coast shaving. While I don’t have luxury of saying I have tried over 150 shaving soaps and everything else in between. But I do have around 25 of the top rated artisan soaps priced at average of $22. Dragonsbeard might come across bit expensive at $32 but it cost me another $6 out of minimum $19 shipping cost spilt over 2 other soaps.
At this price point my expectations were high on this blind buy and I was particularly drawn to the soap scent description. Right off the open lid, I liked the scent profile on this one. It starts a little sweet smelling but not in a cloyingly sweet way. Rather the sweetness matures into a very muscular scent with a dominant Oud note. Thing with Oud is that as a standalone scent Oud is very dark and heavy scent but singularly unimpressive as a single note (if you ever visit any UAE mall you will understand what I mean; whole place just reeks of very loud Oud in various iterations of badly done blends). Elsewhere most amateur artisans either just kill the Oud with heavy hand on blending or leave it too loud. Frank has done an outstanding blend on this soap and Oud comes out shining; unadulterated without reeking or cloying. This is now one of my favorite soaps scents and for comparison I have WK’s King of Oud in stable but in all fairness KOU comes across obnoxiously loud and unrefined. At worse it smells artificial and I feel as if I am standing in middle of Tobacconist shop somewhere in India where they sell incense sticks, agarwood paste, tobacco, snuff and everything else scented with synthetic Oud. The Oud note is very mature, gentle, refined and natural in this soap. It ticks all Oud boxes for me and has very firmly knocked KOD out of ring.
Other area where it shines and trumps over best of the best artisan soaps is in the moisture retention. Starting with actual lather, with my limited shaving vocabulary, I have to say the lather is low structure and is not ‘crazy slick’ but it very adequate and holds tons of water. Lather doesn’t feel ‘heavy’ in spite of density. Rather it feels very ‘wet’ and light to touch, perhaps that’s the duck fat (my first duck fat soap) at work there for this lather feel. Moving forward, it seems to have a very unique post shave feel, I don’t feel greasy et all and right from first shave I felt my middle age skin is better hydrated and after 1 week use, little more plump and full. EOS formula is the real deal and I’d say it is something else in its own right so I wouldn’t venture to even compare it with 4 GD soaps I have.
Even with $38 landed cost, this soap with expensive high end ingredients gives me a true customer delight and honestly I can’t think of any area of improvement here. But like any customer worth a whine I will shout out @Dragonsbeard it is truly intoxicated scent off the tub but it greatly dissipate upon lathering and leaves me wanting more. Perhaps it is by design that you wanted it such? I would love the scent to be little more stout and remain so upon lathering as well. But I have to say this soap is one of those few soaps whose faint smell, I can feel on skin even after couple of hours (because of real non synthetic scent oils) if I don’t use any aftershave lotion. I want to thank @Dragonsbeard for bringing this out and wish him luck for next endeavor.
@Chan Eil Whiskers
If you are not able to snag any soap on BST, drop me a line and I will post you a spoonful.
At this price point my expectations were high on this blind buy and I was particularly drawn to the soap scent description. Right off the open lid, I liked the scent profile on this one. It starts a little sweet smelling but not in a cloyingly sweet way. Rather the sweetness matures into a very muscular scent with a dominant Oud note. Thing with Oud is that as a standalone scent Oud is very dark and heavy scent but singularly unimpressive as a single note (if you ever visit any UAE mall you will understand what I mean; whole place just reeks of very loud Oud in various iterations of badly done blends). Elsewhere most amateur artisans either just kill the Oud with heavy hand on blending or leave it too loud. Frank has done an outstanding blend on this soap and Oud comes out shining; unadulterated without reeking or cloying. This is now one of my favorite soaps scents and for comparison I have WK’s King of Oud in stable but in all fairness KOU comes across obnoxiously loud and unrefined. At worse it smells artificial and I feel as if I am standing in middle of Tobacconist shop somewhere in India where they sell incense sticks, agarwood paste, tobacco, snuff and everything else scented with synthetic Oud. The Oud note is very mature, gentle, refined and natural in this soap. It ticks all Oud boxes for me and has very firmly knocked KOD out of ring.
Other area where it shines and trumps over best of the best artisan soaps is in the moisture retention. Starting with actual lather, with my limited shaving vocabulary, I have to say the lather is low structure and is not ‘crazy slick’ but it very adequate and holds tons of water. Lather doesn’t feel ‘heavy’ in spite of density. Rather it feels very ‘wet’ and light to touch, perhaps that’s the duck fat (my first duck fat soap) at work there for this lather feel. Moving forward, it seems to have a very unique post shave feel, I don’t feel greasy et all and right from first shave I felt my middle age skin is better hydrated and after 1 week use, little more plump and full. EOS formula is the real deal and I’d say it is something else in its own right so I wouldn’t venture to even compare it with 4 GD soaps I have.
Even with $38 landed cost, this soap with expensive high end ingredients gives me a true customer delight and honestly I can’t think of any area of improvement here. But like any customer worth a whine I will shout out @Dragonsbeard it is truly intoxicated scent off the tub but it greatly dissipate upon lathering and leaves me wanting more. Perhaps it is by design that you wanted it such? I would love the scent to be little more stout and remain so upon lathering as well. But I have to say this soap is one of those few soaps whose faint smell, I can feel on skin even after couple of hours (because of real non synthetic scent oils) if I don’t use any aftershave lotion. I want to thank @Dragonsbeard for bringing this out and wish him luck for next endeavor.
@Chan Eil Whiskers
If you are not able to snag any soap on BST, drop me a line and I will post you a spoonful.
