Good morning lads. As some of you may remember, Jay (Mako72) scored a NOS English Leather shave soap last month. Well long story short, I wound up with the soap. It arrived by post yesterday and I used it this morning. I know some chaps eschew using vintage toiletries because of collectible status but I had not a hesitation as I whipped up the lather this morning. And what a lather it was.
Now this cake of soap is old. I am guessing mid to early seventies or even late 60's because it is made by Mem and does not have a bar code. The scent is muted but still there. I approached the forty year old soap with trepidation. It had obviously discoloured a bit. Mostly just darkened from I suspect was the original colour. I put about two teaspoons of hot water on top of it and let it sit whilst I did my usual hot wash cloth soak of the beard. I then attacked it with the B&B 2009 Limited Edition butterscotch.
For the first few seconds I had a "uh oh" moment. It just didn't seem to want to load. I had been down this road before. Namely Caswell Massey. But knowing you shouldn't make snap judgments I kept at it. Evidently I broke through whatever barrier was on the top of the soap because after a good twenty to thirty second scrubbing it started to load. And then it started producing lather. Lots of lather. I knew enough to take it directly to my face and finish the lather making there. And what a treat it was. I usually give myself a good two to three minute face lathering scrub with all my soaps on the first pass and it worked a treat with this one as well. I had very nice meringue type lather within that time. Okay, show time.
The first stroke of the razor gave me the same sense I had the first time I used Tabac, D.R. Harris, and especially AOS. Did I just compare vintage EL to AOS shave soap? Yes I did. And NO, you should not take that as set in stone. I never violate my 3-5 shave rule before making a solid call on a soap's performance and I shan't here. Suffice it to say this is a QUALITY shave lather. Though there is no ingredient list on the box it is almost with certainty I tell you it is a tallow first soap. It just has the feel. Razor glide was quite good and the whiskers fairly flew to the Schick DE razor blade. The aftershave feel was incredibly smooth and irritation free. You never know with cologne fragrance shave lathers. This one is quite good. I honestly needed no a/s treatment of any kind. I cannot wait to try this with a new Feather DE blade.
I will use this all this week and give a more solid opinion of the soap then. Suffice it to say I finally have one of my grail soaps and found it not lacking in measure. Oh btw, this soap is made in USA which pretty well blows hell out of the notion that always seemed to be in the back of my mind that truly great shave soaps were only made in England or Europe. I found it to be superior to the Old Spice soap I had(70's vintage).
Regards, Todd
Now this cake of soap is old. I am guessing mid to early seventies or even late 60's because it is made by Mem and does not have a bar code. The scent is muted but still there. I approached the forty year old soap with trepidation. It had obviously discoloured a bit. Mostly just darkened from I suspect was the original colour. I put about two teaspoons of hot water on top of it and let it sit whilst I did my usual hot wash cloth soak of the beard. I then attacked it with the B&B 2009 Limited Edition butterscotch.
For the first few seconds I had a "uh oh" moment. It just didn't seem to want to load. I had been down this road before. Namely Caswell Massey. But knowing you shouldn't make snap judgments I kept at it. Evidently I broke through whatever barrier was on the top of the soap because after a good twenty to thirty second scrubbing it started to load. And then it started producing lather. Lots of lather. I knew enough to take it directly to my face and finish the lather making there. And what a treat it was. I usually give myself a good two to three minute face lathering scrub with all my soaps on the first pass and it worked a treat with this one as well. I had very nice meringue type lather within that time. Okay, show time.
The first stroke of the razor gave me the same sense I had the first time I used Tabac, D.R. Harris, and especially AOS. Did I just compare vintage EL to AOS shave soap? Yes I did. And NO, you should not take that as set in stone. I never violate my 3-5 shave rule before making a solid call on a soap's performance and I shan't here. Suffice it to say this is a QUALITY shave lather. Though there is no ingredient list on the box it is almost with certainty I tell you it is a tallow first soap. It just has the feel. Razor glide was quite good and the whiskers fairly flew to the Schick DE razor blade. The aftershave feel was incredibly smooth and irritation free. You never know with cologne fragrance shave lathers. This one is quite good. I honestly needed no a/s treatment of any kind. I cannot wait to try this with a new Feather DE blade.
I will use this all this week and give a more solid opinion of the soap then. Suffice it to say I finally have one of my grail soaps and found it not lacking in measure. Oh btw, this soap is made in USA which pretty well blows hell out of the notion that always seemed to be in the back of my mind that truly great shave soaps were only made in England or Europe. I found it to be superior to the Old Spice soap I had(70's vintage).
Regards, Todd
