Oh my goodness!!I try not to jump to a conclusion on a soap until I have used it several times, I find my mind changes a bit as my experience with a product grows. I did, indeed, get a puck of the V2 Schafmilch from Amazon last month.
First, let me say that I think the whole tallow vs non-tallow thing is a ridiculous back and forth. There are outstanding, world-class soaps in either format we all know that. To say, "I only want to use tallow soaps," or "I only want to use non-tallow soaps," is to cut yourself off from some truly stellar performers.
That said, when a well-known and old-school soap goes through a MAJOR reformulation, like from tallow to non-tallow, there is often much wailing and gnashing of teeth. Tabac is the latest to have done that, and while the new soap is apparently a very good performer, the general consensus so far from those who used to use the old version and tried the new is that the former was superior.
Therefore, I am very, very glad I have never tried a tallow version of the Haslinger. My first outing with this was OK. I thought it was very good, but it did not make my Top Tier of soaps, but may have made it into my second tier of "Excellent". There was just no wow factor for me on our first dance. I decided I would revisit it later and decide. Such was my first experience with it that I was not motivated to come back to it for some weeks.
Because @Marco is such a soap connoisseur whose judgement I respect, I determined to really give this soap a shakeout. And to decide if it would, in fact, make it into my Top Tier, I shaved the last few days, in order, with some of my Top Tier soaps, Tabac (old), Mitchell's Wool Fat (new Top Tier member), and Noble Otter (also a new Top Tier member for me). Today, I took my time, used my beloved Omega Professional boar brush, and was extremely mindful during the shave, "present" is the word they like to use today, I think. I loaded it in my WMS pewter mug until it was just about where I wanted it, then took it to my face and gave it a good two minutes of work.What was happening? Wow, what a great lather!
Very well-hydrated, and while I would not call this a low structure soap, like a B&M, neither is it a high structure soap like Tabac or The Fat. It's kind of in-between for me. It was dense, shiny and slick, but soft and stayed put where you left it, no bubbly stuff, no dissipating lather that's for sure. And slick ... not crazy slick like Cella or WMS, but certainly slick. Very close shave, and oh so comfortable, and my face feels awesome right now as I type this!
I am glad I experienced this as a virgin, without having tried the previous version. As of right now, this is solidly in the top of my Excellent category, but I plan to use it again tomorrow, because I have a feeling I may nudge it into my Top Tier after another use. Good gravy, this is good stuff!
John, actually the current Haslinger soaps have been renamed V2 because this is their SECOND REFORMULATION to a tallow-free version. So, to put things in chronological order we have:
1. Tallow version
2. V1 (Fist tallow-free version)
3. V2 (Second and current tallow-free version).
I've been using Haslinger soaps for many, many years now and used all versions made. To me, the latest V2 is the finest of them all.
P.S. In addition to the flagship Schafmilch, another Haslinger soap that I really love is Honig (Honey). This one seems to fly under the radar here, but I assure you that it is terrific.
