Been wet shaving since 2009. The longest-lived, most used lather product I've used is MdC. I've had the same "B&B used" jar of MdC last me 10+ years. I recently bought samples of all their other scents to try and that got me down the road for several more months. The Original and Rose being my particular favorites!
That said, my lathering skills have been lame. I had taken a break from soaps and started using shave oils by Somerset's and Shave Secret.
In March of this year, I decided to check out some new razors. I wound up offloading all my standard DEs for slants in an effort to lighten the mental bandwidth required to find the optimal shave angle. I'm now down to a RR Superslant L3 with Muhle standard handle and a Fatip Lo Storto Original. With the slants, I can put the handle perpendicular to my skin and get a close shave every time. Then I got sucked into the GEM and Schick realm.
Unsurprisingly, I had some poor shaves due to changing too many variables at the same time. I sought to reset and figure out how to protect my face better. In comes connecting with the emperor of soap enthusiasts, @RayClem whose mentorship has been nothing less than extraordinary. Advising on technique, process, products, and evaluation - they should write a book! Unfortunately, of all things, he's not tried any MdC - that will change some day when I send him some
but, I decided to bring in two soaps from his top tier ratings: GD's Mumtaz Kairos SE 2023 and A&E K2e St. Bart's.
My A&E experience was decent, but again, I changed too many variables to just evaluate the soap. But it did give indication of what I could expect from these small batch soap makers - excellent performance and aftershave skin conditioning.
I've been a face latherer and have found that I lack good control of the lather development on my face and that by trying to "work" the lather I'm overworking my face. I'm moving to a bowl for the Mumtaz and others going forward.
I gave this a go last night:
Mumtaz
28mm Frank Shaving synthetic brush
Superslant L3/Rapira(4)
…and, after my last shave where I spent more time and deliberate attention to working on the lather development and achieved much improvement. I used a Tupperware 16oz soup cup to work on lather instead of viciously scrubbing my face.
Three days’ growth, a shower and went to it.
I dunked my brush, gave it a squeeze, dribbled some water into the tub, then swirled the brush lightly on the soap surface for about ten seconds.
Then I vigorously whipped around the brush in the cup, dribbled in water and watched the lather turn to an opaque foam of nano-bubbles. I kept adding dribbles of water to the cup and did some brush tip dips and tested dollops in the sink to where they mostly held together.
Then I started painting my face, slightly scrubbing the beard and the lather further developed and thickened. The first pass went smoothly knocking down 95% of the copper wire growth.
I rinsed with warm water, then started face painting again but the soap was very thin. I felt I may have watered the soap down too much, so whisked the soup puck for a few seconds and went back to the cup.
I swirled on my face and the lather richness resurfaced. The last pass knocked out the remaining stragglers.
I rinsed again, splashed with witch hazel and water and no alarm bells.
I did have another minor nick in a common place, but it quickly closed.
The scent is more pronounced and long lasting than any soap I can remember. It’s not off putting, I’m just not sure if I love it so much as it’s an exotic reminder that I did indeed just shave.
The after-shave feel was soft and today that is still the case. It's very impressive and feels great! No irritation, no red streaks of irritation. Just glowing looking skin!
I've already relayed my experience to Ray, and he's given some more pointers for me to follow. I'll be getting a proper shaving bowl, chucking the bloom water into my bowl, cutting loading times and some other tweaks.
I also had a lovely chat with Mo at GD who while surprised I thought the scent was powerful, he suggested I leave the tub open for a week or two to dull the aroma. I don't wear heavily scented stuff or use scented laundry products. My household is scent neutral - well, aside from my cats lol So, while I found the Mumtaz soap nice, it just hung around longer than I was expecting or used to.
Mo did recommend the Pura - Unscented or the more simply scented Edel, but I want to work through what I have before I purchase yet another tub of product. As it is, between the MdC, A&E and GD is 8 months - 1 year of shaves if I shave my average 2-3x a week. I'm not looking to hoard ahead of use and instead just focus on getting the best out of each one at a time. Besides, by the time my tubs are empty I'm sure GD will have new, different, and interesting options to choose from.
This experience has fully demonstrated the competencies of modern shaving soaps in ways that set a bar for which all others I entertain will be measured against. It's truly impressive that these soaps smell so complex, like the tasting profile of a specialty coffee and provide protection and after shave skin care that I thought would have been predominantly via separate products.
Many thanks to all the folks on this forum who have used and reported on their experiences with all of the products I've researched and a special thanks to @RayClem for the mountain of time invested in providing me with prompt, comprehensive and personalized advice.
I too hope my experience will help others.
That said, my lathering skills have been lame. I had taken a break from soaps and started using shave oils by Somerset's and Shave Secret.
In March of this year, I decided to check out some new razors. I wound up offloading all my standard DEs for slants in an effort to lighten the mental bandwidth required to find the optimal shave angle. I'm now down to a RR Superslant L3 with Muhle standard handle and a Fatip Lo Storto Original. With the slants, I can put the handle perpendicular to my skin and get a close shave every time. Then I got sucked into the GEM and Schick realm.
Unsurprisingly, I had some poor shaves due to changing too many variables at the same time. I sought to reset and figure out how to protect my face better. In comes connecting with the emperor of soap enthusiasts, @RayClem whose mentorship has been nothing less than extraordinary. Advising on technique, process, products, and evaluation - they should write a book! Unfortunately, of all things, he's not tried any MdC - that will change some day when I send him some
but, I decided to bring in two soaps from his top tier ratings: GD's Mumtaz Kairos SE 2023 and A&E K2e St. Bart's.My A&E experience was decent, but again, I changed too many variables to just evaluate the soap. But it did give indication of what I could expect from these small batch soap makers - excellent performance and aftershave skin conditioning.
I've been a face latherer and have found that I lack good control of the lather development on my face and that by trying to "work" the lather I'm overworking my face. I'm moving to a bowl for the Mumtaz and others going forward.
I gave this a go last night:
Mumtaz
28mm Frank Shaving synthetic brush
Superslant L3/Rapira(4)
…and, after my last shave where I spent more time and deliberate attention to working on the lather development and achieved much improvement. I used a Tupperware 16oz soup cup to work on lather instead of viciously scrubbing my face.
Three days’ growth, a shower and went to it.
I dunked my brush, gave it a squeeze, dribbled some water into the tub, then swirled the brush lightly on the soap surface for about ten seconds.
Then I vigorously whipped around the brush in the cup, dribbled in water and watched the lather turn to an opaque foam of nano-bubbles. I kept adding dribbles of water to the cup and did some brush tip dips and tested dollops in the sink to where they mostly held together.
Then I started painting my face, slightly scrubbing the beard and the lather further developed and thickened. The first pass went smoothly knocking down 95% of the copper wire growth.
I rinsed with warm water, then started face painting again but the soap was very thin. I felt I may have watered the soap down too much, so whisked the soup puck for a few seconds and went back to the cup.
I swirled on my face and the lather richness resurfaced. The last pass knocked out the remaining stragglers.
I rinsed again, splashed with witch hazel and water and no alarm bells.
I did have another minor nick in a common place, but it quickly closed.
The scent is more pronounced and long lasting than any soap I can remember. It’s not off putting, I’m just not sure if I love it so much as it’s an exotic reminder that I did indeed just shave.
The after-shave feel was soft and today that is still the case. It's very impressive and feels great! No irritation, no red streaks of irritation. Just glowing looking skin!
I've already relayed my experience to Ray, and he's given some more pointers for me to follow. I'll be getting a proper shaving bowl, chucking the bloom water into my bowl, cutting loading times and some other tweaks.
I also had a lovely chat with Mo at GD who while surprised I thought the scent was powerful, he suggested I leave the tub open for a week or two to dull the aroma. I don't wear heavily scented stuff or use scented laundry products. My household is scent neutral - well, aside from my cats lol So, while I found the Mumtaz soap nice, it just hung around longer than I was expecting or used to.
Mo did recommend the Pura - Unscented or the more simply scented Edel, but I want to work through what I have before I purchase yet another tub of product. As it is, between the MdC, A&E and GD is 8 months - 1 year of shaves if I shave my average 2-3x a week. I'm not looking to hoard ahead of use and instead just focus on getting the best out of each one at a time. Besides, by the time my tubs are empty I'm sure GD will have new, different, and interesting options to choose from.
This experience has fully demonstrated the competencies of modern shaving soaps in ways that set a bar for which all others I entertain will be measured against. It's truly impressive that these soaps smell so complex, like the tasting profile of a specialty coffee and provide protection and after shave skin care that I thought would have been predominantly via separate products.
Many thanks to all the folks on this forum who have used and reported on their experiences with all of the products I've researched and a special thanks to @RayClem for the mountain of time invested in providing me with prompt, comprehensive and personalized advice.
I too hope my experience will help others.
Last edited:
