Head-to-Head Mystic Water vs RazoRock Artisan!

[JCinPA]

Well! Duly noted and I will definitely try that! Part of this process for me is giving it enough time to fully exploit the product itself, without limitations arising from my understanding of it or my technique. Thanks for the input.

I gave the Omega a couple of gentle vertical pumps this morning. If I read your instructions right, I would drop a little more water out of it, but not get it too dry. Just a little less waterlogged, am I correct?

 

[oscar11]

I've turned into a big fan of this soap. I use a homemade 2 band badger and have no problems creating an excellent lather. I do start with a drier brush adding water slowly while I face lather. The results are just superb, great shaves and skin care. If i had to narrow down my soaps to just a couple this would be one of them. Good luck and enjoy your testing.

 

[5savages]

I've turned into a big fan of this soap. I use a homemade finest badger and have no problems creating an excellent lather. I do start with a drier brush adding water slowly while I face lather. The results are just superb, great shaves and skin care. If i had to narrow down my soaps to just a couple this would be one of them. Good luck and enjoy your testing.

Same here, exactly.

 

[kingfisher]

.... If I read your instructions right, I would drop a little more water out of it, but not get it too dry. Just a little less waterlogged, am I correct?

Correct. An extra shake or a gentle squeeze.

 

[Phog Allen]

John, I would actually recommend going at this soap with a bit drier brush than you're currently using, and then adding water dropwise during the bowl portion. You can end up with a perfect lather either way, but you have to use a lot more time and a lot more product if you go at it with a wet brush a la the Marco method.

By the way, I'm the guy who wrote the lathering instructions you received.......but now I actually give a gentle squeeze to the brush before loading, and add water later, and I find the final lather is less "airy" when loaded in this fashion.

YMMV. Like I said, either way you get a great lather if you do it properly. I can just get a great lather sooner by using a slightly drier brush (not bone dry like the soap-lathering tutorial suggests, but considerably drier than the Marco method).

Precisely my experience during testing of theses soaps. Except I would add more like a teaspoon of water to the bowl after loading. Then incrementally after that. This soap will hold a LOT of water. Just not added all at once. I would not start with a soaking brush either.

And I would add some more to the YMMV issue lads. Remember, it means exactly that. Personally I am not looking for the one soap to rule them all. Like most I have found a few brands that are the absolute best for me but maybe not for you. There are usually only two reasons for me to stray from the chosen. A particular scent niche or the discovery of a really superb lather. Mystic Water hit them both. Their lime scent is the best to my nose of any other lime shaving lather I have tried. Yet that may not be your experience.

I am just saying we have had a few new vendors overwhelmed with over the top reviews and runs on their production capabilities and at times, horrendously negative reviews that just did not seem to jive with others experiences. Like John said, take your time. Get to know the product. A good week or two with it will make you a believer. Or not. And again, I would not look to it or any other soap to be your one and only unless you like that sort of thing. Experience the scents, experiment with the lather, and have some fun.

Cheers, Todd

 

[brucered]

i have my MW on deck again for tomorrow. not scuttle, but a bill bowl will be used (as someone mentioned the heat issue), i'll use the marco method but give my boar a "gentle squeeze" before the lather process and add water after i whip it up.

 

[JCinPA]

Day Two, RazoRock shave #1


Same razor, Personna Lab on third shave, Semogue 2000 boar brush, DB 1.5 scuttle, finished with Lilac Vegetal again, so everything would be the same.

Well, there is a reason this is my favorite soap. It's the only thing I've replaced so far, on my second tub. Lathers easily, if you can't lather this stuff, you need to go back to canned goo. Nice, dense, slick lather, I used Marco's method, except I gave the brush two gentle pumps to dump some water. His method is a formula, not a recipe, you have to adjust for how much water your brush holds. With the Omega I just follow it exactly, but I think the Semogue holds a bit more water.

Three pass, DFS, approaching BBS, no irritation, and my face feels just fine. Again, I don't have problem skin, and both these have plenty of skin-friendly ingredients (see list above), although the MW has more of them. I waited a couple hours like I did yesterday to post my impressions.

Basically, on performance these are very close so far. I will follow some of the tips given above when I shave with the Mystic Water again tomorrow, thanks, fellas! I will continue to dial it in, the RR has an unfair advantage at the moment being that I am so familiar with it. As I expected, these soaps are both top contenders, though. I'll hold off on detailed comparisons between them until next week when I go for an intentional BBS with each of them.

This sure is fun! Two very slick soaps with a scent I really, really like! Life is good!

 

[bkfist]

John,

At your insistence of boar with MW soap, I tried my Semogue this morning with my MW Lime/Verbena/Coconut and I've gotta ask, have you tried the MW soap with a dense badger?

The reason I ask is I found MW to be a bit on the thin/airy side with the boar brush. I went back to the soap to get more product, but the lather just wasn't comparable to that which I get with ease when I'm using my RV brush with Shavemac D01 2-band. When using the badger, I have (had) the exact opposite problem... The lather is so thick and dense, I have to keep adding water to thin it out enough to shave with. This was especially true the first few times I used it when I did more of a 45 to 60 second loading. I now load a lot *less* so that the lather isn't so *thick* with MW soaps. They seem to absolutely love a dense badger. (Same super-dense results with my 2-band 22mm TGN brush, BTW).

 

[JCinPA]

Brian,

Thanks for the tip. I will use both badgers and boars during the two weeks.

 

[TheVez2]

The Mystic Water Lilly of the Valley scent is intoxicating, I love it!

Lily of the Valley is my favorite MW scent so far. And intoxicating is the exact word I've used to describe it.

I also start with a drier brush when lathering MW, and in fact all of my soaps. I've never had a thin or airy lather from MW. Check out the lather videos I posted here:
http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthread.php/277592-Mystic-Water-Soap-Review-amp-Lathering-Videos?

 

[Phog Allen]

John,

At your insistence of boar with MW soap, I tried my Semogue this morning with my MW Lime/Verbena/Coconut and I've gotta ask, have you tried the MW soap with a dense badger?

The reason I ask is I found MW to be a bit on the thin/airy side with the boar brush. I went back to the soap to get more product, but the lather just wasn't comparable to that which I get with ease when I'm using my RV brush with Shavemac D01 2-band. When using the badger, I have (had) the exact opposite problem... The lather is so thick and dense, I have to keep adding water to thin it out enough to shave with. This was especially true the first few times I used it when I did more of a 45 to 60 second loading. I now load a lot *less* so that the lather isn't so *thick* with MW soaps. They seem to absolutely love a dense badger. (Same super-dense results with my 2-band 22mm TGN brush, BTW).

I would concur. I use my super dense Savile Row 3824 and B&B LE Kent buttescotch. Both are VERY dense and work up a creamy lather like no one's business with MW. It will be interesting to see how it goes with a boar.

Cheers, Todd

 

[JCinPA]

This look dense enough? It's my King1976 custom 24mm TGN Silvertip (left, obviously). It's up tomorrow with the MW. (That's C.O. Bigelow, by the way, not Mystic Water, in the lower photo.)

 

[brucered]

used a modified marco (wet brush, with one squeeze) and lathered considerably longer on the soap today and got a nice, thick, stable lather for my entire shave and had extra for touchups and waste. i opted for a boar and bill bowl, but will also try a dense badger, like my Thater and see how it goes, but todays MW shave was the best i've had with it and the best lather i've had with it also

thanks to the John for this thread and the others who suggested a few tips, you saved my delicious Coconut MW from the hands of Penmanship, who was going to take ownership of it....

i'll continue to use it for another week or so, same as this thread suggested and dial in the lather i want. like john said, i, alone with many others, had trouble with QCS creams at 1st and how they are some of my favorites, delivering excelling lather and shaves every single time.

 

[billyboy]

Have had the good fortune of shaving with both of these soaps over the last few weeks. (I know which one is going to win)
I'll wait to see your final results.

 

[cvac]

I got my tub of Mystic Lime today. Will be posting about it (with pics) a bit later. I will say that it requires a very specific technique to get a decent lather out of it and overall it seems like the recipe could use some tweaking to make it more user friendly.

 

[k2clones29]

Used my MW Orange Vanilla for the first time today. I loved it, but not as much as the bay rum. Tomorrow I'm going to try the coconut. These tips are helping me get even a better lather than I was already getting from these soaps!

 

[Songwind]

I hit the ol' face with MW Prospect Creek this morning. Pleasantly chilly. I didn't mix long enough for the first pass, though. The 3rd pass was way better.

 

[JCinPA]

Day Three, Mystic Water shave #2


Same razor, Personna Lab on fourth shave, my King 1976 custom (see photo above), wooden salad bowl, finished with Thayer's WH and Pinaud Classic Vanilla today. Four days of The Veg was enough.

Well, I dried the brush a bit, maybe a bit more than needed, then added water as i built the lather, and got MUCH better results. Well, I should say, I got easier, faster results, my last result wasn't bad. I'm pretty sure I will nail this sucker dead on next time. Wonderful lather, not nearly as much work to get it whipped up, clearly I was starting with too much water before, if you creep up on the water needed, it does work better.

Brian, I think I may still prefer the boar for this, but today was still very good. For consistency, I'll use my badger tomorrow with the RR. Got a DFS shave again, as per usual with both these soaps, no problems of any kind. Skin feels good after using either of these soaps. I ended up wearing a tie all day, had to suit up for a conference, and no neck irritation at all, which is why I started down this road in the first place.

Not much more detail to report, except I am really enjoying all this Lilly of the Valley soap scent, I may have a hard time weaning myself off of it later on! I think I'll change the blade tomorrow, I want to keep this all about the soap. I usually use them longer, but I think I'll stop on 4 shaves per blade for the test. I'll load up tomorrow with either a Gillette Black or a NOS Schick Plus Platinum. I'll stick with the badger for the RR tomorrow, too.

I am forming an opinion about these two soaps, but I still think it best to save the direct comparison scoring for the end, as I intended. Suffice it to say these are both wonderful performers, and the shave results I get are identical.

Tomorrow, gents! Thanks for the tips so far, if you have any others, keep 'em coming. But I do believe I understand this soap now and will be getting the most the MW has to offer going forward.

 

[brucered]

is there are Shave 3 update? even though i threw the towel in on MW, i'm interested to see your outcome.

 

[retrolike]

i love the scent, but couldn't get it to lather properly. when i bowl lathered, it was too airy and disappeared from pass to pass. when i face lathered, it dried out on my face, unless i rushed the shave. my test lathers looked great, but i have no idea if they were stable enough to last for 3pass shaves. my 2 or 3 shaves with it were irritated, left my face with weepers and irritation and not enjoyable or good shaves, which is why i do this.

i had such high hopes for it, as others were getting fantastic results and the MW scents are just unbelievable, so i'm looking forward to seeing how 2 weeks with it (during this test) will go for the John (the OP). i'm sure i'll revisit in the in the future, but for now, my face just can't take too many bad shaves in a row, before i throw in the towel, as i have too many products i know i can get to work.

i wish and hope continued success for Michelle and Mystic Water as she has some of the best customer service out, some amazing smelling soaps and listens to what B&B members are giving as feedback and i hope to be able to revisit it in the future.

I had the same problem. MW's lather dries on my face. I've moved on to other soaps by now...still have a few of MW samples in my den.