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JHL Surprise - Anybody know about this soap?

I received a nice lot from the bay today, a Super Adjustable, a brush, and a puck of Williams.

I was really hoping to get the old formulation that I've heard so much about, but the website address on the box made it obvious that it wasn't. :lol:
Then a quick sniff revealed smells of Nag Champa & spice - very sweet, and very not Williams! Curious, I opened the box and found a brownish / orange puck with JHL stamped on it (pretty sure that the DCC initials were added after manufacture... :wink2: )
$JHL_Soap.jpg

Does anyone know about this soap?
Thanks!
 

nemo

Lunatic Fringe
Staff member
J-H-L is a fragrance by Aramis, an Oriental for men started in 1982, I've never heard of shave soap.


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Congratulations on a great score, the soap is a very good performer, albeit not the very top tier . I have several puck that I am jealously hoarding as JHL is one of my favorite scents.
 
JHL turned out just as Jim said - a good performer, but I have better lathers. The scent, however, is out of this world!! Still mostly Nag Champa & Spice to my nose, very dark & warm; and it has some serious staying power for a shave soap - I could still catch whiffs of it over 3 hours after shaving. - This is definitely staying in rotation!
 
Glad you liked it, I use it when I feel like breaking out my pre-reformulation JHL EDT. If you use it like a shave stick it can help as it is a very dense hard soap.
 
Follow up:

When I received the puck, it was completely dry & I was having trouble lathering it. I noticed that it seemed to lather better when I used it two days in a row.

So after this discovery, I began adding 1 tablespoon of water to the puck before bed at night, and checking it in the morning. One morning, after nearly two weeks, it was still damp to the touch. Now it's a solid performer, and the scent is amazing.
 
Great to hear. I now have another great vintage soap to look out for. The JHL scent sounds great. Shawn mentioned a reformulation. Let me guess. A nice, wood/spice oriental has had a "freshening" treatment with such things as rain water, fresh sea breeze, ozonic accords(whatever the heck that is), and clean linen? I will keep an eye out for the edt as well. You never know what will turn up at a boot sale.

Cheers, Todd
 
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