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Joe's Soap/Cream Review Project.

So the basic information:

Background:
I have been D/E shaving for about a year. First soap/kit was an Art of Shaving kit, which I got when I bought my straight razor there about 3 years ago. Since then, I've discovered a wide variety of soaps and became a bit more passionate about the "Hobby" part of shaving. Which leads me to now.


The Tools: (Plan is to maintain these same tools through the whole process.)
Water: I have moderately hard water, "Akron water can be described as mildly hard, averaging about 100 parts per million as calcium carbonate equivalent, and ranging from 55 ppm to 165 ppm."
Razor: Merkur Futur
Blade: Personna Double Edge Razor Blades
Brush: RazoRock Plissoft Synthetic Brush or Semogue 830
Bowl: EJ Shaving Bowl

The Method (D/E):
(I do soak the brush before, but do not bloom the soap.)

1. Shower
2. Pre-shave: Oil or Priming Soap or None (No huge difference, I do feel the oil helps a little)
3. Lather: I tend to bowl lather over face. (May try both)
4. Shave: Normally 3 passes:WTG, XTG and ATG. Only two if I feel a bunch of irritation, then WTG and XTG.
5. Post Shave: Alum, then Aftershave.

The Plan:
I've made a large purchase of samples, with intention of purchasing the ones I like. I wanted to find a way to rate them quickly and so that I would remember. After asking a few questions I have decided to use a scorecard system.

The Shaveing ScoreCard:
View attachment 630210

Scoring:
I decided to use a system of 1-5, using the ability to make a half by circling two numbers. (The reason why I did this was so I could keep the ScoreCard small and it could be easily converted to a 1 to 10 scale.)

Categories Explained:
Lather-ability: How easy does it lather? Quickly or does it take some time?
Protection: How protected do I feel while shaving?
Slickness: How slick is the lather? Is my razor hoping?
Cushion: Density of lather, Good barrier or no?
Aftershave Skin Feel: How my skin is?
Scent Strength: How strong the scent is. Does it fill the bathroom or you can barely smell it?
Scent Description: I'm okay with scents, not perfect. I'll try to describe them the best I can.
SWMBO(She who must be obeyed) Approval Rating: Managed to talk the g/f into participating in my hobby. Does she like the scent or will I sleep on the couch?
Would I buy it again? <--- basically what it says.

What will be reviewed:
Plan is every soap/cream in picture is my intention.
$shaving samples.jpg
As well as:
RazoRock XX
RazoRock Classic
RazoRock Mudder Focker
Akro
Italian Barber Amici
Truefitt and Hill 1805

These are all the soaps I currently own. I may consider adding more on as I go.


Wrapping things up:
If you're still reading and interest, I would love to know your thoughts and what you think. Please keep in mind it's based solely on my opinion. (Before this I haven't used a large number of soaps or creams.) I may go back and re-review a soap or two if needed. I'd love suggestions.

Thanks so much,
Joe
:shaving:
Useful link for Abbreviations: http://wiki.badgerandblade.com/Abbreviations
 
$ogallalabayrum.jpg
First Review: Ogallala Bay Rum, Bay Rum and Sweet Orange.
All in all, I liked it. Differently Bay Rum scent than I was used too. I wouldn't think twice about buying it again.
 
Pretty good criteria. Have you considered how long the soap lasts? So for the maggards samples which are .75oz I think, how many shaves you get from the sample? Just a thought.
 
Pretty good criteria. Have you considered how long the soap lasts? So for the maggards samples which are .75oz I think, how many shaves you get from the sample? Just a thought.

Not a bad thought, I could try to keep track. My plan is one time through then on to the next soap. Some of the soaps I may never revisit.
 
I would love to know your thoughts and what you think. Please keep in mind it's based solely on my opinion. (Before this I haven't used a large number of soaps or creams.) I may go back and re-review a soap or two if needed. I'd love suggestions.

Since for the last three months I've been doing this exact exercise, and you asked for feedback, from experience, here is my opinion.

1. What's the difference between protection and cushion? From what you wrote, they sound the same

2. Are all your attributes weighted the same and if so, why? In other words, if you don't care about scent, why is it listed? Or, so what if something takes longer to lather if slickness is more important to you?

Put another way - usually in life all things aren't equal and some will be more important to you than others. A more holistic approach where you determine what is really important, in the end, might be more realistic because in the end, all things are not equal.

3. You have scent strength as an attribute but what about scents you hate or truly like? For example, I really don't like Sandalwood. If MdC was made in Sandalwood and sold for half the price it normally does, I still wouldn't buy it because I couldn't stand it.

4. If something gets all 5 marks, then something is wrong with your scale. That means its perfect and you have no room for something better. From your first buy, I suspect if you continue to buy more samples, you will find many things better (or likely to be when you try them). Then you will end up with half your scores perfect. Leave room for expansion on both sides of the curve. A scale of 10 is more realistic.

Three suggestions:

1. This is just a suggestion for your next buy. Looks like you got 4 Proraso, 6 B&M. 3 Taconic, 2 TTTFC, 2 chiseled face, etc. I understand the costs of samples is only a few dollars each but lets suppose - just an example, you really hate B&M or Proraso. For the most part, the performance of these products really isn't going to be much differenct between scents (from my experience). But if it turns out, one you really think performs poorly, then you might dread the other 5. But you also might feel guilty since you bought it anyone and try a second or third, and then really hate it.

My suggestion in good faith is to decide on a scent you like, whatever it is like Lavender, or barbershop, or whatever you like. And then next time buy the different Lavenders from multiple soap makers to see which one you like. By using this approach, you will know which soap makers are better than others, and there will be some in your mind clearly better than others. Life is not equal. When you are done, some you will really like, and some average, and some ... meh. Then when you are done with Lavenders (or whatever scents you like), you will know not to buy 5 more from Brand Z because chances that Brand Zs (e.g., Rose) is not going to be any better than (e.g., Lavender) compared to others in your assessment.

2. If you don't like something, move on. Don't try to eek out multiple shaves from it. Its soap, not liquid gold. If you like something, set it aside and come back to it. If you don't like it - meh, move on but don't feel guilty that you didn't get 4 more shaves from it either. Life is too short to keep using stuff you don't like.

3. Don't alter your process. Use the exact same brush, exact same lathering method, exact same pre-shave routine. If you change anything, that messes up from the standard.

Good luck :001_smile

BTW, you know you are going down an empty hole. You will find yourself just looking at different sample packs nows :lol:
 
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Since for the last three months I've been doing this exact exercise, and you asked for feedback, from experience, here is my opinion.

1. What's the difference between protection and cushion? From what you wrote, they sound the same

2. Are all your attributes weighted the same and if so, why? In other words, if you don't care about scent, why is it listed? Or, so what if something takes longer to lather if slickness is more important to you?

Put another way - usually in life all things aren't equal and some will be more important to you than others. A more holistic approach where you determine what is really important, in the end, might be more realistic because in the end, all things are not equal.

3. You have scent strength as an attribute but what about scents you hate or truly like? For example, I really don't like Sandalwood. If MdC was made in Sandalwood and sold for half the price it normally does, I still wouldn't buy it because I couldn't stand it.

4. If something gets all 5 marks, then something is wrong with your scale. That means its perfect and you have no room for something better. From your first buy, I suspect if you continue to buy more samples, you will find many things better (or likely to be when you try them). Then you will end up with half your scores perfect. Leave room for expansion on both sides of the curve. A scale of 10 is more realistic.

Three suggestions:

1. This is just a suggestion for your next buy. Looks like you got 4 Proraso, 6 B&M. 3 Taconic, 2 TTTFC, 2 chiseled face, etc. I understand the costs of samples is only a few dollars each but lets suppose - just an example, you really hate B&M or Proraso. For the most part, the performance of these products really isn't going to be much differenct between scents (from my experience). But if it turns out, one you really think performs poorly, then you might dread the other 5. But you also might feel guilty since you bought it anyone and try a second or third, and then really hate it.

My suggestion in good faith is to decide on a scent you like, whatever it is like Lavender, or barbershop, or whatever you like. And then next time buy the different Lavenders from multiple soap makers to see which one you like. By using this approach, you will know which soap makers are better than others, and there will be some in your mind clearly better than others. Life is not equal. When you are done, some you will really like, and some average, and some ... meh. Then when you are done with Lavenders (or whatever scents you like), you will know not to buy 5 more from Brand Z because chances that Brand Zs (e.g., Rose) is not going to be any better than (e.g., Lavender) compared to others in your assessment.

2. If you don't like something, move on. Don't try to eek out multiple shaves from it. Its soap, not liquid gold. If you like something, set it aside and come back to it. If you don't like it - meh, move on but don't feel guilty that you didn't get 4 more shaves from it either. Life is too short to keep using stuff you don't like.

3. Don't alter your process. Use the exact same brush, exact same lathering method, exact same pre-shave routine. If you change anything, that messes up from the standard.

Good luck :001_smile

BTW, you know you are going down an empty hole. You will find yourself just looking at different sample packs nows :lol:

Honestly, your spot on with a lot of things. As a fairly new shaver Cushion/Protection seem very similar in my opinion. I'm not sure I could say or tell there is a difference. So, I will most likely drop it. Also, going to stick with the RazoRock brush for consistency.

Great points, great advice, and I really appreciate the feedback! Honestly, when I first made the purchase, I was thinking about scents. Today I shaved with a cream that I really liked the scent but I just didn't like the shave. It irritated the hell out of my skin. So, I do have 3 others I'm not so much looking forward too. :bored: It really made me think down the same line you're trying to take me now. Scary enough, I was looking at some other soaps this evening.

And for moving-on, already planning on it! If I like it, I'll keep the sample. Otherwise I'll probably donate them to a pass around box or to some new wet shavers.

Scent preferences at the moment:
I would say bay-rum, citrus or vanilla based scents would be my preferences at the moment.

My personal ranking, I would say is:
1. Protection
2. Aftershave feel
3. Slickness
4. Scent Preference
5. Scent Strength

Top 4 would be a large factor in if I would buy it again.

Again, I really appreciate it. (On a side note, please get out of my head it's scary.) Also, don't hesitate to chime in at anytime.
 
So, I do have 3 others I'm not so much looking forward too. :bored:

Exactly. Lesson learned. Never buy ALL the samples from one company at the same time. You might hate them but you won't know until you try at least one.

My personal ranking, I would say is:
1. Protection
2. Aftershave feel
3. Slickness
4. Scent Preference
5. Scent Strength

Top 4 would be a large factor in if I would buy it again.

If this is the ranking of whats important to you, then you really should weight your attributes. If scent preference is low, then if something protected well and had great aftershave feel, then the fact the scent was poor should not have the same weight. Otherwise you did not rank them at all. I would figure out a weighting system or just one holistic score.

Also, you need to leave headroom in your scoring. If you decide that 2, 3, 4, 5 products in a row all get 5s (perfect scores), then really they didn't. Inevitably, most things fall into a normal curve over time even if the distribution in the curve is not wide.

One last thing I forget to say was DO NOT believe anyone else's reviews. Nobody's. The only review that matters is yours. Don't second guess yourself. Just because somebody else thinks something is award winning doesn't mean anything to anyone else. There is one exception to this and that is a crowd source trend with a very, very large statistical base.

For example, if you got the blind opinion of 1,000,000 people without them knowing the price of a product and the vast majority preferred Product A over B, the chances are Product A is superior. But they can't know the price. As soon as price comes into place, people's values take over.

Good luck and have fun. Its addiction and a dark dark hole.:001_smile
 
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At the end, I'll probably look at over all score(factoring out ease of lather), when making purchases. I'll curve high at 4, but leave 4.5 and 5 for things I believe above the curve.

Also, I'm going to try to get in 2-3 of these ratings a week. Maybe more or less depending on how work and classes go.



$Scorecard - Proraso_White.jpg
I was kind of sad about this one. The shave wasn't all that great. I didn't feel like there was any protection from the soap at all. I really liked the scent, but I won't be looking at purchasing this later.
 
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$Scorecard - Maggard_Orange.jpg

I was surprised by the scent and cooling effect. Both were nice, but not overbearing. I was worried about that. Great shave all in all. I felt protected the whole way through.
 
Lavanille - interesting. I just tried it too. I found it easy to lather once you got the hang of it but the scent? I'm not sure what it was but the color? My sink looked like a sewer, very off-putting and the lather itself looked disgusting. :scared:
 
Lavanille - interesting. I just tried it too. I found it easy to lather once you got the hang of it but the scent? I'm not sure what it was but the color? My sink looked like a sewer, very off-putting and the lather itself looked disgusting. :scared:
Lol, I've got to agree! I loved the soap and protection it gave, but scent was little rough. I'm not a liquorice fan.
 
$RazoRock_Mudder Focker.jpg

Will be adding a few more soaps on this review:
Mickey Lee Drunken Goat
Wholley Kaw Twice as Spice
Dapper Dragon - White choc OJ
Crown King Rustler's Ridge
 
I'm enjoying it! Also, it's forcing me to get use to shaving with my Futur. Which was a challenge to start with.
$Taylor of Old Bond Street_Peppermint.jpg
 
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