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La Toja Review

Ah and dang it, it burned me! Not horrible, but enough to make it not worth it compared to my most-excellent rotation of Tabac, Speick, and Soap Commander. Still, definitely worthy of a review......so without further ado.....

Aroma: very unique salty/sweet scent that reminds me of fresh unlit cigars. Peppery tobacco earthiness. Very warm, soothing and inviting. Of all the soaps I've tried this one ranks up there with my favorites. Does not smell cheap or gross in any way whatsoever.

Lather: I use a cheese-grater to get enough of it into a tester dish I use for such purposes. I use a variation of Marco's method for lathering. I basically use a pre-soaked boar and bloom the soap while in the shower, roughly 15 minutes. I gravity drain the brush and turn it at roughly 90 degree angles in the shape of a cross to get most of the water out without squeezing it. I then dump the bloom water and load the brush for 100-200 swirls depending on the soap, in this case I went a full 200 to get a nice load. I then wet my face and face-lathered for roughly a minute adding occasional water to the brush to make sure it got nice and yogurty.

Shave: Aside from the burn, the performance of this soap is exemplary. It really lathers and feels like a tallow-based soap. It also gave me one of the closest shaves I've ever had. I can see why people love this soap, if it didn't burn, I'd definitely add it to my rotation.

Post-Shave: I rinsed with warm water to get my face clean then went ice cold for several splashes. Once I dried my face off it didn't feel too irritated but I went for my most excellent Speick AS for its face-healing magical properties. Within a few hours my face was fine, no redness or anything. My skin started to feel oily as the day went on though, this is a similar issue I have had with Cella also. They are very comparable soaps apart from the scent. A great soap for those with really dry skin and those not affected by the salts (or whatever else) that cause the burn!
 

Rhody

I'm a Lumberjack.
I haven't tried the soap yet but like the as. Interesting scent description op. Sorry for the burn thats terrible.
 

ajkel64

Check Out Chick
Staff member
Thanks for the review. I bought a stick of this soap that I haven’t tried yet. I will have to give it a go and see what happens.
 

Marco

B&B's Man in Italy
I discovered the La Toja stick many years ago, during my first vacation in Spain. I still remember paying each stick only €1.20 (!) and, despite being so inexpensive, it immediately became one of my all-time favourite soaps. Just superb.
 

Ad Astra

The Instigator
Ditto on the good things ... and negative reactions to this one seem rare.

La Toja's soap/shampoo, Magno, is also excellent. Smells wonderful.

AA
 
On a positive note, I recently tried the La Toja Aftershave Lotion (splash) and it is fantastic. On par with Speick with the exception of having a great long-lasting fragrance to it. I will post a review in the Aftershave forum.
 
Thanks for the review. This stick was my only shave soap for 2 decades. It is superb, and certainly a bargain in Spain (With time, and a bit of luck, you may get it even cheaper than the 1.20 Euro that Marco mentioned). The scent is of clean soap, unoffensive, and it does not interfere with anything you may use aftrwards.
Unfortunately, as you mentioned, for some people it gives some skin issues, and the salts appear to be responsible of.
cheers
 
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