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La Toja shaving stick reformulation

Steve56

Ask me about shaving naked!
I think that I’m in good shape, the majority of mine are the older formula, which I never had an issue with. Plus two sticks in a tub which is how I use it at home.

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I noticed the scent change which I am not sure is related to the reformulation, maybe to people’s sensitivity issues?

Below are two sticks of the old formula, one has a round nose and one has a square nose. I was thinking that the scent change came with the square nose of the old formula? Maybe a manufacturer/factory change?

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Steve56

Ask me about shaving naked!
I stocked up on it years ago in anticipation of this.

Me too, but not so much a conscious stocking up as cart stuffing to get free shipping. If I was $2-10 short of free shipping, I’d throw in some La Toja sticks, since I like it. So I acquired it faster than I used it.

I’d like more of those round nose sticks of the old formula though!
 
I’m no chemist but Sodium Chloride is found in many harder soaps as well, such as Martin de Candre for example, which I believe is for saponification purposes. The mineral salts are a totally different thing.
Exactly, in soap making, fats or oils are first hydrolysed by using sodium hydroxide, NaOH or potassium hydroxide, KOH to form a solution of glycerol and fatty acids. Ssoap is then precipitated from the solution by adding salt like sodium chloride, NaCl, potassium chloride, KCl, etc.
(In specifics sodium ions from the sodium chloride bond with the fatty acid , forming a product that is less soluble in water . because of this reduced solubility the soap forms a solid mass.)
In many cases artizans use it also because it helps unmold the final product quicker - due ti enhanced solidification. :001_smile
 
Come on gents, La Toja hasn’t been ruined as some people are already spreading around this forum. Please manage your anxiety and stop the fake news

La Toja has been reformulated multiple times over the past years. If you follow the Spanish forum, there was a change just a few years ago and many people there didn’t like it, but no one here noticed, because it’s still awesome. Also, La Toja contained tallow up until not so long ago. Here’s a reference to a reformulation no one here cared to notice:

This new version will perform nearly the same with potentially a slightly different scent.

L’Occitane Cade has been ruined, Trumper’s has been ruined, La Toja will be just fine
 
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SOTD (2 days stubble)

La Toja "new" stick
Omega 80097 boar brush
Muhle R41 -Rosegold handle
Bic Chrome Platinum blade #1
Omega Alum stick


Apart for the new scent (to my nose the lavender-Mediterranean notes are definitely gone ) the soap performs brilliantly.
I rubbed the stick to my face and used my boar brush to make a thick lather , after a few swirls it exploded just as La Toja always did.
Three pass save and tried a lot of buffing to test the residual slickness, and it was pretty good.

After the shave i used the alum stick and had no irritation - none at all , just a wonderful BBS shave.

I also whipped a quick lather to my shaving bowl just for bowl lathering sake , hence the photo.

All in all the product is still good , an excellent vfm soap - i always carried a stick in my shaving travel bag .

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musicman1951

three-tu-tu, three-tu-tu
Good news. I only use it for travel, so it will be a while before I need another, but now I will buy a replacement without worry.
 
Come on gents, La Toja hasn’t been ruined as some people are already spreading around this forum. Please manage your anxiety and stop the fake news

La Toja has been reformulated multiple times over the past years. If you follow the Spanish forum, there was a change just a few years ago and many people there didn’t like it, but no one here noticed, because it’s still awesome. Also, La Toja contained tallow up until not so long ago. Here’s a reference to a reformulation no one here cared to notice:

This new version will perform nearly the same with potentially a slightly different scent.

L’Occitane Cade has been ruined, Trumper’s has been ruined, La Toja will be just fine
May have understood the change, if I understood the video.
Sorry.
 
SOTD (2 days stubble)

La Toja "new" stick
Omega 80097 boar brush
Muhle R41 -Rosegold handle
Bic Chrome Platinum blade #1
Omega Alum stick


Apart for the new scent (to my nose the lavender-Mediterranean notes are definitely gone ) the soap performs brilliantly.
I rubbed the stick to my face and used my boar brush to make a thick lather , after a few swirls it exploded just as La Toja always did.
Three pass save and tried a lot of buffing to test the residual slickness, and it was pretty good.

After the shave i used the alum stick and had no irritation - none at all , just a wonderful BBS shave.

I also whipped a quick lather to my shaving bowl just for bowl lathering sake , hence the photo.

All in all the product is still good , an excellent vfm soap - i always carried a stick in my shaving travel bag .

View attachment 1500870
Good to know that it is the old salt that it used to be.
 

Steve56

Ask me about shaving naked!
Try airing the new version out, uncovered, for a day or two outside or a bit more inside. That seems to restore the ‘old‘ scent or help a lot. La Toja is strongly scented, there’s a lot of fragrance in it which maybe goes unnoticed because it isn’t an ‘in your face’ scent (sorry, couldn’t resist).

Performance is still the same, or closer than I can tell, and a straight razor will tell on the soap!
 
@BudgetShaverGuy actually i got it from the production source (i worked in cosmetics industry for some time and i still have couple of connections)- afaik the new formula came to complete production about 15 days ago. But the global distribution is already shifting gears -it's out there and soon will be in all European countries and probably the other side of the Atlantic till the end of September.After that it all depends to the main distributors re-stocking the retailers.

As i already mentioned in a previous post there will be changes and minor or bigger reformulations to a great number of cosmetic products -mainly aftershaves and colognes that are currently manufactured in EU.
 
I have one round nose stick left. It does smell different than the flat top version. The older version has a deeper, richer scent than the clean cut version, which is lighter and a bit fresher. I think I bought the round nose in 2011 or so, and the flat top in 2014 or later. The €1.64 price sticker always makes me laugh. What a bargain.
 
Got a stick of the new formula today. It does NOT smell the same. It smells OK but nothing like it did and nothing I'll continue to buy in the future.
 
In this era of soaps reformulating to remove ingredients with poor public perception (all the tallow abandonment), it seems weird to me that they would go through a reformulation but still keep the palm oil. AND still not even try to claim that their palm oil doesn't come from rain forest deforestation.

Still gonna be a hard pass from me.
 
In this era of soaps reformulating to remove ingredients with poor public perception (all the tallow abandonment), it seems weird to me that they would go through a reformulation but still keep the palm oil. AND still not even try to claim that their palm oil doesn't come from rain forest deforestation.

Still gonna be a hard pass from me.
I don't care about the planet, it'll be fine. I just care about the fragrance!
 
In this era of soaps reformulating to remove ingredients with poor public perception (all the tallow abandonment), it seems weird to me that they would go through a reformulation but still keep the palm oil. AND still not even try to claim that their palm oil doesn't come from rain forest deforestation.

Still gonna be a hard pass from me.
I think a lot of these reformulations are due to changes in EU cosmetic regulations. They can ban or limit certain ingredients, usually due to health concerns.
 
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