Let me first show my very, very much, appreciation to Oakeshott who so generously offered me a very nice size amount of this famous shave soap so I could experience what so many had discussed on this forum. With over 4 shaves behind me now, I wanted to put my two cents into the fray. Well, my first reaction to this soap was the Fragrance and to be honest it did not provide me with any sense of Wow. For me I caught the fragrance of the Lavender with Rosemary and a very slight hint of camphor. For me personally I would have preferred something with a nice cologne fragrance. That being said my first time to use MdC, I actually was not that impressed. It lathered easily, but it just was not enough for me to push out any of my preferred shave soaps. Well, one should never judge on just one experience of anything. The second shave, that caught my attention. This time I switched to my Omega 49 boar brush and with a much wetter brush I saw what MdC could actually do. I faced lathered which just exploded into volumes of soft sensual comforting lather within one minute from loading the brush to the actual process of building my lather. My blade glided with ease leaving my face feeling irritation free and soft to the touch. Each shave since has been the same. I just making sure I use a very wet brush. MdC is a great soap. Is it better than my other favorites Klar Kabinet, Institute Karite, RR 888, Mikes Natural Soap, Mystic Water, QCS, Cella, and La Toja. I will say that it stands right there with each and every one of them per my opinion. I am a huge fan of Klar Kabinet, IK, and RR 888 which for now are my top 3 and I would say MdC is now number 4 followed by QCS. I will let others debate the cost factor, for me it was just about the performance. MdC showed me that it is a soap that I very much enjoy and it will be a Shave soap that I will purchase at some point. To be honest Oakeshott sample will last me 3 months as I cannot even tell that I have used any of it except for the dried lather in the storage container. One other note I wanted to see how long it took for the Lather to break down so I loaded up my brush created a beautiful mound of lather then just let it sit waiting for it to break down. Well, after an hour and me needing to run my Saturday morning errands I gave up as the lather still looked the same and just came to the conclusion that yeah this is good stuff!