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Mitchells Wool Fat Shaving Soap is no longer Tallow based

I’ve only been wet shaving since 2010 (DE razor, soap or cream with a brush) and using shaving soaps with a cartridge razor a few years longer, but in that time several really good products I have enjoyed have disappeared or changed formulation: MWF, Cade, La Toja, AOS tallow, Haslinger, Trumper’s. I guess there will always be an acceptable product available, but I will miss these soaps in the form I first knew them!
 
Palm oil is used simply because it is cheap. That's it. It is the cause of the deforestation of Indonesia and Malaysia because it is in so much of a demand. It isn't better, it's cheaper.

MWF has been my favorite soap. It was creamier, more cushion, better slickness and residual slickness, and had great face feel. I can't imagine any palm oil based soap being as good as a good tallow based soap (though Stirling is meh). I've used a number of these types of soaps and some were okay, some were terrible, and none were fantastic (not even MDC). I would rather MWF raise the price a little than compromise on the ingredients, unless this is a new woke law that they can no longer use tallow.
 

Messygoon

Abandoned By Gypsies.
Mitchell’s Wool Fat. Less the wool fat. That makes no sense.

That’s as absurd as if Major League Baseball were to violate the integrity of the game by expanding the designated hitter to the National League, made the bases bigger, or put a runner on second to start the extra innings.

Wait… they did what?… Oh the humanity.
 
Now’s as good a time as any to switch to Haslinger Schafmilch. Better performance, easier to lather, coconut oil instead of palm oil, and doesn’t need to lie about its history. MWF is sometimes sold as “Kent’s shaving soap”, seems like whoever manufactures it is willing to sell it to the highest bidding distributor. If it’s Kent’s soap too, who’s Mitchell in all of this?
 
As I understand things beef and mutton tallow prices have been increasing steadily since 2012-13 peaking at the end of 2022 and have since fallen back a little. The reformulation will have taken time and was probably started a while ago. I understand Stirling has pulled a number of tallow products due to the price of tallow. An additional pressure has been the requirement for extra tallow particularly for bio-fuels, this has helped to drive prices up considerably in this time frame.
I know this explanation is not going to provoke the same reactions as "The vegans are plotting to put geotags on all tallow products so they can round up and imprison everyone who uses tallow", but in all fairness it's just a soap and it's not like it will disappear...yet.

I am 3017ing a puck of tallow MWF at the moment and this won't stop me. Soaps come and go. If someone had told my Dad they were stopping production of Palmolive Classic cream back in the day he would have found something else to use, not stocked up 50 years worth of product just in case he missed it
One of the most rational comments I've read yet about this dramatic turn of events (as dramatic as soap can be). I refuse to develop an emotional attachment to a puck of soap be it tallow,vegan, or made from the tears of shattered dreams and regret.

Some people get very concerned about something which quite honestly should not be a concern. Oh well, shave on, as they say.
 
I don’t mean to brag, but I knew that lanolin is not vegan without the need to resort to Google.

But have you considered that some people might try to avoid products for the production of which animals are harmed? Like horse hair shaving brushes for example?


B.
That was a poor example. The horse is no more harmed than you are when you get a haircut. Unless you were trying to say that people use horse hair brushes instead of boar or badger because those animals are killed. (Which is stupid. They will be killed for meat, regardless of whether anyone uses their hair or not, not buying a brush won't save an animal's life).
Anyone know where to get the new version in the US?
I called the Men's Room Barber Shop in Milwaukee WI and the stock they have in store is the new formula. They are also the "sellers" of the Amazon MWF, but they didn't know whether the stock there was old or new. Based on reports from this thread, it seems like they (Amazon) still have old formula stock, though given Amazon's distributed warehouse setup, it's likely that some crossover between the new and old formula MWF will occur for a while based on what region of the country you live in. I expect the East coast will run out of the old stuff first, given the greater population density, but they probably have larger stockpiles in the warehouses on the East coast too...
 
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That was a poor example. The horse is no more harmed than you are when you get a haircut. Unless you were trying to say that people use horse hair brushes instead of boar or badger because those animals are killed. (Which is stupid. They will be killed for meat, regardless of whether anyone uses their hair or not, not buying a brush won't save an animal's life).

My apologies, I believe we are in complete agreement, but my example was just poorly written.

What I intended to say was:
But have you considered that some people might try to avoid products for the production of which animals are harmed? Like when people avoid boar and badger shaving brushes and opt instead for products like horse shaving brushes, for example?





B.
 
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That was a poor example. The horse is no more harmed than you are when you get a haircut. Unless you were trying to say that people use horse hair brushes instead of boar or badger because those animals are killed. (Which is stupid. They will be killed for meat, regardless of whether anyone uses their hair or not, not buying a brush won't save an animal's life).

I called the Men's Room Barber Shop in Milwaukee WI and the stock they have in store is the new formula. They are also the "sellers" of the Amazon MWF, but they didn't know whether the stock there was old or new. Based on reports from this thread, it seems like they (Amazon) still have old formula stock, though given Amazon's distributed warehouse setup, it's likely that some crossover between the new and old formula MWF will occur for a while based on what region of the country you live in. I expect the East coast will run out of the old stuff first, given the greater population density, but they probably have larger stockpiles in the warehouses on the East coast too...
Men's room literally told me Wednesday or early Thursday this. Our current stock is all tallow based. This is rather shocking news & I'll be verifying with Mitchells tomorrow.
Best,
Zig
The Men's Room Barber Shop, so we will see.
 
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luvmysuper

My elbows leak
Staff member
What do I do with it now? Do I even open this great wonder, use it, try it, do I hear a bid there, bids......🐑

After all tallow based soap.....
Use it. If you don't, there's no difference between it sitting on your shelf or in a warehouse.

As I understand things beef and mutton tallow prices have been increasing steadily since 2012-13 peaking at the end of 2022 and have since fallen back a little. The reformulation will have taken time and was probably started a while ago. I understand Stirling has pulled a number of tallow products due to the price of tallow. An additional pressure has been the requirement for extra tallow particularly for bio-fuels, this has helped to drive prices up considerably in this time frame.

I had read an article on this as well.
Biodiesel seems to be a major factor.
 
I don't get it.
So manifacturer of a good soap, sopa that is used, loved, and bought year after year after year, with good reviews, decides to change formula...
Tabac, MFW...
Why?
Money. I seriously have never understood the speculation around vegans infiltrating what is ultimately a relatively small, privately owned business. MWF did not switch away from tallow to placate vegans or vegetarians or for any humanitarian purpose. As far as I can tell, there is no legal or regulatory reason either. Business is business and the bottom line always wins. Maybe they changed factories like Tabac, Fine and Speick...maybe Tallow is too expensive or difficult to work with. All I know is that the price of the product hasn't changed (yet). This signals to me that they are cutting costs with this move.
 

Dave himself

Wee Words of Wisdom
Not that it matters to me but I was just wondering, will they have to change the description on the cardboard boxes and ceramic dishes. Which says Original Formula. Sorry if someone else has brought this up.
 
I got a refill puck from Amazon today. it is the tallow formula.

For those who live in Europe or order from there, Gifts & Care (Spain) still stock tallow based MWF shaving soap as of today.

I try to keep an open mind in this tallow/non-tallow debate and wanted to order a puck of the non-tallow MWF, but Gifts & Care told me that at the moment they only had tallow based MWF pucks in stock.

Went instead to Connaught for a non-tallow puck, even if it means having to deal with Customs, VAT and Import Duty.


All the things one does in the name of science… :001_cool:


B.
 

EclipseRedRing

I smell like a Christmas pudding
Not that it matters to me but I was just wondering, will they have to change the description on the cardboard boxes and ceramic dishes. Which says Original Formula. Sorry if someone else has brought this up.
I doubt it. The whole 1893 formula thing is nothing but a lot of marketing nonsense and the so called original formula has almost certainly been changed before so this change will make no difference. There may have been a historic formula from that date, I am surprised they could not find an older one, but according to their own website Mitchells did not sell soap until the 1930s. I have read that they did not sell shaving soap until as late as the 1970s - has anybody seen a vintage puck? I doubt very much they even make their own soap.
 

Dave himself

Wee Words of Wisdom
I doubt it. The whole 1893 formula thing is nothing but a lot of marketing nonsense and the so called original formula has almost certainly been changed before so this change will make no difference. There may have been a historic formula from that date, I am surprised they could not find an older one, but according to their own website Mitchells did not sell soap until the 1930s. I have read that they did not sell shaving soap until as late as the 1970s - has anybody seen a vintage puck? I doubt very much they even make their own soap.
Thank you for the information brother, much appreciated.
 
Guys, what a fuss about no tallow and moans from those not having used it.
Try it and experiment with the amount of water needed. Water is bound to vary with the new soap.
I suspect if the soap had changed TO tallow, you'd all be moaning!!,
 
Mitchell’s Wool Fat. Less the wool fat. That makes no sense.

That’s as absurd as if Major League Baseball were to violate the integrity of the game by expanding the designated hitter to the National League, made the bases bigger, or put a runner on second to start the extra innings.

Wait… they did what?… Oh the humanity.

The new version still has wool fat (lanolin).
It's the tallow that has been replaced.
 
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