My Guess... 3017

[FL shaver]

Ya know, when I make sure to get the best lather Proraso (or Bigelow) cream has to offer, it is pretty close to Musgo Real in terms of cushion and glide. And it has something different to offer in the cooling of menthol and eucalyptus. And it is much cheaper and easy to find here. Proraso has a lot going for it.

Haslinger is on the short list of those to try when I eliminate the rest. Tabac is my gold standard soap lather, and many say Haslinger beats it.

 

[snowman]

Ya know, when I make sure to get the best lather Proraso (or Bigelow) cream has to offer, it is pretty close to Musgo Real in terms of cushion and glide. And it has something different to offer in the cooling of menthol and eucalyptus. And it is much cheaper and easy to find here. Proraso has a lot going for it.

Haslinger is on the short list of those to try when I eliminate the rest. Tabac is my gold standard soap lather, and many say Haslinger beats it.

For me Haslinger performs better than Tabac, but Tabac isn't far off. I guess it's like a lot of these products, if you have one you've loved for years, then try something else, that something else just doesn't quite measure up. Theirs a good chance you might find Haslinger is good, but not up to your personal gold standard.

Proraso is good stuff, I use to carry PB with me on business trips. I'll have a better idea in a couple weeks, but at first blush Musgo seems a bit slicker, a tad better post shave. But I dont know if that will hold up with different water types as Proraso does well with anything. If Musgo does edge it out it'll be by a hair and likely not worth the extra $$$. I can say with total confidence that neither Musgo or Proraso (or any other cream I've tried) will beat a top performing tallow based soap.

 

[ackvil]

A few days I smushed the B&M Seville to cover the hole in the bottom. Today the hole appeared again. Looks like at most two weeks left.

 

[snowman]

View attachment 808414
A tube of Musgo Real is finished. Classic scent. Great shaves. Really can't say how many shaves are in a tube as I used it here and there.

Question for those of you experienced with Musgo Real cream. Did they have a formula change somewhere along the line? I just opened a new (to me) tube a few days ago. Bought it online a couple years ago, so I don't know what vintage it is. My tube doesn't look like the tube in FLs post. My tube is also classics scent, but it's a solid colored green tube, not at all like FLs.

Did MR make some changes recently or do I have an older tube? I'm mobile now but will post a pic later.

Thanks!

 

[ruckin]

I am not able to post a picture but the tube of Musgo Real I used earlier this year looked just like the solid green as pictured on the WCS website. I received the tube as a PIF last year so I have no idea how old it may have been. Could the tube in FL's post maybe be one that is from a different market?

Ruckin

 

[FL shaver]

There was a recent repackaging and price hike. I didn't hear of a formula change. The change in tube color may have come with the introduction of the three new scents a few years ago.

 

[FL shaver]

What's going on with Musgo Real prices?

 

[Jarick]

I really do think I've "cracked the code" with Mitchell's Wool Fat. I'm keeping some water in the brush and loading for maybe 10-15 seconds to get a good amount of foam, not a watery foam or a thin foam or a thick paste, but something middle of the road. Counter-intuitive because MWF is very foamy and you think "there's too much water" or "I need to load much longer" but that's not the case. Then I work that foam on the face for a good minute. You really have to work the foam for a while and it will thicken up nicely. So a little goes a long way with this particular soap. I have a feeling this might make DR Harris much better for me as well, so maybe that will have to go on the list at some point.

Unfortunately my TOBS container finally cracked, so I may have to spring for a real MWF ceramic dish. But I've also been thinking about ordering some nice heavy duty plastic reusable containers again.

I'm having more trouble with Cella and Proraso...those ones I expected to be able to use a little more water and less loading but you end up with not a lot of product at all. So you have to load for a fair amount longer to pick up the product.

As usual, with TOBS cream you just dip the brush in the container and work on the face adding water as you go.

 

[snowman]

Here's what the tube I'm using looks like. The reason I'm curious about a formula change is that I used Musgo Real several years ago and it was a good cream as I recall. My first shave or two with this tube went very well...then it occurred to my middle aged brain that wuth both of those shaves I had used a homemade preshave oil I'm experimenting with. The last couple shaves with MR I didn't use preshave oil, and both shaves were poor. Average protection, below average slickness, and almost no residual slickness at all. I thought I had a bad blade so tossed that mid shave, same result. Played with more water, no difference. Added more product, no difference. Today I whipped up a great looking lather in a bowl, applied it, garbage. I wiped the MR off my face, threw on some KMF with my damp hands, didn't bother with a brush...and had a great shave.

So it's not the blade, its not me, its not the water. What the heck? I remember MR as being a very good cream. Is it possible I got a bad tube? I bought it a couple years ago, and broke the seal on it myself earlier this week. Its not dry, consistency is good, scent is good. Just very off performance.

I'll give it another try this weekend. If it still underperforms it may be a quick 3017.

 

[sgemmett]

Taking a break from Beer Soap Brewing while on vacation. GFT coconut cream seemed fitting for Hawaii and it's not disappointing in the performance department. The lather seems not as dense as I prefer but it's still plenty slick and protective. Paired with a Bakelite slant loaded with India wilki's and I am getting awesome shaves.

 

[FL shaver]

I don't have any experience with the post-packaging change Musgo Real, but if the formula has changed for the worse with a concomitant price hike, the scent alone won't have me laying out the coin for it.

 

[FL shaver]

Taking a break from Beer Soap Brewing while on vacation. GFT coconut cream seemed fitting for Hawaii and it's not disappointing in the performance department. The lather seems not as dense as I prefer but it's still plenty slick and protective. Paired with a Bakelite slant loaded with India wilki's and I am getting awesome shaves.

What more do you need!?!

 

[DrLeeDetroit]

RIP one beautiful little puck of Haslinger Ringelblumen (marigold). You were a daily pleasure and you will be sorely missed. You remain my favorite and my benchmark.

Haslinger (as is often reported here) has a wide tolerance for water, and isn't finicky about how you approach it (brush wetness, brush type, violence level, time since last confession, knowledge of magical incantations). No counting swirls or obsessing about loading times. It's just easy, great soap. Amazing post-shave face feel. Very comfortable shaves, day after day. The scent is among my favorites. Some people appreciate Haslinger's restrained scents, and I guess I do too, but I wouldn't mind a bit if this were stronger.

I got 66 shaves from a 60 g puck. It would be easy to stretch that a bit if a person were trying to economize. I do three passes and always send some down the drain because I don't like to go back to the puck.

Up next is about 3/4 of a tube of Proraso Blue. If I'm remembering a previous post about the weight of an empty tube + cap correctly, I have 116 g of cream.

--Lee

04/04/16 - 06/19/16 The 3017 thread (16,640 posts at that point)
04/10/16 - 04/10/16 La Toja stick (face on fire! one-and-done)
04/11/16 - 05/09/16 Arko mashed into a bowl (partial stick, 41 g)
05/10/16 - 06/13/16 Haslinger Ringelblumen*
06/14/16 - 09/12/16 DR Harris Arlington puck
09/13/16 - 10/26/16 Speick stick grated into bowl*
10/29/16 - 12/04/16 LEA stick grated into bowl
12/05/16 - 02/08/17 Stirling Coniferous
02/09/17 - 03/24/17 Mitchell's Wool Fat* (partial puck, 53 g)
03/26/17 - 05/29/17 Cella (partial red tub, 100 g)
05/30/17 - 08/03/17 Haslinger Ringelblumen*
08/04/17 - ??/??/17 Proraso Blue (partial tube, 116 g)

*will replace

 

[ackvil]

Still on B&M Seville. Going on one month.

 

[snowman]

A little better today with Musgo Real cream. I just kept adding water and working it for a long time. Eventually got it where it needed to be. Dunno, I don't think I've used a cream in years that required this much effort. Must be a bad tube I got. KMF beats it in every performance catagory, which doesn't seem right. So I wouldn't want to condemn the product, just this tube. I'll keep at it a bit longer but doubt very much I'll 3017 it. Already eyeballing what's next....

 

[FL shaver]

Something's up. In my experience, Musgo is considerably better than KMF.

There are 3 creams that have produced really dense lather for me. Tabac (Cream doesn't get enough love!), Erasmic, and Top Secret. Even Musgo Real and O Melhor, and the AOS, Trumper's, TOBS, and T&H creams are lighter than these three. They also moisturize better than many of the other creams I've tried.

 

[snowman]

Yup, something is wrong with this tube. This morning as I was squeezing some onto the brush the consistency of the cream went from toothpaste like to motor oil. I tried squeezing the tube to see if I could mix it together and the tube cracked. Some liquid almost the consistency of water ran out. Thus has been sitting in a drawer for at least a couple years...not sure when or where I got it. Regardless, it's binned.

Up next. Haslinger Seaweed. I don't expect much more than a month from this little blue puck of goodness because I grated it and pressed it into a 4" diameter container. Grating soap...for me anyway...always seems to result in higher usage.

It should be a month of great shaves. Cheers!

 

[sgemmett]

What more do you need!?!

Yes my friend A good shave is all that matters. I think I forget this sometimes in my quest for shaving nirvana, certainly my soap hoard illustrates this. GFT cream isn't the latest artisan offering but it's delivering. Mild natural coconut scent, close and great post shave, if this was my only choice I could live with that for quite some time.

 

[whosaidpigeon]

It has been a few weeks since I last posted and in that time I've finished up my Speick stick and moved on to a tube of Proraso blue cream.

The Speick was interesting this time. I just couldn't get it to lather how I remembered. It keep clogging up the razor and leaving a white film on everything. It has gone from a top 3 to a won't repurchase. Disappointing.

The tube of blue is my last shaving soap/cream so I'm on the hunt to purchase my next victim. Currently flipping between D.R.H Windsor or another Mitchell's puck (with container this time)

 

[djh]

The Speick was interesting this time. I just couldn't get it to lather how I remembered. It keep clogging up the razor and leaving a white film on everything. It has gone from a top 3 to a won't repurchase. Disappointing.

That is a shame. If your lather was clogging the razor, I would suggest that you needed to add more water. Speick is a favourite of mine and always performs well for me.

The tube of blue is my last shaving soap/cream so I'm on the hunt to purchase my next victim. Currently flipping between D.R.H Windsor or another Mitchell's puck (with container this time)

The standard wisdom is to get both and save on shipping.