Recently I purchased a few inexpensive soaps from Maggards to see how they performed.
This is a review of two of those: Ogallala's Bay Run, Limes and Peppercorn and Ogallala's Bay Rum and Sweet Orange Shaving Soaps. Each soap cost 5.75 USD so I had to try them out.
These come as a hard puck in a plain cardboard box sealed in a bag. The puck is about about 2 inches wide and about 1 inch tall.
Before I opened the bag the small was awesome. The Lime and Peppercorns had a lime-y citrus type smell to it (I did not pick up pepper - yet). The Sweet Orange smelled like an orange creamsicle or even orange sherbet. Both were very nice scent wise.
Ogallala says that the pucks can be heated in the microwave and poured into smaller containers. I wanted to use one of the larger tubs I have so I decided to try it out.
45 seconds in the microwave and it melted like butter and firmed right back up ...
I have been using the Limes and Peppercorn for about a week and haven't tried the Sweet Orange yet, however the recipe appears to be the same and I suspect they will perform the same except for the scent. If that changes, I will post a follow up. The rest of the review will be on the Limes and Peppercorn version.
So, lets see how it lathers. Here are the belligerents: A Maggard 24mm Synthetic brush and the Captains copper lather bowl (the smaller one).
First is to load up my brush. I have never used a hard soap before so this is a little different for me.
I only load the tips when I load my brush so this time will be no different. I had to do this twice because my first attempt didn't have enough water in my brush and I didn't get that much soap onto the tips - lesson learned. The second time worked perfectly. After about 20 seconds I had this:
On to building a later. I have to say, even though this is not a tallow based soap, it builds lather very quickly. I had no problems getting more than enough for a 3 pass shave after about one and a half minutes
Lathering my face was fairly uneventful. The lather itself was not thick, but was not thin either. After I lathered my face, I started to pick up different smells including pepper and clove. Again, very nice! The lather was also very slippery meaning the razor seemed to glide over my skin very easily.
The shave was uneventful (meaning it was a DFS - as always) and the aftershave feel was good as well. My skin did not feel dry and I did not have to use any aftershave. It was nice.
Overall I am very impressed with Ogallala. Its not a Martin De Candre soap but it can hold its own against any other in the 10 - 20 USD price point. I would recommend you giving it a shot since it only cost 5.75 USD.
Anyway, these are my impressions and as always YMMV.
This is a review of two of those: Ogallala's Bay Run, Limes and Peppercorn and Ogallala's Bay Rum and Sweet Orange Shaving Soaps. Each soap cost 5.75 USD so I had to try them out.
These come as a hard puck in a plain cardboard box sealed in a bag. The puck is about about 2 inches wide and about 1 inch tall.
Before I opened the bag the small was awesome. The Lime and Peppercorns had a lime-y citrus type smell to it (I did not pick up pepper - yet). The Sweet Orange smelled like an orange creamsicle or even orange sherbet. Both were very nice scent wise.
Ogallala says that the pucks can be heated in the microwave and poured into smaller containers. I wanted to use one of the larger tubs I have so I decided to try it out.
45 seconds in the microwave and it melted like butter and firmed right back up ...
I have been using the Limes and Peppercorn for about a week and haven't tried the Sweet Orange yet, however the recipe appears to be the same and I suspect they will perform the same except for the scent. If that changes, I will post a follow up. The rest of the review will be on the Limes and Peppercorn version.
So, lets see how it lathers. Here are the belligerents: A Maggard 24mm Synthetic brush and the Captains copper lather bowl (the smaller one).
First is to load up my brush. I have never used a hard soap before so this is a little different for me.
I only load the tips when I load my brush so this time will be no different. I had to do this twice because my first attempt didn't have enough water in my brush and I didn't get that much soap onto the tips - lesson learned. The second time worked perfectly. After about 20 seconds I had this:
On to building a later. I have to say, even though this is not a tallow based soap, it builds lather very quickly. I had no problems getting more than enough for a 3 pass shave after about one and a half minutes
Lathering my face was fairly uneventful. The lather itself was not thick, but was not thin either. After I lathered my face, I started to pick up different smells including pepper and clove. Again, very nice! The lather was also very slippery meaning the razor seemed to glide over my skin very easily.
The shave was uneventful (meaning it was a DFS - as always) and the aftershave feel was good as well. My skin did not feel dry and I did not have to use any aftershave. It was nice.
Overall I am very impressed with Ogallala. Its not a Martin De Candre soap but it can hold its own against any other in the 10 - 20 USD price point. I would recommend you giving it a shot since it only cost 5.75 USD.
Anyway, these are my impressions and as always YMMV.
