Well, I got five free pucks (* story below) of new formula non-tallow Tabac last fall. I had yet to break one open, and decided to make this a Tabac week. I have a puck of the original formulation in an Old Spice mug and will do 3-days of new, followed by 3-days of the old, and let you know what I think. I will use an old Omega B&B Anniversary boar, an Omega Vintage Elite synthetic, and a yet-to-be-determined badger with each, and will use a new Gillette Russian "Swede" blade for each set to keep things comparable.
A couple of preliminary items are in order, however. First, I am tallow-agnostic. Completely. Some folks seem to think whether a soap is tallow or not is determinative, and I do not believe that at all. Probably my favorite two soaps based on shave quality alone are the old Tabac tallow soap and Saponificio Veresino non-tallow soap. Some who have had a bad experience with one or the other type draw unwarranted generalizations from that, ditto if you happen to have more favorites in one camp or the other. I have other examples for me, original Cella (tallow) and TFS Mastro Miche (non-tallow), so I believe shave quality is definitely independent of whether a soap has tallow or not, and dependent on the skill of the soap maker. YMMV, but it shouldn't, IMNSHO.
The second caveat is I could not care less who made the soap. I don't expect more or less from it because it is made by the same company. The fact that it is made by Mäurer & Wirtz means nothing. It is a completely new soap base, and as such a brand new product, and it could be made by Mäurer & Wirtz, by another old-school soap maker, or by some new artisan, as far as I'm concerned, it is a brand new product to be judged on its own. While my observations will be subjective, naturally, I do not expect to be influenced by either the absence of tallow or the maker's name.
Having no skin issues whatsoever I will not opine on post-shave opinion, because it is of complete indifference to me and for people with skin issues, my opinion is completely worthless. However, my skill level and dialed-in equipment choices, coupled with my lizard-skin allow me to get very comfortable BBS shaves literally every day without any neck issues. It was not always thus, but it is now, and I am a daily shaver, with perhaps one day off on the weekend.
So my impression with my first outing with the new Tabac? Outstanding! Super easy to lather, I cannot imagine anyone having any trouble getting a superb lather from it with little to no effort, just like the original. Absolutely non-finicky lather in the extreme. It generates a dense lather, and while I've never understood what people mean by "cushion" in a shave context, this lather is thick, creamy, non-dissipating, and stays where you put it. Slickness and glide, on the other hand, are easy to judge, and slickness with this lather is as good as it gets, IMO, up there with Cella, S.V., TFS, some of the better Italian Barber soaps, and others I've tried. This slickness really helps lead to that super-comfortable, BBS closeness.
The thing folks will want to know (to the extent that they care about my opinion
) is how does it stack up to the old Tabac, and I won't know that until I get to day 4. But whether you were a died-in-the-wool old Tabac fan or never tried it, I can confidently tell you that this is a world-class soap. They done good!
* So how did I get 5 free pucks, you ask? Simple. Idiot eBay seller in Scotland listed them as "Old Tabac" and posted a photo of the ingredients list from an old box. I messaged him and sent him his own photo and asked him to confirm those were the ingredients, because I had another seller misrepresent it and returned it. I said because of the shipping cost he didn't want to go down that road. He confirmed it was a correct photo. Well, of course it was the new stuff, so I told him I was returning it. He griped a bit about how would he know it wasn't the right stuff? I said, "Please, you were smart enough to get a photo off another product box, you knew what you were doing, and I gave you fair warning."
So, I got my refund and returned it with eBay label to some address in NJ, and it was returned to me as undeliverable. I messaged the sender and gave him 45 days to get me a return label or I'd consider it abandoned. Never heard from him. Five free pucks of shaving soap.
Bet he won't do that again.
A couple of preliminary items are in order, however. First, I am tallow-agnostic. Completely. Some folks seem to think whether a soap is tallow or not is determinative, and I do not believe that at all. Probably my favorite two soaps based on shave quality alone are the old Tabac tallow soap and Saponificio Veresino non-tallow soap. Some who have had a bad experience with one or the other type draw unwarranted generalizations from that, ditto if you happen to have more favorites in one camp or the other. I have other examples for me, original Cella (tallow) and TFS Mastro Miche (non-tallow), so I believe shave quality is definitely independent of whether a soap has tallow or not, and dependent on the skill of the soap maker. YMMV, but it shouldn't, IMNSHO.
The second caveat is I could not care less who made the soap. I don't expect more or less from it because it is made by the same company. The fact that it is made by Mäurer & Wirtz means nothing. It is a completely new soap base, and as such a brand new product, and it could be made by Mäurer & Wirtz, by another old-school soap maker, or by some new artisan, as far as I'm concerned, it is a brand new product to be judged on its own. While my observations will be subjective, naturally, I do not expect to be influenced by either the absence of tallow or the maker's name.
Having no skin issues whatsoever I will not opine on post-shave opinion, because it is of complete indifference to me and for people with skin issues, my opinion is completely worthless. However, my skill level and dialed-in equipment choices, coupled with my lizard-skin allow me to get very comfortable BBS shaves literally every day without any neck issues. It was not always thus, but it is now, and I am a daily shaver, with perhaps one day off on the weekend.
So my impression with my first outing with the new Tabac? Outstanding! Super easy to lather, I cannot imagine anyone having any trouble getting a superb lather from it with little to no effort, just like the original. Absolutely non-finicky lather in the extreme. It generates a dense lather, and while I've never understood what people mean by "cushion" in a shave context, this lather is thick, creamy, non-dissipating, and stays where you put it. Slickness and glide, on the other hand, are easy to judge, and slickness with this lather is as good as it gets, IMO, up there with Cella, S.V., TFS, some of the better Italian Barber soaps, and others I've tried. This slickness really helps lead to that super-comfortable, BBS closeness.
The thing folks will want to know (to the extent that they care about my opinion
* So how did I get 5 free pucks, you ask? Simple. Idiot eBay seller in Scotland listed them as "Old Tabac" and posted a photo of the ingredients list from an old box. I messaged him and sent him his own photo and asked him to confirm those were the ingredients, because I had another seller misrepresent it and returned it. I said because of the shipping cost he didn't want to go down that road. He confirmed it was a correct photo. Well, of course it was the new stuff, so I told him I was returning it. He griped a bit about how would he know it wasn't the right stuff? I said, "Please, you were smart enough to get a photo off another product box, you knew what you were doing, and I gave you fair warning."
So, I got my refund and returned it with eBay label to some address in NJ, and it was returned to me as undeliverable. I messaged the sender and gave him 45 days to get me a return label or I'd consider it abandoned. Never heard from him. Five free pucks of shaving soap.