Passaround - Natural Ireland soaps - all three varieties

[Rory1262]

This passaround is officially under way.
The package is on its way to @dfoulk: ETA Tuesday.

Please note that the three tins together did not fit in a small flat rate Priority Mail box, and that was before bubble wrap. I gave them two layers of bubble wrap, and then they went in a small flat rate Priority Mail envelope (the cardboard kind), which fit snugly. Just to be safe, though, the USPS clerk then suggested putting that inside one of the bigger flat rate envelopes.

Altogether, that made for a nice safe package, costing $8.45 to mail.

With this in mind, there's no need to include anything else in the package as we go along. Let's keep the focus on these three soaps.

 

[Rory1262]

I'd also like to offer a separate word of thanks to Majella from Natural Ireland, who makes the soaps and runs the company.

She graciously made the tins available for this passaround.

 

[bobmsp]

Great news - and thanks to Majella for her generosity!

Also for everyone's information - the USPS has padded Priority Mail mailing envelopes made of plastic (basically - made of bubble wrap). They ship for the same cost as the small flat rate Priority Mail envelope. You may have to search at the P.O. or order them online if you want to use them.

 

[Hoka Hey]

Current list...joiners remain most welcome:

01. dfoulk
02. bobmsp
03. Grundi
04. JimDandy
05. SGWB
06. Hoka Hey
07.
08.
09.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.

I’ll invite myself to this party!
Any soap that can inspire monogamy has to be tried.

I think I’ve only got 42 worthwhile posts, but I should be able to invent a couple more before the soap arrives.

Too bad I didn’t see this earlier, as Bob is about 15 minutes from me. We could have spent the shipping money on Important stuff, like beer!

 

[ShavePastor]

I'd love to try these soaps! Count me in please! Thanks @Rory1262! PM incoming.

Current list:
01. dfoulk
02. bobmsp
03. Grundi
04. JimDandy
05. SGWB
06. Hoka Hey
07. ShavePastor
08.
09.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.

 

[Rory1262]

Glad to see the list expand, guys.

 

[Hoka Hey]

Glad to see the list expand, guys.

Rory,
Thanks for the generosity, time and effort to coordinate this.
Much appreciated.

 

[Grundi]

Too bad I didn’t see this earlier, as Bob is about 15 minutes from me. We could have spent the shipping money on Important stuff, like beer!

@Hoka Hey and @Rory1262, in the interest of saving my Brother a few $$ (and maybe contribute to him corrupting @bobmsp), I volunteer to swap places on the list with @Hoka Hey. No one else gets displaced...BUT...I definitely want to stay on the list.

 

[Hoka Hey]

@Hoka Hey and @Rory1262, in the interest of saving my Brother a few $$ (and maybe contribute to him corrupting @bobmsp), I volunteer to swap places on the list with @Hoka Hey. No one else gets displaced...BUT...I definitely want to stay on the list.

Grundi-Claus strikes again!

 

[Rory1262]

Nicely done, guys. Glad this worked out.

Current list:
01. dfoulk (package en route)
02. bobmsp
03. Hoka Hey
04. JimDandy
05. SGWB
06. Grundi
07. ShavePastor
08.
09.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.

 

[Rory1262]

I see the package arrived at the tour's first stop yesterday, a day ahead of the indicated time.
Looking forward to dfoulk's views in due course.

In other news, today I turned back to a brush I seldom use, the Kelley Quan synth. That's in large part because of its unusually slender knot...but it's the first brush I ever bought and I am sentimentally attached to it, since it helped get me started on traditional methods.

As it turns out, the KQ worked beautifully with Natural Ireland!

 

[Grundi]

I see the package arrived at the tour's first stop yesterday, a day ahead of the indicated time.
Looking forward to dfoulk's views in due course.

In other news, today I turned back to a brush I seldom use, the Kelley Quan synth. That's in large part because of its unusually slender knot...but it's the first brush I ever bought and I am sentimentally attached to it, since it helped get me started on traditional methods.

As it turns out, the KQ worked beautifully with Natural Ireland!

Synthetic brushes have come a long way, and there are some excellent ones available. How's the backbone on the KQ?

 

[Rory1262]

How's the backbone on the KQ?

Not its strength. It's more of a "painting" brush. It wasn't on the market all that long. Here's what it looks like (it fluffs out a bit more when dry).

 

[dfoulk]

Sorry guys, but I missed getting the mail yesterday on the way home from work. We have these mailbox clusters in our development. There were a ton of people at the mail box, including one idiot that pulls his car up onto the sidewalk inches from the box, blocking the entire thing. He does this so that he doesn't have to leave his seat. I've waited for him before and he takes his time going through his mail while parked at the box. I didn't want to deal with him nor the crowd waiting for him, so I skipped it and intended to go back later that night.

Well, all said and done I didn't make it back to the mailbox, so I'll make sure that I get it today. I didn't realize they were in the box or I likely would have put forth some additional effort.

Either way, the mailboxes are locked and the weather is beautiful here now, so no worries about anything happening to the soaps. I'll share some thoughts soon.

 

[Hoka Hey]

Sorry guys, but I missed getting the mail yesterday on the way home from work. We have these mailbox clusters in our development. There were a ton of people at the mail box, including one idiot that pulls his car up onto the sidewalk inches from the box, blocking the entire thing. He does this so that he doesn't have to leave his seat. I've waited for him before and he takes his time going through his mail while parked at the box. I didn't want to deal with him nor the crowd waiting for him, so I skipped it and intended to go back later that night.

Well, all said and done I didn't make it back to the mailbox, so I'll make sure that I get it today. I didn't realize they were in the box or I likely would have put forth some additional effort.

Either way, the mailboxes are locked and the weather is beautiful here now, so no worries about anything happening to the soaps. I'll share some thoughts soon.

Eagerly waiting!

 

[shavefan]

I'd be happy to try them. Count me in...

Current list:
01. dfoulk (package en route)
02. bobmsp
03. Hoka Hey
04. JimDandy
05. SGWB
06. Grundi
07. ShavePastor
08. Shavefan
09.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.

 

[dfoulk]

Ok, so no pics yet and my review is a bit late as I've been slammed at work lately, but I can share some initial thoughts with all of you.

Going into this do know that my standards are extremely high. Probably about as high as they can get. I've tried somewhere over 600 soaps in my quest to find the very best soaps on the planet. Most I try now don't compare with the ones I use regularly so testing most times is a step backwards for me. So I will likely find something average that someone else thinks is the greatest soap they've ever tried. My top tier contains only six soap makers so to make it into it, a soap maker is in my top 1% (actually less than 1%) of everything I've tried so far.

The soaps arrived the other day and I had a shave with one of them yesterday.

So when they arrived each soap was sealed in a plastic bag with an brochure. The front of the brochure says that the soap won a bronze award at a free from skincare awards thing in 2017. Something of an awards event for all natural products. Ok, cool but usually when a company has to tell you how great they are it makes me wonder. Still an award is good to let me know that this isn't one of the terrible ebay soaps. The brochure has a picture of the soap and a shaving brush on the front. The back of the brochure goes on about, natural ingredients, research and development, lather, post shave, sensitive skin, etc. I'd rather they skip the brochure and just put the instructions and accomplishments on their website. But, if nothing else know that they are pretty proud of this stuff. Included on the back are some instructions for use as well as a picture of the three soaps and a shave brush.

So each soap was wrapped in plastic with this brochure. I removed the plastic from all three and separated the brochures. The soaps come in a screw top metal tin. I've seen these same tins used by other soap makers and I'm not a big fan of them. I much prefer the larger wide mouth Parkway Plastic containers used by many soap makers like Tallow & Steel, Grooming Dept, etc. I open the metal container and there is a paper insert covering the soap that lists the ingredients. I haven't seen any other soap makers place cardboard on top of their soap like this and I'm not sure I'm a fan. I had to grab a curved pic from the garage to get under the paper to remove it as there wasn't much room to get anything else in there because it covered the soap entirely. Anyway a minor inconvenience and I pressed the insert into the cap where it appears to be staying. If you want to read it you can retrieve it from there.

There isn't a lot of soap in the jar as each jar contains 70g which equates to just under 2.5 ounces. I initially thought that these might have been sample sized containers but in checking their website this is their regular size. While the amount of soap felt kind of light, it says 90 to 120 shaves per tub. I have no way to confirm or deny that as I'll be using the soap for one or maybe two shaves. The soaps are a harder soap but nothing like a triple milled soap. In consistency something in line with Soap Commander. So as far as the value goes it's up in the air. Price isn't something I consider when grading a soap as it has no bearing on how the soap performs. Whether or not I'll buy it, yes, but performance wise not at all.

In smelling the soaps the Natural is clean and fresh smelling, bordering on unscented. A nice very faint scent if any at all with this one.

The Irish Stout and Seaweed one is a much stronger scent as is the Luxury Seaweed soap. Both of these have a funky scent to them that reminds me of Bain Amour soaps. I wasn't a fan of either of these scents straight from the tub. The Irish Stout and Seaweed one I don't get a beer scent from at all. Some have described it as the scent of a fishing boat. I don't really get that either but I figured what the hell, I'll give this one a try first. The reviews on their web site are all five stars but I've seen some vendors select which reviews get posted so vendor sites don't give me a fair assessment like I'd see on a shaving forum. With this soap there just aren't many reviews on the forums, not that someone else's review would sway my assessment anyway.

In being considerate to those after me I didn't lather the soap in the tin. I took an amount the size of a nickel and put it into a Captain's Choice lather bowl. I used a Morris & Forndran L7 26mm Finest shaving brush with a fan knot. I've been using this brush for a few weeks now and it's exceptional. Preshave, as usual consisted of a warm shower.

So, in lathering the Irish Stout and Seaweed soap the scent lessened and smoothed out quite a bit. Not nearly as strong and pretty much a completely different scent. I'm not sure I've experienced a scent changing so much but it's rather mellow once lathered. It won't interfere with any cologne you choose and the scent was enjoyable while I shaved with it. I never rate scent strength or really hold any weight in it with a review as we all like different scents. Still scent strength from the tub is probably a 6 or 7 and about a 3 once lathered. I only mention it as it mellowed quite a bit. So if you don't like the scent from the tub don't skip trying this one is what I'm getting at.

So the soap lathered rather easily and made a nice lather. Plenty for three passes and a fourth on my neck area. I applied the soap and if felt great, no burning or discomfort with this one. The razor I used is a Paradigm Ti2 head with a Wolfman WRH1 handle. Blade was a Feather with a few shaves on it. I started with a mostly dry brush after a couple shakes to remove the water it was soaking in. I took the brush to the soap and added about six drops of water toward the beginning and twice added six more before getting the lather where I wanted it.

The lather was wet and slick. The soap wasn't the slickest as I took the razor to it for the first pass but it was slick enough to give me a good pass. In taking the razor to the areas I'd already shaved it didn't glide smoothly but instead drug a bit. If I added some additional water to my face it would move smoothly. I've been doing this as a test for residual slickness as some of my preferred soaps will excel in this area without adding additional water or soap. With some I can do an additional pass without adding any additional lather. Not the case with this soap as I wouldn't want to touch up any areas without adding lather.

The three passes were comfortable and enjoyable but didn't stand out to me as being exceptional. After I completed the fourth pass on my neck I rinsed my face and waited a bit to see what the post shave was like. As my face dried it became sticky. Kinda like I have experienced with Stirling Soaps in the past but a bit more. This sticky feeling I'm not a fan of and it hung around for the next few minutes until I applied some Viking Aftershave Balm. For the going on about the moisturizing qualities I honestly expected better.

Do keep in mind that I've only tried one shave with this soap so far. When I thoroughly test a soap I'll use a lesser soap (like Tabac) for a week or two to dry my face out and give me a neutral starting point. I'll then use a soap for a week to two weeks and note how my face changes day by day after each shave. The better soaps will moisturize and hydrate my skin to the point where it feels as good as it's been since I was a newborn. I didn't do this with this soap as I'm coming off of testing a new formula for Tallow & Steel for the past two weeks. With that in mind my skin is moisturized and very well hydrated now. I can tell you with certainty that this soap isn't as good as the Tallow & Steel formula which I'd rank in the top two soaps of all that I've ever tried. In my opinion Tallow & Steel and Grooming Dept are making the very best soaps on the planet at the moment. Both are significantly better to me.

Overall I need some more shaves to form a solid opinion of this one but initially I'd say that it's an excellent soap that many people would enjoy. I could easily list a dozen that I find better but it's far from the worst I've tried. I suspect most who buy this soap would enjoy it quite a bit. So it's worth a look. I'll give these soaps several more shaves before sending them on and seeing what everyone else thinks of them. I'll try to include some pics as well going forward.

Thanks for letting me try the soaps. I'm enjoying being a part of this.

 

[Rory1262]

This is exactly why I wanted dfoulk to lead off. Informed and honest.

 

[dfoulk]

This is exactly why I wanted dfoulk to lead off. Informed and honest.

Thanks, I appreciate it.

 

[dfoulk]

Ok, so I've been taking good notes and some pics as well during my last couple shaves. Sorry haven't updated the thread until now as I've been really busy lately.

Anyway, here goes.

Shave 2

Preshave - a warm shower
Soap: Natural Ireland Seaweed
Razor: Timeless .68 SB
Blade: Polsilver (1)
Brush: Morris & Forndran 26mm Finest in L7 handle
Aftershave: Viking Ironside Aftershave balm
Bowl: Captain's Choice

Ok, so the second shave with this soap wasn't all that different from the first. I chose the Seaweed soap this time and I think I liked it a little better than the Irish Stout and Seaweed one though the performance I got from both was very similar. I started the shave with a fairly dry brush again and added about six drops of water a couple times during the lathering process. These soaps tend to give an airy lather no matter how I lather them.

This airy lather isn't my preference as I prefer a more gel like lather but once applied to the face the lather goes on thick and provides adequate protection. I generally layered it on about a quarter inch thick in most places.

The first pass was very similar to the last shave with the other scent. Nothing spectacular but a decent shave. Second, third and fourth were very similar to the prior passes with the other Natural Ireland soap. Some trying once the soap was cleared and some stickiness after the shave. This lather was slightly better than the first shave with this soap but likely just due to me adding a few drops more water.

I'm noticing that as I use this soap instead of the Tallow & Steel one I was previously using that my face it getting drier after each shave telling me that this soap isn't as moisturizing and hydrating as the T&S soap was.

Still not a bad soap over all but not one I'd likely purchase myself as I prefer my own soaps over this one. So for me after shave two with Natural Ireland soaps I'm not inclined to purchase it myself. This likely would have been a very good soap a few years ago but many of the artisan soaps makers have taken shaving soaps to a whole new level.

I finished up the shave with some Viking Ironside aftershave balm. The balm is enjoyable and followed the soap nicely.

Overall a decent shave, I'll post a review on the Natural scented soap and then likely reach out to the next person on the list so that I can send these on.