TL;DR - Read the final comments if this is too long for you!
Soap: Queen Charlotte Soaps Green Irish Tweed
Cost: <$15
Ingredients: Saponified tallow; water; saponified castor oil and shea butter; glycerin; saponified stearic acid, cocoa butter, and coconut oil; fragrance oil; saponified avocado oil, palm oil, and olive oil; aloe vera extract; kaolin clay; lanolin; vitamin E
Appearance and packaging: Similar to most other artisan soaps, this soap comes in a soft puck form. It’s malleable and easily moldable to any container you want to use without having the grate the puck. This particular variation has a light green-grayish color and since I bought just the puck, it came shrink-wrapped and labelled rather than in a container. The label was clearly branded and had the name of the varietal but with not much else. I had to go online to get the ingredient list.
Scent: I ordered this scent because I love the Creed cologne by the same name. I have also read a lot of disappointment in the QCS soap because of its lack of scent, but I decided to try it for myself. Upon first sniff I can unequivocally say that QCS does not smell like the Creed Green Irish Tweed, that being said, the QCS version does smell pleasant. My puck was lightly scented, but the scent was there and I quite enjoyed it. The scents seemed to open up upon lathering and seemed to linger for a couple hours on my skin. As for the scent itself, I get a floral (violets and lilies) up front with a woodsy/green base. There is a powdery sense to the whole experience. Again, this is nothing like the Creed cologne, but I could be convinced that’s it’s in the same family, maybe a 2[SUP]nd[/SUP] cousin that no one talks to.
Workability and Lather: I soaked my brush in warm water for about 5 minutes and added a drizzle of water to the top of the puck for the same amount of time. I let my brush drain and gave it 2 or 3 good shakes, directly downward and also poured off the water from the surface of the soap. I loaded my brush for about 30 seconds and the soap appeared to be loading pretty well, but the Tubby 2 is a big brush, so I loaded for about another 15 seconds to make sure I got a really good load. I palm lathered the soap and had to dip my brush 2 times in water to really work up a decent lather. The lather came up pretty easily, but with my softened water, this seems to be the norm. The lather seemed pretty slick, had decent cushion, and held nice peaks. All in all, I was pleased with the work up, but the QCS soap didn’t really exceed in any one property, it seemed firmly planted in the middle of a good artisan soap group.
Slickness, Glide, Cushion, and Retention: The slickness was good, the glide was good, and the cushion was top notch. The retention was so-so. I had a little bit of fade, not enough to ruin the shave, but enough to be noticeable. Next time I’ll work in more water at the start and see if that helps. I always wet my face in-between passes, so I’m working in water throughout the shave, but I still had to reapply some lather on my forth quadrant.
Face Feel and Moisturizing: The soap feels good on your face and is very protective. The after shave face feel was really good, but that’s not too surprising seeing that there is lanolin in this soap (same as MWF). My face felt moisturized pretty much all day.
Final Comments: QCS Green Irish Tweed is a solid performer and would be worth a buy if you’re branching out and wanting to try something new. If you want to buy this soap because you love Creed’s Green Irish Tweed, don’t, you’ll be disappointed. That being said, the scent of the soap is very pleasant and I have no qualms recommending it to people that want something floral and sweet green. The shave performance was good, I got a good shave without any major issues, but nothing about this soap was spectacular. The fade was a little concerning, but I’ll need to do more testing to see if it’s a property of the soap or I just need to learn how to work up the lather better. So should you buy this soap or not…that’s a good question, if you want an outstanding artisan soap, go look at Mike’s or B&M for tallow bases. You can also look at Synergy or PPF for vegan bases. Those 4 artisans offer, IMO, a better performance and a better value. Please remember that as with all things shaving, YMMV, and just because I may not have been blown away by this soap, it doesn’t mean you won’t love it. There is certainly nothing wrong with this soap and it should shave perfectly well.
Notes: I have softened water and this probably impacts how I lather soaps.
Equipment Used:
Weber PH Bulldog w/ Polsilver Super Iridium (1)
New Forrest Tubby 2
Proraso White Pre-save
Pinaud Clubman Musk
Soap: Queen Charlotte Soaps Green Irish Tweed
Cost: <$15
Ingredients: Saponified tallow; water; saponified castor oil and shea butter; glycerin; saponified stearic acid, cocoa butter, and coconut oil; fragrance oil; saponified avocado oil, palm oil, and olive oil; aloe vera extract; kaolin clay; lanolin; vitamin E
Appearance and packaging: Similar to most other artisan soaps, this soap comes in a soft puck form. It’s malleable and easily moldable to any container you want to use without having the grate the puck. This particular variation has a light green-grayish color and since I bought just the puck, it came shrink-wrapped and labelled rather than in a container. The label was clearly branded and had the name of the varietal but with not much else. I had to go online to get the ingredient list.
Scent: I ordered this scent because I love the Creed cologne by the same name. I have also read a lot of disappointment in the QCS soap because of its lack of scent, but I decided to try it for myself. Upon first sniff I can unequivocally say that QCS does not smell like the Creed Green Irish Tweed, that being said, the QCS version does smell pleasant. My puck was lightly scented, but the scent was there and I quite enjoyed it. The scents seemed to open up upon lathering and seemed to linger for a couple hours on my skin. As for the scent itself, I get a floral (violets and lilies) up front with a woodsy/green base. There is a powdery sense to the whole experience. Again, this is nothing like the Creed cologne, but I could be convinced that’s it’s in the same family, maybe a 2[SUP]nd[/SUP] cousin that no one talks to.
Workability and Lather: I soaked my brush in warm water for about 5 minutes and added a drizzle of water to the top of the puck for the same amount of time. I let my brush drain and gave it 2 or 3 good shakes, directly downward and also poured off the water from the surface of the soap. I loaded my brush for about 30 seconds and the soap appeared to be loading pretty well, but the Tubby 2 is a big brush, so I loaded for about another 15 seconds to make sure I got a really good load. I palm lathered the soap and had to dip my brush 2 times in water to really work up a decent lather. The lather came up pretty easily, but with my softened water, this seems to be the norm. The lather seemed pretty slick, had decent cushion, and held nice peaks. All in all, I was pleased with the work up, but the QCS soap didn’t really exceed in any one property, it seemed firmly planted in the middle of a good artisan soap group.
Slickness, Glide, Cushion, and Retention: The slickness was good, the glide was good, and the cushion was top notch. The retention was so-so. I had a little bit of fade, not enough to ruin the shave, but enough to be noticeable. Next time I’ll work in more water at the start and see if that helps. I always wet my face in-between passes, so I’m working in water throughout the shave, but I still had to reapply some lather on my forth quadrant.
Face Feel and Moisturizing: The soap feels good on your face and is very protective. The after shave face feel was really good, but that’s not too surprising seeing that there is lanolin in this soap (same as MWF). My face felt moisturized pretty much all day.
Final Comments: QCS Green Irish Tweed is a solid performer and would be worth a buy if you’re branching out and wanting to try something new. If you want to buy this soap because you love Creed’s Green Irish Tweed, don’t, you’ll be disappointed. That being said, the scent of the soap is very pleasant and I have no qualms recommending it to people that want something floral and sweet green. The shave performance was good, I got a good shave without any major issues, but nothing about this soap was spectacular. The fade was a little concerning, but I’ll need to do more testing to see if it’s a property of the soap or I just need to learn how to work up the lather better. So should you buy this soap or not…that’s a good question, if you want an outstanding artisan soap, go look at Mike’s or B&M for tallow bases. You can also look at Synergy or PPF for vegan bases. Those 4 artisans offer, IMO, a better performance and a better value. Please remember that as with all things shaving, YMMV, and just because I may not have been blown away by this soap, it doesn’t mean you won’t love it. There is certainly nothing wrong with this soap and it should shave perfectly well.
Notes: I have softened water and this probably impacts how I lather soaps.
Equipment Used:
Weber PH Bulldog w/ Polsilver Super Iridium (1)
New Forrest Tubby 2
Proraso White Pre-save
Pinaud Clubman Musk
