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Review: Mystic Waters Unscented Shave Soap for Sensitive Skin

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This is my first review of a shaving soap on a new thread. I have shared my take on a few other soaps within pre-existing threads. I share this review hoping that those with skin-sensitivities, like myself, would benefit from it. I am also very thankful to Mceuph75 who generously sent me this precious soap all to Canada as a gift.

I consider my face as a benchmark to test effectiveness and suitability of various shaving products for sensitive skins since mine is most easily irritated by scents, essential oils, dyes, and preservatives. In other words, if a soap agrees with and provides a great shave for my face, chances are that it would be equally beneficial for a great majority of other wet-shavers prone to sensitivities.

Here is a brief description of the ingredients of the unscented soap from Mystic Waters’ website: “I've included a lot of good herbal ingredients in this soap including Calendula officinalis (Marigold) flower, aloe vera, sea buckthorn berry oil and allantoin. No fragrance or essential oils have been added to this soap but it has a mild pleasant natural smell of its own, from the top-quality ingredients. There is no saponified coconut oil in any of my shave soaps, which makes them especially gentle and good for sensitive skin. This soap is particularly soothing due to the botanical additions and lack of added fragrance. Lanolin free.”

I used Proraso White pre-shave gel for sensitive skin, Simpson’s Duke 3 in best badger, Merkur Slant razor loaded with an Astra Blue blade, Thayer’s unscented, and Castle Forbes Lavender Essential Oil Aftershave balm for this shave. The soap was put to use to help take down five days worth of facial hair growth.

This is the shaves-stick format of the soap so I applied it generously all over my face and lower neck. Lathering this soap takes time and efforts even with distilled water. It took me a good 5 to 7 minutes to face lather after applying the stick on my face. Those who have used Mystic Waters soaps can attest to that. But the quality of lather after the hard work came as a shock to me, thick, creamy, stable with a clear sheen. It heralded a great shave and surely I was not disappointed!

Glide, cushion, protection, and slickness aspects of this soap were on par, if no better than, high-quality soaps I have used before such as Haslinger, SV, Barrister & Mann Latha. Mind you that the only soap that stood above these for me was the Wholly Kaw Donkey Milk version. The shave was very smooth and comfortable without any cuts or nicks.

I’ve been wet-shaving for a year and half now and this soap provided so much comfort that for the first time I found the courage to do a third-pass shave and go against the grain. The result of venturing into this unchartered territory was the smoothest shave I ever had without slightest irritation.

I think the most promising quality of this soap for me has been post-shave face feel. My face glows and feels very smooth, soft, silky, and nurtured. There is no redness or razor-burn even on the most sensitive areas of my lower neck.

There have been a few threads on this forum where members have recommended their favorite unscented soaps formulated specifically for sensitive skins. I’ve read them many times and used a few soaps that seemed to popular except for the famous wallet-draining Martin de Candre Unscented and Xpec. Mystic Waters unscented soap provided great, comfortable shave without the slightest irritation for me. Again, the only downside to this soap would be an extra mile you would have to go to create a rich, creamy and protective lather.
 
I've not used the stick before, but the puck lathers as easy for me as any other soap. I think the advantage is that you already have your lather started by loading the brush. It is a very good product. One of my top 3 soaps.
 
Glad it worked out for you. I traded for a tub of Adirondack Jack and its one of my favorites in my rotation. While it takes me a little extra time to get it to lather. It's worth the effort in my opinion. That thick glossy lather is a thing of beauty. Does a great job protecting my skin from cuts and irritation as well. And as you mention the post shave feel and the way my face glows afterwards makes Mystic Waters a keeper in my rotation.
 
Thanks for taking the time to review this. I’m just getting into wet shaving myself, and of course one of the components I was looking for after buying my milk your progress was a good soap.

By coincidence, I’m not far from my waters office, so I picked it up on Thursday night.

I’ve only used it once since getting it, but my first concern, that would be completely unscented, came through with flying colors. There might be a tiny bit of a scent, but it goes away almost immediately. I’m still learning how to lather properly, but I was very happy with how much it lathered with the cheap brush and I look forward to using this to meet my shaving needs.

Also, customer service was outstanding! Some minor problems on my end, and they were all fixed quickly and I was able to get the merchandise in my hand almost immediately.
 
They make good products. I love their shave sticks.

I have a Lime SS touching down tomorrow if the US mail doesn't reroute it to some out of the way place first. What do you think of the Bay Rum and Cuppa Joe? I was also interested in those. Do Mystic Waters scents run toward "cologny" type fragrances?
 
I have a Lime SS touching down tomorrow if the US mail doesn't reroute it to some out of the way place first. What do you think of the Bay Rum and Cuppa Joe? I was also interested in those. Do Mystic Waters scents run toward "cologny" type fragrances?

I have the Lime and the Bay Rum and Cuppa Joe. I think the Bay Rum is their very best scent. You have to get the Bay Rum. I think it's the best scent of any shave soap I ever tried. And I tried plenty believe me. Several guys have said their Lime is the best Lime of any soap. I think you will really like it.
 
Bay Rum is Michelle's best scent imo. Never tried Cuppa Joe. Sensitive is fantastic to use when wanting to superlather with a scented cream. I ran out of Sensitive a while back and should get some more. If anyone has a new puck of MW that wants to try a new puck of Prospect Creek, let me know!

Also, for the record, these soaps are extremely easy to lather now days and take only seconds to whip up MW if you load it like you hate it without to much water to start. This is one soap that does very poorly if you have too much water. There is no coming back from over saturation with this one unless you load a lot more soap after the fact.
 
I have the Lime and the Bay Rum and Cuppa Joe. I think the Bay Rum is their very best scent. You have to get the Bay Rum. I think it's the best scent of any shave soap I ever tried. And I tried plenty believe me. Several guys have said their Lime is the best Lime of any soap. I think you will really like it.

I'm definitely going to have to try that Bay Rum.
 
Bay Rum is Michelle's best scent imo. Never tried Cuppa Joe. Sensitive is fantastic to use when wanting to superlather with a scented cream. I ran out of Sensitive a while back and should get some more. If anyone has a new puck of MW that wants to try a new puck of Prospect Creek, let me know!

Also, for the record, these soaps are extremely easy to lather now days and take only seconds to whip up MW if you load it like you hate it without to much water to start. This is one soap that does very poorly if you have too much water. There is no coming back from over saturation with this one unless you load a lot more soap after the fact.

I haven't used shave sticks, but since I switched from bowl lathering to face lathering this was an easy rabbit hole to jump into :).
 
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