Soap: Van Yulay - Soap of the Gods - "Achilles"
Brush: BSB-Ti HMW
Razor/handle: Above the Tie S1 w/Triad Rolling Hex 316 Stainless
Blade: Gillette 7 O'clock Super Platinum (Black) (1)
This was my second use of a Van Yulay soap. Achilles uses their tallow and bentonite clay formula. Running the risk of sounding like Joe Rogan asserting every MMA fighter with whom he's currently enthralled to be "the best pound for pound ", I'm going to say Van Yulay can easily rival any of the soaps in my arsenal. In fact---and I'm not overstating this---Achilles, in particular, excels in all of the criteria by which I measure an excellent soap: ease of lather, water range, density, slickness, and post-shave. Which brings me to the semi-subjective criteria: scent, packaging, value, and customer service.
Van Yulay describes Achilles as, "tobacco with the perfect amount of Kentucky bourbon, hints of cherry, notes of vanilla, of rosewood, cedar, smoke, and sweet birch." I can't argue with any of that, frankly, but the order and impact of these notes deserve some illustration. Straight from the dry tub is a bold, bordering on excessive, sweet bourbon fragrance. We should all know by now that notes from the dry puck rarely provide much insight as to the lathered product. I can say that room temperature bourbon in an old fashioned wouldn't have emanated throughout the bathroom to the degree the open tub of Achilles did. I was interested to see how this would transform once lathered.
While on the subject of the dry tub, still present in Achilles are Van Yulay's signature star molds (which I confirmed are in fact piped into the tubs with an icing bag). Unlike my initial use of Van Yulay, Achilles has the molds surrounded by a lustrous dark substance that appears to be liquefied, but it's actually firm with a slight candied tackiness. While it's an interesting presentation, I was concerned it was unintentional and possibly the victim of the hot Texas temperatures. I contacted the proprietor, Monica, to inquire about the dark syrup. She quickly responded and reassured me this was the "bourbon drizzle" and that it was completely intentional. She nailed the customer service aspect, and there's more on that later.
With regard to packaging: My introduction to Van Yulay was outlined in my first impression of "Puros La Habana", one of their "manteca" soaps. At that time, my impression was overwhelmingly positive. To recap, the only negatives I encountered was a slightly arbitrarily organized website and sub par label printing. After sending my first impression review to the vendor, the majority of the website issues were corrected within minutes. And the labels? Well, there's still room for improvement, there. Following my positive experience with "Puros La Habana", I purchased 3 more VY soaps. I note that the label issue was not an isolated one. They are quite susceptible to scratches (not unlike the PAA tins of old), and the colors are crushed and muted as compared to their representations on the website. I know this is a bit frivolous, but honestly this is where the negatives stop.
In my mind, value is married to performance. I'll expound on the performance later, but Achilles at $17 performs at least as well as soaps for which I unreservedly pay $25. There's no question that $17 is more than fair for a soap of this caliber.
Now I will address the performance. Again, adapting my behavior slightly to accommodate the clay, I used a slightly wetter knot than usual. This resulted in a very quick capacity load for the HMW knot with a controlled amount of protolather. Despite the very dark brown "bourbon drizzle" and the tan stars, the resulting lather was slightly lighter than the head on a draught stout beer. I dumped quite a bit more water into the knot using the finger dribble method and proceeded to face lather. I achieved a usable lather within a few seconds, but I knew VY could do more, so I continued to challenge the limits of this tallow-based soap by adding even more water. With my hard water, this would have destroyed most of my other tallow soaps, but Achilles revealed its sweet spot and exploded into a ridiculous amount of a strikingly creamy and dense paintable lather.
As expected, the intense bourbon fragrance immediately settled down when the water hit it, and it transformed to a more realistic representation. Bourbon kept the stage throughout the shave, but it was sweetened a bit with cured tobacco and to a lesser extent, dark cherry and vanilla alcohol. The vanilla and cherry somehow suggested to me cola. One could deduce that Achilles then took on the fragrance of bourbon and Coke, but the mellow warm tobacco kept that from happening. Towards the end of the shave, the scent got even more complex with smoky, woody notes.
I was impressed with my inaugural use of the Indian Gillette 7 o'clock Super Platinum blade. I can't rule out Achilles' superb protection playing a role, but I could barely feel the blade, and a touch-up pass was not needed to achieve BBS.
I admit I'm ignorant as to which ingredients contribute to post shave feel. After a cold water rinse, Achilles left my scalp and face feeling the way I'm accustomed to it feeling after using lanolin and shea butter products. Yet, I don't see either of them mentioned in the ingredients list. Nevertheless, my skin felt at least as good as it does following a shave using my benchmark products.
The pleasant sweet bourbon scent lingered as I cleaned up my gear. I took pause before applying the paired after shave splash. My prior experience with Van Yulay's splash proved that the scent perfectly matched the soap and lingered for a good 4-5 hours. I began to wonder if such an accurate bourbon fragrance was actually a good scent to wear for a prolonged period, if at all. To my surprise, the splash turned the tables on the fragrance profile. Warm, sophisticated cured tobacco was the dominate note with bourbon remaining in the background. This was precisely the opposite of its properties with the soap. The same notes are present but with a different impact and presence, making the prolonged scent of the splash less whimsical and much more refined. While I am sure this is an intentional turn, I suspect the mellow aloe carries the tobacco better, where an alcohol base may have pushed the bourbon to the forefront. The alcohol-free splash just added more goodies to my skin. The key ingredients are aloe and witch hazel, but there are a number of ingredients the benefits of which I admit I am ignorant (I list both the soap and splash ingredients following this review).
Then came the real test. The overall scent profile of Achilles shares some properties with another artisan's soap that I love, Beaver WoodWright's "Captain's Pipe". Achilles is not a duplication of Captain's Pipe, but the sweetened tobacco notes were enough to remind me of it. The problem is, for my wife, the mere hint of Captain's Pipe evokes nausea. She's normally not very vocal about my choices in fragrances, but she absolutely abhors Captain's Pipe. Therefore, I'm given to only using it while she is gone for a prolonged hunting trip. To my relief, she found Achilles to be quite pleasant. As a result, I look forward to using this combination time and time again.
This was a 5 out of 5 shave. I've been late to the game with regard to trying out Van Yulay's products. Many of you are already familiar with them, but Achilles is listed as a "new" product on their website. If you haven't tried it, and bourbon and cured tobacco is your thing, you really need to pick up a tub before the vendor wises up and charges what it's worth.
Achilles Soap ingredients: Stearic Acid, Coconut Fatty Acid, Palm Stearic, Castor, Potassium Hydroxide, Glycerin, Tobacco Tea, Aloe Vera, Coconut-Emu-Tallow-Meadow Foam-Borage-Argan- Oils, Kentucky Bourbon, Sodium Lactate, Herbal Ground Tea, Calendula, Extracts, Poly Quats, Allantoin, Silica, Bentonite Clay, Glycerin Soap, Tobacco Absolute, Mica and Fragrance.
After Shave Splash ingredients: 70% Water, Aloe Vera, Witch Hazel, Abyssinian Seed-Emu-Red Castor-Evening Primrose-Rosehip Seed-Oils, Comfrey, Calendula, Tepezcohuite, Oat, Marshmallow, Green Tea Extracts, Liquid Silk, and Fragrance
Brush: BSB-Ti HMW
Razor/handle: Above the Tie S1 w/Triad Rolling Hex 316 Stainless
Blade: Gillette 7 O'clock Super Platinum (Black) (1)
This was my second use of a Van Yulay soap. Achilles uses their tallow and bentonite clay formula. Running the risk of sounding like Joe Rogan asserting every MMA fighter with whom he's currently enthralled to be "the best pound for pound ", I'm going to say Van Yulay can easily rival any of the soaps in my arsenal. In fact---and I'm not overstating this---Achilles, in particular, excels in all of the criteria by which I measure an excellent soap: ease of lather, water range, density, slickness, and post-shave. Which brings me to the semi-subjective criteria: scent, packaging, value, and customer service.
Van Yulay describes Achilles as, "tobacco with the perfect amount of Kentucky bourbon, hints of cherry, notes of vanilla, of rosewood, cedar, smoke, and sweet birch." I can't argue with any of that, frankly, but the order and impact of these notes deserve some illustration. Straight from the dry tub is a bold, bordering on excessive, sweet bourbon fragrance. We should all know by now that notes from the dry puck rarely provide much insight as to the lathered product. I can say that room temperature bourbon in an old fashioned wouldn't have emanated throughout the bathroom to the degree the open tub of Achilles did. I was interested to see how this would transform once lathered.
While on the subject of the dry tub, still present in Achilles are Van Yulay's signature star molds (which I confirmed are in fact piped into the tubs with an icing bag). Unlike my initial use of Van Yulay, Achilles has the molds surrounded by a lustrous dark substance that appears to be liquefied, but it's actually firm with a slight candied tackiness. While it's an interesting presentation, I was concerned it was unintentional and possibly the victim of the hot Texas temperatures. I contacted the proprietor, Monica, to inquire about the dark syrup. She quickly responded and reassured me this was the "bourbon drizzle" and that it was completely intentional. She nailed the customer service aspect, and there's more on that later.
With regard to packaging: My introduction to Van Yulay was outlined in my first impression of "Puros La Habana", one of their "manteca" soaps. At that time, my impression was overwhelmingly positive. To recap, the only negatives I encountered was a slightly arbitrarily organized website and sub par label printing. After sending my first impression review to the vendor, the majority of the website issues were corrected within minutes. And the labels? Well, there's still room for improvement, there. Following my positive experience with "Puros La Habana", I purchased 3 more VY soaps. I note that the label issue was not an isolated one. They are quite susceptible to scratches (not unlike the PAA tins of old), and the colors are crushed and muted as compared to their representations on the website. I know this is a bit frivolous, but honestly this is where the negatives stop.
In my mind, value is married to performance. I'll expound on the performance later, but Achilles at $17 performs at least as well as soaps for which I unreservedly pay $25. There's no question that $17 is more than fair for a soap of this caliber.
Now I will address the performance. Again, adapting my behavior slightly to accommodate the clay, I used a slightly wetter knot than usual. This resulted in a very quick capacity load for the HMW knot with a controlled amount of protolather. Despite the very dark brown "bourbon drizzle" and the tan stars, the resulting lather was slightly lighter than the head on a draught stout beer. I dumped quite a bit more water into the knot using the finger dribble method and proceeded to face lather. I achieved a usable lather within a few seconds, but I knew VY could do more, so I continued to challenge the limits of this tallow-based soap by adding even more water. With my hard water, this would have destroyed most of my other tallow soaps, but Achilles revealed its sweet spot and exploded into a ridiculous amount of a strikingly creamy and dense paintable lather.
As expected, the intense bourbon fragrance immediately settled down when the water hit it, and it transformed to a more realistic representation. Bourbon kept the stage throughout the shave, but it was sweetened a bit with cured tobacco and to a lesser extent, dark cherry and vanilla alcohol. The vanilla and cherry somehow suggested to me cola. One could deduce that Achilles then took on the fragrance of bourbon and Coke, but the mellow warm tobacco kept that from happening. Towards the end of the shave, the scent got even more complex with smoky, woody notes.
I was impressed with my inaugural use of the Indian Gillette 7 o'clock Super Platinum blade. I can't rule out Achilles' superb protection playing a role, but I could barely feel the blade, and a touch-up pass was not needed to achieve BBS.
I admit I'm ignorant as to which ingredients contribute to post shave feel. After a cold water rinse, Achilles left my scalp and face feeling the way I'm accustomed to it feeling after using lanolin and shea butter products. Yet, I don't see either of them mentioned in the ingredients list. Nevertheless, my skin felt at least as good as it does following a shave using my benchmark products.
The pleasant sweet bourbon scent lingered as I cleaned up my gear. I took pause before applying the paired after shave splash. My prior experience with Van Yulay's splash proved that the scent perfectly matched the soap and lingered for a good 4-5 hours. I began to wonder if such an accurate bourbon fragrance was actually a good scent to wear for a prolonged period, if at all. To my surprise, the splash turned the tables on the fragrance profile. Warm, sophisticated cured tobacco was the dominate note with bourbon remaining in the background. This was precisely the opposite of its properties with the soap. The same notes are present but with a different impact and presence, making the prolonged scent of the splash less whimsical and much more refined. While I am sure this is an intentional turn, I suspect the mellow aloe carries the tobacco better, where an alcohol base may have pushed the bourbon to the forefront. The alcohol-free splash just added more goodies to my skin. The key ingredients are aloe and witch hazel, but there are a number of ingredients the benefits of which I admit I am ignorant (I list both the soap and splash ingredients following this review).
Then came the real test. The overall scent profile of Achilles shares some properties with another artisan's soap that I love, Beaver WoodWright's "Captain's Pipe". Achilles is not a duplication of Captain's Pipe, but the sweetened tobacco notes were enough to remind me of it. The problem is, for my wife, the mere hint of Captain's Pipe evokes nausea. She's normally not very vocal about my choices in fragrances, but she absolutely abhors Captain's Pipe. Therefore, I'm given to only using it while she is gone for a prolonged hunting trip. To my relief, she found Achilles to be quite pleasant. As a result, I look forward to using this combination time and time again.
This was a 5 out of 5 shave. I've been late to the game with regard to trying out Van Yulay's products. Many of you are already familiar with them, but Achilles is listed as a "new" product on their website. If you haven't tried it, and bourbon and cured tobacco is your thing, you really need to pick up a tub before the vendor wises up and charges what it's worth.
Achilles Soap ingredients: Stearic Acid, Coconut Fatty Acid, Palm Stearic, Castor, Potassium Hydroxide, Glycerin, Tobacco Tea, Aloe Vera, Coconut-Emu-Tallow-Meadow Foam-Borage-Argan- Oils, Kentucky Bourbon, Sodium Lactate, Herbal Ground Tea, Calendula, Extracts, Poly Quats, Allantoin, Silica, Bentonite Clay, Glycerin Soap, Tobacco Absolute, Mica and Fragrance.
After Shave Splash ingredients: 70% Water, Aloe Vera, Witch Hazel, Abyssinian Seed-Emu-Red Castor-Evening Primrose-Rosehip Seed-Oils, Comfrey, Calendula, Tepezcohuite, Oat, Marshmallow, Green Tea Extracts, Liquid Silk, and Fragrance
