What's new

Shave Sticks Review Project

Luc

"To Wiki or Not To Wiki, That's The Question".
Staff member
All right, shaves are over and I have to try a few sticks to rank this one properly. Full review this week-end.
 

Luc

"To Wiki or Not To Wiki, That's The Question".
Staff member
I finished the stick during the week and I continued testing it against the products that I already used in post 1. Post 1 is now updated with the current ranking. It's below the Barbus as I had many difficulties to get a good lather out of it. It was not impossible but it was easy to miss. I posted the full review in the review section here: http://badgerandblade.com/reviews/showproduct.php?product=45747

As this one is almost half way after 30 shaves, I would guess that this stick would last around 35 more shaves (so 65 total).

I had to soak the tip of the stick to soften the product to get a better lather out of it. It's funny how the rating are lower than the previous review I did back in 2011... I did not look at it before I posted today's review. It shows how much the water plays a vital role in this...

Tomorrow's product to be revealed after the first shave (so in 14 hours or so...)...
 

Attachments

  • $SANY6797 (800x598).jpg
    $SANY6797 (800x598).jpg
    268.4 KB · Views: 517
Luc, you've shaved with some very nice shave sticks. The Palmolive Aussie version appears not to be one of them. Thanks for taking one for the team.
 

Luc

"To Wiki or Not To Wiki, That's The Question".
Staff member
It's not a stick! I know... I didn't even transform it into a stick... :blink:

That's okay, I will use a puck of MWF for the next 30 shaves as a stick. I am doing this following a question that I asked not too long ago, how would I go if I would use a puck as a shave stick? Bottom line, instead of re-inventing the wheel, I got a lot of good ideas. I decided to go with the aluminum foil (idea stolen from Bluesman 7, thanks mate and thank you lowjax for pointing me in the right direction). It worked really well. I'm very curious to see how many shaves I will get out of this one. I mean, I did not milled the product so using it as a stick or in a bowl should come back to the same in terms of how much product I would use per shave (well, should...).

I'm wondering if I will end up with half a puck or 3/4 of a puck at the end of those 30 shaves... The lanolin so far is fantastic! :thumbup1:
 

Attachments

  • $SANY6798 (800x600).jpg
    $SANY6798 (800x600).jpg
    316.4 KB · Views: 503
Glad to hear that worked out, Luc.

MWF makes a great stick, whether you reformat it or not. One nice thing about putting it in a stick holder is that it no longer develops cracks from drying out. And it might free up your MWF dish for other things. Mine seems to be pretty durable: next time I use it I will try to track its weight across several shaves. Last time around I was using about half a gram per shave.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Glad to hear that worked out, Luc.

MWF makes a great stick, whether you reformat it or not. One nice thing about putting it in a stick holder is that it no longer develops cracks from drying out. And it might free up your MWF dish for other things. Mine seems to be pretty durable: next time I use it I will try to track its weight across several shaves. Last time around I was using about half a gram per shave.

Agreed. Grating MWF and putting it in a stick holder, IMO, improved it quite a bit. It rubs on your face easier and seems to produce a lot more lather probably because you are using more of it.
 

Luc

"To Wiki or Not To Wiki, That's The Question".
Staff member
Glad to hear that worked out, Luc.

MWF makes a great stick, whether you reformat it or not. One nice thing about putting it in a stick holder is that it no longer develops cracks from drying out. And it might free up your MWF dish for other things. Mine seems to be pretty durable: next time I use it I will try to track its weight across several shaves. Last time around I was using about half a gram per shave.

I vaguely remember that the puck of MWF that I had in the past (and finished) cracked. As far as using the puck as a stick, I'm wondering if it will do that as the foil is currently protecting around 3/4 of the puck. I will know for sure when I unwrap the puck to expose more product.

So far, it's easy to use in that form and MWF works very well. I even had a comment yesterday from my other half : "What did you do? It's softer than usual!"
 
I had an Erasmic stick in my box of stuff. I opened it up and found it to be very brittle and had broken up around the holder. I found the soap to be waxy. I tried a test lather and was not impressed. One of the first hits on Google was this thread. Based on my observations and what Luc experienced, I tossed the stick. Life's too short. Luc, thank you for your ongoing shave stick review. Looking forward to your month long journey with the MWF puck.
 

Luc

"To Wiki or Not To Wiki, That's The Question".
Staff member
I had an Erasmic stick in my box of stuff. I opened it up and found it to be very brittle and had broken up around the holder. I found the soap to be waxy. I tried a test lather and was not impressed. One of the first hits on Google was this thread. Based on my observations and what Luc experienced, I tossed the stick. Life's too short. Luc, thank you for your ongoing shave stick review. Looking forward to your month long journey with the MWF puck.

My understanding is that vintage Erasmic stick is a totally different product. The Erasmic soap (tub) is also a different product and is superior. I did not try either so cannot comment on those. The scent is okay of Erasmic is okay for me so I wouldn't go out of my way to get that one.

MWF on the other hand, it's all about the ratio. If you get the product/ratio right, it will work well. As I face lather with the puck, it's easy to control how much product to put. I am not convinced that this will be my top contender but I will give MWF a fair go!
 
Today was my first stick soap shave with an Arko. Liked it a lot. Seems to me like it simplifies steps without cutting corners and I have the feeling I ended up with a nicer glide. Again, it was my first stick soap shave and first experience with the Arko so I am comparing pears to apples. Will try Luc's trick of treating a puck as a stick. Just to make a fair comparison.
 
This is a great thread Luc. I have tried Arko and Palmolive but based on your rankings, I ordered a Wilkinson and Speick stick. Can't wait to try them out.
 

Luc

"To Wiki or Not To Wiki, That's The Question".
Staff member
15 shaves completed this morning and 15 to go. I tried a superlather with Nivea original shave cream. Surprisingly, the Nivea scent took over (quite strongly actually).

There's a good piece of MWF that is now gone. I had to move the wrapper down a bit. The aluminium foil works well with the soap. No signs of cracking for now. I'm thinking that I might see some if I leave the puck alone for a few days. I would qualify the usage of a puck as a stick a big success. It's very easy and the side of MWF provides a very large surface to apply the product which means that I have enough product to face lather within 10 seconds.
 

Attachments

  • $SANY6799 (800x498).jpg
    $SANY6799 (800x498).jpg
    312.3 KB · Views: 374
Today was my first stick soap shave with an Arko. Liked it a lot. Seems to me like it simplifies steps without cutting corners and I have the feeling I ended up with a nicer glide. Again, it was my first stick soap shave and first experience with the Arko so I am comparing pears to apples. Will try Luc's trick of treating a puck as a stick. Just to make a fair comparison.
I just finished a week long run with Arko. Not my first time using it, or shave sticks. I love them. Arko makes a great lather
 
15 shaves completed this morning and 15 to go. I tried a superlather with Nivea original shave cream. Surprisingly, the Nivea scent took over (quite strongly actually).

There's a good piece of MWF that is now gone. I had to move the wrapper down a bit. The aluminium foil works well with the soap. No signs of cracking for now. I'm thinking that I might see some if I leave the puck alone for a few days. I would qualify the usage of a puck as a stick a big success. It's very easy and the side of MWF provides a very large surface to apply the product which means that I have enough product to face lather within 10 seconds.

Thanks for this thread Luc. It's a day too late. I had to trim a puck of Cade yesterday to make it fit. Your MWF experiment is very interesting. I may try this approach with a puck of TOBS Jermyn St. I just can't seem to make a good lather. Perhaps applying it like a stick may yield different results. I'll post results when I try it out.
 
Thanks for this thread Luc. It's a day too late. I had to trim a puck of Cade yesterday to make it fit. Your MWF experiment is very interesting. I may try this approach with a puck of TOBS Jermyn St. I just can't seem to make a good lather. Perhaps applying it like a stick may yield different results. I'll post results when I try it out.

I hope that helps, but TOBS soaps do not have as good a reputation as their creams. Their creams are supposed to be made by Creightons. I am not sure who makes their soaps, but at least they are not listed at http://www.soapworksltd.co.uk/our-clients.
 
That photo of MWF after 15 shaves is amazing. I've always enjoyed the fat, but always face lathered. (Interestingly it seems to work better with boar brushes for me).
 

Luc

"To Wiki or Not To Wiki, That's The Question".
Staff member
That photo of MWF after 15 shaves is amazing. I've always enjoyed the fat, but always face lathered. (Interestingly it seems to work better with boar brushes for me).

Funny as I planned to get my Omega 10077 out this week...
 
Last edited:
I hope that helps, but TOBS soaps do not have as good a reputation as their creams. Their creams are supposed to be made by Creightons. I am not sure who makes their soaps, but at least they are not listed at http://www.soapworksltd.co.uk/our-clients.
I'm not sure if I'm going to try it or not. Life's too short for sh*tty shaves. I may just chunk up the Jermyn St soap, wrape it up in cheesecloth, and use it in my dresser drawers
 
Top Bottom