Silly question, but.

[Teddyboy]

When one of our soap-meisters or vendors is nice enough to send us a soap sample, how do you use it? They look like rather small slices of cheese. Do you use them as a shaving stick, or do you go through all of your glassware to find one that fits reasonably well, then load and lather as usual.

Hey, that's a great name for a shaving forum, "Load and Lather."

Thanks for listening.

 

[Optometrist]

Depending on the size of the sample, and whether it is a soft or hard soap, I either flatten the soft soap in to a container and load, or hold the hard sample in my palm to do so..

 

[El-a-Menthol]

Stick it at the bottom of a bowl or my Old Spice vintage mug.

 

[chuckr9]

Holding in palm easiest way to find out if you like it........

 

[Mr5x5]

I use my Mama Bear samples as mini sticks on the face and do a test rub on the inner arm to check for sensitivity.

 

[Teddyboy]

Great input. Thanks to all.

 

[Big_OC]

Samples from QCS come in a cheese wedge shape. I grate those and put the at the bottom of a Ziploc container like I do all my soaps. Load from there and lather it up in a bowl like I always do. Samples from MW and Mikes come in a more flatter shape so I don't grate those down.

 

[mharris127]

I think there are some good answers here. However, this certainly was not a silly question. This subject actually comes up from time to time and as you see here there are different solutions to the problem. Retailers handle this differently as well. Garry sends his samples already shredded (and sends out enough for 5-10 shaves by his estimation), Honeybee Sue sends her samples in the traditional puck shape, just thinner. Some just cut a piece off of a puck and send it out.

 

[Niles]

Not a silly question at all. Most of the time I put it in the bottom of a mug.

 

[Schrute Farms]

Great question, I use mine as shaving sticks. However, based on this thread, next time I'll probably just put it in my palm to load.

 

[BrookR1]

For small samples:

1. sniff it
2. if it passes the sniff test, read reviews
3. if it gets good reviews, buy the full-sized version
4. toss it away

 

[nemo]

For small samples:

1. sniff it
2. if it passes the sniff test, read reviews
3. if it gets good reviews, buy the full-sized version
4. toss it away

That's pretty wasteful, I can get several great shaves off of even the smallest sample our vendors send.

I stick my slices to the bottom of a mug.

 

[BrookR1]

If I order the full tub, I will sometimes mush the sample into it, but I don't like messing with small hard soap samples. Creams are another issue. I love cream samples.

 

[jansob]

Bottom of my bowl, and then I use it up...I make sure to get a few shaves in a row with it so I can be sure it's lathered right. Once of twice I've done a single shave and didn't like a soap...only to come back to it later and realize I had lathered it crappily the first time.

 

[Doc226]

Face lather, I rub the soap on the face a-la shave stick and lather