This is my review of the Australian shaving soap produced by Soap Era (available on the Bay)
Cost (Cheap as Old Chips, Low Cost, Moderate, Expensive, Second Mortgage): Low Cost
Delivery (Sloth, Waiting for Christmas, Reasonable, Next Day, Time Lord): Waiting for Christmas
Packaging (What Packaging?, Simplistic, Supermarket Shelf, Harrods, Gold Leaf): Simplistic
Fragrance (no odour, threshold, weak, strong, Jesus wash it off!): Strong when lathered
First Impression
Second Impression (soaked puck while showering)
Well my order finally arrived. I purchased a bar of soap for my wife as well to get me over the free postage threshold and they threw in a sample of the cucumber & yoghurt soap as well.
Firstly, I am on rainwater so in terms of water hardness it is as soft as you can get so water hardness is not a factor in my ability to lather this soap.
I started with the Bay Rum in a re-purposed ceramic jar and my Semogue 1305 (because I'm breaking it in). There was instant Pink foam while loading the brush and I continued to load it for a few minutes before transferring to my shave bowl to create the lather.
I just could not get this to come together it was just a light airy foam. I returned to the puck to reload and tried again but I could not get it to work in the bowl. Hmmm more product needed.
I took the loaded brush to my face to try and face lather and that worked okay, the lather was still a bit airy but reasonably slick (more slick than the C&E) but the cushion was non-existent.
I gave up on the first attempt and retried with my Badger Brush, taking a long time to load before face lathering. This was an okay but not great shave.
I tried this soap and various combinations of water and brush-wetness but struggled to get it to work, so I spent some time reading reviews on how to lather really hard soaps and ended up completely immersing & soaking the puck for 24 hours.
This finally enabled me to load a decent amount of product but in terms of lather quality it still fell short of a Palmolive stick. Bowl lathering with this product was impossible. The best results I could get were with an almost dry brush and face lathering.
The only thing that exceeded my expectation was the Fragrance, which is great.
Cost (Cheap as Old Chips, Low Cost, Moderate, Expensive, Second Mortgage): Low Cost
Delivery (Sloth, Waiting for Christmas, Reasonable, Next Day, Time Lord): Waiting for Christmas
The time it took to deliver seemed excessive but I believe it was slow to reach me simply because our postal service can be poor maybe not because it may have been posted late
Packaging (What Packaging?, Simplistic, Supermarket Shelf, Harrods, Gold Leaf): Simplistic
Fragrance (no odour, threshold, weak, strong, Jesus wash it off!): Strong when lathered
Straight out of the box the bars are nice but the peppermint where it has been in contact with the Cypress bar has overwhelmed the fragrance (one side only).
Indigo: has a faint smell of Gin (Juniper). I love Gin so I like the fragrance
Bay Rum: has to me a pleasant smell of cloves and spices. I have never had a Bay Rum product before so I can't compare it but I really like the fragrance
Cypress: I was expecting more of a Piney note. There is something but I can't pick it. This is the bar that was in contact with the peppermint soap so I'll just have to leave it a while to air
Hardness, nothing technical I use my thumb (yoghurt, ice-cream, Gouda, Pecorino Romano, Tomcats Head): Pecorino RomanoIndigo: has a faint smell of Gin (Juniper). I love Gin so I like the fragrance
Bay Rum: has to me a pleasant smell of cloves and spices. I have never had a Bay Rum product before so I can't compare it but I really like the fragrance
Cypress: I was expecting more of a Piney note. There is something but I can't pick it. This is the bar that was in contact with the peppermint soap so I'll just have to leave it a while to air
I could not indent the shaving soap with my finger. In comparison to a brand new bar of C&E which I can just indent
Shaving
First Impression
Loading: Struggled to transfer any soap to the brush
Lather: Explosion of poor quality airy foam, unstable
Slickness: Very
Cushion: None
Moisturising: Good
Ease of use: Very Difficult
After Shaving Review: Unable to bowl lather this product. Barely acceptable face lather; quite slick and fragrance is great but the lather was unstable. It did leave my face feeling nice and was irritation free.
Lather: Explosion of poor quality airy foam, unstable
Slickness: Very
Cushion: None
Moisturising: Good
Ease of use: Very Difficult
After Shaving Review: Unable to bowl lather this product. Barely acceptable face lather; quite slick and fragrance is great but the lather was unstable. It did leave my face feeling nice and was irritation free.
Second Impression (soaked puck while showering)
Loading: Still struggled to transfer the soap to the brush
Lather: a bit better but still poor quality airy foam that was unstable
Slickness: Very
Cushion: None
Moisturising: Good
Ease of use: Difficult
After Shaving Review: Pretty much the same as the first attempts. A bit easier to load after soaking puck. Start with an almost dry brush for a better result â less air
Third Impression (After soaking the Puck 24 hours)Lather: a bit better but still poor quality airy foam that was unstable
Slickness: Very
Cushion: None
Moisturising: Good
Ease of use: Difficult
After Shaving Review: Pretty much the same as the first attempts. A bit easier to load after soaking puck. Start with an almost dry brush for a better result â less air
Loading: Much better, was able to transfer an excessive amount of product to the brush
Lather: Better than previous attempts but still unstable
Slickness: has lost some of its slickness since soaking the puck
Cushion: Minimal
Moisturising: Good
Ease of use: Difficult
After Shaving Review: Acceptable. After the extended soak the puck is usable but still falls short of my expectations of a shaving soap
General discussion: Lather: Better than previous attempts but still unstable
Slickness: has lost some of its slickness since soaking the puck
Cushion: Minimal
Moisturising: Good
Ease of use: Difficult
After Shaving Review: Acceptable. After the extended soak the puck is usable but still falls short of my expectations of a shaving soap
Well my order finally arrived. I purchased a bar of soap for my wife as well to get me over the free postage threshold and they threw in a sample of the cucumber & yoghurt soap as well.
Firstly, I am on rainwater so in terms of water hardness it is as soft as you can get so water hardness is not a factor in my ability to lather this soap.
I started with the Bay Rum in a re-purposed ceramic jar and my Semogue 1305 (because I'm breaking it in). There was instant Pink foam while loading the brush and I continued to load it for a few minutes before transferring to my shave bowl to create the lather.
I just could not get this to come together it was just a light airy foam. I returned to the puck to reload and tried again but I could not get it to work in the bowl. Hmmm more product needed.
I took the loaded brush to my face to try and face lather and that worked okay, the lather was still a bit airy but reasonably slick (more slick than the C&E) but the cushion was non-existent.
I gave up on the first attempt and retried with my Badger Brush, taking a long time to load before face lathering. This was an okay but not great shave.
I tried this soap and various combinations of water and brush-wetness but struggled to get it to work, so I spent some time reading reviews on how to lather really hard soaps and ended up completely immersing & soaking the puck for 24 hours.
This finally enabled me to load a decent amount of product but in terms of lather quality it still fell short of a Palmolive stick. Bowl lathering with this product was impossible. The best results I could get were with an almost dry brush and face lathering.
The only thing that exceeded my expectation was the Fragrance, which is great.
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