Orange Chill is my first shave soap from Stirling. I've used it around 10 times now, so I think I have a good sense of how it performs.
The packaging is top notch and very professional looking with waterproof labels. When you open it up, you are greeted with an obviously hand poured, somewhat lumpy, orange/yellow soap with a nice scent of orange. My description might not sound flattering, but it's actually kind of nice. There's a LOT of menthol scent at first, which makes the orange smell strange. But after using it a few times, the scent changes to pretty much pure orange.
Everyone who uses this or similar citrus products from Stirling says the same thing: Smells like a fresh sliced <insert fruit name here>. Everybody says this because it's true! Orange Chill smells very much like a fresh sliced orange. Not "sweet" or candy like in any way. Just smells like the fruit. It's very nice.
This is a pretty soft soap. Not as soft as PAA, or B&M Latha. But pretty soft. As such, it loads into the brush pretty easily. I've bowl lathered this soap every time as that's my preference. My first few uses of this soap made big fluffy lathers that were nice and cushiony. The kind of impressive lather you see on youtube. They worked pretty well.
But I noticed that as I was applying the lather, a bit of "lather dust" was fluffing off into the air, which is a sure sign that it's too dry. Adding a bit more water the next time helped and only changed the lather a little. I should probably emphasize that this lather feels really good going on and seems to hold up nicely over 2 full applications, plus touchups.
Then I got on a kick of using a lot of extra water to make slicker lathers. I found that Stirling soaps can take a WHOLE LOT of water. Easily 2x what I was using, and nearly 3x yielded nice slick lathers that are less impressive looking and thinner, but very nice with superior performance. It still seems to hold it's consistency from round to round and doesn't die or "fizz out" after sitting for 10 minutes.
In all cases the "chill" portion of Orange Chill was very evident. I only have one other soap with a cooling agent, and it's natural mint. This is quite a cold blast by comparison, but not at all unpleasant. On a summer morning, the chill is really nice.
Post shave feel is kind of average. It feels fine, but doesn't have that soft supple after feel like some other tallow based soaps. The cooling effect only lasts for a few minutes after the shave and that's just fine for me. I have numerous menthol based aftershaves, including Stirling's "Glacial" Lime.
This is a good time to mention this "discovery" of mine: You can get ANY Stirling aftershave with menthol mixed in! I know this is obvious to almost everyone reading this, but it wasn't to me. I didn't realize you can just add regular menthol or "glacial" menthol with the pulldown box when you order it.
"Glacial" is quite a lot of menthol in my opinion. It's at least twice as cold as the other menthol aftershaves I have. Really a nice big wake up in the morning.
Overall I think this soap is very good. It's not totally outstanding in any particular department, but it's quite good in all measures.
Oh... It's seemingly a very good value at 5.8 oz for $12.95 . For those that like the math, that's around $2.23 per oz. I think that's quite cheap; even less expensive than B&M's Latha, which was a really good value when it was available.
I'll probably buy another Stirling soap at some point when I find another scent I'm interested in. I recommend this soap for sure. Great real orange smell, big punch of chill, and nice slick cushiony lather. What's not to love?
Brian.
The packaging is top notch and very professional looking with waterproof labels. When you open it up, you are greeted with an obviously hand poured, somewhat lumpy, orange/yellow soap with a nice scent of orange. My description might not sound flattering, but it's actually kind of nice. There's a LOT of menthol scent at first, which makes the orange smell strange. But after using it a few times, the scent changes to pretty much pure orange.
Everyone who uses this or similar citrus products from Stirling says the same thing: Smells like a fresh sliced <insert fruit name here>. Everybody says this because it's true! Orange Chill smells very much like a fresh sliced orange. Not "sweet" or candy like in any way. Just smells like the fruit. It's very nice.
This is a pretty soft soap. Not as soft as PAA, or B&M Latha. But pretty soft. As such, it loads into the brush pretty easily. I've bowl lathered this soap every time as that's my preference. My first few uses of this soap made big fluffy lathers that were nice and cushiony. The kind of impressive lather you see on youtube. They worked pretty well.
But I noticed that as I was applying the lather, a bit of "lather dust" was fluffing off into the air, which is a sure sign that it's too dry. Adding a bit more water the next time helped and only changed the lather a little. I should probably emphasize that this lather feels really good going on and seems to hold up nicely over 2 full applications, plus touchups.
Then I got on a kick of using a lot of extra water to make slicker lathers. I found that Stirling soaps can take a WHOLE LOT of water. Easily 2x what I was using, and nearly 3x yielded nice slick lathers that are less impressive looking and thinner, but very nice with superior performance. It still seems to hold it's consistency from round to round and doesn't die or "fizz out" after sitting for 10 minutes.
In all cases the "chill" portion of Orange Chill was very evident. I only have one other soap with a cooling agent, and it's natural mint. This is quite a cold blast by comparison, but not at all unpleasant. On a summer morning, the chill is really nice.
Post shave feel is kind of average. It feels fine, but doesn't have that soft supple after feel like some other tallow based soaps. The cooling effect only lasts for a few minutes after the shave and that's just fine for me. I have numerous menthol based aftershaves, including Stirling's "Glacial" Lime.
This is a good time to mention this "discovery" of mine: You can get ANY Stirling aftershave with menthol mixed in! I know this is obvious to almost everyone reading this, but it wasn't to me. I didn't realize you can just add regular menthol or "glacial" menthol with the pulldown box when you order it.
"Glacial" is quite a lot of menthol in my opinion. It's at least twice as cold as the other menthol aftershaves I have. Really a nice big wake up in the morning.
Overall I think this soap is very good. It's not totally outstanding in any particular department, but it's quite good in all measures.
Oh... It's seemingly a very good value at 5.8 oz for $12.95 . For those that like the math, that's around $2.23 per oz. I think that's quite cheap; even less expensive than B&M's Latha, which was a really good value when it was available.
I'll probably buy another Stirling soap at some point when I find another scent I'm interested in. I recommend this soap for sure. Great real orange smell, big punch of chill, and nice slick cushiony lather. What's not to love?
Brian.
