Svoboda (Russian / Poland) soap

[NStorm]

Ok, I really don't know what to tell here. But I've just recently discovered that soap in a local store. It was among casual bath bar soaps but the box reads "ideally suits for shaving" so I was interested and took one to try. It's less than $1 for 100g puck (~$0.75 converted). It looks like a casual bar soap aside from being dark colored because it contains coal. But the ingredients list looks pretty much like most cheap mass manufactured shaving soaps.
While the brand Svoboda itself are Russian and they have some shaving products of their own this soap are made in Poland by Betasoap (never heard of them before).
Anyways I haven't tried it yet, but here is some pics in case you wonder.

 

[Uncas]

Thanks for sharing, it's interesting to see new discoveries, let us know how it performs. It just may be a real gem.

 

[NStorm]

Unfortunately it didn't worked at all. It lathered as quickly as it faded away within a minute. Just a casual body soap despite beign said "suits for shaving".

 

[YKMV]

Maybe it's the Williams of Russia.. Lots of water and patience and it rewards you with a great lather.

 

[NStorm]

It's already "rewarded" me with irritation even I didn't shaved with it, just lathered my face and shaved with Tabac afterwards. So I am not going to try that again.
I've never had any problems lathering the Williams. It worked for me from the first time. As far as I've heard people usually had problems with getting initial lather with Williams. Svoboda lathered to a very dense lather which looked very promising. But once I've applied it to my face it started to getting thinner right in a 10-15 seconds. In 30-35 seconds almost half of it was already gone. It's just like a bar soap, I doubt it can provide any stable lather at all.

 

[Uncas]

Thanks for the report, and glad the Tabac saved the day.

 

[BigJ]

Thanks for the review! Very interesting product, but sorry that it did not work well.

 

[Akis]

Interesting. I knew svoboda makes a very good aftershave balm but its the first time i see a shaving soap.
Thanks for the review !