True, the full kit is pricey, but refills can be found for £23-25.00It may be but in Europe where I live these are quite expensive. I can have 2 Stirlings for price of one T&H with wooden box.
What soaps have you been disappointed with?
- Thread starter Woodshaver71
- Start date
VDH original, TOBS Avocado
Not much cushion, sweet youthful too much Cologne smell. Both work it’s just the smell I didn’t like.
Not much cushion, sweet youthful too much Cologne smell. Both work it’s just the smell I didn’t like.
- Thread starter
- #83
The 3 tobs i have i like all their scents - sandslwood, jermyn, eton.
I recently discovered that there are good batches and bad batches. MWF has been my very favorite soap for many years and have been using older pucks. My opinion regarding MWF changed when I started to use batch 8923, which is a lousy soap. To say the least.
It is possible that you stumble upon such batch. So, out of curiosity, what batch is your MWF?
Older soaps have the batch# on the bottom of the box (two part box, with a lid), on the inside flap of the more recent package, or on the label in case of the Kent brand.
I define it as being produced by some kind of primate, without the benefit of technology.
Not a picky person if it had to say I was disappointed in any soap, Walmart's House Brand of Barbasol, or Gel is about the worst knock off stuff I ever bought. I had a can of each, and would never buy them again, unless I could not find anything else to use.
Would rather use TraderJoe's body Soap for shaving if nothing else was available, thank goodness I live with in 20 mile of two places that carry good assortments of shave soap.
Would rather use TraderJoe's body Soap for shaving if nothing else was available, thank goodness I live with in 20 mile of two places that carry good assortments of shave soap.
That is a great point and certainly a possibility. Unfortunately, I have passed the soap on so I am unable to verify the batch number.
I've only tried samples, but B&M soaps have done nothing for me. Performance didn't seem all that great, and I thought the scents (aside from Seville) were weird.
This thread was a reminder for me to give MWF another try (was on my list of dissapointing soaps)- Will be giving it a go for at least a week before I draw a final conclusion on the soap. Today's shave, well, pretty decent actually. Nice post-shave feel and got no irritation with my straight razor. It did take some more work making a lather but I didn't hate it today. Maybe repeat use will allow the soap to retain more water to help things along. Looking forward to trying it again tomorrow.
I've been disappointed by Stirling recently. They get a lot of praise on these forums, so I decided to give them a try. I picked out 3 different scents from their recent new scent lineup: Outdoor Man, Arance Mandarini, and Solidus.
I find the lather they make is too runny, no matter what I do. Also it's not as slick on my face like my old faithful Proraso Green, or my other couple soaps from Barrister & Mann.
Also, the scents are weak and not that great. Probably shouldn't have bought 3 right out of the gate. Alas.
I find the lather they make is too runny, no matter what I do. Also it's not as slick on my face like my old faithful Proraso Green, or my other couple soaps from Barrister & Mann.
Also, the scents are weak and not that great. Probably shouldn't have bought 3 right out of the gate. Alas.
I agree about the Stirling scents being weak, though the performance for me has been pretty good.
I'm currently 3017ing a puck of the Tallow. The batch # on my soap has been reported as a dud.
A week or two into shaving with it, I have been loving it. I load HEAVY though.
My one main tip with MWF, use a drier brush to start. I soak my brush during my shower, no bloming or water on soap puck. Before I start loading, I squeeze the brush, flick the brush and get almost all the water out. I load directly on my face (face lathering) and will slowly dribble water from the tap on the loaded brush if/when needed. I also go back to the puck for a few swirls before the second pass. Scooping up protolather with my fingers before the brush hits my face for the second lather application too.
Once it's dialed in, there are no issues and it's all routine. In fact, this is pretty my standard lathering method. Less water to start. It's easy to add water but impossible to fix an airy lather without starting over.
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Haha this is really interesting. The dry brush approach was what I originally tried after reading about it but I've been getting better results with loading for a minute with a sopping wet brush, essentially using the same method I'd use with Williams. I'll still add a ton of water while face lathering too. At this point I feel confident that I'll end up finishing the puck so hopefully I don't get too attached to the formula. Kind of curious to try the new one.
I've never met a puck that is so different dry vs. hydrated by daily use than tallow MWF.
Stirling is good soap if you set your expectations accordingly. Certainly not at the same level as B&M.
Cella. Went Bad Quickly,
I've been working through multiple Stirling samples and have been generally unimpressed with the cologne dupes. They all kinda smell the same to me and as mentioned the scent strength leaves a lot to be desired. However, to be fair, I am mesmerized by Haverford.
