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beginish’s Eye on a Splintered Mind

beginish said:
Great shave from the Lea stick this morning. Shave sticks are under the radar for the most part, and Lea even more so. Being a tallow soap that has lanolin too, it should have a higher profile than it does. Lathering was super easy, the scent is virtually not there (which seems to be a requirement for sticks (Valobra, La Toja, Wilkinson's Sword, etc)), and post shave felt great.
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How is it going with the LEA stick?

I just started in on a bowl of the LEA Classic soap and am getting really great, easy lathers from it. Like the LEA stick it is a tallow soap with lanolin. It seems like the whole LEA product line files under the radar. I expect that this one is going to take me quite a while since it is a hard, milled puck. But, that is not a problem because I love the mild sandalwood and moss scent that it has. The matching AS splash is also great. This is one of those classic soaps that I think may be worth restocking when it is gone.
 
I get great lathers from the stick whenever I use it, Doug. The lanolin is a real bonus since the postshave feel I get from lanolin soaps is always top notch. They reformulated these to this recipe like 6 years ago, improving the performance in the process. Maybe they still suffer from a bad rep, or they’re just not that well-known outside of Spain, unlike La Toja.
 
beginish said:
I get great lathers from the stick whenever I use it, Doug. The lanolin is a real bonus since the postshave feel I get from lanolin soaps is always top notch. They reformulated these to this recipe like 6 years ago, improving the performance in the process. Maybe they still suffer from a bad rep, or they’re just not that well-known outside of Spain, unlike La Toja.
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I agree with you on the postshave feel from lanolin. I am loading hard from the puck and getting great results as long as I used plenty of water. The bowl that I have I purchased in either 2016 or 2017, so it is the newer formula. I took a bit of a chance by purchasing this one blind, but the gamble is paying off. It seems like they did something right when they reformulated.

Besides the review that I posted in the Soaps forum the other day, I could only find one other review on another forum. So, you may be onto something regarding the bad rap or just not being well known outside of Spain.

I will need to try the regular LEA stick and La Toja as well at some point...
 
La Toja may be the finest soap made right now. If ONLY they sold it in puck form.

Right now, any soap from a traditional maker gets lost in the discussion of all of the artisan options. In such a niche market like this, I’m surprised as many traditional makers still make them (even if they do stink, *ahem* Trumper). Because all of my stockpile is either vintage or mainstream, I’ve missed the artisan revolution.
 
beginish said:
La Toja may be the finest soap made right now. If ONLY they sold it in puck form.

Right now, any soap from a traditional maker gets lost in the discussion of all of the artisan options. In such a niche market like this, I’m surprised as many traditional makers still make them (even if they do stink, *ahem* Trumper). Because all of my stockpile is either vintage or mainstream, I’ve missed the artisan revolution.
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If you want to get in on the artisan revolution, I will happily trade you one of my artisan soaps for a stick of La Toja.
 
Not surprisingly, I've never used a stick. Years ago I vaguely recall buying an Arko stick, but pressed it into a tub.
 
Well...maybe there should be a separate thread discussing the attributes (positive or negative) of the non-artisan soaps. I will admit that I largely use artisan soaps...but I still have some commercial grade soap lying around.
 
Graybeard57 said:
Not surprisingly, I've never used a stick. Years ago I vaguely recall buying an Arko stick, but pressed it into a tub.
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The first stick I bought was Mama Bear's clone of Creed Green Irish Tweed and it performed great. The second was Valobra....home run again. I don't think I've had a bad experience with any sticks, come to think of it, and I'm always reminded of how good they are when I use them. I've never used Arko, though.

dangerousdon said:
Well...maybe there should be a separate thread discussing the attributes (positive or negative) of the non-artisan soaps. I will admit that I largely use artisan soaps...but I still have some commercial grade soap lying around.
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The commercial soaps are all pretty vanilla. You pretty much know what you get with them. About the only ones that prompt much discussion are Mitchell's Wool Fat (because of it's challenging reputation) and Martin de Candre (yes, I include them in the commercial group, no matter how quirky they seem). I barely notice any 'Trumpers stinks' threads because of how truly bad they've become, and no one new tries them, while those of us who still have, um, 2 pucks lying around *cough cough*, just don't care to write about it. I'll certainly call it out in here when the next one comes up in rotation, but I'm not going to pen an 'Ode to GFT' anytime soon.
 
I still contend that the Old Tallow AoS soaps were pretty top notch...even by today's artisan standards.
 
dangerousdon said:
I still contend that the Old Tallow AoS soaps were pretty top notch...even by today's artisan standards.
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AoS Sandalwood (tallow) was one of my first soaps when I took the wetshaving plunge back in aught-12. I later learned it was being phased out and I likely got one of the few remaining on the store shelves. We still have an AoS store in a nearby mall, but haven't visited it in years. It wasn't too long after joining that forum I no longer visit that I was reading posts about people selling individual tubs of it on the bay. I vaguely recall liking it, but to be honest, I was too new to fairly judge products as I was still learning how to shave. I soon fell into a Mama Bears' rabbit hole and stockpiled over 20 of her soaps that I subsequently used/PIF'd until gone.
 
Graybeard57 said:
AoS Sandalwood (tallow) was one of my first soaps when I took the wetshaving plunge back in aught-12. I later learned it was being phased out and I likely got one of the few remaining on the store shelves. We still have an AoS store in a nearby mall, but haven't visited it in years. It wasn't too long after joining that forum I no longer visit that I was reading posts about people selling individual tubs of it on the bay. I vaguely recall liking it, but to be honest, I was too new to fairly judge products as I was still learning how to shave. I soon fell into a Mama Bears' rabbit hole and stockpiled over 20 of her soaps that I subsequently used/PIF'd until gone.
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I stocked up at AoS when the reformulation was announced. That was expensive.
 
AOS Tallow still stands up well against modern artisans like A&E, Grooming Dept., etc. The modern artisans have a bit more emphasis on post-shave skin conditioning, but that is a somewhat marginal benefit that doesn't matter if you have a good post-shave regimen. I agree with Bob, the classics are classic for a good reason and will remain in the market because of that (as long as they don't reformulate like Trumper and AOS did).
 
dangerousdon said:
Well...maybe there should be a separate thread discussing the attributes (positive or negative) of the non-artisan soaps.
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Ask and you shall receive.

The Non-Artisan Soap & Cream Thread

Valobra, PdP, Provence Sante, Institut Karite, LEA, La Toja, MWF, TOBS, Proraso, Dr. Harris, MdC, Cella, Arko, etc. If it is a one of the commercially available, non-artisan, classic shaving soaps or creams of the shaving world I want to discuss it. What are your favorites? What are you using...
theshavingcadre.com theshavingcadre.com
 
Brew said:
I enjoy the modern AoS creams more than any of the modern artisan soaps. The lemon cream single handedly kicked all soaps to the curb for me for about 2 years. They still haven't fully recovered.
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beginish said:
The Lemon is such a simple but uncommon scent.
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Brew said:
It's hard to get right. Often, they just smell like cheap laundry detergent. AoS got this one right, imo. I'll pay a bit more for that.
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I am very much a fan of the AOS creams, and really loved the Lemon. Lemon is hard to get right and is amazing when it is right. AOS creams are some of the best creams out there.
 
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