Yep i was agreeing about maybe needing more water in my posy BTW. Also im gonna be trying out the soap from you in the next day or so as soon as my neck heals up from trying out the schick injector type I 55 .
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CBL Premium Soaps
- Thread starter Graybeard57
- Start date
Continuing with my dueling adjustable razors, I used another sample of the CBL Premium shave soap that the man @Dave in Kentucky sent me. This time up was Ghost Dragons Blood. A very soft soap that boarders on a cream like consistency with a spicy oriental vibe and woods note. Spectacular if you ask me with just a wonderful scent and aroma out of the sample jar and during the lather build gets slightly sweeter and gets a little deeper with a semi resinous woody accord. Like I said fantastic. Interestingly it has a nice mentholated feel and smoothness about it. Perfect for todays warm sunrise.
Busted out 2 Merkur razors, Vintage Original Merkur Progress & the Mergress. Great shave with both today but, the Mergress just provided a better feeling and smoother shave. It’s spot on with alignment and is much better balanced than the OG. Superb shaver to be honest. Not that the Progress can’t shave because it does and shaves very well, it just has those pesky alignment issues and uneven blade gap discrepancies. Anyhow, the GDB soap delivered exceptional performance on all fronts and I gave the soap a tremendous amount of water during building the lather. I bordered on near lather catastrophe as it was at the brink of breaking down but, it held there sufficiently with enough body and peaks and I slathered it on for 3 smooth and drama free passes. Post shave was perhaps the best yet with no dry feeling or tightness on my skin. A discernible difference from the others for sure minus the Russian Tea which was comparable to the GDB in overall performance. Maybe the Agua was the ticket for proper hydration of the soap. More tests and shaves to see if this holds true and perhaps going back to ones used previously to rule out user error or not. Today was just awesome.....
More to come.....
Busted out 2 Merkur razors, Vintage Original Merkur Progress & the Mergress. Great shave with both today but, the Mergress just provided a better feeling and smoother shave. It’s spot on with alignment and is much better balanced than the OG. Superb shaver to be honest. Not that the Progress can’t shave because it does and shaves very well, it just has those pesky alignment issues and uneven blade gap discrepancies. Anyhow, the GDB soap delivered exceptional performance on all fronts and I gave the soap a tremendous amount of water during building the lather. I bordered on near lather catastrophe as it was at the brink of breaking down but, it held there sufficiently with enough body and peaks and I slathered it on for 3 smooth and drama free passes. Post shave was perhaps the best yet with no dry feeling or tightness on my skin. A discernible difference from the others for sure minus the Russian Tea which was comparable to the GDB in overall performance. Maybe the Agua was the ticket for proper hydration of the soap. More tests and shaves to see if this holds true and perhaps going back to ones used previously to rule out user error or not. Today was just awesome.....
More to come.....
Dave in KY
Shave Newbie
Awesome Gus 
Pretty self explanatory except schick is the I55 I have been having problems with i tried a diff blade and got a pretty good shave with a single pass. I finally tried this CBL soap today and liked it alot, i can still smell its lingering scent....And the brush, the handle was given to me by a friend on Wed. Cleaned up stained and clear coated and put a kabuki knot in it. Used it for first time today.
Tonight’s shave was courtesy of the RR SS Hawk with a Feather Pro (took a break from the adjustables) and the CBL Sir Fougere. Dialed in the lather as I had previously with the Ghost Dragons Blood with plenty of H2O nearing the breaking point and not a single issue from start to finish. The scent is green and slightly floral with a hint of an herbaceous, semi sweet note. Loved it. Post was again great and I could have skipped the post shave routine and splashes but, who wants to do that? On a side note, the Musgo Real Cologne splash is an amazing and very masculine scent. Green notes with the Oak Moss and a couple other things in there that really make it stand out with nice longevity. A bit pricey but, totally worth it....
Cherry Blossom & Bamboo. And the scent is exactly that. This soap is just so nice for those early morning shaves even though I only shaved a couple hours ago. Perfect for a spring, summer or fall daybreak. Not overpowering at all but, very well balanced. Perhaps being the most balanced scented soap I’ve sampled from this CBL group. I think I have my water and soap issue in check and it was a fantastic 2 pass shave with the ferociously looking yet semi tame PAA DOC EVO SS. NO BUFFING REQUIRED with this animal. The soap gave plenty of protection and an uber amount of deliciously good slickness. And my face can appreciate that with this razor. Smooth, very efficient and quite comfy with a light touch. A great shave for sure and the Cherry Blossom & Bamboo delivered in spades.....
Dave in KY
Shave Newbie
One more f my favorites of his for sure but you have a better way with words describing it
I've been working on a container of Sweet coconut. This was a custom scent I received at Christmas. It is a little harder than ghost pineapple. The scent is great but the tallow smell is coming through more now than when I first got it. Performance and after feel is great!!
Super happy that you fixed the CBL issue! I know it is a favorite around here and wouldn't want you to miss out!
Good stuff indeed. What really gets to me with CBL besides the excellent performance are the amazing scent combos with some of them. I thought to myself "that shouldn't work" but, oddly enough they do and it's masterfully done.
Next 2 up were the Ghost Pineapple (today) & Club CBL (yesterday). Great performers both and the Ghost Pineapple had an amazingly good scent with just a nice touch of cooling. Really a good face feel with the cooling sensation. The Club has a sort of Sandalwood and maybe a sweet almond like scent note. Reminds me of PannaCrema Labdano & Eleven Limited soaps scent wise. Sort of like the more traditional Italian soap scents. Both soaps gave really good shaves......
Roasted Oatmeal Stout provided the barrier for these 2 Razorock mild feeling whisker whackers. Mamba 70 & Mamba 53. And that’s exactly what the CBL soap brought to the table. A roasted malt or barley like aroma that was cut and dry. Performance was excellent during the 3 pass shave that went without a hitch. I did get just a bit of the dry skin feel but, I was pressed for time and probably was a bit off on my water to soap ratio. The Humphreys & Lea buttoned that up quickly and nicely. Just one or two more samples to go through.....
I think this was the last sample standing, Cigar Shop Indian. Performance was as good as the rest of them but, the scent was a miss for me. For what I prefer and have, this one is way out there in left field for me. Almost a dry Tobacco Leaf type of vibe with an herbaceous scent undertone. Honestly, it wasn’t a pleasing scent for a shave. Maybe at a Poker Night with the boys sparking up a couple stoggies and some scotch but, this one is a big pass for me. Other that that, solid performer.....
Recently Chris contacted me, as he had heard that I had used up my unscented tub of CBL Premium soap, and he graciously offered to send me a tub of the new formula's unscented version called Granite. I accepted his very generous offer, and the tub of Granite has now seen several uses. WOW! This stuff is better than the previous version. I kept adding water the other day, afraid it would "break" but wanting to get a slick lather, and it just got better and better. It is a dark gray in color, which alarmed me at first, and very soft, almost like Simpsons shave cream. But given how good the lather is, I would be fine shaving with dark lather!! (My wife may wonder what the heck I had on my face!). However, the lather is off-white, so no visual weirdness there!
This is a wonderful addition to my other 3 unscented soaps, and I look forward to buying a puck of the unscented tonsorial when it is available. Many thanks to Chris, a true artisan and just a great guy!
This is a wonderful addition to my other 3 unscented soaps, and I look forward to buying a puck of the unscented tonsorial when it is available. Many thanks to Chris, a true artisan and just a great guy!
Fantastic!
Just to note, granite isn't in the new "Tonsorial" line... it's in the older premium line.
It has charcoal and clay in it, which are added to help soothe sensitive skin.
I will be making @MaineYooper some unscented tonsorial soap but I don’t plan to have a straight up unscented offering available to the public for awhile...but if you must have an unscented please say so and I can make sure it happens.