When I saw that TSC had another vendor, Honeybee Sue of Honeybee Soaps, I knew that an order was shortly around the corner. Honeybee, out of Massachusetts, is a vegan soap base that is a glycerin melt and pour soap. They have been in the soap making business for quite a while, and have developed plenty of other lines of products on top of the shaving soaps to include shampoo, bath soaps, body wash, body lotion, and colognes. The list of scents available on her site is quite extensive. The primary list is a combination of essential oils and fragrance oils, but she does have a list of soaps made with only essential oils.
These are a little more in depth glycerin soaps than the usual, with some added skin food added: Coconut Oil, Palm Oil, Castor Oil, Hempseed Oil, Safflower Oil, Shea Butter, Glycerine (vegetable origin), Vitamin E, Water, Sodium Hydroxide, Sorbitol, Sorbitan Oleate, Soybean Protein, Wheat Protein, White Kaolin China Clay, Cosmetic Color and Fragrance Oil
The soaps come in a non-descript tub with a singular label on top which tells you who the soap maker is, what scent, and the amount of product in the tub. Normally, this would be an issue for me, as I do appreciate top shelf packaging. However, when you take the cost of this soap into consideration, it's too good a value, and that top shelf packaging would drive the cost up almost prohibitively. The label on top is not waterproof unfortunately, but with a bit of care, that is a non-issue.
The soap is hard in the tub...to the point that you cannot make a depression in the puck with even an incredible amount of pressure. The color of the soap is blue from the fragrance oils used, and, speaking of scent, it comes across as a really pleasing floral based fresh mountain breeze, with the right amount of sweetness to it. It very much reminds me of those air fresheners you can buy for the store in the "fresh ocean breeze" or "fresh mountain air" type scents. Strength of scent is fairly strong, at about a 3/5. The scent notes are as follows:
Apple, grapefruit, peach and greenery mix with soft floral middle notes, rounded off with base notes of sandalwood, amber and raspberry musk
I did bloom this under a decent amount of water for about 20 minutes prior to the shave, and used a synthetic tuxedo knot to control the soap hydration levels. I loaded for 45 seconds and had what seemed to be a decent amount of soap loaded into the brush, and proceeded to bowl lather. I added water very slowly, not wanting to break the lather. The consistency of the lather is that of a very thick, airy, merengue. The scent really doesn't bloom out all that much once lathered, but is still there and present throughout the shave. The shave was surprisingly good, using the Feather SS Kamisori with a twice used Feather Pro-Guard A/C Blade. The cushion was surprisingly lacking for how the lather appeared, but was still adequet enough for the SS. Slickness and residual slickness were both a little above average, and the moisturizing was outstanding. The lather didn't look like breaking after sitting for 30 minutes, so very good. All in all, Honeybee Soaps gave me a great first time experience with glycerin melt and pour soaps.
Here are the scores for the soap, not including strength of scent or scent preference as I consider those too subjective.
Lathering: 7.5
Cushion: 7
Slickness / Glide: 8.5
Residual Slickness: 8.5
Moisturizing: 9
Stability: 5
Total: 45.5
I'm not going to list soaps that are comparable, because this is such a unique type of soap. Honestly, this would be a fine fit in my shaving den. The combination of very nice performance, great scent and above all, phenomenal value, are just too good to ignore. What really took me by surprise were the moisturizing properties; my face felt phenomenal afterwards. From a slickness, residual slickness and moisturizing standpoint, this stands tall with some of the stand-bys in my den, to include Stirling, Long Rifle, and Soap Commander. And at $7 for a tub of the regular soap, or $5 for just a refill puck, you're spending between $1.25-$1.75 an oz. That's just downright incredible! Her essential oil soaps come in at $9 a tub, or $2.25 an oz, about the same as Stirling. All in all, if you're a member of The Shaving Cadre, any other forum, or are looking for a great performing soap and an absolute steal of a value, this would be a great place to look.
https://youtu.be/NM9XXMAVYfg
These are a little more in depth glycerin soaps than the usual, with some added skin food added: Coconut Oil, Palm Oil, Castor Oil, Hempseed Oil, Safflower Oil, Shea Butter, Glycerine (vegetable origin), Vitamin E, Water, Sodium Hydroxide, Sorbitol, Sorbitan Oleate, Soybean Protein, Wheat Protein, White Kaolin China Clay, Cosmetic Color and Fragrance Oil
The soaps come in a non-descript tub with a singular label on top which tells you who the soap maker is, what scent, and the amount of product in the tub. Normally, this would be an issue for me, as I do appreciate top shelf packaging. However, when you take the cost of this soap into consideration, it's too good a value, and that top shelf packaging would drive the cost up almost prohibitively. The label on top is not waterproof unfortunately, but with a bit of care, that is a non-issue.
The soap is hard in the tub...to the point that you cannot make a depression in the puck with even an incredible amount of pressure. The color of the soap is blue from the fragrance oils used, and, speaking of scent, it comes across as a really pleasing floral based fresh mountain breeze, with the right amount of sweetness to it. It very much reminds me of those air fresheners you can buy for the store in the "fresh ocean breeze" or "fresh mountain air" type scents. Strength of scent is fairly strong, at about a 3/5. The scent notes are as follows:
Apple, grapefruit, peach and greenery mix with soft floral middle notes, rounded off with base notes of sandalwood, amber and raspberry musk
I did bloom this under a decent amount of water for about 20 minutes prior to the shave, and used a synthetic tuxedo knot to control the soap hydration levels. I loaded for 45 seconds and had what seemed to be a decent amount of soap loaded into the brush, and proceeded to bowl lather. I added water very slowly, not wanting to break the lather. The consistency of the lather is that of a very thick, airy, merengue. The scent really doesn't bloom out all that much once lathered, but is still there and present throughout the shave. The shave was surprisingly good, using the Feather SS Kamisori with a twice used Feather Pro-Guard A/C Blade. The cushion was surprisingly lacking for how the lather appeared, but was still adequet enough for the SS. Slickness and residual slickness were both a little above average, and the moisturizing was outstanding. The lather didn't look like breaking after sitting for 30 minutes, so very good. All in all, Honeybee Soaps gave me a great first time experience with glycerin melt and pour soaps.
Here are the scores for the soap, not including strength of scent or scent preference as I consider those too subjective.
Lathering: 7.5
Cushion: 7
Slickness / Glide: 8.5
Residual Slickness: 8.5
Moisturizing: 9
Stability: 5
Total: 45.5
I'm not going to list soaps that are comparable, because this is such a unique type of soap. Honestly, this would be a fine fit in my shaving den. The combination of very nice performance, great scent and above all, phenomenal value, are just too good to ignore. What really took me by surprise were the moisturizing properties; my face felt phenomenal afterwards. From a slickness, residual slickness and moisturizing standpoint, this stands tall with some of the stand-bys in my den, to include Stirling, Long Rifle, and Soap Commander. And at $7 for a tub of the regular soap, or $5 for just a refill puck, you're spending between $1.25-$1.75 an oz. That's just downright incredible! Her essential oil soaps come in at $9 a tub, or $2.25 an oz, about the same as Stirling. All in all, if you're a member of The Shaving Cadre, any other forum, or are looking for a great performing soap and an absolute steal of a value, this would be a great place to look.
https://youtu.be/NM9XXMAVYfg
