I’ve had a couple of Lisa’s soaps for a while now, in the premium base with Coconut Oud and the regular base in Somali Rose. They’re both great performers, with the premium line slightly edging out the regular base for me. Both lather very easily and have great scents. I had been looking at the Gentleman’s Lavender scent for a while now and when I saw that Lisa had become the first vendor here on TSC, I knew it was time to order.
First, let’s talk about packaging and price. A tub of this soap costs just under $9.00, and you get a nice 3.5 oz. of soap. That translates to a great value of ~$2.55oz., almost competing with Stirling Soaps for value on the dollar. The container it comes in is a fairly simple, deep yet narrow opening tub. The label on the top includes her logo, type of soap, ingredient list, and soap scent. It’s quite busy, but works. The label is not waterproof, and the tub does not have a side label for those who stack their soaps.
Speaking of ingredients, this is her regular line of shaving soap, which is being reformulated at this time along with the Premium line. The ingredients used for this soap are:
Green tea & calendula infusion, Saponified stearic acid, beef tallow, coconut oil, castor oil, glycerin, lanolin, mango butter, sodium lactate, bentonite clay, Kaolin and or Iolite Clay, Essential oil and or fragrance oil, silk peptides
I will say that I made a mistake when I talked about the scent. There is much more going on in this than I realized. It’s far from “just lavender”. Here are the scent notes below:
lavender, clary sage, orange, patchouli, cedarwood and litsea cubeba (mag chang)
Off of the tub, the scent is about medium, maybe just on the weaker side at a 2/5. It does bloom a little once lathered up to about a 2.5/5, but not much more. The lavender is first and foremost amongst all the other fragrance notes in this soap. There is no mistaking it. The other scent notes play a nice supporting role, with no one scent really taking center stage at any point. It is very reminiscent of Fine Accoutrements Lavender Pour Homme, which itself is an homage to Czech & Speake’s classic scent Cambridge and Oxford. The scent does stay around for the entire shave. I didn’t notice any degredation in the strength as the shave progressed.
As far as performance, this soap excels in its cushion. It’s as good as it gets. Slickness and moisturizing properties are above average, but not elite level. Residual slickness is good, but could be much better…I went back after testing it in the video and got much different results. It just will depend on the consistency of the lather when you’re using it. The soap is extremely stable once lathered, there should be zero issues for anyone with this soap not keeping together. It is a little challenging loading the brush directly from the tub due to the small opening, but the soap itself is extremely receptive to being loaded into the bristles. Lathering is pretty easy with this soap, and a nice lather with the consistency of crème fraiche is developed rather easily.
Here are the scores (as always, strength of scent and preference aren’t included since they’re so subjective):
Lathering: 8/10
Cushion: 10/10
Slickness: 9/10
Moisturizing: 9/10
Residual Slickness: 8/10
Stability: 5/5
Total: 49/55
Comparable soap bases from a performance standpoint:
Wild West Shaving Co. (50.5/55)
Saponificio Varesino Beta 4.3 (50/55)
Barrister & Mann Glissant (49/55)
Fine Accoutrements (49/55)
Soapy Science (49/55)
Wholly Kaw regular tallow (49/55)
Stirling Soaps (48/55)
Conclusion: TSC is very lucky to have Lisa as one of the first vendors here. She really is a master of her craft and is consistently trying to improve upon an already great product. This is not to over-hype someone who is supporting our forum. There are issues with the product, albeit in my opinion, they are very minor. The packaging could be updated with waterproof labeling, side labeling, and a larger container to enable those like me who enjoy loading directly from the tub. The soap does need a little help in the residual slickness side of the house, but the other marks put this in pretty good company with Barrister & Mann’s glissant base as well as Fine Accoutrements and Soapy Science. The price to performance ratio is phenomenally good, among best in class. Even with the issues with the packaging, it really is hard to go wrong with this soap. The performance level is off the charts compared to its price point, and honestly, it’s always nice to support a vendor who is supporting our community. This vendor just happens to have an incredible product to boot!
https://youtu.be/Q5jGL7N_pZI
First, let’s talk about packaging and price. A tub of this soap costs just under $9.00, and you get a nice 3.5 oz. of soap. That translates to a great value of ~$2.55oz., almost competing with Stirling Soaps for value on the dollar. The container it comes in is a fairly simple, deep yet narrow opening tub. The label on the top includes her logo, type of soap, ingredient list, and soap scent. It’s quite busy, but works. The label is not waterproof, and the tub does not have a side label for those who stack their soaps.
Speaking of ingredients, this is her regular line of shaving soap, which is being reformulated at this time along with the Premium line. The ingredients used for this soap are:
Green tea & calendula infusion, Saponified stearic acid, beef tallow, coconut oil, castor oil, glycerin, lanolin, mango butter, sodium lactate, bentonite clay, Kaolin and or Iolite Clay, Essential oil and or fragrance oil, silk peptides
I will say that I made a mistake when I talked about the scent. There is much more going on in this than I realized. It’s far from “just lavender”. Here are the scent notes below:
lavender, clary sage, orange, patchouli, cedarwood and litsea cubeba (mag chang)
Off of the tub, the scent is about medium, maybe just on the weaker side at a 2/5. It does bloom a little once lathered up to about a 2.5/5, but not much more. The lavender is first and foremost amongst all the other fragrance notes in this soap. There is no mistaking it. The other scent notes play a nice supporting role, with no one scent really taking center stage at any point. It is very reminiscent of Fine Accoutrements Lavender Pour Homme, which itself is an homage to Czech & Speake’s classic scent Cambridge and Oxford. The scent does stay around for the entire shave. I didn’t notice any degredation in the strength as the shave progressed.
As far as performance, this soap excels in its cushion. It’s as good as it gets. Slickness and moisturizing properties are above average, but not elite level. Residual slickness is good, but could be much better…I went back after testing it in the video and got much different results. It just will depend on the consistency of the lather when you’re using it. The soap is extremely stable once lathered, there should be zero issues for anyone with this soap not keeping together. It is a little challenging loading the brush directly from the tub due to the small opening, but the soap itself is extremely receptive to being loaded into the bristles. Lathering is pretty easy with this soap, and a nice lather with the consistency of crème fraiche is developed rather easily.
Here are the scores (as always, strength of scent and preference aren’t included since they’re so subjective):
Lathering: 8/10
Cushion: 10/10
Slickness: 9/10
Moisturizing: 9/10
Residual Slickness: 8/10
Stability: 5/5
Total: 49/55
Comparable soap bases from a performance standpoint:
Wild West Shaving Co. (50.5/55)
Saponificio Varesino Beta 4.3 (50/55)
Barrister & Mann Glissant (49/55)
Fine Accoutrements (49/55)
Soapy Science (49/55)
Wholly Kaw regular tallow (49/55)
Stirling Soaps (48/55)
Conclusion: TSC is very lucky to have Lisa as one of the first vendors here. She really is a master of her craft and is consistently trying to improve upon an already great product. This is not to over-hype someone who is supporting our forum. There are issues with the product, albeit in my opinion, they are very minor. The packaging could be updated with waterproof labeling, side labeling, and a larger container to enable those like me who enjoy loading directly from the tub. The soap does need a little help in the residual slickness side of the house, but the other marks put this in pretty good company with Barrister & Mann’s glissant base as well as Fine Accoutrements and Soapy Science. The price to performance ratio is phenomenally good, among best in class. Even with the issues with the packaging, it really is hard to go wrong with this soap. The performance level is off the charts compared to its price point, and honestly, it’s always nice to support a vendor who is supporting our community. This vendor just happens to have an incredible product to boot!
https://youtu.be/Q5jGL7N_pZI
