I was lucky…that’s the long and short of this one. This was a soap that I would have normally not been able to get being where I’m at geographically. It was only released at Pasteur’s Pharmacy in NYC, with no online sales occurring. So when I found out that it was going to be going on sale just a few days before I traveled through NYC, I crossed my fingers in the hope that there would still be some left, which happened to be the case.
My initial thoughts on the soap when I finally got my hands on it were a little mixed. The tub is not the highest quality one available, (it’s the same one used by Captain’s Choice), but it’s definitely serviceable. Labeling is decent, being water resistant, and of course has a side label with the ingredient list on it, which I always appreciate since I stack my soaps vertically. This makes identifying soaps at eye level much easier. On the scent side of the house, my initial sniff wasn’t the most flattering, but the more I smelled it, the more I came to really appreciate what was done. It’s a citrus forward scent, but not heavy in any way, shape or form. It’s very nicely balanced, with some darker notes of cardamom, lily of the valley, and oakmoss playing around in the heard and base notes. These notes really do balance out the citrus top and prevent it from becoming just another run-of-the-mill citrus scent. And it’s really not a fougere either, even though it reminded me of both Fougere Bouquet and Fern Concerto by Wholly Kaw. The ingredient list is quite long:
Cyclamen, Lemon, Grapefruit, Ylang-Ylang, Oakmoss, Musk, Tonka Bean, Sandalwood, Amber, Bergamot, Cardamom, Jasmine, Lily of the Valley
This soap has gotten some pretty high praise from the wet shaving community online, in places such as Reddit, Facebook, Youtube and some of the other places where wet-shaving is concerned. I always wondered how a soap with only one form of tallow would be able to pull this off, being ranked higher by many than Wholly Kaw’s Donkey Milk, Declaration Grooming’s Bison Tallow, and Ariana & Evans Goat Milk. When I took a closer look at the ingredient list, the reasons started to really come out, however.
The ingredient list is as follows: Stearic acid, tallow, water, Shea Butter, potassium hydroxide, castor oil, fragrance, glycerin, sodium hydroxide, lanolin, palm kernel oil, marshmallow root, babbasu oil, meadowfoam oil, tussah silk
While not as short as others, the ingredient list isn’t incredibly long either, and contains plenty of nourishing oils such as babbasu oil, meadowfoam oil, palm kernel oil alongside shea butter, glycerin, lanolin and tussah silk. The result is a soap that gives a great face feel, is incredibly slick, and lathers rather easily. Pretty much the prerequisites for a good soap, and this is, for sure, not just a good soap but a great one.
I did make the mistake of trying to load the soap with a dry brush, but after blooming it, I was still able to achieve a pretty solid load…almost too much after about 35 seconds. I’ve often accused some soaps of being thirsty. But this soap took the cake, taking probably close to 5-6 tsp of water before I thought it was ready in the bowl, then requiring a bit more to get right once on the face. I’m going to have to do a test load and lather to see how much it can actually take before breaking based off of a 15 second load.
The lather quality, from a visual standpoint and feel on the face is almost identical to that of Wholly Kaw’s donkey milk, DG’s Bison Tallow and A&E’s goat milk; it’s just like a smooth yogurt. It’s quite flexible, however, for those that like a more dry lather and prefer a consistency like sour cream or even whipped cream. Semper Gumbi! The properties during the shave were right along what I would come to expect from some of the upper tier 1 soaps. For a first time use, this is quite remarkable, as I’m almost positive I didn’t have this soap dialed in correctly. Even so, this came close to outscoring (and did outscore) some pretty stellar soaps such as Wickham Soaps, MdC, SV Beta 4.3 (all vegan), Soapy Science, and Wild West Shaving Company. This is with a sub-optimal lather. That’s pretty wild all thing considered.
Here are the scores (as always, strength of scent and preference aren’t included since they’re so subjective):
Lathering: 9/10
Cushion: 9.5/10
Slickness: 9.5/10
Moisturizing: 9/10
Residual Slickness: 9/10
Stability: 5/5
Total: 51/55
Comparable soap bases from a performance standpoint:
Noble Otter (52.5/55)
Tallow + Steel V3 (52/55)
Wholly Kaw Donkey Milk (52/55)
Soapy Science (51.5/55)
Eufros (51/55)
Wet Shaving Products Formula T (51/55)
Martin de Candre (51/55)
Wild West Shaving Co (50.5/55)
Saponificio Varesino Beta 4.3 (50/55)
Wickham Soap Co 1912 (50/55)
Conclusion: This soap had a pretty heady reputation heading into this shave, and it met those expectations, scoring a pretty outstanding 51/55 in its initial use. It’s only going to get better with additional usage as I dial in what this soap requires for its prime lather. The packaging is simple but efficient, though I would like to see a wider tub without the overhang for the screw-top lid. You also only get 3 oz. per tub, and at ~$15 per tub, that comes in at about $5 per oz., somewhat on the expensive side, though right in line with some of the elite soaps on the market, and less expensive than others such as Wholly Kaw and some Declaration Grooming offerings. The sticking point on this soap is the availability. This particular scent is ONLY goin
g to be available on the secondary market such as BST’s and other secondary seller markets, since it was only a single batch that was sold only out of Pasteur’s Pharmacy in NYC. I’m definitely going to be on the lookout for additional offerings from this soap maker in the future, (Buttery Brook seems like a particularly wonderful soap scent!), and trying to score what I can from them. The performance level of the soap I would say is already teetering on the edge of being an elite soap after one use. I’m fairly positive that after subsequent uses it will fit squarely in the elite category of soaps, alongside Declaration, Wholly Kaw, Noble Otter and Ariana & Evans.
https://youtu.be/sM-Y4Udjh8w
My initial thoughts on the soap when I finally got my hands on it were a little mixed. The tub is not the highest quality one available, (it’s the same one used by Captain’s Choice), but it’s definitely serviceable. Labeling is decent, being water resistant, and of course has a side label with the ingredient list on it, which I always appreciate since I stack my soaps vertically. This makes identifying soaps at eye level much easier. On the scent side of the house, my initial sniff wasn’t the most flattering, but the more I smelled it, the more I came to really appreciate what was done. It’s a citrus forward scent, but not heavy in any way, shape or form. It’s very nicely balanced, with some darker notes of cardamom, lily of the valley, and oakmoss playing around in the heard and base notes. These notes really do balance out the citrus top and prevent it from becoming just another run-of-the-mill citrus scent. And it’s really not a fougere either, even though it reminded me of both Fougere Bouquet and Fern Concerto by Wholly Kaw. The ingredient list is quite long:
Cyclamen, Lemon, Grapefruit, Ylang-Ylang, Oakmoss, Musk, Tonka Bean, Sandalwood, Amber, Bergamot, Cardamom, Jasmine, Lily of the Valley
This soap has gotten some pretty high praise from the wet shaving community online, in places such as Reddit, Facebook, Youtube and some of the other places where wet-shaving is concerned. I always wondered how a soap with only one form of tallow would be able to pull this off, being ranked higher by many than Wholly Kaw’s Donkey Milk, Declaration Grooming’s Bison Tallow, and Ariana & Evans Goat Milk. When I took a closer look at the ingredient list, the reasons started to really come out, however.
The ingredient list is as follows: Stearic acid, tallow, water, Shea Butter, potassium hydroxide, castor oil, fragrance, glycerin, sodium hydroxide, lanolin, palm kernel oil, marshmallow root, babbasu oil, meadowfoam oil, tussah silk
While not as short as others, the ingredient list isn’t incredibly long either, and contains plenty of nourishing oils such as babbasu oil, meadowfoam oil, palm kernel oil alongside shea butter, glycerin, lanolin and tussah silk. The result is a soap that gives a great face feel, is incredibly slick, and lathers rather easily. Pretty much the prerequisites for a good soap, and this is, for sure, not just a good soap but a great one.
I did make the mistake of trying to load the soap with a dry brush, but after blooming it, I was still able to achieve a pretty solid load…almost too much after about 35 seconds. I’ve often accused some soaps of being thirsty. But this soap took the cake, taking probably close to 5-6 tsp of water before I thought it was ready in the bowl, then requiring a bit more to get right once on the face. I’m going to have to do a test load and lather to see how much it can actually take before breaking based off of a 15 second load.
The lather quality, from a visual standpoint and feel on the face is almost identical to that of Wholly Kaw’s donkey milk, DG’s Bison Tallow and A&E’s goat milk; it’s just like a smooth yogurt. It’s quite flexible, however, for those that like a more dry lather and prefer a consistency like sour cream or even whipped cream. Semper Gumbi! The properties during the shave were right along what I would come to expect from some of the upper tier 1 soaps. For a first time use, this is quite remarkable, as I’m almost positive I didn’t have this soap dialed in correctly. Even so, this came close to outscoring (and did outscore) some pretty stellar soaps such as Wickham Soaps, MdC, SV Beta 4.3 (all vegan), Soapy Science, and Wild West Shaving Company. This is with a sub-optimal lather. That’s pretty wild all thing considered.
Here are the scores (as always, strength of scent and preference aren’t included since they’re so subjective):
Lathering: 9/10
Cushion: 9.5/10
Slickness: 9.5/10
Moisturizing: 9/10
Residual Slickness: 9/10
Stability: 5/5
Total: 51/55
Comparable soap bases from a performance standpoint:
Noble Otter (52.5/55)
Tallow + Steel V3 (52/55)
Wholly Kaw Donkey Milk (52/55)
Soapy Science (51.5/55)
Eufros (51/55)
Wet Shaving Products Formula T (51/55)
Martin de Candre (51/55)
Wild West Shaving Co (50.5/55)
Saponificio Varesino Beta 4.3 (50/55)
Wickham Soap Co 1912 (50/55)
Conclusion: This soap had a pretty heady reputation heading into this shave, and it met those expectations, scoring a pretty outstanding 51/55 in its initial use. It’s only going to get better with additional usage as I dial in what this soap requires for its prime lather. The packaging is simple but efficient, though I would like to see a wider tub without the overhang for the screw-top lid. You also only get 3 oz. per tub, and at ~$15 per tub, that comes in at about $5 per oz., somewhat on the expensive side, though right in line with some of the elite soaps on the market, and less expensive than others such as Wholly Kaw and some Declaration Grooming offerings. The sticking point on this soap is the availability. This particular scent is ONLY goin
g to be available on the secondary market such as BST’s and other secondary seller markets, since it was only a single batch that was sold only out of Pasteur’s Pharmacy in NYC. I’m definitely going to be on the lookout for additional offerings from this soap maker in the future, (Buttery Brook seems like a particularly wonderful soap scent!), and trying to score what I can from them. The performance level of the soap I would say is already teetering on the edge of being an elite soap after one use. I’m fairly positive that after subsequent uses it will fit squarely in the elite category of soaps, alongside Declaration, Wholly Kaw, Noble Otter and Ariana & Evans.
https://youtu.be/sM-Y4Udjh8w
