For Father’s Day this year, Sri at Wholly Kaw released this seasonal scent, called Padre Leone. I honestly wasn’t in the market for another Wholly Kaw soap, not because they aren’t great performers. They’re one of four elite soap bases that I own, so the Donkey Milk formula is in a class above most. Before I get into the soap itself, just a word on the packaging. It’s a nice, waterproof label in a low profile tub allowing plenty of room for loading directly from. But there is no side label, like all the other WK soaps I own. Ingredients are listed on another waterproof label on the bottom. All in all, very nice packaging that I can’t really complain about as it’s perfectly functional and looks nice to boot.
So outside of King of Oud and Tempest, I’ve found that the scents tend to the mild side of the house or are very similarly scented. Sri makes his soaps with a mind to those with more sensitive skin, so the tendancy is for them to not be overwhelmingly scented. This soap is no exception. The strength of scent off of the tub is about a 2/5 and it really doesn’t get too much stronger as you go through the lathering process, maybe blooming out to a 2.5/5. The scent itself is a light citrus scent, with some woody undertones supporting it. As I said earlier, I was planning on passing on this until I saw that Sri included Immortelle as one of the scent notes. This happens to be one of my favorite scent notes in the fragrance world, period, so this soap became a must buy at that point.
The notes, as listed are: Bergamot, Petitgrain, Lavender, Clary Sage, Neroli, Tarragon with a blend of white florals on a base of Amber, Vetiver, Immortelle and subtle Musk
The scent off of the tub opens with the citrus notes of bergamot, petitgrain and neroli, while the lavender, clary sage and tarragon support the front of the scent very well. It’s almost a light fougere-like scent the way it opens, and stays that way until you start getting the base notes of amber and vetiver. The immortelle and musk really don’t make too much of an appearance until it’s lathered, and even then, unless you know what you’re trying to smell, you won’t know you’re getting those notes. The fragrance is very well blended, and will pair well with both Colonia-type scents as well as lighter fougere’s. I chose to go with Blenheim Bouquet this morning, the lavender notes of BB playing off of the WK fragrance quite well.
The vaunted donkey milk formulation has been around for about a year now, and Sri at Wholly Kaw has only made very minor tweaks to it. This is the latest iteration, incorporating Hops extract into the base to increase the post shave moisturizing properties. The ingredient list is rather extensive, but it’s all good skin food:
Potassium Stearate, Sodium Stearate, Aqua, Donkey Milk, Glycerin, Potassium Tallowate, Sodium Tallowate, Potassium Ricinoleate, Sodium Ricinoleate, Potassium Shea Butterate, Sodium Shea Butterate, Garcinia Indica (Kokum) Butter, Theobroma Cacao (Cocoa) Butter, Linoleic Acid, Linolenic Acid, Humulus Lupulus (Hops) Extract, Lanolin, Fragrance, Benzyl Benzoate, Benzyl Salicylate, Coumarin, Citronellol
From a performance standpoint, the addition of the Hops extract does make a difference in the post shave, so the soap gets a bit of a bump there in the total score. Everything else is pretty much the same, with it scoring best in class in cushion, slickness, and moisturizing properties. The lather is very creamy, and you can manipulate it from a merengue consistency to a wet-yogurt depending on your preferences. It does take quite a bit of water to get the hydration correct, so it takes a little hit on the lathering score. Residual slickness could be a tad bit better, but it still is better than 95% of the soaps on the market in this arena. It really is a great soap, and a welcome addition to the den.
Here are the scores for the soap, bearing in mind I do not include strength of scent and scent preference in the scores as they are too subjective.
Lathering: 9/10
Cushion: 10/10
Slickness: 10/10
Moisturizing: 10/10
Residual Slickness: 9/10
Stability: 5/5
Total: 53/55
Comparable soap bases from a performance standpoint:
Declaration Grooming Project Icarus (55/55)
Declaration Grooming Bison Tallow (54.5/55)
Ariana & Evans Goat Milk (54/55)
Noble Otter (52.5/55)
WSP Formula T (51/55)
Eufros (51/55)
Conclusion: This is an elite level soap base for me, no question about it. The scent is quite nice, walking the line between a colonia and fougere quite deftly, while incorporating some darker tones of musk, amber and immortelle quite nicely. Sri has improved his already great donkey milk formula with the addition of the hops extract, and has also just opened the pre-order for another, improved soap base on the Wholly Kaw website as of 2 July, 2018. With all of these superlatives being thrown around, you have to wonder, “Where’s the catch?” The catch, in my opinion is the price point. While this is one of the top performing soaps out there, it doesn’t come cheap. At $24 for a 4oz. tub, you’re paying $6 per oz. of soap. When you compare that to A&E or Noble Otter, you’re paying approximately $4.50oz ($3.25 oz for A&E club members), and they both perform the same or slightly better. Where this might be worth the cost is the fact that Wholly Kaw is designed for those with sensitive skin. So if that applies to you, this might be a soap worth looking at. All in all, I’m happy this is in my den.
https://youtu.be/IE
arEgKfX8M
So outside of King of Oud and Tempest, I’ve found that the scents tend to the mild side of the house or are very similarly scented. Sri makes his soaps with a mind to those with more sensitive skin, so the tendancy is for them to not be overwhelmingly scented. This soap is no exception. The strength of scent off of the tub is about a 2/5 and it really doesn’t get too much stronger as you go through the lathering process, maybe blooming out to a 2.5/5. The scent itself is a light citrus scent, with some woody undertones supporting it. As I said earlier, I was planning on passing on this until I saw that Sri included Immortelle as one of the scent notes. This happens to be one of my favorite scent notes in the fragrance world, period, so this soap became a must buy at that point.
The notes, as listed are: Bergamot, Petitgrain, Lavender, Clary Sage, Neroli, Tarragon with a blend of white florals on a base of Amber, Vetiver, Immortelle and subtle Musk
The scent off of the tub opens with the citrus notes of bergamot, petitgrain and neroli, while the lavender, clary sage and tarragon support the front of the scent very well. It’s almost a light fougere-like scent the way it opens, and stays that way until you start getting the base notes of amber and vetiver. The immortelle and musk really don’t make too much of an appearance until it’s lathered, and even then, unless you know what you’re trying to smell, you won’t know you’re getting those notes. The fragrance is very well blended, and will pair well with both Colonia-type scents as well as lighter fougere’s. I chose to go with Blenheim Bouquet this morning, the lavender notes of BB playing off of the WK fragrance quite well.
The vaunted donkey milk formulation has been around for about a year now, and Sri at Wholly Kaw has only made very minor tweaks to it. This is the latest iteration, incorporating Hops extract into the base to increase the post shave moisturizing properties. The ingredient list is rather extensive, but it’s all good skin food:
Potassium Stearate, Sodium Stearate, Aqua, Donkey Milk, Glycerin, Potassium Tallowate, Sodium Tallowate, Potassium Ricinoleate, Sodium Ricinoleate, Potassium Shea Butterate, Sodium Shea Butterate, Garcinia Indica (Kokum) Butter, Theobroma Cacao (Cocoa) Butter, Linoleic Acid, Linolenic Acid, Humulus Lupulus (Hops) Extract, Lanolin, Fragrance, Benzyl Benzoate, Benzyl Salicylate, Coumarin, Citronellol
From a performance standpoint, the addition of the Hops extract does make a difference in the post shave, so the soap gets a bit of a bump there in the total score. Everything else is pretty much the same, with it scoring best in class in cushion, slickness, and moisturizing properties. The lather is very creamy, and you can manipulate it from a merengue consistency to a wet-yogurt depending on your preferences. It does take quite a bit of water to get the hydration correct, so it takes a little hit on the lathering score. Residual slickness could be a tad bit better, but it still is better than 95% of the soaps on the market in this arena. It really is a great soap, and a welcome addition to the den.
Here are the scores for the soap, bearing in mind I do not include strength of scent and scent preference in the scores as they are too subjective.
Lathering: 9/10
Cushion: 10/10
Slickness: 10/10
Moisturizing: 10/10
Residual Slickness: 9/10
Stability: 5/5
Total: 53/55
Comparable soap bases from a performance standpoint:
Declaration Grooming Project Icarus (55/55)
Declaration Grooming Bison Tallow (54.5/55)
Ariana & Evans Goat Milk (54/55)
Noble Otter (52.5/55)
WSP Formula T (51/55)
Eufros (51/55)
Conclusion: This is an elite level soap base for me, no question about it. The scent is quite nice, walking the line between a colonia and fougere quite deftly, while incorporating some darker tones of musk, amber and immortelle quite nicely. Sri has improved his already great donkey milk formula with the addition of the hops extract, and has also just opened the pre-order for another, improved soap base on the Wholly Kaw website as of 2 July, 2018. With all of these superlatives being thrown around, you have to wonder, “Where’s the catch?” The catch, in my opinion is the price point. While this is one of the top performing soaps out there, it doesn’t come cheap. At $24 for a 4oz. tub, you’re paying $6 per oz. of soap. When you compare that to A&E or Noble Otter, you’re paying approximately $4.50oz ($3.25 oz for A&E club members), and they both perform the same or slightly better. Where this might be worth the cost is the fact that Wholly Kaw is designed for those with sensitive skin. So if that applies to you, this might be a soap worth looking at. All in all, I’m happy this is in my den.
https://youtu.be/IE
arEgKfX8M
