Next up in my review of the five Wild West Shaving Company soaps I received brought Gin & Tonic to the table. Now, when I ordered this soap, I had visions of a nicely scented soap that brought to mind what it’s named after. Not really. The initial sniff off of the puck had a very chemical, plastiscine smell to it, and I really wasn’t getting the full array of notes from the soap. The top note is Juniper Berry, followed by Corriander, Grapefruit, Black Pepper, Bergamot and Amber. It almost seems like the combination of Juniper and Corriander didn’t really work too terribly well. Now, when I sniffed and got that, and went immediately back to the puck I started to be able to smell the black pepper and grapefruit/bergamot…but no amber whatsoever. Strength of scent on the puck dry was about a 2/5, but when it’s lathered up, the SoS drops to about a 1/5, if that. Pretty disappointing, honestly, but at the same time, with as off putting as the scent was off of the puck, I really wouldn’t want a 3 or 4/5 SoS once lathered…I would have had to stop the shave and lather something else up.
This soap suffers from the same malady as the previous soap in that the packaging is just horrible for someone who enjoys loading directly from the puck/tub. If you’re a scooper, someone who takes a bit out of the tub and smears it on the bottom of your shaving bowl, then this is a non-issue. As is the lack of waterproof labels. But that is not how I load my brush, and the way it’s packaged does pose challenges. Ingredients are not listed on the top label, as I stated on the previous video, but on the back label, around the description of the scent.
Speaking about the ingredients, it’s actually a pretty sparse ingredient list with only one addition from Doc Holliday, the Sodium Borate at the tail end: Tallow, Stearic Acid, Water, Glycerin, Coconut Oil, Castor Oil, Potassium Hydroxide, Sodium Hydroxide, Fragrance, Bentonite Clay, Sodium Borate
So, not taking the packaging or scent into account, this soap is an absolute beast; it’s easily as good as Wholly Kaw’s Donkey Milk and just shy of Ariana & Evans Goat Milk and DG’s Bison Tallow formulas. This really would be an elite soap if it weren’t for the aforementioned issues. Since I went over the performance in the Doc Holliday review, I’ll spare any further superlatives and just state that it’s a great performing soap base.
Here are the scores for the soap base, keeping in mind that SoS and scent preference aren’t scored since they are purely subjective:
Lathering: 7/10
Cushion: 9.5/10
Slickness: 9.5/10
Moisturizing: 9.5/10
Residual Slickness: 10/10
Stability: 5/5
Total: 50.5/55
Comparable soap bases from a performance standpoint:
Martin de Candre (51/55)
Lisa’s Natural Herbal Creations Special Premium Base (51/55)
WSP Formula T (51/55)
Eufros (51/55)
Saponificio Varesino Beta 4.3 (50/55)
Mystic Water (49.5/55)
Barrister & Mann Glissant (49/55)
Conclusion: While the soap base is an absolute monster performer, the scent on this one just didn’t jive with my nose. It might be different for others, and they might be able to pick out more of the notes than I would with my amateurish nose. But the SoS both off of the puck and lathered were lacking, (thankfully), and honestly it’s not a scent that I would want to keep around anyways. That’s ok…plenty of other soaps to try out, including more WWSC scents!
https://youtu.be/CjW4xPi3CdY
This soap suffers from the same malady as the previous soap in that the packaging is just horrible for someone who enjoys loading directly from the puck/tub. If you’re a scooper, someone who takes a bit out of the tub and smears it on the bottom of your shaving bowl, then this is a non-issue. As is the lack of waterproof labels. But that is not how I load my brush, and the way it’s packaged does pose challenges. Ingredients are not listed on the top label, as I stated on the previous video, but on the back label, around the description of the scent.
Speaking about the ingredients, it’s actually a pretty sparse ingredient list with only one addition from Doc Holliday, the Sodium Borate at the tail end: Tallow, Stearic Acid, Water, Glycerin, Coconut Oil, Castor Oil, Potassium Hydroxide, Sodium Hydroxide, Fragrance, Bentonite Clay, Sodium Borate
So, not taking the packaging or scent into account, this soap is an absolute beast; it’s easily as good as Wholly Kaw’s Donkey Milk and just shy of Ariana & Evans Goat Milk and DG’s Bison Tallow formulas. This really would be an elite soap if it weren’t for the aforementioned issues. Since I went over the performance in the Doc Holliday review, I’ll spare any further superlatives and just state that it’s a great performing soap base.
Here are the scores for the soap base, keeping in mind that SoS and scent preference aren’t scored since they are purely subjective:
Lathering: 7/10
Cushion: 9.5/10
Slickness: 9.5/10
Moisturizing: 9.5/10
Residual Slickness: 10/10
Stability: 5/5
Total: 50.5/55
Comparable soap bases from a performance standpoint:
Martin de Candre (51/55)
Lisa’s Natural Herbal Creations Special Premium Base (51/55)
WSP Formula T (51/55)
Eufros (51/55)
Saponificio Varesino Beta 4.3 (50/55)
Mystic Water (49.5/55)
Barrister & Mann Glissant (49/55)
Conclusion: While the soap base is an absolute monster performer, the scent on this one just didn’t jive with my nose. It might be different for others, and they might be able to pick out more of the notes than I would with my amateurish nose. But the SoS both off of the puck and lathered were lacking, (thankfully), and honestly it’s not a scent that I would want to keep around anyways. That’s ok…plenty of other soaps to try out, including more WWSC scents!
https://youtu.be/CjW4xPi3CdY
