Monsta_AU
...can I interest you in some vintage blades?
Staff member
Forum Administrator
Grand Society
- Joined
- Feb 2, 2011
- Location
- Guildford.nsw.au
The TL;DR = After major initial concerns on scent, test latherings yesterday made today's shave truly enjoyable.
My second review of my purchases in the recent Barrister & Mann Group Buy organised by @alfredus. My thanks to him and of course Will for stumping up the discounts.
This review is of the special release 'Rhapsody' scent. Certainly different for me to go for a more floral-driven aroma but lets get into it.
Initial thoughts
Same sized tub as the normal B&M soaps but this plastic is clear and I believe it is made of polypropylene. Mine has a crack in the lid - possibly from me dropping it - so based on the fact I have a few here for people I chose it as it does not effect the lid functionality and I wanted other to get the undamaged ones. There is only a single sticker on top printed full colour with a black background. It's a really nice design however I would have tried for a black jar and it would have really stood our then.
Through the jar we can see a cream/beige coloured soap, however the surface is much browner. This is normal and due to oxidisation of the vanilla scents that Will uses in this soap. Upon opening the soap I was troubled by the scent - there was so much going on that it just smelt like a big mess of bay, thyme, musk and vanilla. It was really disappointing as all the other B&M soaps I have tried smell really good on initial smell apart from maybe the Diamond which is just not my cup of coffee.
After I was encouraged by will to lather it up and get some water into it, I instead did two test latherings yesterday. I added enough hot water to cover the soap for 5 mins and then started working it with a brush. While the scent did improve with water, it wasn't as much as I hoped. I rinsed our the brush and also rinsed off the soap which now had less of the oxidised look and showed a nice marbled effect of the lighter soap underneath.
Encouraged, I lathered it up again, rinsed everything out. The soap surface now appears lighter again and less oxidised. The scent now starts to smell more like I expected although still not what I had hopped. At this point I rinsed out the brush & the remaining lather on the soap, capped it and left it.
Initial Shave
Tools: Fatboy, Vintage Wilkinson Sword Blade (7/8), Vie-Long 13710 Horse.
Normal preparation - shower with face scrub followed by L'Oreal Hydra Sensitive Cleanser. Added a few drops of hot water on top of the soap prior to shower.
Normal brush preparation with the VieLong. Simply wet it through with hot water and shook out. Again, tilted the jar so the water was on the side, and slowly worked into the soap to get the crema into the knot and then slowly worked the water in. This time I am getting a much more complex scent, reminding me of an Orange Grove in flower, Jasmine in summer. I can also now get the sandalwood and patchouli and it's immediately a different impact all together. It is much more cohesive and although it's complex it isn't overly so.
As for the actual lather, it's the normal 10/10 that B&M provides. Even with the horse instead of the synth that has been my go-to brush of late, I had a great lather even if the water balance was a bit off. Since I only usually shave every second day and I am backing up from a shave yesterday to try this out, I had an amazingly good shave and the glide was first class. No issues at all with nicks or even feeling like I would. The Spoiler is getting towards the end of usable life yet it felt like a 3-shave blade.
Two passes without fuss. A rinse off gave me no sting or concerns at all. Smelling it on my face an hour later and it is a soft, refined and very old-school smell. The other half says it's a classic smell, she likes it yet does not want to attack me. That usually comes from something like the Simpsons Vetiver & Lavender cream.
Conclusion
I am surprised and also relieved on this one. Initially smell was so wrong that I had regretted my purchase. Please guys, if you don't like scent initially, then please give it a few shaves before sending it on. Will does put a heap of scent in his soaps and I think that tends to manifest itself on the top of the soap as the scent chemicals settle. Scrub them off and you will see a big change.
I am glad to have this in the collection now.
My second review of my purchases in the recent Barrister & Mann Group Buy organised by @alfredus. My thanks to him and of course Will for stumping up the discounts.
This review is of the special release 'Rhapsody' scent. Certainly different for me to go for a more floral-driven aroma but lets get into it.
Initial thoughts
Same sized tub as the normal B&M soaps but this plastic is clear and I believe it is made of polypropylene. Mine has a crack in the lid - possibly from me dropping it - so based on the fact I have a few here for people I chose it as it does not effect the lid functionality and I wanted other to get the undamaged ones. There is only a single sticker on top printed full colour with a black background. It's a really nice design however I would have tried for a black jar and it would have really stood our then.
Through the jar we can see a cream/beige coloured soap, however the surface is much browner. This is normal and due to oxidisation of the vanilla scents that Will uses in this soap. Upon opening the soap I was troubled by the scent - there was so much going on that it just smelt like a big mess of bay, thyme, musk and vanilla. It was really disappointing as all the other B&M soaps I have tried smell really good on initial smell apart from maybe the Diamond which is just not my cup of coffee.
After I was encouraged by will to lather it up and get some water into it, I instead did two test latherings yesterday. I added enough hot water to cover the soap for 5 mins and then started working it with a brush. While the scent did improve with water, it wasn't as much as I hoped. I rinsed our the brush and also rinsed off the soap which now had less of the oxidised look and showed a nice marbled effect of the lighter soap underneath.
Encouraged, I lathered it up again, rinsed everything out. The soap surface now appears lighter again and less oxidised. The scent now starts to smell more like I expected although still not what I had hopped. At this point I rinsed out the brush & the remaining lather on the soap, capped it and left it.
Initial Shave
Tools: Fatboy, Vintage Wilkinson Sword Blade (7/8), Vie-Long 13710 Horse.
Normal preparation - shower with face scrub followed by L'Oreal Hydra Sensitive Cleanser. Added a few drops of hot water on top of the soap prior to shower.
Normal brush preparation with the VieLong. Simply wet it through with hot water and shook out. Again, tilted the jar so the water was on the side, and slowly worked into the soap to get the crema into the knot and then slowly worked the water in. This time I am getting a much more complex scent, reminding me of an Orange Grove in flower, Jasmine in summer. I can also now get the sandalwood and patchouli and it's immediately a different impact all together. It is much more cohesive and although it's complex it isn't overly so.
As for the actual lather, it's the normal 10/10 that B&M provides. Even with the horse instead of the synth that has been my go-to brush of late, I had a great lather even if the water balance was a bit off. Since I only usually shave every second day and I am backing up from a shave yesterday to try this out, I had an amazingly good shave and the glide was first class. No issues at all with nicks or even feeling like I would. The Spoiler is getting towards the end of usable life yet it felt like a 3-shave blade.
Two passes without fuss. A rinse off gave me no sting or concerns at all. Smelling it on my face an hour later and it is a soft, refined and very old-school smell. The other half says it's a classic smell, she likes it yet does not want to attack me. That usually comes from something like the Simpsons Vetiver & Lavender cream.
Conclusion
I am surprised and also relieved on this one. Initially smell was so wrong that I had regretted my purchase. Please guys, if you don't like scent initially, then please give it a few shaves before sending it on. Will does put a heap of scent in his soaps and I think that tends to manifest itself on the top of the soap as the scent chemicals settle. Scrub them off and you will see a big change.
I am glad to have this in the collection now.
