Jabonman Shave Soap

filobiblic

filobiblic

Facepeeler Extraordinare
State Convenor - NSW
Group Buy Caporegime
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Joined
Apr 29, 2014
Location
Sydney
Let the reviews and discussion begin!

Shaving soap: "Brisa de Oriente"
My initial thoughts on this soap are nothing but positive. It produces great lather. It is easy to load. (However I feel I needed to load a little more than perhaps some soaps.)
The scent is delicious. It's like a cinnamon-gingerbread-chai latte but different again. It's so hard to describe adequately. It's so rich and varied. With the aftershave milk the scent lasts ALL day!!!

Shaving soap: "Madreselva" (Honeysuckle)
Using the Plisson synthetic the lather this time around was both better in quality and quantity. The synth just whips up an awesome amount of lather.
The scent of this soap is too mild; it's very delicate. I'd have preferred a stronger scent. But the cushion of the soap is terrific. Truly one of the many strengths of this soap. Post-shave once again, my face feels terrific.

Highlights of Jabonman soaps
- Rich lather with very good cushion
- Strong complexity in scents
- Wonderful post-shave feel

I've only shaved twice but this soap is already an all-round winner. Other soaps may have slightly more glide, but this is the highest cushion (hence protection) and post-shave feel. I can't smell any lanolin at all.

I'd love to hear from others about what they also think. I think @Mark1966 has "Mountain" which has no lanolin, so it'll be interesting hearing about its post-shave feel.
 
Nice review Phil. Jabonman are veggie-based soaps, right? No tallow? I'm kind of looking forward to the opportunity to prove (to myself, mostly) that a soap need not be made exclusively from tallow to be thick, cushion-y and great for the skin.
 
Mong. said:
Nice review Phil. Jabonman are veggie-based soaps, right? No tallow? I'm kind of looking forward to the opportunity to prove (to myself, mostly) that a soap need not be made exclusively from tallow to be thick, cushion-y and great for the skin.
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No tallow, but the lanolin is an animal product (a wax, not a fat).

Manuel says of his soaps: "The soaps are 100% vegetable, except those carrying lanolin. They are made of good quality oil concentration."

Here's the list of the soaps again:

Without lanolin:
- Vetiver-Citrus
- Lavender
- Mountain

With lanolin:
- Ylang Ylang-Patchouli-Orange
- Wet Earth
- Eastern Breeze
- Citrus
- Roses
- Floral
- Violets
- Lima-Incense (Menthol).
- Lima-Cinnamon
- Coconut
- Honeysuckle

@Mark1966 has Mountain
@Nonick has Vetiver-Citrus
You can ask them what it's like without lanolin. [emoji4]
 
AHHH, that is why I chose what i did - one with and one without :)
 
Well, I had a shave with the Jabonman "Tiera Humeda" this morning. This translates to Wet Earth, and is a very literal description of the scent. It smells pungently of wet rainforest earth, and is initially slightly unpleasant. You're going to want to like vetiver to get along with this one, folks. I was pleasantly surprised throughout my shave as the scent evolved, and it transitioned into a sweeter, dark chocolate type of scent with some moss or fern and a fairly deep woody note. It's extremely earthy even with the sweeter notes, and a definite change of pace from typical shaving scents.

Putting aside the scent, the soap performs very well. The cushion is particularly good, and I found them to be pretty slick too. A little bit of experimentation with water quantities will bring out the best here, I probably made it a little too slick. Post-shave feel was okay, but not tremendous. I'm going to have a crack at the Violetas next time (a much more pleasant scent!), and will load up the brush a bit more to make a thicker lather.

Looking forward to hearing how you blokes go with these, the scents really set Jabonman apart from the crowd.
 
Great comments @Mong.
The scents are spectacular!
I too found the cushion/protection during the shave to be exceptional. [emoji106]
Tell us about your other scents as well since you asked for "something that's different to my soaps". [emoji4]
 
Thus far I've only had a sniff of the Violetas, which packs a punch. It's extremely floral in a very "air-ey, open fields" kind of way. It's got a slightly herbal quality to it that provides a bit of balance. It could be sage, actually. Overall, it's a bit sweet, but not in a sickly way. It's up next before I crack on to the samples. As an aside, I haven't opened it up yet but I can smell the cinnamon and vanilla aftershave balm through the zip lock bag. I'll try that one with something fairly subdued in scent like MWF so I can see how long the scent lingers.
 
The Myrsol Formula C had the exact same scent as Violetas. A great match. [emoji6]

I'm looking forward to hearing your thoughts on the aftershave! [emoji106]
 
ImageUploadedByTapatalk1419107684.869263.jpg

So this morning I chose Vertiver Citrus to begin this journey of Jabonman. It was a good choice. But I really don't think there would have been a bad choice!

This is a very soft soap. You can easily wipe a bit off on your fingertip. Because of this I loaded my brush Occams style, by putting an almond size dab on the tip of the brush. This was really a mistake as its not a cream and doesn't behave like one lathering, I was chasing that dab around my face for a minute or two, as it didn't easily disappear into lather like Occams. Lesson. Load in the tub next time! It is soap.

The scent is one thing that sets these apart from anything I've tried. They aren't overpowering or sickly, but they are… bold? Assertive? And like nothing else. This isn't a re run of blah blah classic scent, Jabonman obviously likes experimenting and I think many of his soaps would be very unique in scent.

Vertiver Citrus… It's more vetiver with a very subtle zingy rounding to it. Like others have mentioned these scents keep on scenting. I smell certain things but the more I smell it the more uncertain about what I really caught I am. The vetiver component reminds me of a smoky campfire, earthy smell. But the citrus doesn't even remind me of citrus, it's like it wears a mask and simply hangs around earthy, making him have a bit more character. Bringing out his bright points, and covering his more dull aspects. Making him a bit more lively. It certainly is well done.

I face lathered as always (which the Berkeley and I have a good thing going with this) and the lather was very dense, nearly to the point of being sticky, perhaps my dab was a bit too much product. I returned to using a real Razor for this one, and had a comfortable shave. People talk about cushion and glide, I'm probably too much of a novice to notice too much about that. I find with the straight the condition of the edge has a bigger influence on the shave than whatever product I'm using at the time. Using the DE yesterday made me realise how dull my poor straight had become, but luckily my barbers hone had just come, so I got to work with pleasing results this morning.

One thing I notice post shave is an excellent face feel. I always though this was a load of.. but, I have to say the scent of this soap (assertive as it is - but not overpowering, like an AFP agent at your door in plain clothes, who doesn't lay a finger on you, but you decide to do exactly as he says) stays on your face for a long time!! Surprising. Most soaps scent is lost as soon as you rinse. This even supplanted the balm I used afterwards. I can still smell it 10 minutes later. And my face feels very soft. This is the one without lanolin… who needs lanolin! The ones with it in must leave a baby face, nothing wrong with this here one!

I'm impressed with this product. It must be a very interesting man that makes it!
 
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Shaving soap: "Brisa de Oriente"

Popped the top off the this tub and was assailed by quite a scent. I expected hippy Indian. I was wrong. Very wrong. This is more oriental spice run on a creaky wooden trading ship. Think Bay Rum but with a little more going on. There's certainly clove, but then there's other warm oriental spices like cardamom and sweeter notes like cinnamon. They don't all slap you across the face at once, they emerge in hints and wafts from the tub and change throughout the lather.

My initial thoughts on the lather were not great…what was this dribble here I thought. Tried it first pass as I thought maybe it was more about slickness, and it delivered that in the nines. But something still wasn't right. I'd not class this the stuff of legend, not even of repute. This was not a mediocre soap they say. So I started again, but this time I loaded up more on the charge, and really worked it in the bowl for 30 seconds then up to a minute and then can I just say WOW! this is one of the most fantastic lathers ever produced - yep up there in Tabac territory already, up there with Occams, this stuff is good. Damned good. No compromise. Great cushioning, great protection, great glide and super great post-shave face feel. The key is to use enough, don't be a tight arse, charge up a healthy amount and give it good work and you'll get it back on the shave, which will be a breeze…an Oriental Breeze (roughly translated ;))

Quite the experience - across all senses! This is the stuff my friends.
 
I also under-loaded the first time around. The second I used both a synthetic and loaded for longer. I think it's just what you need to do with this soap.
 
filobiblic said:
I also under-loaded the first time around. The second I used both a synthetic and loaded for longer. I think it's just what you need to do with this soap.
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Oh boy and are you rewarded when you do! Mate do you agree this is a phenomenal lather?
 
These descriptions ate fascinating. Either this is a forum full of budding fiction authors or this is interesting stuff!
 
What do you think of yours @Mark1966 ?
Oh, that's right, UPU have striked delivering to you, demanding better conditions/paid a tonnage addendum along side danger money.
 
borked said:
What do you think of yours @Mark1966 ?
Oh, that's right, UPU have striked delivering to you, demanding better conditions/paid a tonnage addendum along side danger money.
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Poor @Mark1966 . Mate it's worth the wait, trust me.
Hey @borked where's your reviews? You need to move on from the Vitos mate? ;)
 
It's coming, finishing up samples of other stuff first as a form of belated spring clean :)
 
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