New Aussie Artisan soap: Washpool Farm

[filobiblic]

A country QLD soap maker called "Washpool Farm Soaperie" has just ventured into making shaving soap. (It is in their 'testing' section of the website.) They are using an organic tallow base. It also contains lanolin, coconut oil, shea butter, cacao butter and castor oil. Lightly scented with bergamot and cedar wood EOs.

They are calling it "Test Batch Number 1". We won't know if it is suitable for wet shaving until it has been tried and there is a review posted. I'm willing to buy some to review as I can't go past supporting an Aussie artisan.

Their prices are reasonable as well: $10 for 100g (plastic jar) or $15 for 150g (glass jar). Postage is additional. Not sure if the price will go up once it moves beyond "testing"...

Initial thoughts from the picture alone lead me to think the larger sized glass jar (in amber colour) will be a write off due to the tall, narrow size. I'm going for the smaller plastic tub.

 

[khun_diddy]

Yep, that jar ain't gonna work. Ingredients list looks tasty though.

 

[borked]

Hold your horses there young fella (kids these days, so flamin impatient).
Am in contact with Melissa seeking a sample for review and pass around here

 

[filobiblic]

Ingredients list looks tasty though.

Well, we'll see... I know that Johnny GoodSir's soap had tallow and a whole lot of other goodies (almost exactly the same as this) but was sub-par in performance. Even if you make soap for a living, there is a difference to making high quality shaving soap. The proof is in the testing...

I'm also suspicious about the "Testing Soap Batch 1"... Having only gone through a single iteration is NOT improving your product. You yourself just told @Draco Noir that his version 4 formulation is better than the earlier one(s). So too @Anthony has been through at least 5 versions of his soap formulation. A single test batch does not sound good to me...

 

[filobiblic]

Hold your horses there young fella (kids these days, so flamin impatient).
Am in contact with Melissa seeking a sample for review and pass around here

Yeah. I thought about that, but I wanted to say it was independently bought for a review. I'm also happy to support an Aussie artisan. (And I happened to buy some bath soap for the Missus which will hopefully give me some brownie points...)
She also has some brushes for sale with some lovely wooden handles. But they're just called "Badger". No specs or nuthin'

 

[khun_diddy]

Well, we'll see... I know that Johnny GoodSir's soap had tallow and a whole lot of other goodies (almost exactly the same as this) but was sub-par in performance. Even if you make soap for a living, there is a difference to making high quality shaving soap. The proof is in the testing...

I'm also suspicious about the "Testing Soap Batch 1"... Having only gone through a single iteration is NOT improving your product. You yourself just told @Draco Noir that his version 4 formulation is better than the earlier one(s). So too @Anthony has been through at least 5 versions of his soap formulation. A single test batch does not sound good to me...

That was @bald as soap.

 

[filobiblic]

That was @bald as soap.

Oh yeah! That's right. My bad... Thanks for the correct.

 

[Nick the Knife]

Just a couple of quick thoughts:

1. I hope they've been testing behind closed doors and this is more of a public approval test batch - as it's regarded as very, very poor form for a soap maker to put his wares up for sale before you really know how they perform etc over months and a number of people. This is all a bit of a given as I can't think of any other co's that sell 'alpha/beta' type testing products.

2. Likewise one'd hope they're using the specific type of Bergamot E.O (FCF) that is NOT photo-sensitising. Very easy mistake to make but can have significant health issues for users. No iinfo on their site regarding this.

 

[Nonick]

Upon writing to them re the tall container I got this fast positive reply.

Hello Nick

Excellent advice and something I had already realised I needed to change now that I've spent quite some time doing lather demonstrations. I'll be making shaving soap tomorrow in a low wide mouth jar and I'll be sure to leave the headspace to reduce mess.

Thanks again,

 

[filobiblic]

Upon writing to them re the tall container I got this fast positive reply.

Hello Nick

Excellent advice and something I had already realised I needed to change now that I've spent quite some time doing lather demonstrations. I'll be making shaving soap tomorrow in a low wide mouth jar and I'll be sure to leave the headspace to reduce mess.

Thanks again,

So that makes at least 3 of us that have written to them. [emoji13] Must be thinking that wet shavers are a funny lot...

 

[Monsta_AU]

Well, our facebook page got a mention in a recent status post regarding the soap. Well done fellas.

 

[Anthony]

Woo Hoo!!! Good to see another Aussie Artisan!

I had the same trouble too when I started out. I was using small black tubs, which thanks to you guys on this forum, pointed out were too small to load up the brush with. I then moved to those damned tins, which dinted and damaged easily, and finally settled on the blue plastic tubs which travel a lot better and have ample space for loading.

Funny thing is (and I can see why it happens), I gave a few family members some shave soaps, and both got back to me with "Thanks for sending me the sample". I'm thinking "Sample?!" But then I came to the conclusion that because the jars are only filled to the 150ml mark, they must thing I only half filled it and sent it to them try.

 

[filobiblic]

Woo Hoo!!! Good to see another Aussie Artisan!

I had the same trouble too when I started out. I was using small black tubs, which thanks to you guys on this forum, pointed out were too small to load up the brush with. I then moved to those damned tins, which dinted and damaged easily, and finally settled on the blue plastic tubs which travel a lot better and have ample space for loading.

Funny thing is (and I can see why it happens), I gave a few family members some shave soaps, and both got back to me with "Thanks for sending me the sample". I'm thinking "Sample?!" But then I came to the conclusion that because the jars are only filled to the 150ml mark, they must thing I only half filled it and sent it to them try.

Can't please them all!
Darn fussy lot this mob on P&C...

 

[borked]

Sounds like family are even fussier

 

[filobiblic]

I'm still testing out this soap but I thought I'd post an update here. In time I will post a new thread with a review of this soap.

Melissa from Washpool Farm Soaperie sent me her update Test Soap (#3) unannounced. I'd already had a few shaves with the soap I ordered (Test Batch #2). It was a kind gesture by her and has allowed me to see her progress on the shaving soap.

Here is a comparison of the two soaps side-by-side.

The larger tub is the latest soap (#3) and it's wider opening is appreciated. It's almost an accepted standard now across shaving soap-makers to have a wider mouthed soap tub in order to facilitate brush loading.

The scent has also been tinkered with; increased and expanded upon. Previously you could only smell the lanolin (think MWF aka "The Fat"). Now, you can smell a pleasant floral-woodsy scent. The essential oils listed are Patchouli, Geranium, Ylang Ylang and Cedarwood (at 2%).

Here is the list of ingredients for Test Soap #3:
Hand rendered tallow, Organic Shea butter, organic cacao butter, organic Virgin coconut oil, castor oil and avocado oil. (I'm assuming there also must be the acids & hydroxides as well but I take it these are the main ingredients.)

Melissa is aiming for a soap that is low sensitivity (hence low & mild scent) and has excellent post-shave properties. So that's what needs to be kept in mind when using this soap.

I plan to bring these soaps along with me to the Sydney gathering and hand the latest soap on to someone else to try. I could also split it up for several people to try if there's interest.

 

[bushranger]

Here is a quick one after being referred to the thread in my other post. I also purchased batch two, and received three this week (after being away). I will add to this thread instead of creating a separate one (I don't have access to post in soap/creams/general etc yet). So far, there are differences between the two. Each are v good. More testing (and posts) here and that will be good. They do not use palm oil. COnsidering the amount of ingredients they do not (refuse) to use, i am impressed with the approach they are taking and standard they wish to achieve. They appear very open to feedback.

 

[Nick the Knife]

Hopefully it's a good product, looks like they're bundling a lot of product in for the price - which is the absolute minimum you'd expect for essentially paying to do the testing for them.

Sounds like it's being done as a cold processed soap as opposed to the general trend for hot processed (like Shaver Heaven, B&M etc). This isn't a bad thing but market trends would tend to indicate it's absolute 'ceiling' as a shaving soap will be lower as a CP soap than a HP.

I don't know whether the full ingredients list was/wasn't included on Filo's soaps or those one might order but if they're not doing this - and it's poor they don't have them listed on their website, then I suspect this is actually illegal and they're running the risk of getting into very hot water over it.

 

[stillshunter]

The Washpool soaps - both v.2 and v.3 - were selected in the stillsy suds sampling thread. Glad for the call from @obes as this one is a sleeper. A real sleeper.

You put any Washpool to your nose and you cannot help but yawn. There's not much going on there. Smells like.....well....smells like soap. I'm sure if I dug deeper I would read that it has a delicate balance of juniper, hare's arse and thyme, but to my nose it smells like run of the mill soap. Many on here would screw the lid back on and move on.

Mistake!

You get this soap wet, lash it with a brush and the story changes. Well the scent of the lather, OK it's still just soap smells, but the performance of the lather. It's not shy in coming out, it's got cushion, it's got glide, it's got post-shave feel. The v.3 seems to have more of the first two and v.2 definitely has more of the last. It doesn't take much effort either and oddly doesn't seem that thirsty. Seriously a beginner could not do worse.

Such a relief after the disappointments of the likes of Razorock and Caties Bubbles. And this from such a low-key Aussie soap maker. I'm mighty tempted to get me some of this....and I still may.

...but let's see what @obes reckons.

 

[Korbz]

Good timing with that review... One of my mates is going down there for holidays and will have to see if I can get him to pick some up.

 

[alfredus]

I'd also like to see a complete ingredients list - but this sounds very interesting so far