Review Razorock Holy Cannoli

[stillshunter]

Ingredients: Aqua(Water), Stearic Acid, Cocus Nucifera Oil, Tallow Acid, Potassium Hydroxide, Sodium Hydroxide, Parfum (Fragrance), Benzyl Salicylate, Coumarin.

Big thanks to @SydBJW for this generous sample.

Let me start with the scent. 'Interesting' is an understatement. This is a soap that smells like it should be eaten. Doesn't smell like the cannoli my mother made, this is more sugar. It is very sweet, but this sweetness mellows as the soap moistens and during lather it becomes more musty and dark, almost woody. This profile I like.

The soap lathers easily and....

...and that my friend is where the love ends.

Noting this ingredients list I expected so much more.

Lathers easily but is like an Easter Egg or a blonde. Looks like a whole lotta sweetness but just a little probbing and welcome to a whole lotta air.
Lather offers very minimal protection
Lather offers very minimal glide
Lather offers some post-shave moisture.

I tried it how I usually lather. I tried it a little drier. I tried it a little wetter. I tried to like it, based on the scent, but I could not.

So bad that I ended this morning's shave with Speick....just in case it was the newly honed blade. Nope, blade was fine, the soap was not.

I'm looking very forward to hearing @alfredus impressions as he is a latherer with far more range. He might dial it in quick and it will explode into magnificence. It's reviewed well elsewhere so there must be a way to get goodness fro it, but this soap doesn't offer anything more than my old tub of XXX did.

For me:
On the @filobiblic metric® - it's a 'Bin It'
On the @Mark1966 's stillsy's super special shaving soap sample shenanigans smiley scale system® it's very, very unfortunately a " - this is a dog, not worth bothering with, put it down to experience and BIN IT!"

NB: This morning's shave convinced me that the new yardstick for a keeper soap for me is whether it is as good as Speick.
If not, BIN!
If so, BUY!

 

[alfredus]

Ouch - sorry to hear that!
Seems like I don't choose very well

 

[stillshunter]

Ouch - sorry to hear that!
Seems like I don't choose very well

au contraire mon frère, you chose wisely.

As we saw in your piece on the 1305, the lather may not have been built correctly. You will be more meticulous and understanding of the needs of this particular soap. So if you don't master it then we an be sure is really just is not top shelf. If you do, I, my friend, need to get back to the drawing board and practice anew...maybe even give this soap another go stepping through your advice. This would be more insightful for me, and I'm sure many members.

Having said that then I do fear then for all the soaps I may have dismissed in the past due to my lazy lathering. Or, looked at another way....YAY!!! I get to start all over again and try those hundreds of soaps I dismissed in the past anew.

 

[Pjotr]

This is inspiring me to re-invigorate my Worst Blade in The World thread.

 

[alfredus]

This is inspiring me to re-invigorate my Worst Blade in The World thread.

Now that sounds interesting - especially if your No 1 spot (ie worst blade) would be my favourites (ie Voskhods) [emoji38]

 

[borked]

au contraire mon frère, you chose wisely.

As we saw in your piece on the 1305, the lather may not have been built correctly. You will be more meticulous and understanding of the needs of this particular soap. So if you don't master it then we an be sure is really just is not top shelf. If you do, I, my friend, need to get back to the drawing board and practice anew...maybe even give this soap another go stepping through your advice. This would be more insightful for me, and I'm sure many members.

Having said that then I do fear then for all the soaps I may have dismissed in the past due to my lazy lathering. Or, looked at another way....YAY!!! I get to start all over again and try those hundreds of soaps I dismissed in the past anew.

ARKO!!! >?

 

[Pjotr]

Now that sounds interesting - especially if your No 1 spot (ie worst blade) would be my favourites (ie Voskhods) [emoji38]

I don't think I've tried the Voskhod as a potential candidate. Not sure I've ever had one to try. The worst to date was a Shogun. Truly appalling. Got Merkur and Muhle lined up and then I'm out of candidates.

 

[stillshunter]

ARKO!!! >?

 

[borked]

Great place to start offloading preconceived ideas for a product you've possibly misjudged, as you've openly expressed as a possibility for all soaps above
Might need a bigger bin though...

 

[stillshunter]

Great place to start offloading preconceived ideas for a product you've possibly misjudged, as you've openly expressed as a possibility for all soaps above
Might need a bigger bin though...

LOL. Open to receiving a sample mate!
Promise to review officially! Promise to keep an open mind.
Actually, here's an idea - send it to me blind; in amongst some other unlabelled samples. This way we'll see how it fares...oooops that's right it's scent will betray it. ...and that scent can't be masked....and no you can't just pollute the other samples with time soaked in the public trough...

 

[alfredus]

I don't think I've tried the Voskhod as a potential candidate. Not sure I've ever had one to try. The worst to date was a Shogun. Truly appalling. Got Merkur and Muhle lined up and then I'm out of candidates.

You haven't tried Voskhod!!! Please PM address and a couple will come your way..

 

[borked]

LOL. Open to receiving a sample mate!
Promise to review officially! Promise to keep an open mind.
Actually, here's an idea - send it to me blind; in amongst some other unlabelled samples. This way we'll see how it fares...oooops that's right it's scent will betray it. ...and that scent can't be masked....and no you can't just pollute the other samples with time soaked in the public trough...

I wish I had some to send you.
As I suggested the first time, it really is a soap that requires a week or two of constant use to appreciate the scent nuances beyond the top notes most get.

 

[alfredus]

OK, sorry for taking so long to add my review - a lot has been happening and also sorry for cheating again: I shaved only once with the soap and did 2 palm lathers...life is too short for poor shaves - did I give away too much

OK, so another tallow pretender that in reality is build on stearic acid I believe. It takes only tiny amounts of water - I had to wring my synth dry AND shake it out to be able to load without bubbles:

After dipping the brush maybe 3 times in water while face lathering:

And after 4 passes:

Glide and cushion are OK - nothing to write home about but also nothing spectacular.

The 3 biggest issues in my opinion:

1. you can't get a really wet lather (as you can see with @stillshunter results) or the lather will start to die. If you keep it dry and creamy it's performs OK though.

2. the post shave is non-existent - even after my standard Olive Oil treatment, my face didn't feel too happy. Not really drying either, but no moist/plumb happiness

3. the scent is HORRIBLE: when the envelope with the sample arrived, there was a cinnamon scent in my PO Box - OK, not too bad. Then you have a lot of sugar - OK, can live with it as well. But when you lather you get all this fake scents that try to emulate vanilla and such - HORRIBLE.

All in all, I would definitely not recommend it, but if you have nothing else in your drawer, you can get a decent result out of it.

 

[Mark1966]

So tell us what you really think @alfredus

 

[eggbert]

I don't think I've tried the Voskhod as a potential candidate. Not sure I've ever had one to try. The worst to date was a Shogun. Truly appalling. Got Merkur and Muhle lined up and then I'm out of candidates.

Heading off to SEA for CNY again in Feb - can look out for more potential candidates for you, but then of course its DSFDF so YMMV and you may end up considering a bad blade to be MUM .

 

[stillshunter]

OK, sorry for taking so long to add my review - a lot has been happening and also sorry for cheating again: I shaved only once with the soap and did 2 palm lathers...life is too short for poor shaves - did I give away too much

OK, so another tallow pretender that in reality is build on stearic acid I believe. It takes only tiny amounts of water - I had to wring my synth dry AND shake it out to be able to load without bubbles:

After dipping the brush maybe 3 times in water while face lathering:

And after 4 passes:

Glide and cushion are OK - nothing to write home about but also nothing spectacular.

The 3 biggest issues in my opinion:

1. you can't get a really wet lather (as you can see with @stillshunter results) or the lather will start to die. If you keep it dry and creamy it's performs OK though.

2. the post shave is non-existent - even after my standard Olive Oil treatment, my face didn't feel too happy. Not really drying either, but no moist/plumb happiness

3. the scent is HORRIBLE: when the envelope with the sample arrived, there was a cinnamon scent in my PO Box - OK, not too bad. Then you have a lot of sugar - OK, can live with it as well. But when you lather you get all this fake scents that try to emulate vanilla and such - HORRIBLE.

All in all, I would definitely not recommend it, but if you have nothing else in your drawer, you can get a decent result out of it.

Thanks @alfredus . Glad to hear it wasn't only me. Do you think it a temperamental or just sub-par soap?

 

[alfredus]

Thanks @alfredus . Glad to hear it wasn't only me. Do you think it a temperamental or just sub-par soap?

I think we are just very lucky to have that many great soaps to choose from. I think ~10 years ago this one (not taking the scent into account) would have been labelled a good soap. For me personally it was not hard to get a decent lather out of it - but in my den decent is not good enough, only stellar is worth writing home.

And then there is the type of lather you personally prefer. I am not talking wet vs. dry vs. airy but more in terms of: creamy vs. yoghurty vs. custardy (or melting gelato)

So taking all this into consideration - this was a:

why bother if you have a choice

but also:

doable if you need a decent lather and are stuck with it

kind of soap.