- Joined
- Jun 22, 2016
- Location
- Sydney
I was initially reticent to review another artisan's product as an artisan myself in the market, however I am an collector esoteric artisan soaps and also regularly buy, use and enjoy my collection of @Barrister & Mann products as most wet-shavers who know quality do.I received a number of questions about this soap after receiving it prior to it's Australian launch, and aside from these qualifiers I really enjoy unwinding by writing reviews about products from time to time
As my friends will mostly know and I have mentioned before, here and to Will on /r/wetshaving I find the perfumes Will creates quite beautiful, I say perfumes because that is what fragrances wet-shaving products, albeit in dilute form. I am not going to be specifically discussing perfume or fragrances in this review aside from necessity, rather I will be looking at the overall function and performance of the Soap that is Barrister's Reserve Spice given the massive reception it has received in the US and due to it being about to land in Australia. There are a number of respected and prominent US reviews of this soap already, I would invite people to view or read those in addition to this text based offering.
Barristers Reserve - Spice
The name Barrister & Mann is no doubt familiar to wet-shavers both new and old, having burst onto the scene some years previously, B&M as it is known has come to represent innovation, ideas and fragrance design that are beautiful on the one hand, and equally unique on the other.
The Reserve Range in this regard is a departure from the uncommon scents we have come to know from B&M with the range specifically reinvigorating some classic fragrances that are no longer available, and doing so expertly.Following the 'Barristers Reserve' Aftershaves that debuted with a 'splash' back in 2016, the recent complimentary or paired range of soaps for the three fragrances 'Original', 'Cool' and 'Spice' have been long anticipated due to the popularity of the aftershaves themselves.
After some several months of intense testing and refinement, as we have come to expect with Barrister and Mann the matching soaps were recently soft launched at the Maggards meetup and via selected testing channels across the globe to much fanfare. People who snagged a puck of 'Soapmakers of Awesometown' may have already marveled at the apparent beta test soap base that was used, the Reserve Soap range sees that base realise it's final form.
I initially described the soap base as interesting on first use, and that's a word that I stand by...
The Testing
I have lathered this soap 9 or 10 times now over the last 2 weeks, using it for 3 days in succession this week with 3 different brushes and twice tonight with a new M&F 28mm Finest in an effort to remove the smell of the makers stale Pipe smoke.
Availability in Australia
Australians wanting these soaps and the matching aftershaves should look no further than The Stray Whisker who will have the soaps in stock in the very near future. For those who have not yet tried them, the Reserve Aftershaves are in stock now!
Ingredients
Potassium Stearate, Glycerin, Aqua, Sodium Cocoyl Isethionate, Potassium Tallowate, Potassium Safflowerate, Cocos nucifera (Coconut) Milk, Sodium Stearate, Ricinus communis (Castor) Seed Oil, Sucrose Cocoate, Sodium Lactate, Fragrance, Tocopherol Acetate, Trisodium Ethylenediamine Disuccinate, Sodium Tallowate, Sodium Safflowerate, Linalool, D-Limonene, Coumarin, Eugenol, Hexyl Cinnamic Aldehyde, Alpha-Iso-Methylionone, Citronellol, Geraniol, Cinnamic Alcohol (Cinnamyl Alcohol), Isoeugenol, Benzyl Benzoate, Cinnamic Aldehyde (Cinnamal), Evernia prunastri (Oakmoss) Extract
So the more astute will notice that there is no Lanolin in this soap. Interesting!
Packaging
The soap comes packaged in broad, easy to load, thick walled, plastic/acrylic 4 oz tubs that have superb feels to their threaded lids. The extra effort with packaging here is certainly one of the B&M commonalities. They are just great to hold and have excellent ergonomic design for loading with a brush.
Waterproof labels again, professionally placed with fantastic artwork that catches the light and is radiant- really you should expect no less from B&M as their presentation is always of the highest calibre.
Fragrance
The fragrance from the tub is medium strength and really opens up when you begin to lather, very pleasant and ideal for the cooler months.
As I said in my review of the Reserve Spice Aftershave
'Undoubtedly my favourite of the Reserve range, this is unquestionably a homage to the much loved Old Spice of yesteryear with it's rich, warm woody, spicy notes. I immediately get Vanilla, tonka bean and nutmeg out of the bottle with the more subtle nuances becoming noticeable during the dry down. This works immediately for me, the scent profile and notes are superb. Love it!'
This is Shulton late 50's early 60's Old Spice - 'Nuff said - it's outright glorious!
FeelThis is a very soft soap, and as much as I dislike the term I am inclined to say it's a 'croap' however I would rather not, as there is some resistance here and this is by no means a cream. I tested the soap with 6 different brushes (Simpsons, Morris & Forndran) that were all Badger (Best, Super, Finest and Manchurian) from 24mm right through to 30mm and I can say without any hesitation it loads exactly like any other soap As with any soap, it has it's own character and nuances and in this case a lighter load and the addition of more water than you would expect define the character. Anyone with any experience of B&M will have no difficulties, it loads superbly if not a little easier than say White Label or Glissant.
For those that like a mountain of lather for each shave this is a soap you are going to love, a heavy load produces an excessively indulgent quantity of shiny, slick, buttery lather. For the less experienced shavers the trick is going to be not loading too much soap onto the brush, and I will explain why very shortly
Performance
I found the performance uniformly good to excellent, the lather thick, buttery and uniform. My only caveat to newer shavers is that this soap is very thirsty and a little pre-loading makes a lot of lather. It took me 2 or 3 lathers to understand the behaviour of the soap and to realise that the lather benefits immensely by the addition of more water to get it to the point where it's fantastic - my immediate assumption is that this is due to the novel composition but at any rate newer wet-shavers will find it easy, and the more experienced will find it very interesting as it's so novel.
The message here for newer wet-shavers or even as a guide to get it dialed in quickly is: load a little less than normal and add a little more water than usual until you get the lather to the point where it is uniformly shiny.
Barristers Reserve soap is advertised as having high hard water tolerance however soap chemistry not my specific area of expertise - nothing in the ingredients immediately jumps out at me but perhaps @alfredus or @TomG our two resident chemists can take a look and provide some instructive comments in this regard. My water is not hard, so this aspect of the soap had little impact on my experience directly and it never does when it comes to soap, even when citric acid is added to most compositions.
Reserve Spice with Reserve Splash for scale - M&F 28mm Finest - Lathered repeatedly tonight to dispel
the 'fragrance' of Lee's pipe.
Cushion
The cushion is quite simply excellent, in this area there is no room for improvement. I am sure the straight razors guys are going to love this - the reviews in from the US from the guys who only use straights are uniformly in high praise.
Glide
I found the glide good to excellent, I did miss the tallow somewhat, however the absence of tallow did not detract from the soap rather the experience was different and I expect that with another 10 or so shaves I will have adapted to the functional differences the compounds in Reserve spice produce.
Fragrance & Lather
Personally I think the fragrance strength of this soap is perfect. It's subdued on the puck but really opens right up and suffuses when lathered. As someone who works with fragrances there is nothing I dislike more than a soap that is overly fragranced, particularly if the composition is based solely on fragranced oils and this is one of the reasons I use and enjoy B&M soaps so often, beautiful fragrance design and judicious levels of perfumes in the products - brava Will!
As with every perfume added to soap, there is a slight difference from the Aftershave however I say that wearing a perfumers hat - the fragrance of B&M Spice soap is really very nice and lends itself to the soap well.
The lather from Reserve Spice is excellent -thick, buttery, well hydrated and very protective. Beginners will have absolutely no trouble lathering this soap and more experienced shavers will enjoy attenuating their shaves. There may be the tendency to overload the brush during pre-loading resulting in the possibility of not enough hydration being provided as this soap takes a lot of water but I should think within a few shaves and with some online guidance the newer shavers will overcome this.
Post shave is great, I use a Balm and or a salve after every shave due to my skin being quite sensitive however the combination of this soap and the Barristers Reserve Spice Aftershave was just fantastic and kept my skin in good condition for most of the day even with the cold dry weather in Sydney.
Overall
This will be an absolute mainstay for me and I think I might pick up the other two in the range also given that they will now be paired, the Spice is my favourite based on the fragrance recreation. I find the new soap base very interesting too in that it is something I can attenuate as part of my shave given the new compounds and the way they behave when loaded, lathered and hydrated - very cool stuff.
This is a great soap for an easy, very enjoyable and smooth shave above all else. The lather is very slick and the cushion and glide are up there with the best on the market. This is Barrister and Mann doing what they do best, producing a high quality product in all areas: from the packaging, to the design right through to the formlation of the soap and obviously the fragrance it carries. Their popularity is deserved and this release evidences that abundantly.
Highly recommended - really a must have and the perfect compliment to the Barristers Reserve Aftershaves.
Disclosure: I bought the Reserve Spice from Barrister and Mann and paid normal retail and shipping costs, I received no inducement, largesse or favour for this review whatsoever. This is my personal review as an avid wet-shaver and long term fan and user of B&M and has absolutely no possible relation to my APR/ AP Reserve concern.
I have posted this wordy, silly disclosure due to a number of recent controversies. The most blatant (aside from certain bloggers and forum shills) are the fairly new 'you tube' personalities wanting subscribers. They have been approaching or accepting product from vendors/artisans for bullshit, hype reviews aka 'payola'. For what it's worth, a group of us who produce products think it's dishonest and unethical. It's obvious you are new to it all and are keen and it's plainly eflected in your reviews and the products you choose to review - we want honest appraisals and opinions, not crap. I won't mention this again and I am sorry I bloody well had to.
Thanks for reading, thoughts, comments and questions welcome - My apologies for any spelling or grammatical errors - EOFY week has been just mental at work and I posted this review tonight due to the volume of questions about the Reserve soaps I was getting
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