Just got my Arko and Derby shaving sticks...

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Mar 23, 2014
Got them from Shaving Market when i was restocking my blades. Both are 75g soap sticks, made in Turkey apparently and I've read that Derby is made by the same company as Arko, but not sure if that's true.

The Arko stick had a pretty strong, sharp lemon smell when first opened but it quickly faded. It's pretty faint now. It doesnt smell like urinal pucks at all...smells too sharp and synthetic though. Couldn't smell it when I was shaving with it anyway.

The Derby has a weird smell. It's like a mix of soap + lemon, a very strong soapy smell with a faint trace of lemons. Like the Arko, it smells too sharp and synthetic.

I tried shaving with the Arko today, wet my face, wet the stick, tried applying the stick to face...and got pretty much nothing. Just a few white spots even though I was frantically rubbing the stick into my face. I ended up rubbing the stick into the lid of my shaving tin and using a brush to make a lather, but the lather felt too thick and dry and it wasn't a good shave. Am i doing something wrong?

I also read that the Arko stick is pretty soft and easy to mash into a puck, but the one I have is rock hard...
 
I used a mini grater and grated my Arko into a small container that I picked up a cheap shop, then pushed it down and use it like a puck. YMMV
 
Question said:
I tried shaving with the Arko today, wet my face, wet the stick, tried applying the stick to face...and got pretty much nothing. Just a few white spots even though I was frantically rubbing the stick into my face.
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Once you have rubbed the stick onto your face you need to build lather with a brush and water. Take a damp brush to your face and start lathering. Add water to the brush as you go. You should get a decent lather on your face with enough in the brush for another 2 passes.

Sorry if that is already what you're doing, but from your post it doesn't sound like it.
 
Soap sticks show you that you really don't need to use a lot of soap.
 
The Arko sticks are relatively soft. I just pressed mine in to a container and spent a fair amount of time loading the brush. Started with a fairly dry brush and added a bit of water a couple of times until I felt thatt he brush was suitably loaded and then went to a face lather. I was pretty happy with the result.
 
Strange, i thought the advantage of soap sticks were that you could use them on your face without a brush? I will try using a brush on my face the next time.

The stick i have definately isnt soft enough to press into anything, at least not without some way of softening it up first.
 
I found I used a lot more water for the arko stick then I would have felt comfortable with in a shaver heaven soap, but it created a pretty good lather "just add water"
 
Question said:
Strange, i thought the advantage of soap sticks were that you could use them on your face without a brush? I will try using a brush on my face the next time.

The stick i have definitely isn't soft enough to press into anything, at least not without some way of softening it up first.
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The stick I got also felt like it would be too hard to press into a bowl as well but I found that it was quite easy to break up into smaller pieces and press in. Only reason I out it in a bowl is because it is not as messy to use like that.
 
Don't know if I'd go as far as that, I just rubbed it on the end of my brush and used a bowl to lather it up, I found it needed more water in the bowl but still lathered up
 
eggbert said:
Soap sticks show you that you really don't need to use a lot of soap.
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Ain't that the truth!

I had arvo stick once, I didn't mind it until I made the mistake of mashing it into a container. When it was a stick it felt like a little when a long way in terms of lather. After I pressed it I found it difficult to load enough soap onto the brush.

Anyway, when I move house I just tossed it because life is too short to use "ok" shaving soaps!
 
Okay can someone explain this part to me...i thought shaving sticks were meant for convenience and a brush wasn't necessary...this isn't true and you still need a brush for sticks?
 
thisISjoel said:
Anyway, when I move house I just tossed it because life is too short to use "ok" shaving soaps!
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If I could, I would like this post a couple of times (y)

Question said:
Okay can someone explain this part to me...i thought shaving sticks were meant for convenience and a brush wasn't necessary...this isn't true and you still need a brush for sticks?
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You can shave just with cold water and a rusty blade, or with olive oil, or...so your "NEED" and mine might be very far apart. However if you wan a luxurious and slick lather with lots of protection as far as I know only a decent brush will achieve that - but definitely not with A**O
 
Question said:
Okay can someone explain this part to me...i thought shaving sticks were meant for convenience and a brush wasn't necessary...this isn't true and you still need a brush for sticks?
Click to expand...

You still for sure need a brush. I would imagine gone purpose of the stick is to remove the need for a mug to lather/load soap. The stick allows you to load your face with soap rather than your brush.
 
Okay, tried the Derby stick today. Applied to face and used the brush to build lather on my face...not only did it take way longer than building a lather using soap in a bowl (usually takes me 10 seconds or less), the lather i got was less than impressive.

For my second pass, i tried rubbing the stick into the brush itself and got a very nice lather. Not sure why...maybe it was because both the stick and brush was really wet at that point, but the lather was great and the second pass went much smoother. Gonna have to try this method with my Arko next time.

I could actually smell the Derby during the shave and it was a nice soapy smell...but still smelt too sharp/artificial for me.
 
Question said:
Got them from Shaving Market when i was restocking my blades. Both are 75g soap sticks, made in Turkey apparently and I've read that Derby is made by the same company as Arko, but not sure if that's true.

The Arko stick had a pretty strong, sharp lemon smell when first opened but it quickly faded. It's pretty faint now. It doesnt smell like urinal pucks at all...smells too sharp and synthetic though. Couldn't smell it when I was shaving with it anyway.

The Derby has a weird smell. It's like a mix of soap + lemon, a very strong soapy smell with a faint trace of lemons. Like the Arko, it smells too sharp and synthetic.

I tried shaving with the Arko today, wet my face, wet the stick, tried applying the stick to face...and got pretty much nothing. Just a few white spots even though I was frantically rubbing the stick into my face. I ended up rubbing the stick into the lid of my shaving tin and using a brush to make a lather, but the lather felt too thick and dry and it wasn't a good shave. Am i doing something wrong?

I also read that the Arko stick is pretty soft and easy to mash into a puck, but the one I have is rock hard...
Click to expand...


With Arko, wet your face before hand. Then rub the stick around. It will dry out as you do so (soap absorbs the water) but keep dipping the tip of the soap in water as you go to keep it coming. You can't put too much on your face. Wet your brush and build the lather.
 
@Question try massaging the Arko with strong thumb pressure and you will be able to mould it to a shaving bowl. It will also behave much better getting a lather. If it doesn't want to press into the bowl get a jug and a coffee cup and use a very hot water bath and put the Arko stick without the paper wrapper into the dry coffee cup and leave it sit with a lid on it for about 15 minutes and it will soften enough to mould - remember it will be hot.
 
Question said:
...not only did it take way longer than building a lather using soap in a bowl (usually takes me 10 seconds or less)...
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"10 seconds or less" sounds like you're unlikely to work in enough water to create a decent lather. Even if you bowl lathered with a 10 second load AND used a dripping brush, you still don't have enough time to make a decent lather...

Question said:
...the lather i got was less than impressive.
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Of course! 10 seconds with any soap won't make a decent lather. You've simply loaded your soap.

On top of your "10 seconds or less" load, you'll need another 30-60 secs minimum and up I'd say to generate some worthwhile lather. (And that's ANY soap and ANY type of brush and ANY method of loading.)

To be blunt and to the point: The Arko or Derby soaps aren't failing, it's your lathering.
 
I find with using stick on your face you need a brush with some backbone to get things going otherwise you end up with a layer of pasty soap below the lather.
 
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filobiblic said:
"10 seconds or less" sounds like you're unlikely to work in enough water to create a decent lather. Even if you bowl lathered with a 10 second load AND used a dripping brush, you still don't have enough time to make a decent lather...


Of course! 10 seconds with any soap won't make a decent lather. You've simply loaded your soap.

On top of your "10 seconds or less" load, you'll need another 30-60 secs minimum and up I'd say to generate some worthwhile lather. (And that's ANY soap and ANY type of brush and ANY method of loading.)

To be blunt and to the point: The Arko or Derby soaps aren't failing, it's your lathering.
Click to expand...

By 10 seconds or less I mean that's how long I swirl the brush around on the soap. Applying it evenly to my face takes slightly more time, but not in the range of 60 seconds or anything.

If i swirl the brush on the soap for 60 seconds or so, I end up with WAY too much soap on the brush.
 
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