Thought I would add my thoughts to forum on this soap since one only other has that I can see - @eggbert
I was generously given a sample of "Sandalwood Rose" by @Lifes a Peach. I opened the letter containing the sample at the office and was immediately taken by the scent! I left it on my desk for the remainder of day pausing occasionally to lean back, close my eyes and slowly inhale though my nose. It's safe to say I am big fan of the scent. That was off the dry 1/2 puck.
This is a tallow based, soft soap so after a initial false start in a small diameter container, I pressed it into a large diameter one which resulted in it being very thin. This may have contributed to it's short life - see below.
After hearing of this soaps difficulty in lathering, and watching a number of instructional videos, I see many relocate the soap from the supplied tub to a much larger one. The one I used measured 9cm diameter but the ones in the videos were larger still. They looked to be similar to "How to Grow a Mustache" soaps. I'd guess in the 12-15cm range. I am not sure this is required because if found loading to be good in a 9cm. Smaller will product issues in my limited experience.
Boar, (I used a Semogue 1800) or dense badger is required. I had intended to give my Duke2 a go, but I ran out of soap before I could. Which ever brush you use it needs density, and (I am told) backbone. I am not convinced the latter is true if you bloom the soap first and soften the top sufficiently. What you do need to do is load the brush well.
There is a lot of negative talk about this soap. I have read plenty about hard water, but I have also read plenty who report that hard water or RO water, they can get a good lather. I am not convinced it is an issue but something to be aware of. It may be. I don't believe I "hard water" (over 200ppm) but since my test kit seems to be too old and not working I cannot tell. The issue I believe is adding water too fast, and the tipping point is fine. One drop too many and your lather will fade fast.
So, how what worked for me? Use a wide mouthed container as mentioned already. Use a brush with good density - boar worked well for me. Bloom the soap - I used cold water. Squeeze all the water out of the brush. You want to start too dry, Load well, in fact start to build your lather in the soap dish. You need a lot of soap, a good volume of thick proto-lather as they call it. As you need water, use very little. One or two drops MAX. I dip the very tips, and then give the brush a single shake to knock off excess before going back to the tub. Load, load, and load some more. When you go to your face, wet it, then pat dry with a towel. Lathering on your wet face is a sure way to kill it especially between passes. Wash, wet, pad dry between passes. Brush strokes seems to be beneficial but I did use circular scrubbing motions about 30% of the time. Slowly add water in tiny increments. You need to build it very slowly. You should end up with a thick, very glossy lather, then STOP! Don't push it. I found it would look great, work great, but still be too wet and be fading by the third pass.
The lather to me is the thickest I have seen even compared to other Tallow soaps. Heaps of cushion, glide till the cows come home. It's like uncooked merangue and like I said, very glossy. After shave you can still feel the slickness left behind, moisturized skin even. I am guessing it has a very a higher than normal tallow content. Performance is of course to shelf. Is it the best soap I have tried? No, but it is certainly one of the best.
So this was three shaves, and the sample was completely gone. This shocked me a little and indicates you will go though this soap much faster than you are used to. Now, this might have been a quirk of me spreading the sample thin over the base of the tub. It may not be the same in full form. That said... a soap that runs out faster isn't really all that bad is it? More opportunity to buy more soap.
The other let down for me was the scent all but disappeared in lather form, especially on/after the second use. I have a dull sniffer and I couldn't detect much scent once lathered. After the initial joy, this was disappointing. I kinda "over bloomed" the sample on the second round - maybe I leached all the fragrance out then?
Summary:
This is, as reported, is an excellent performing soap. I do love the performance it gives but man do you need to work for it. There are others that perform just as well I think, that lather easily and quickly. Is it worth the effort? Maybe. I like a challenge, so I will likely buy some of this soap - think of me as an Android user. You maybe an Apple user, and "just want it to work" without the hassle. The other disappointment was the lack of scent on the face. This is where it needs to work, not in the tub but I will reserve judgement as it maybe due to the treatment of the sample. Will I buy some - very likely.
I was generously given a sample of "Sandalwood Rose" by @Lifes a Peach. I opened the letter containing the sample at the office and was immediately taken by the scent! I left it on my desk for the remainder of day pausing occasionally to lean back, close my eyes and slowly inhale though my nose. It's safe to say I am big fan of the scent. That was off the dry 1/2 puck.
This is a tallow based, soft soap so after a initial false start in a small diameter container, I pressed it into a large diameter one which resulted in it being very thin. This may have contributed to it's short life - see below.
After hearing of this soaps difficulty in lathering, and watching a number of instructional videos, I see many relocate the soap from the supplied tub to a much larger one. The one I used measured 9cm diameter but the ones in the videos were larger still. They looked to be similar to "How to Grow a Mustache" soaps. I'd guess in the 12-15cm range. I am not sure this is required because if found loading to be good in a 9cm. Smaller will product issues in my limited experience.
Boar, (I used a Semogue 1800) or dense badger is required. I had intended to give my Duke2 a go, but I ran out of soap before I could. Which ever brush you use it needs density, and (I am told) backbone. I am not convinced the latter is true if you bloom the soap first and soften the top sufficiently. What you do need to do is load the brush well.
There is a lot of negative talk about this soap. I have read plenty about hard water, but I have also read plenty who report that hard water or RO water, they can get a good lather. I am not convinced it is an issue but something to be aware of. It may be. I don't believe I "hard water" (over 200ppm) but since my test kit seems to be too old and not working I cannot tell. The issue I believe is adding water too fast, and the tipping point is fine. One drop too many and your lather will fade fast.
So, how what worked for me? Use a wide mouthed container as mentioned already. Use a brush with good density - boar worked well for me. Bloom the soap - I used cold water. Squeeze all the water out of the brush. You want to start too dry, Load well, in fact start to build your lather in the soap dish. You need a lot of soap, a good volume of thick proto-lather as they call it. As you need water, use very little. One or two drops MAX. I dip the very tips, and then give the brush a single shake to knock off excess before going back to the tub. Load, load, and load some more. When you go to your face, wet it, then pat dry with a towel. Lathering on your wet face is a sure way to kill it especially between passes. Wash, wet, pad dry between passes. Brush strokes seems to be beneficial but I did use circular scrubbing motions about 30% of the time. Slowly add water in tiny increments. You need to build it very slowly. You should end up with a thick, very glossy lather, then STOP! Don't push it. I found it would look great, work great, but still be too wet and be fading by the third pass.
The lather to me is the thickest I have seen even compared to other Tallow soaps. Heaps of cushion, glide till the cows come home. It's like uncooked merangue and like I said, very glossy. After shave you can still feel the slickness left behind, moisturized skin even. I am guessing it has a very a higher than normal tallow content. Performance is of course to shelf. Is it the best soap I have tried? No, but it is certainly one of the best.
So this was three shaves, and the sample was completely gone. This shocked me a little and indicates you will go though this soap much faster than you are used to. Now, this might have been a quirk of me spreading the sample thin over the base of the tub. It may not be the same in full form. That said... a soap that runs out faster isn't really all that bad is it? More opportunity to buy more soap.
The other let down for me was the scent all but disappeared in lather form, especially on/after the second use. I have a dull sniffer and I couldn't detect much scent once lathered. After the initial joy, this was disappointing. I kinda "over bloomed" the sample on the second round - maybe I leached all the fragrance out then?
Summary:
This is, as reported, is an excellent performing soap. I do love the performance it gives but man do you need to work for it. There are others that perform just as well I think, that lather easily and quickly. Is it worth the effort? Maybe. I like a challenge, so I will likely buy some of this soap - think of me as an Android user. You maybe an Apple user, and "just want it to work" without the hassle. The other disappointment was the lack of scent on the face. This is where it needs to work, not in the tub but I will reserve judgement as it maybe due to the treatment of the sample. Will I buy some - very likely.
