Review Tim's soap

stillshunter

stillshunter

a man of resolve, a man of conviction
State Convenor - ACT
Group Buy Associate
2015 Sabbatical Fail
Joined
Apr 24, 2014
Location
Walbunja country
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Reviewed two scents in the Tim's range: Blue Suit and Breakfast of Champions (BoC) for the suds sampler 'challenge'. Big thanks to our resident Sudsman @SydBJW for these generous samples. From what I can tell the soaps are identical beyond the scent, so I've bundled them together, except for...
the scents between these two are very different. First whiff of the BoC gives me chocolate and coconut. But oddly not Golden Rough, because there's a hint of citrus at the back..maybe orange? It's very interesting as it sounds edible but doesn't smell it. Meanwhile, the Blue Suit is the scent of the classic office worker. No not photocopy paper and cake crumbs but more in the elevator with the young thrusters coming back from lunch. It's a classic fresh aquatic scent, not offensive but not me - interest in that scent waned when I stopped using Cool Water (back in the 90s). So from the two I personally prefer the BoC.

Now to the common - which is not a call on the lather as it is far from common. Though then again it seems typical for modern soaps to lather on sight. The Tim's really does explode. I found the structure is quite tight and quite tolerant of over-hydration. Should mention too that the scent of the Blue Suit seems quite linear, the scent remains unchanged through lathering, however the BoC evolves and I pick up more spice and earthiness. This is a very interesting scent indeed!

Putting the structure of the lather to one side, applied to the face this lather is the business. Offers excellent protection and decent glide. It could have more glide for the blade but then it had too much glide when I tried stretching the skin - even with alumed fingers. So I think I'm becoming a little glide-obsessed of late. The lather, like many other modern soaps could be more stable, it lasted longer than the likes of Catie's Bubbles, but its integrity waivered over time - it did tend towards dissipation and drying towards the end of the pass. Some reapplication was necessary; BTW this is not a deal breaker for me but I know it is for some, hence why I mention it.

Post-shave skin feel is very nice at first. Slick at first rinse but tends towards drying the skin as the water does.

So....
@filobiblic metric® - BUY IT!(y)
@Mark1966 's stillsy's super special shaving soap sample shenanigans smiley scale system® it's an easy "(y)(y) - Good soap, a worthy one to keep but missing something"

On balance I quite like the Tim's Soap. I had no expectations - as I'd not heard of the soap before it arrived TBH (then again with soaps I am getting like I did with Triple-J many years ago. I went from knowing all the tunes and the artists to...Tim who and Beaver what?). It has been the best performer of the suds sampler so far. If you twisted my arm I could easily own a puck of the BoC...without hesitation.
 
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Yep indeed!
 
Korbz said:
Great review mate. Can't wait to try them!
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Mate I'm very keen to hear your version of events. Be careful though, as I fear this Tim's business could lead one into temptation. It's good, very good.....but not sure if it's the best the US has to offer....so is it CRSW good? Hmmm....
 
Korbz said:
Now that's just temptation to buy some crsw for comparison lol!
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Not for comparison purposes, there's a few soaps every wet shaver simply needs in their cabinet. CRSW happens to be an essential one for the stack besides the Jabonman, MWF, MdC, Ree....ummm...yeah you'll be needing some.
 
I have a sample of the Greek Peach, also from @SydBJW. I have tried it a couple of times but I feel I am not getting a good lathering due to the shape of the sample. If I can flatten it out a bit more I may have another go at it.

Was a bit sweet to me, but different and that definitely gets my attention.
 
Monsta_AU said:
I have a sample of the Greek Peach, also from @SydBJW. I have tried it a couple of times but I feel I am not getting a good lathering due to the shape of the sample. If I can flatten it out a bit more I may have another go at it.

Was a bit sweet to me, but different and that definitely gets my attention.
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Yeah mate the samples had the consistency of crumbly feta, so I portioned out a piece and thumbed it into to bottom of a larger bowl. Found that easier to charge and then to bowl lather....trying both techniques to get a gauge of the preference of each suds sampler soap.
 
Preface - I will load some images of lather at the end of this post, and talk about blooming soap.

Gear - 34c, Omega 49/Semogue 1800/Mensbiz Super Badger, Voskhod

So I've just completed my 3 days of shaves this morning with Tim's Breakfast of Champions/Blue Suit and would rate (y)(y):whistle:... It wasn't the best at anything, but was up there in everything. Great all round performer, which I will certainly be looking to include in my stash (probably in one of their other scents though).

Scent
This is where the soaps slightly falls behind a must have rating for me. Scent strength was not equal to that of other artisans (for the samples) in that it was quite faint. What I did get from both were not what I would call polarising scents. Breakfast of Champions to me was a marriage of MWF and an Iced Coffee. This was my favourite of the 2. The coffee notes were quite subdued, and could have been a little stronger for me. Blue Suit reminded me of getting into a lift in Sydney with a heap of suits, literally. Fresh and aquatic type cologne scent.

Ease to lather
Bowl lathered for both soaps, and the consistency really was like crumbled feta. It did feel a bit dry so I pressed it into the bowl and threw some water in for about 30 secs to soften it up a bit. Used both boar and badger over the few days and didn't have any trouble with either. Tim's took a lot less water than the tallow based one's I've been using the last week, however a great result was easy enough to come by.

Protection & Glide
As you will see from the images, the cushion and consistency was great. Glide, whilst not being at Shaver Heaven levels, was more than good enough for me to use buffing strokes without irritation. The lather didn't dissipate over 3 passes with touch up at the end (included photo from after touch up).

Post-shave feel
Benchmarks for me are MWF and B&M currently, and this did not meet those standards. It did come close though. Didn't get the dry tightness that I've had from some, and couldn't resist doing the face rub in the car on the way to work.

Thanks to @stillshunter for the opportunity to review these soaps.
 
Got a good shave from my Greek Peach sample this morning, after slowly getting more moisture into it I was finally able to flatten the 4 cubes of it into a nice flat surface to load off. A couple of drops of water mid-load and the Plissitane did the business.

Scent is subjective, it was nice but not great in my book. Slick and protective lather though.
 
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