walklikeaduck
Member
Taylor of Old Bond Street
Sandalwood Soap
Purchased from Connaught Shaving (with wooden soap bowl 13.25GBP = 21.18AUD)
*without wooden soap bowl 7.50GBP = 11.99AUD; can be purchased domestically for about 23AUD
Packaging:
Very simple, paper/cardboard-based packaging. I purchased my soap with a wooden bowl through Connaught Shaving because it was much cheaper than buying the TOBS bowl. Since this is a hard puck, the simple packaging is fine, and the soap puck will not be damaged during transit.
Ingredients:
Potassium palmate, sodium palmate, potassium palm kernelate, potassium stearate, sodium palm kernelate, sodium stearate, glycerin, aqua (water), parfum (fragrance), palm kernel acid, pentasodium pentetate, tetrasodium etidronate, linalool, coumarin, evernia furfuracea (treemoss) extract, geraniol, limonene, eugenol, cinnamal, citronellol, ci 77891 (titanium dioxide).
Scent:
For those familiar with the TOBS Sandalwood cream, the soap puck has a similar scent, but in a much more toned-down way; it's much more subtle, and does not linger long, or at all. TOBS Sandalwood does not have an "earthy" sandalwood scent, such as Proraso Red, it has more of a synthetic/perfume smell, but that does not mean it is better or worse, just a different take. One interesting aspect of the soap is that one of the ingredients is treemoss extract, but I really can't detect any of it in the scent, and most of the other ingredients are synthetic, when compared to artisan soap makers. Overall, TOBS Sandalwood soap is very pleasant to smell, an understated, lighter take on sandalwood, and it does not linger too long on the skin, or at all.
Lather & Performance:
*these lather shots were taken after the 3rd pass, squeezed out from my brush.
I would say that this is a "thirsty" soap, it can take a lot of water; I usually squeeze out most of the water from my brush before loading, and then dip my brush with lather into water once or twice while face lathering. However, for this soap, I dipped my loaded brush into water 4-5 times, and it was still a bit drier than normal. The next time I use this soap, I plan to leave much more water in my brush before loading, but the shave was still very good. The soap was fairly slick for a non-artisan soap, and it felt protective, but on the third pass, it was a little thin. However, this could be attributed to the amount of water, or lack thereof, that I used; with a bit more water, I feel like the lather would be much thicker. That being said, making a lather with this soap was not very difficult. The glide was good, and post-shave feel was also nice, but of course, not as great as an artisan. Overall, I the "latherability" of this soap is very good, feels protective, is slick, and the post-shave is also nice.
Post-Shave:
As mentioned above, the post-shave felt slick after washing off the lather from my face, but I couldn't really detect the scent of the soap on my face. I did not feel any irritation after drying off, and my face felt soft.
Conclusions:
Overall, TOBS Sandalwood soap, is a good soap from one of the long-standing brands in wet-shaving. This is a hard puck, so it can take a lot of water, and will last a very long time. If I had to choose from the cream or the soap, I would choose the soap puck. The puck lasts much longer than the cream, and there probably would be little danger of the soap turning bad, whereas the cream might, over time, and I personally prefer soaps over creams. However, if you prefer a stronger scent, I would recommend the cream, since the soap is a much lighter scent of sandalwood.
Would I recommend this soap to anyone who loves sandalwood? Yes.
Last edited:
Yes, the soap is definitely more subdued than the cream; almost like two separate products, in terms of scent.
