Portland Shave Soap: Has anybody else tried it or heard of it?

Norfolkdick

Norfolkdick

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3,205
Location
West Norfolk. UK
Greetings

Having failed to find anything at all this morning at the car boot sale (there had been a run on Darwin's and they sold out early) this afternoon I took myself for some retail therapy and ended up scanning the shelves in TK Max for any fragrance/shaving bargains.

I ended up with this:-

Portland Shaving Soap.JPG

This is new to me, anyway it was £6.99 for a 100 gram puck in the fancy little bag and reduced from 16 quid, the contents list shows it is a tallow soap with three different seaweed extracts. I have had a test hand lather and the lather builds super quick (my water is very hard) and the lather shows no sign of wanting to collapse and it feels nice and slippery.

Now 16 quid for a 100 grams of shaving soap is in the humble opinion of this P.O.P. (poor old pensioner) a bloody joke, but what I paid seems reasonable.

Here is the link to their website:- https://www.portlandengland.com/
To my untrained eye, a very professional website and it seems they can certainly "talk the talk". It states the soap is made in small batches in Britain, I wonder by whom? I see the company is based about 20 miles from me at Long Sutton in Lincs.

I will shave with it in the morning and report on S.O.T.D.

Regards
Dick.
 
They kindly sent me the cream FOC a while back to review. A pretty good product, but on the expensive side (at £16 a tube -- if you're paying for it). Sounds like they're pricing the soap in a similar fashion.

It's made by the same people who make the Men's Society cream I believe (at least it's the same company behind them both).
 
I bought one yesterday for exactly the same reasons as your good self @Norfolkdick http://theshavingroom.co.uk/community/index.php?posts/636310/

Firstly thanks for sharing positive initial impressions. The only other hard soaps being manufactured currently in England using tallow are DRH and MWF AFAIK. The ingredients list on the Portland soap show no resemblance to MWF and only the first two ingredients tally with DRH, so I'm still none the wiser as to who makes it.
 
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SeanC said:
I bought one yesterday for exactly he same reasons as your good self @Norfolkdick http://theshavingroom.co.uk/community/index.php?posts/636310/

Firstly thanks for sharing positive initial impressions. The only other hard soaps being manufactured currently in England using tallow are DRH and MWF AFAIK. The ingredients list on the Portland soap show no resemblance to MWF and only the first two ingredients tally with DRH, so I'm still none the wiser as to who makes it.
Click to expand...

Greetings Sean

I'm sorry I had not seen your earlier post, I am unable at the minute to find much more about the company other than the usual directors shareholders etc, it would seem as well as The Mens Society also linked is Mens Grooming Corporation.

If you look up Men's Society there are several grooming products listed some with the Portland label and Men's Society names used (it would seem) interchangeably. I do wonder if this is a business venture that is not doing terribly well and thus stock has been offloaded at a knock down price to TK Max. I could be quite wrong but if we love this soap I can't imagine we will be able to get any more!

Regards
Dick.
 
Norfolkdick said:
Greetings Sean
I do wonder if this is a business venture that is not doing terribly well and thus stock has been offloaded at a knock down price to TK Max. I could be quite wrong but if we love this soap I can't imagine we will be able to get any more!

Regards
Dick.
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That is indeed a risk if it's a decent product. Alternatively it could have been disposed of by a retailer.
 
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I've been using the Portland soap from TK Maxx for the last month on and off.

Ease of Lathering: As you can see below it lathers like a dream even with the hard water of SE London - 5/5
Cushion: Very good again - 5/5
Glide: Good, but not outstanding - 3.5/5
Scent: Salty aquatic. Seems to have reasonable staying power - 4/5
Post Shave: Pretty reasonable, but a post shave product after is a must - 3.5/5
Overall: 4/5

I actually like this soap and would happily use it again. Unfortunately my local TK Maxx (Bromley) has none anymore :(
If anybody sees it in the London area, please PM me

55393a4f6b065e6e5d2eb35e4b5dbdd5.jpg
 
SeanC said:
I've been using the Portland soap from TK Maxx for the last month on and off.

Ease of Lathering: As you can see below it lathers like a dream even with the hard water of SE London - 5/5
Cushion: Very good again - 5/5
Glide: Good, but not outstanding - 3.5/5
Scent: Salty aquatic. Seems to have reasonable staying power - 4/5
Post Shave: Pretty reasonable, but a post shave product after is a must - 3.5/5
Overall: 4/5

I actually like this soap and would happily use it again. Unfortunately my local TK Maxx (Bromley) has none anymore :(
If anybody sees it in the London area, please PM me

55393a4f6b065e6e5d2eb35e4b5dbdd5.jpg
Click to expand...

Agree with you, I purchased some from TK Max too.

Must say at first I was hesitant as I've been stung by buying unknown to me before. But I've been pleasantly surprised by this soap and I use it in rotation once a week at the moment. I've even been keeping an eye open to buy another for stock.

Great soap at a good price.
 
SeanC said:
I bought one yesterday for exactly the same reasons as your good self @Norfolkdick http://theshavingroom.co.uk/community/index.php?posts/636310/

Firstly thanks for sharing positive initial impressions. The only other hard soaps being manufactured currently in England using tallow are DRH and MWF AFAIK. The ingredients list on the Portland soap show no resemblance to MWF and only the first two ingredients tally with DRH, so I'm still none the wiser as to who makes it.
Click to expand...

After being used twice weekly for 6 weeks, I've made little physical impression into the soap. I can only assume it's triple milled which makes it even more of a bargain.
 
We stocked it for a short while and then they just seemed to cease contact, the website link is showing as non secure so I suspect they may have folded?

Shame as it was a good soap though as already alluded too a little to steep at £16.00.
 
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