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A week spending time with Signature Soaps Condate. TLDR: A pretty great soap.
Razor: Karve Overlander Brass
Blade: Kai
Brush: APShaveCo G5C
Pre: Shower
Post: Witchhazel with aloe
After seeing so many positive reviews of the Signature Soaps, I had to give it a go. My favourite soaps of the moment are Mike’s Naturals (Orange, Cedarwood and Black Pepper preferred but currently using Bergamot, Orange, and Ylang-Ylang) and MdC (Agrumes). You may be able to tell that I like Citrus. My week was spent alternating between the soaps so that I could make a somewhat objective comparison; which ended up being 4 iterations with Signature, 1 with Mike’s, and 1 with MdC.
My routine is two pass: one WTG, then a second ATG with some buffing in rough areas. I don’t go for BBS but do need close-and-comfortable.
Every shave was pretty great and the Signature stood out for being able to keep up with what I think are 2 great soaps. It certainly beats the pants (trousers?) off anything available in a drugstore (chemist’s?), including Proraso.
I think I still slightly prefer Mike’s as it feels a bit creamier and has a slightly better post-shave feel. That said, I don’t think I would notice a difference if I wasn’t concentrating on the comparison. I do think that Signature is comparable to MdC and I couldn’t really make a performance choice between those two.
I do have to say that I am not a huge fan of the scent of Condate. I like Citrus-heavy scents and this one wasn’t. I usually don’t have patience for scents I don't like and am happy to toss a full puck after one or two shaves but this one is staying and will complete the cycle as the performance is pretty great. My challenge is that Pasteur's (my only choice for supply in North America that I could find) did not have availability of a scent that I might have preferred at the time I was ordering. I will eventually be ordering more, probably Londinium or Hibernia when the time comes. Although that may be a while as I have 6 pucks of Mike’s and the never-ending MdC to get through first.