Wickham Soap Testers

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Wickham Super Smooth

Darron very kindly sent me a free sample of his Club Cola super smooth soap and in return I said I'd give him some feedback.

He posted the sample out to me on Wednesday and I got it Thursday, so full marks for customer service. The sample is also a very generous size. Based on how much I used for last nights shave there's plenty of soap for probably at least 10 shaves.

It's soft enough to scoop out with your finger and lathers up very easily with little effort. The scent - Club Cola - is fantastic. I found it to be quite subtle but addictive, kept sticking my nose in the bowl for another whiff. I got a great shave from it, very comfortable, and it felt very protective.

If you haven't tried the Wickham soaps, I'd recommend you do. I was very impressed and look forward to trying the other scents.

Big thanks to Darron for sending me the sample. And from a personal perspective, as someone that finds it hard to stick to one soap and not fill the shelf with as many as I can, I think the new 70g size will be spot on. There'll be plenty of shaves in it, but you should at least be able to finish the tin without buying too many others in the mean time [WINKING FACE]
 
RE: Wickham Super Smooth

I was lucky enough to be another beneficiary of this generous offer. I have to say that I am not a big fan of the scent (to each their own)! It certainly lathers extremely well and the sample is a generous size! Certainly one to go on the list. Thanks for the chance to try this!
 
Hello all, I've been absent from this board for quite awhile. I have been sent a couple of soap samples from Fox and I thought I'd start a thread for discussing the testing.
I believe there are several other testers present, so perhaps we can keep our posts in this one thread, instead of having lots of individual threads?
 
Good idea, Dubster.

My samples arrived yesterday afternoon - Darron sent a sample of the coconut hard soap and a sample of Super Smooth Spice Trade, a tribute to Old Spice.

This morning I shaved with the hard soap which I had easily thumbed into a small plastic bowl. The coconut scent is pleasant, strong, and lasts a good while. I whipped up a tremendous, stable lather in no time and, despite using an elderly Super Max Blue Diamond, got a smooth, protective, and very easy shave which very unexpectedly yielded a BBS.

I'm very impressed with this soap and am excited by the new scents that are going to be available with it. If I had three hands, Darron, it would be three thumbs up, no problem.
 
Samples arrived here yesterday. One Super Smooth Spice trade and one Hard Soap in 'Sugar Rice' flavour.

I used the hard soap for this morning's shave and I'll post impressions now rather than wait to use the Super Smooth since that would be a 'Scent only' experience as I already know and love it.

Equipment was 'Braveheart' head on Templ8 Handle, Gillette Silver Blue blade, Muhle synthetic brush and soft water.

At the outset, I will say that I lack experience in using hard soaps as I have always used soft soap or cream. I attacked the block with a slightly wetter than usual brush and found that, unsurprisingly, it took me a bit longer to get a good load onto the brush. I then bowl lathered and produce a good lather which I thought was not quite as thick as the Super Smooth. Thick or not, I found it very protective and I was able to get BBS, with what is a quite agressive razor, without any irritation or nicking. With skin like mine, this is a first-class result as I always expect a bit of neck redness. The after-shave (Myrsol) stung only slightly which is also unusually good news! Skin feel afterwards was excellent - neither dry not oily.

I know Darron is unconcerned with the scent for this round of testing but I will say that while the 'Sugar Rice' was not unpleasant, I wouldn't buy on the strength of this scent. It is innocuous but not impressive to my nose.

More anon!
 
For the hard soap, you may want to "bloom" the soap by letting a tablespoon of hot water rest on the top for at least a minute. Dump water and attack with a middling wet brush. Works well for me and requires a bit less elbow grease.
 
OK, So I received the Coconut, and sugar rice in the hard soap.

Firstly, the scents.
Sugar Rice.
I need this in my life. This just transports me to happy places. The smell IMO is an incense type smell. It takes me back to my university days, when there were a few "new age" type shops selling crystals and hippy stuff. The shops always smelt of a fragrant smoky sweetness, and I always bought incense sticks (to get rid of the smell of teenager) to burn in my room. None of them quite had the same smell the shop had.
Fast forward a few years and the same smell seems to emanate from Spa's in quality hotels. The sort of place that charges you over a hundred quid for a massage, but you end up with a steam room, sauna, various water jets and plunge pools, and at the end they leave in a relaxation room, darkened with plinky plonky music and a relaxing beautiful oriental smell.
Well, this is that smell. It's the smell I tried to get in Uni. It's the smell that tells me I am a pampered, lucky man, and I am going to feel good about myself all day.
It's got wood, smoke, sweetness (vanilla) and oriental spices.

Coconut.
Doesn't need describing does it? Well, I think it does. You see the cocunut smell is there. Sweet, almost surprisingly sweet, but wait a while and a background of something else comes in, something a little muskier. I think it may be a touch of something woody. Did you put a tiny bit of sandlewood in there? Or something a bit like Oak? It just has a background smell of something that makes me think of a really old scotch whisky, or a red wine thats been in oak casks.
It makes me think of the creamy coconut milk, mixed with the husky shell.
Once it's been used, and the scent has "dried" there is the traditional coconut "flesh" smell left over. And it lasts well.
So, it feels way more complex than your normal one dimensional coconut smell.

OK, after that long old bit of waffle, how does the soap perform?

Well. Interesting. I've used it twice now. The first was a disappointing disaster. The second time I learnt from my mistakes and got a great lather.

This is NOT a swirl twice and start lathering type of soap. Mantic's youtube video's always amaze me as he only swirls for about a second before going to the bowl and getting mountains of lather. I swirled for 15 seconds or so, with a light touch and a boar brush. I made a nice lather, it gave me great shave, but the lather disappeared on the second pass.
I get this exact same problem with Proraso green soap, and I know others have no problem, so maybe it's me.

Like I said, I learnt the second time. This soap just doesn't take water like the supersoft does. The supersoft you can just go on adding water and it carries on being brilliant.
This stuff hits a "cliff". Add a bit too much and it becomes watery and disappears quickly.
So if (like me) you like to wash off all the soap from your first pass, and then apply the lather to a wet face, the extra moisture can mean the difference and cause the lather to disappear.
Today I stopped adding water when the lather was still quite thick and creamy, and the lather remained for a few passes.

The slip is great, the lather feels luxurious, and overall its an improvement on the last hard soap Fox sent out (wasn't it called 1952 or something??)
I just got complacent with the super soft, and the fact I can throw water at it.
Keep the lather on the thicker side and it's as good as any other hard soap I've tried.
 
For all who was on the testers list of Super Smooth who has not yet received any of this new soap. Please be patient as I have another batch waiting to get out to you guy's, it will be with you soon. :D

Thanks guy's some really useful feedback already. Wow Rob that is a cracking review of the soap, thank you.

Global, I don't have much experience with synthetic brushes, but from what I have read, don't they generally produce better lather compared to their badger and boar brothers?

Some info about the hard soap being tested.

Ingredients: 100% vegetable based.
Potassium Stearate, Potassium Cocoate, Potassium Oryza Sativa, (rice bran oil) Potassium Apricotkernelate, Sodium Stearate, Sodium Cocoate, Sodium Oryza Sativa, Sodium Apricotkernelate, Aqua, Glycerine, Parfum.

The retail price is currently at £4.35 per 75g puck.

Testing now is to tweak it's performance to suit as many of the testers as best I can without raising the final price of the soap.

I have also put out two extra scents, Coconut and Sugar Rice that didn't make it on the new scent list. I did initially say that I am not interested in what people make of them but because of the feedback they have been getting I would like to know as they may make it on a revised scent list at a later date. Chris I like your descriptions of them especially the Sugar Rice, as this one nearly had the place of Dandyism and your description could also be describing that scent too.

Thank you for to all that have taken part and the time to leave feedback.
D. :D
 
In my own experience, synthetic brushes give a much better lather than badgers and boars. I have hard water and my Muhle and Edwin Jagger silvertip have been a God send to me.
 
Hard Soap - Sugar and Rice flavour - day 2!

Noses are funny things! I feel as though Cruciate and I are writing about two different soaps when it comes to scent. What he describes is a scent combo I really like but I don't get it from this soap. What I smell is pleasent and slightly 'antispectic'. It would not be a 'rush out and buy it' scent for me. Batch differences??

Now - the important bit. Same gear as previously. I adopted Newkie's suggestion of a pre-soak for the soap and was rewarded with a much quicker, thicker and creamier lather. Good news there.

I nicked myself a couple of time on this shave but that was because of a fairly aggressive setup and being in a rush. Shave was otherwise very nice with very good glide and feel.

Post-shave feel was first-rate with virtually no allum or A/S sting and skin nicely moisturised without being oily.

I am now ready to make the following definitive statements about this soap.

This soap has the best post-shave skin feel I have ever encountered and allows me to get a BBS shave with NO irritation or skin damage. I will buy this as soon as commercially available but would prefer a different scent.

Finally, a question. Is the brown colour of the soap an artifact of the scent ingredients or is it intrinsic? I think the colour, while irrelevant to the shaving hobbyist might discourage casual purchases.

I'm going to try the Spice Trade Super smooth tomorrow and will post scent impression.
 
Gave the Super Smooth Spice Trade a whirl this morning.
I scooped a bit out with my finger, spread it on my face and went to work with a damp boar. The scent is a fantastic imitation of Old Spice. SWMBO was immediately taken back to the smell of her Grandad's bathroom where she used to sneak a sniff of his Old Spice bottle by the sink. I wore it for a while in my teens and it was a trip down memory lane for me too. It is at the perfect strength for me whilst lathering - strong but not overpowering.
As previously stated, you can throw water at this all day and it retains a lovely glossy, yoghurty state. With such a large sweet spot, I would recommend this to any newbie.
Got a great shave with plenty of slip and protection. What's not to like?

As for the Sugar Rice, I have only had a sniff so far. I again can only echo what was said by cruciate. SWMBO instantly said "It smells like Gaia" Gaia is a shop in my town that sells all of the crystal, incense, new age stuff. I like the scent and will report back when I have a shave with it in the next day or so.
 
Sodt, soft water. I used a combination bowl and face lathering technique - compressed all the bits of the coconut hardsoap into a shaving bowl, softened it with a few drops of water left while I farted about. Lather began as soon as I started swirling but didn't build in th bowl so much as on the by now well loaded brush. Face lathered a treat - surprised me for a hard soap it was so good. Nice easy WTG, good slick and slide. Wet the brush tips and swirled in the bowl some more and then face lathered and got a thicker result, a bit drier and thus a tendency to dry out. Same again for third pass.Gave me a bloody good, comfortable shave with a Lab Blue in an ARC Weber.

Scent - a bit cocnutty and that 'bit' suits me to the ground.

Conclusion: a bloody good hard soap! Fine as is for me.
 
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