Sharing some love

I've used the soap and splash twice now. Once with a boar brush and once with a badger brush. Great results both times but I will continue to use the combo with different water and loading ratios to see what I prefer. I have found the residual slickness to be very good and it bursts into lather very easily. I'm going to see how much water this can take on next time around. Lovely scent on this set too!
 
fly3k said:
I've used the soap and splash twice now. Once with a boar brush and once with a badger brush. Great results both times but I will continue to use the combo with different water and loading ratios to see what I prefer. I have found the residual slickness to be very good and it bursts into lather very easily. I'm going to see how much water this can take on next time around. Lovely scent on this set too!
Click to expand...

That is also my plan, I have one synth brush I hate, but will still give it a chance with this soap and the badger and boar. The big badger I expect to have it chocka with lather, the boar not so much and the synth skimpy. Hope to find out a good water to soap combo to get as slick as possible lather, will use a scuttle, a bowl and face lathering.
Might shave tonight...but right now the sofa is calling me
 
First impressions.
The soap:
The scent is quite complex and I may be wrong but I initially detected a floral, citrus note, followed by sandalwood and musk.
James told me he'd tweaked his base recipe. So I expected it easy to lather, thirsty and very slick... I wasn't disappointed. The soap exploded into a lovely easy lather which gave amazing glide and protection.
The Aftershave:
James told me it was a new recipe. I'd never tried the original OSP splash, so had nothing to compare. The scent is lovely. A much stronger version of the soap and has great longevity and felt great on the face. However my initial observations were that the liquid wasn't quite homogeneous, with some floating oils. I got round this by giving the bottle a vigorous shake.
I'm hoping James can explain this issue.

I'll be using the soap and AS for quite a few future shaves so, looking forward to reporting back.
 
Electrif said:
First impressions.
The soap:
The scent is quite complex and I may be wrong but I initially detected a floral, citrus note, followed by sandalwood and musk.
James told me he'd tweaked his base recipe. So I expected it easy to lather, thirsty and very slick... I wasn't disappointed. The soap exploded into a lovely easy lather which gave amazing glide and protection.
The Aftershave:
James told me it was a new recipe. I'd never tried the original OSP splash, so had nothing to compare. The scent is lovely. A much stronger version of the soap and has great longevity and felt great on the face. However my initial observations were that the liquid wasn't quite homogeneous, with some floating oils. I got round this by giving the bottle a vigorous shake.
I'm hoping James can explain this issue.

I'll be using the soap and AS for quite a few future shaves so, looking forward to reporting back.
Click to expand...

Hi all. The aftershave does need a shake before use. Should have mentioned that. Sorry!
 
Apologies for the late update.

I received the soap and AS on wednesday. Package arrived at work and throught out the day I was taking sneaky sniffs. The scent was very familiar but I couldn't place it and it was so annoying! I didnt shave that evening, but I did a couple of test lathers.
First attempt was thin and airy but I think that was due to too much water.
Second attempt I used a damp badger to load then added water bit by bit as I face lathered. I ended up with a nice thick yogurt type lather.
Scent sitting nicely in the background but not too overpowering.

Tuesdays shave was a blood bath, (Oren with a Feather Pro, Stirling soap) I had loads of weepers around the jawline so I was a bit hesitant to shave on thursday in case I opened them up again. Eventually decided on a Razorock 0.68 plate and a Polsilver. It is the mildest razor I own.

Soap was very easy to lather, nice thick clots. A 3 pass BBS shave with not a single weeper. Soap was slick and gave more than enough protection. Post shave skin was soft, but not greasy or dry. AS didn't sting but I thought the scent could have been a little stronger. (Maybe because I didn't shake the bottle??)

I normally shave every coule of days, but used the same set up on friday with exactly the same results.

I can't really think of anything negative to say about it.
It's been a while since I finished the last of my OSP soaps so unfortunately can't do a direct comparison, but I am more than pleased with this soap and look forward to using it over the next few months (years)

Tonights shave will be a Blackbird and Polsilver. Report back later.
 
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My turn, I stuck to my usual horsehair brush and bowl lathered,too much water (residual in the bowl ) told me this was not going as expected...just a thin watery bubble bath, rather than try retrieve the situation I started afresh...there is plenty.
On this attempt I managed to get a decent enough lather to shave, but had to top it up so to speak, I found the glide and cushion to be quite poor.
I completed my shave but was not happy with my findings, I dug out a big badger to test that out and lo and behold the soap was literally 100% better, so the horsehair will be condemned to other cream soaps, Although the improvement in lather was great, I did not get the chance to test slickness...being clean shaven, but I have high hopes. Next up was my synthetic which I hate and only keep around to give me something to swear at, it performed way better than the horsehair, but not enough to want me to use it.
Next shave will defo be the big badger, or maybe a smaller one, but defo a badger, I did not find the soap thirsty compared to others but as with any new soap you vary the water to suit. The scent was very very well paired to the aftershave and I liked that, it was not overpowering but sat well and remained constant throughout.
Back to the A/S, I noticed the a/s seemed to get better after a hour or so and had great longetivity... I may already have said that.
Overall the only downside for me was the glide/cushion, but I am quite sure that was my fault by using the wrong brush, I will see how my next shave goes and will start off with a badger, I would be interested to hear other testers views on brush selection and results.

Bob.
 
@Bob1955

I have to say I am an all synthetic man here but so far 'yes' I have found there is quite a difference in lathering between the two brushes I use.

The Cadman Tuxedo I find takes quite some work to lather up when compared to the Razorock 400. Likewise face application was much easier with the 400 whereas the Cad made heavy work of it all. I think the Cadman is much more suited towards harder soaps.

I find very much the same with Signature Soaps which are very similar in body to the James Riley samples.

But isn't that what brushes are all about?
 
Yes of course, but the difference between brushes varies more than I would ever have thought before I got into this. The only soap I know of which recommends a badger is MDC, it would be good if soap manufacturers stated " in their opinion " a certain brush is best, I think that would be helpful, I have about a dozen brushes but really only use maybe 5 regularly. I wish I could get on with synth's but it does not float my boat, I have a triple milled soap I may try it out on again, but I'm not confident, I hear soooo many people loving their synth, maybe I have a duffer, it is a omega and very soft which really again is not my thing, I prefer a stiff scritchy number.

Bob.
 
I will try a boar and a badger next, I am confident the lather will improve for me when the correct choice of brush is made, I have been using the horse more often than not recently, but that counts for nothing if the brush is only good on certain soaps.
My annoyance, displeasure, with synths is probably because I only own one, the large omega, I am now tempted to get a smaller shorter synth and try that, out of the three I tried the synth did come in a easy second, so there may be hope for me :)
The horse failed miserably tbh...off I go to browse stubby synths.

Bob.
 
Satanfriendly said:
@Bob1955

I have to say I am an all synthetic man here but so far 'yes' I have found there is quite a difference in lathering between the two brushes I use.

The Cadman Tuxedo I find takes quite some work to lather up when compared to the Razorock 400. Likewise face application was much easier with the 400 whereas the Cad made heavy work of it all. I think the Cadman is much more suited towards harder soaps.

I find very much the same with Signature Soaps which are very similar in body to the James Riley samples.

But isn't that what brushes are all about?
Click to expand...
Satanfriendly said:
@Bob1955

I have to say I am an all synthetic man here but so far 'yes' I have found there is quite a difference in lathering between the two brushes I use.

The Cadman Tuxedo I find takes quite some work to lather up when compared to the Razorock 400. Likewise face application was much easier with the 400 whereas the Cad made heavy work of it all. I think the Cadman is much more suited towards harder soaps.

I find very much the same with Signature Soaps which are very similar in body to the James Riley samples.

But isn't that what brushes are all about?
Click to expand...
Very interesting. I tend to use badgers mainly. Well, 99% of the time. I'll revisit it with different brushes.
 
Second shave, this time using a Yaqi synthetic, which is a softer brush and the No.8 soap again lathered brilliantly.
The slickness and cushion is superb. I particularly like the residual slickness which gives enough slide for touch ups.
I'm really warming to the scent and to have a matching aftershave, which incidentally I today used without finishing with a moisturiser.
My face feels great, no drying at all.
 
Third shave in and face is really liking the results. This time I used a Yaqi Moka Express synth, which again lathered the soap with ease. I'm really loving the scent.

Again, thanks James for the really generous amount of soap you gave us. When you said you wanted long term tests, you certainly meant it.

I've did see a post about @James Riley d'ardenne short & bell soaps and there was a version called No.8. I didn't buy any of that range of vegan soaps, so, I'm wondering if the scent profile is similar?
 
Shave 2, a much better experience than shave 1, for me, it is defo the brush, Tonight I used a medium sized badger and had it full of lather within 30 seconds, I added small amounts of water as I face lathered and the lather became better and better as I went along, still having the notion of lack of slickness and cushion I had to push it from my mind to stop me from compromising the shave.
Using my Engles Lafayette, the blade glided over my skin and immediately my confidence was restored, and I completed the shave comfortably and with no nicks or red stuff.
I did say in my first shave post I was confident the soap would come good for me and it did, after my shave I tried to lather the synth but to no real avail, I gave it the same time as the badger but it did not produce anything like the badger in quantity or quality, I was going to buy another synth but if it turns out the same then that would be a bit stupid, I get on great with all badgers and boars and even normally a horsehair so I see no point in trying to " like " a synth.
I'm sure I can get more out of this soap with better water addition and just watching closer the " gloss " which provides the glide.
It is only shave 2 so a good bit to go yet, but going by tonight's shave it feels a well balanced scent with good glide and cushion which imo is generated by the brush type, if I can generate a lather in 30secs with a badger or beat a synth for 3mins till my arm gets sore...it is a no brainer for me, I appreciate people don't like the idea of using badger for brushes because of their vegan lifestyle or just because of the cruelty that is allegedly being inflicted on them, unfortunately many animals suffer in a similar way, but in some countries this is their custom, I certainly do not Condone that, but China has many strange customs and food preferences that we could never understand.....im drifting OT now...lol.
Looking forward to shave 3 where a boar will be used probably with a C-Mon or dubl duck....

Bob.
 
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