Who's afraid of Virginia Woolfat?

If you have to write never ending epistles about a shaving soap, complete with granular analysis you could spend your time more usefully by whipping up a great no brainer shaving soap like Wickham or A&E. Lifes too short!
 
Both from Connaught, my main man; they are a reseller, not a manufacturer, please keep that in mind!

Kent, September 2018, fantastic! Found out later it was MWF, unknown to me at the time, didn't think much of it.

MWF, as Kent was unavailable, July 2020, as they say in the soft sciences, problematic. I could make a very nice lather, unfortunately it dissipated very quickly. When tried as a shower soap, I encountered a significant amount of irritation.

I would try one from Kent again, but it's going to be while for MWF.
 
I tried a sample from @pjgh this morning. It lathered pretty much as easy as most of my creams / soaps. TOBS soap is harder to get a decent lather from. I took a photo for the SOTD thread, with the lather on my face, it was still there after quickly arranging things. It didn't dissipate at all. A pleasure to use.

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Both from Connaught, my main man; they are a reseller, not a manufacturer, please keep that in mind!

It's just a way to work out where the bad batches are to avoid using
 
... and that is the MWF we all know and love!

I think we can say that the current batch is a genuine dud and has been since springtime, maybe April on, maybe May on. I'm still VERY sceptical that this has been an ongoing issue as I have "unlatherable" pucks which lather perfectly well for me, one from early this year in fact.

I'm going to guess that this issue will be supplier agnostic, but hoped to show that we have some commonality with one or two of the bigger suppliers - Connaught, Carter & Bond, Face & Co, etc - and use their muscle to prod Mitchell's. Suppliers (the people ACTUALLY buying from Mitchell's) have a greater clout than us mere mortals.

There is an issue.

Meanwhile, Kent brand seems to be okay and I guess that's down to the brand moving a little slower than MWF itself. What you're buying under the Kent brand is old(er) stock and so still good. In time, that will catch up.
 
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... and that is the MWF we all know and love!

I think we can say that the current batch is a genuine dud and has been since springtime, maybe April on, maybe May on. I'm still VERY sceptical that this has been an ongoing issue as I have "unlatherable" pucks which lather perfectly well for me, one from early this year in fact.

I'm going to guess that this issue will be supplier agnostic, but hoped to show that we have some commonality with one or two of the bigger suppliers - Connaught, Carter & Bond, Face & Co, etc - and use their muscle to prod Mitchell's. Suppliers (the people ACTUALLY buying from Mitchell's) have a greater clout than us mere mortals.

There is an issue.

Who's going to contact Connaught?


...and ordered another Kent right away (just in case)
I've also ordered a Kent puck from amazon £5.95 inc postage.
 
You know the soap: Mitchell's Wool Fat

It's the best soap in the world bar none producing a yogurt thick lather and unrivalled post-shave feel ... and equally the most unlatherable soap in existance.

Of late, there have been complaints (yeah, continued complaints) of the soap producing poor lather which dissipates quickly. Surely, just more folks who can't lather it. Case closed. Curiously, these complaints ("of late") have started to creep in from folks who can lather it. Can. Always could. Cannot any more.

So, what's going on?

Much thanks to a first contributor (who prefers to be unnamed) and to @NatJag who sent me pucks of questionable latherability ...

I have in my possession the following:

Perfectly latherable puck that I use daily - purchased from Face & Co (via eBay) in November 2019
Perfectly latherable puck that I will use next - purchased presumably January/February/March 2020 as that's when it was sent to me
Further puck for consideration from @NatJag - purchased ? (I'm sure he can fill us in) from Connaught

Over on the https://www.theshavingroom.co.uk/community/index.php?threads/mwf-conclusion.52504 thread, there is continued confusion as some folks are buying pucks that they find perfectly good. Some folks are buying pucks that they have an initial problem with and then it works for them. Some folks are buying alternative brandings like Kent and finding it perfectly good.

I was sent a questionable puck back in March 2020 which I lathered up and found perfectly good, which flumoxed me a little and didn't really help the questioning back then. I've set that aside for use after my present puck is finished.

So, what of the latest puck I've been sent?

As someone who has used MWF across more then 10 pucks going back to 2014, I'm someone who can. More than can, I can lather up a gorgeous yogurt thick, overpaintable lather every time, any brush, any water, hot, cold, hard, soft.

Come on, man ... spit it out!

Using my Yaqi Dandelion Cashmere brush, I did not other preparation to the soap than wet my brush in hot water and go in for 10 swirls in either direction as I usually do. Hmmm, okay let's do another 10 in either direction and onto the face ...

For crying out loud, man ... spit it out!

Lather, lather, lather ... Hmmm! HMMM! It's a LOT slippier than my usual soap (remember, one purchased November 2019) and the little lather that is starting to build seems to be moving around together. More water? Okay, it's starting to do something now. What lather is appearing is light and although I have about 10 days growth on me, I can see the lather on my neck just dissipating. Best I could do was a rather wet, slippy, light and airy foam which I think would have shaved me if I was quick.

But, let's not be too hasty and let's just lather up with my usual soap ... which immediately, from 10 swirls in either direction, pulled up a thick cream which I could work around as much as I liked without it dissipating.

Here's a thought ... I also have MWF bath soap, so quick wash off, load up from the bath soap and lather. That's funnily enough VERY similar to the puck from @NatJag, not absolutely the same as it has a different smell and taste (yeah, you always get a bit on your tongue) but the kind of lather is very similar.

Back to my regular puck versus the one from @NatJag ...

Upon use I immediately thought it different. I think it has a different smell, but the first thing I noticed was it was just a LOT slippier. It didn't quite feel like it was "biting" if that's the right word; just gliding around my face without catching or feeling able to build up. I would say it is different. Dare I say it (but do remember, I've just test lathered with two shaving soaps and a bath soap), I'm getting a little tingling which I have not had from previous pucks.

Two things that come to mind (well, three):

First, MWF does not appear (from the ingredients) to have had a reformulation, so ...
1. There could have been a supplier change of one of the ingredients
2. There's been a mix up at the factory and maybe a cross-contamination of product lines or even (probably unlikely) a batch of bath soap made it out as shaving pucks.
I see&feel panic around this soap. So, this soap dig hard into problems.
There's almost no problem at all with any other tallow puck from UK, today.
But, most if not all previous British made puck gone into the sink. Maybe it's time for this, too. Just my recent experience. DR Harris is far better than this, today.
 
I see&feel panic around this soap. So, this soap dig hard into problems.
There's almost no problem at all with any other tallow puck from UK, today.
But, most if not all previous British made puck gone into the sink. Maybe it's time for this, too. Just my recent experience. DR Harris is far better than this, today.
I've used DR Harris, quite a while back. Having now tried good MWF puck, it is better. DR Harris offers a better scent, at twice the price as well. Having said that, you can be 100% confident the DR Harris won't have any quality control issues and therefor lather.
 
... or can you?

Mitchell's is a very well established brand and one which probably sells way better than we can imagine and in volumes that many of the more popular (or apparently more popular) brands can only dream of. All brands of this scale outsource production. Mitchell's is NOT made in a terraced house up in Wibsey - it is made on a huge industrial scale. Brands like Harris or Trumpers could easily fall foul of this. Their price is unlikely to be directly representational of cost of manufacture and everything to do with perceived exclusivity.

But no ... I don't mean to put a dampener on it. It is more likely that a brand made in a certain way will continue to be made that way and continue to be good. Hopefully we can get this message across to Mitchell's and the matter will be rectified.
 
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Where's the lanolin, man?

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