- Joined
- Monday August 31, 2015
...The above said, I actually do prefer Speick and Cella / Vitos,...
I agree 100%. Speick tallow stick for the win.
...The above said, I actually do prefer Speick and Cella / Vitos,...
I've tried a few tubs of MdC in the past few years. The last time, it was when I used up an entire tub of Fougere from start to finish. It lasted exactly 100 days. It was OK, but not the best ever. I haven't been tempted to use MdC again for several years. My personal observations are that (1) it costs too much; (2) it is not slick as I like in comparison to many others, particularly when doing the final smoothing and buffing pass with water only; and that (3) there is an unpleasant background chemical scent that is common to every tub I've ever tried. When the rose version came out, I was able to get a sample from someone in UK, and the rose scent was too strong for my tastes.
Well had my first shave tonight with my Dovo and MDC fougere, it really was superb, faultless and very smooth and comfortable, it was one of four samples I bought and this was the first of the four, I can see me buying this. I have a new to me vintage shell strop with a silk linen strop, I think this linen strop has made a big difference to my edges, what I thought before really good now has a different level....but with three changes...the mdc soap and the strops it could be all things combining or even just one, but something has changed and i'm going mostly for the strop, all my shaves have improved since I " Refurbished it" but I must admit I do like the mdc, wish they would bring it down in price to around £5 a tub
I have seen some going in the marketplace a bit cheaper but used...I may go down that route if it becomes available again.
Hope you enjoy it.Ach!!!... just bought a rose scent MDC, Call it a late Christmas present
Rose is by far the scent I like best of all soaps. Natural and a real pleasure.Hope you enjoy it.
Russ @RussellR5555 will be a good guinea pig. He's a big fan of MdC!Morning all, when this thread was first posted i followed it with a little interest, i must admit that i had seen the Martin de Candre soaps in the past but had never paid them too much attention as they were frankly out of my price range. So after this thread was posted i revisited the soaps and took a closer look at the ingredients, and being an amateur soap maker thought "I can make that!" So i did.
The ingredients for this soap are pretty basic and inexpensive, stearic acid, coconut oil, touch of salt bit of glycerin and saponified with potassium hydroxide. Their website gives some clues as well, it's made with the hot process and it has a long curing time, although some of this is open to interpretation, soap makers like hot process because the soap is essentially ready to use straight away, though most will cure for a week to ensure saponifacation is complete and to dry out just a little more, so a long curing for a hot process soap could be two weeks, or it could be a year.
Anyway i finished making this yesterday and already the soap is fairly hard, harder than i expected, and a pure white colour. I'm going to let this cure for a minimum of four weeks and see how it goes, and will report back. Having never tried the real deal i won't be able to make a comparison but i'll be able to say whether it's a decent shaving soap or not.
Oh, and there may be a couple for me to give away in the future, my tub is full and i had enough to make a couple of extra pucks, but i'll start another thread for that nearer the time, i'd love for someone who uses the real deal to make a comparison.
Ach!!!... just bought a rose scent MDC, Call it a late Christmas present
Morning all, when this thread was first posted i followed it with a little interest, i must admit that i had seen the Martin de Candre soaps in the past but had never paid them too much attention as they were frankly out of my price range. So after this thread was posted i revisited the soaps and took a closer look at the ingredients, and being an amateur soap maker thought "I can make that!" So i did.
The ingredients for this soap are pretty basic and inexpensive, stearic acid, coconut oil, touch of salt bit of glycerin and saponified with potassium hydroxide. Their website gives some clues as well, it's made with the hot process and it has a long curing time, although some of this is open to interpretation, soap makers like hot process because the soap is essentially ready to use straight away, though most will cure for a week to ensure saponifacation is complete and to dry out just a little more, so a long curing for a hot process soap could be two weeks, or it could be a year.
Anyway i finished making this yesterday and already the soap is fairly hard, harder than i expected, and a pure white colour. I'm going to let this cure for a minimum of four weeks and see how it goes, and will report back. Having never tried the real deal i won't be able to make a comparison but i'll be able to say whether it's a decent shaving soap or not.
Oh, and there may be a couple for me to give away in the future, my tub is full and i had enough to make a couple of extra pucks, but i'll start another thread for that nearer the time, i'd love for someone who uses the real deal to make a comparison.
Very interesting reply.
Have you ever had a chance to use 3P? The ingredient list is very similar to MdC but 3P is a croap to begin with but if the lid's left off then it becomes a very efficient hard soap in a short amount of time.
I'd be intrigued to find out how hard your MdC clone is once it finishes curing, especially in comparison to your tallow hard soap ('Bazzlobra' is my name for it) which might be one of the hardest soaps I have ever come across.
Hi, no never tried 3P, i'm afraid i'm not a fan of the almond/marzipan scent at all so it's totally off my radar. I'm surprised that you find my tallow soap is that hard, i don't find it any harder than OSP or any of the soap sticks that i've used, still as long as it works eh?
I'll update my findings on the MdC clone when curing is done.