Gannet squad alert! New formula - TESTING

Fourth 'test' shave in as many days - Holy Grail, best ever shave BBS; Holt Grail another best ever shave BBS; Xpec unscented bloody good shave DFS; Holy Grail best ever shave BBS.

This mornings shave had absolutely no right to be a 'best ever shave BBS' - but it was and Holy Grail did it. Same rig as yesterday except a Shavemac brush too small for my fingers and it was a second outing for the Feather in my DLC on a Classic handle. I did most everything wrong - transferred too little Holy Grail into the bowl so it was half bowl lathering and half face lathering; dropped the Shavemac brush into the bowl of water prior to lathering up for the second pass XTG; even clonked the razor down on my face once and didn't cut myself - put that down to luck rather than Holy Grail!

And shaved - lather too thinly spread for my taste but it still performed beautifully so the Feather glided around so smoothly, mowing down a goodly stubble. Even my clumsy, less than 100% presence did not spoil the shave. Amazing! Three out of three 'best ever BBS' Holy Grail shaves with a slightly 'less than' Xpex shave between.

I finished off with Lucky Tiger a/s and then Lucky Tiger 'disappearing cream' a/s cream - but it didn't disappear! Luckily caught sight of myself in the mirror before coming downstairs and my face was still white, covered in a mask of dry white powder, it seemed. Soon as I wet it, the 'powder' disappeared and became a moisturizing film - but that is the first time this otherwise excellent cream had mis-behaved. Weird! but no harm done
 
Holy Grail Win Sharon...No doubt about it.

I have been "testing" the Grail now over the last four days worth of shaves...I won't bore you with all the details, except to say it involved the same razor..7 O'clock new long comb...super Iridium blade ( a new one every day in the name of consistency, A bit extravagant, but there you go) and the same 22mm finest badger brush..

I shaved the the first day in two passes with the Grail soap..one pass with the grain, the second against.......lovely shave, not quite BBS but not far off either..just a slight touch up under the jaw line...

Successive days were a split affair, alternating the first and second passes, using the Grail and another soap of my choice for comparison with the Grail....The brush thoroughly rinsed out between the different soaps...Using all main line quality soaps..even Nanny's original formula..my beloved Neroli.....Result..a resounding win for the Grail.....

I actually prefer the Grail to the Original formula Sharon, now thats quite a surprise for me, I didn't think I would....The Olive oil formula I wasn't too keen on. It performed very well, but it was more of a scent thing with me...I have a strange, very acute sense of smell...Funny nose... some who shall remain nameless might say.

I think you need a small production run of Grail now, to reach a wider audience...But I can see the other two of your ranges being superseded by this new super soap........And here am I...Avid hater and avoider of all things "New and Improved"....Now that has to be the ultimate accolade.

Thank you for letting me try your wonderful new creation ...When you get around to a production run, please save me a tin of Grail in this trial scent variety, I've forgotten what you said it was, something and Grape I think.....Loverrrly stuff..

By the way, I still think "Signature" is the best name suggested so far.. has a nice, classy upmarket ring to it.

You and I must be having a clumsy morning Carl...My heavily, soap laden brush developed a life of its own this morning, and flew from my fingers, blathering Sharon's finest creation across my chest, foaming a swath across the glass of the shower screen, finally landing messily on the tiles and the bathroom rug....Not a good start to the morning, I better be careful the rest of the day.
 
It's the bloody Grail wot did it, Gov'! So damned slippy! (or slippery to the non-Midlanders here).

Innit just the best soap?? I was just sitting contemplating my lower shelf of soaps - all the hard ones - wondering what is going to happen to them. Then my eye wandered ever upward and the question stayed in my mind - croaps, hard creams, soft creams, expensive, ridiculously expensive. What is going to happen to them? Won't be able to PIF them even! Who will want a lesser soap - even a free of charge lesser soap - when the Grail in it's 'grab me' red tin is available. Sharon being Sharon, I bet she doesn't charge half what it's worth and no-one will be excluded from ownership.

Hm! got any shares in shaving soap companies? Sell! Sell! Sell!
 
Thanks guys; I'm pleased to hear that you prefer it to my other two recipes Goldcrest. My life would certainly be simpler if I could stick to just one recipe. And glad you like the scent too. I've been pleasantly surprised at the almost unanimous approval of it, as opinions would usually differ more on a scent. It's a keeper. for sure. I'm tempted to make my life even easier and just do the soap in that scent. But we'll see...
Bechet, I'm sure you shouldn't divest yourself of your entire collection of soaps; isn't variety the spice of life?
I'll be making this today, but am waiting for the new tins before selling.
 
Certainly not the entire collection but a very radical cull is in the offing. As you say, Sharon, variety is the spice. Just collecting them was a lot of the fun, besides.

You're teasing us now, though, aren't you? Won't sell till the red tins arrive - but you know the price already, now, don't you??? We know the scent, the colour of the tins, the brilliance of the product - so we want to know name, price and most important of all - when??
 
How did the soap making go, Sharon? Successful??

See those stainless tins you use for hard soaps - or sell for hard soap use - http://www.nannyssillysoap.com/ps/product.php?id_product=162 - would they be good for Grail? Can't see the size in ml or grams.
 
I finally tried mine yesterday and can only echo the comments above not massive lather but think that was loading from the small tin. Good glide and no drying of the skin after and the scent is growing on me. Definitely better than the original recipe I have.
 
Thanks for the f/b fly3k.
Been having some 'logistical difficulties' today Bechet, but never fear, I'll get there in the end. Still not sure what I'll charge, need to time potting it up and labelling and other aspects of the process.
The stainless steel tins are a good width, about 10cm,, but unfortunately not screw top, which is best for a soft soap as you don't want it to dry out.
 
Tried the new soap on Friday, then long drive to airport and in the air yesterday. First opportunity to post first impressions. Lathered with a newish Vulfix finest badger, producing a decent amount of lather, having smudged a blob in the bottom of my bowl. Lathered over my usual Trumpers Skin food. Nice light grape and citrus scent. Lovely close shave with 2 passes - WTG and XTG and a bit of buffing. Post shave skin-feel quite unlike anything I've experienced before - I used a moisturiser but didn't really need to - and my face felt what I can only describe as squeaky clean. Is it the citrus, something else or my imagination - if it's the citrus I assume a different scent would perform differently? Definitely beats the original and olive oil recipes and would be on my shopping list. I've brought it with me, with Fox's Super Smooth lavender (also in a handy sample size).
 
Three shaves in with the new stuff and I'm very impressed with it. No problems with dryness or skin feeling tight post shave. I get the feeling that each pass achieves just a little bit more than with other soaps but with no downside.
I like the sound of a signature range and pretty much everyone should then understand that this is a top performing product.
The red tin looks good but I don't prefer it to plain silver personally. Whatever you ship it in this stuff will sell fast.
One suggestion. Could you make a pre shave face soap of equal excellence? It might then be possible to get BBS result with a squeegee avoiding all this faffing about with blades and such.
You have an excellent product here Sharon. Thanks for letting me try it out.
 
Sharon, I can't say just how impressed I am with this product! I'll try though.

Error, best shave I've ever had...

I've achieved my best bbs result this morning, and I mean absolute bbs. Never happened before. The closest I've been before was with your neroli soap but I did have some irritation and burn, and it wasn't as close. I honestly didn't think a soap or cream could make such a difference! I thought it was mainly down to technique.

I believe myself to have fairly sensitive skin with a strong stubble but I used three passes - wtg, atg, atg and then a really thorough touch up probably constituting half a pass. I could never achieve anything like this with any other product, I usually leave it with no touch up pass when using your standard soap and just two with Palmolive (my previous favourite).

Lather was huge - I smeared the grail around the bowl which works fantastically well and I'll be doing this always from now - to anybody who hadn't tried this technique id strongly recommend you do! So slick, cushioning, protective, huge, easy to build, wonderful scent, stable... Brilliant.

I don't care about the tin at all but I think you owe it to the product and yourself to package and market it at a premium cost because it really is just that! Really push the boat out on this - perhaps a tin isn't enough. Whatever...

Congratulations Sharon, I hope it does you well. Consider mine a guaranteed order.

Hopefully the only SAD I'll suffer from now will be in which scent to buy this in.

Well done.
 
I don't think it is imagination but there seems to be a lot of shaving soap for sale in BST since this thread kicked off! Could be coincidence, of course, but I can't help thinking there may be a connection ......
 
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