A&E Asian Plum
Plisson Synthetic
Gillette Flare Tip
Personna Lab Blue
Mysrol Emulsion
Big thanks to A&E UK who provided the sample, they are currently only active on Facebook but I hear that a website with store is in the works.
Okay, where to start? It arrived this morning and I could smell it through the envelope... Scent is
very strong,
very sweet and
very synthetic. It seemed strikingly familiar to me but I couldn't place where I'd smelt it before but I have it now: Comfort cherry blossom and sweet pea fabric conditioner! Which we actually have a bottle of in the house so I compared them side by side, yep very similar but if anything the Comfort is the more delicate scent by quite a margin (!)
Consistency is a paste, complete misnomer to call this a soap (just a pet peeve of mine, nearly all artisans are guilty of it.) I treated it like a cream and scooped some of the sample off with a finger, rubbed it into my stubble and face lathered with the Plisson synth to keep boar induced variables out of the equation, finicky things those piggies. Fast lather production, little to no effort required, it took loads of water and ended up a dense shiny lather. In a nutshell performance was indistinguishable from B&M Glissant, if I'd just been handed the sample without being told who made it I would have guessed B&M. No drying issues post-shave, though when rubbing my face to check for any missed stubble I discovered I was literally "squeaky clean" which I've not experienced before.
So fairly good performance but hideously unsuitable scent for a shaving soap IMO, I remain utterly dumbfounded at those calling these "elite" soaps... I know, YMMV and scents are subjective but I'm really coming to understand Steve and Yuri's distaste for these scented candle/fabric conditioner scented soaps, it wouldn't matter but the fact people rave about and pay "top dollar" for them is just so depressing