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What is wrong with the Speick reformulation? I'm about to finish my tallow sspeick and I was hoping the reformulation would be similar.
Who's afraid of Virginia Woolfat?
- Thread starter pjgh
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What is wrong with the Speick reformulation? I'm about to finish my tallow sspeick and I was hoping the reformulation would be similar.
OP
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That is an interesting analysis ...
It's right there in the data.
I've geeked out and compared the primary ingredient with my score out of ten across 90 soaps that I have in (Shit! I have more than 90 soaps???) to come up with:
Stearate 8.7 < Average deviated down by Speick (Tallow) which I really don't rate
Palmate 8.5 < Average deviated up by De Vergulde Hand and L'Occitane Cade, both of which I really rate
Tallowate 8.3 < Curious! Average probably brought down by Williams and DR Harris neither of which I'm right fussed with
Yeah, number of Palmate-first soaps that I have is very light - De Vergulde Hand, L'Occitane Cade & Bowl, Mitchell's Wool Fat, Truefitt & Hill Sandalwood, Godrej Shaving Round & LEA Classic. Maybe if I had a stack of "crap" Palmate-first soaps that I'd no longer use the average would be right down. As it happens, I have "the good ones".
Right from the off, I equated the new MWF with T&H.
It's right there in the data.
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@PLANofMAN
Great observation about stearic acid being one of the first two ingredients. I'd say it applies to most if not all of my favourite shaving soaps.
Great observation about stearic acid being one of the first two ingredients. I'd say it applies to most if not all of my favourite shaving soaps.
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Like @Bogeyman said, I’ve not tried a reformulated tallow soap sans tallow that was as good as the original.
I like a few non tallow soaps like Wickhams, but in my experience soaps that lose their tallow through reformulation become inferior.
Speick tallow was perhaps my favourite. For me it had everything, slip, slide cushion and a great post shave non irritated feel.
Luckily, I have about 10 in reserve , but I could shave exclusively with that formula and be very happy.
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As it happens, I do occasionally use De Vergulde Hand. It's a decent soap, but for me it is very drying on the skin, likely due to the palmate in it, I realize now. I'd never paid attention to the ingredients before.
It's what creates a 'creamy and thick' consistency to a lather. Take it out, and you'll wind up with something thin and airy most of the time. As @pjgh alluded to above, there are some exceptions, but they are for the most part, exceptions, and not a typical result.
Copying a post from @Nav here:
"The biggest problem with these reformulations is that they generally replace the tallow with just stearic/palm/palm kernel/lauric acid.
They ignore the fact that tallow contains oleic acid, which is moisturizing for the skin whereas the ingredients they substitute in the veggie formula don't contain the oleic fatty acid.
They should add butters or oils high in oleic acid to the same amount of oleic acid in tallow (roughly 1/3rd) to get anywhere close to matching the tallow soap.
This is why NONE of the reformulated veggie soaps I've used have become better than their tallow versions!"
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Some great points, I agree with them all.
Along those lines some of my favourite soaps, the classics like tallow Palmolive, Tabac, MWF, and even Arko, they all have Tallow, Stearic Acid and Coconut Oil. For the latter Tabac reformulation, not only did they take out the tallow, but they took out the Coconut Oil as well and replaced it with just Lauric Acid. I've not used the most recent Tabac but it's supposed to be a good soap nonetheless, but doesn't create the same thick dense lather the old tallow/coconut oil based one did.
The new Lea shaving stick is pretty good, it's Stearic Acid, Palm Oil and Coconut Oil based, but I don't find it to be as moisturizing as the tallow version it replaced. La Toja has a similar ingredients list and it's excellent.
Shaving soaps with Sodium Palmate & Potassium Palmate as the first two ingredients, like Pre de Provence, I'm less enthusiastic about.
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Are we soon going to be stocking up on tallow soaps before they die out.
OP
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I've got plenty ... going back to the 1930s. There's always be vintage and that'll almost certainly include tallow for the remainder of my life. Failing that, I'll just use what I have which might well last me for the remainder of my life.
OP
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... which would include the new MWvF.
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What is this 'soon' you speak of? Just about the only tallow soaps left are artisans, and even there, the numbers are dwindling. Arko and Derby and a few British soaps are the only 'commercial' soaps left, and everyone expects the British tallow soaps to be dead within a year or two.
The best time to stock up was five years ago. The next best time to stock up is now. Five years from now might be too late to stock up.
Don't forget, there will always be vintage soap somewhere.
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DR Harris has Tallow, which is one I like and recently started to use. Could they eventually follow the herd.
OP
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Likely ...
Which would probably mean that Cyril R Salter, too. That, and Trumpers Officer & Gentleman and Oxford Blue, which appear to be the same formulation/producer.
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Mine are the same. 
OP
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Well, at least we now know batch numbers can cover both brand names. Kinda makes it look like batches are larger, rather than smaller per run.
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I read somewhere that MWF batch runs are 10,000 pucks per batch, and from the batch number covering both MWF and Kent, they switched formulas mid batch. It's likely that the Kent soap got the last of the tallow formula.