Sandalwood Soaps

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I have been doing a comparison as of late with some top tier sandalwood shaving soaps and although I have one left to test I will offer my opinions.

Stirling: Fantastic scent that is just right in "volume". It is totally lineal in that regard, but it utilizes Hawaiian sandalwood which is sweet. Typical Stirling tallow performance, i.e., outstanding. Highly recommended. ;)

Fine Santal Absolut: Take a puck of Tabac shave soap and extract the "grandma's parlor" scent and then instill the scent from vintage AOS Sandalwood, albeit dialed back just a notch or two in potency, and you have this gem. I have a puck of the aforementioned AOS vintage soap for a direct SxS comparison and don't waste your money chasing vintage, buy the Fine. Not only did they replicate the AOS, they did it better (read tasteful) IMO. YMMV. :)

Cold River Soap Works Sandalwood: Stay tuned.
 
I have been doing a comparison as of late with some top tier sandalwood shaving soaps and although I have one left to test I will offer my opinions.

Stirling: Fantastic scent that is just right in "volume". It is totally lineal in that regard, but it utilizes Hawaiian sandalwood which is sweet. Typical Stirling tallow performance, i.e., outstanding. Highly recommended. ;)

Fine Santal Absolut: Take a puck of Tabac shave soap and extract the "grandma's parlor" scent and then instill the scent from vintage AOS Sandalwood, albeit dialed back just a notch or two in potency, and you have this gem. I have a puck of the aforementioned AOS vintage soap for a direct SxS comparison and don't waste your money chasing vintage, buy the Fine. Not only did they replicate the AOS, they did it better (read tasteful) IMO. YMMV. :)

Cold River Soap Works Sandalwood: Stay tuned.
Good post, I look forward to reading future installments.
Why has no one released an album called "Sandalwood & Tallow"?
 
Cold River Soap Works Sandalwood: I want to state off the bat that this does not smell like other sandalwood soaps. The beautiful cedar makes love to your nostrils upon the first whiff and just simply exudes richness & class. Think David Niven sitting in the club holding a brandy sniffer. It just smells so........deep. Having used a tin (they now come in a nice plastic tub) of CRSW in the past I knew how outstanding their performance is. The owner has however "tweaked" the Select formula to be even better, as if that were possible. The lather can only be described as luxuriant. I "bloom" tallow soaps such as this and with a synthetic brush it only needs about 5 secs of loading to make a perfect lather. The resultant shave has it all. Cushion, glide, slickness and the smell, although not overpowering, just lingers sufficiently enough in the background to appease your senses.

There are only a handful of artisan shave soaps at this level. Those of you who have used some of these know that of which I speak. Soaps such as this make shaving an anticipated pleasure and not drudgery. I paid $17 U.S. shipped for this soap and cannot recommend it enough. Simply superb. ;)
 
I have been enjoying several Sandalwood soaps from 7 different vendors and IMO they are ALL different. TOBS, Dr Harris, OSP, Fine Accoutrements, AOS tallow, Catie's Bubbles and Proraso, I enjoy some more than others. Although subjective they are all different IMO.

It was reported a while back that Fine Accoutrements had reverse engineered the Tabac formula and they were now applying such formula to their product line. Did they achieve the same performance? IMO not quite, a subjective topic nevertheless, Fine accoutrements soap offers an excellent performance though and the AS is fantastic ;)

As for scent, Fine Accoutrements claims their Sandalwood scent is inspired on AOS, to my nose they are different, Fine has a kind of spicy note and the AOS tallow ( old stuff ) has a clay note. I have to say that I love them both but sadly I don't think I can replace the AOS tallow with a Fine Accoutrements Sandalwood soap.

I've read in forums that the new AOS sandalwood has the same scent as the old version..... I'm hoping to get the new soap to try. :)

I've been thinking whether to get the Stirling or not and if it is a sweet sandalwood as said by the OP, I will probably give it a miss.
 
Moving right along....

My last sandalwood review is for OSP Sandalwood. I have had a sample "tublet" for some time and have tinkered with it many times. Although some have besmirched OSP for faint scents I actually find them right in the "Goldilocks" zone. YMMV. I actually like their sandalwood smell quite a lot as it smells like no other. If anything, I have let OSP down in that sometimes lathering out of these mini sample "tublets" is akin to making soup in an ear canal. :rolleyes: It is far easier & better to scoop out enough for one shave and press it into the bottom of a bowl and lather it. As with the CRSW soaps any nitwit can easily discern that this is not your average run of the mill tallow soap. It takes a little extra work with my hard water, but work it does and damn well at that. Of all the sandalwood soaps I have tried I could see this one easily being a daily use soap as performance is outstanding in all regards and the fragrance does not hang heavily like an albatross. Very tasteful this one with no scent overload/burnout for your senses and excellent glide & cushion. I wish some seller in the USA would pick this line up again.
 
https://sharpologist.com/2016/09/fine-american-blend-soap-fine-vs-tabac-showdown.html

I have Tabac and Fine Italian Citrus as well and IMO they are the exact same soap as far as any human can distinguish. After usage they look the same, they lather the same and they shave the same except the Fine (any flavor) smells far better. I even have each one in separate tubs of the same make and it is impossible to tell any difference by looks/touch and only by smelling. I suspect that either the Germans have Tabac made in the Netherlands at the same factory as Fine is now made or a Dutch chemist simply reverse engineered it. I'd wager it's not like reverse engineering alien UFO technology or raising the dead as a measure of difficulty. :rolleyes: ;)
 
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