Phoenix&Beau: My vegan & tallow shaving soaps [testers required]

@Stuart no problem mate, it's obvious some if not all of your scents have mis-behaved :eek: We will take stock of your impressions after you've all received the vials I'll put together in the coming days.

Have fun with the soap, fingers crossed!:)

Ps, definitely no citronella or menthol used in the scents :confused:
 
OK, here I go with a review of first use of the soap from Kerry @phoenixandbeau.

Tools of the trade for this test:

New Forest HMW 2224
@phoenixandbeau vegan soap
Dubarry Shaving Bowl
The Shaving Room Bowl
Wolfman WR1
Rapira Swedish Supersteel



I pressed the sample into the Dubarry Shaving Bowl.


I then created a damp / dry brush and loaded the soap for about 20 seconds. You can see the proto-lather already bursting into life.


Next up, I moved to The Shaving Room Bowl and worked on the lather for no more than about 60 seconds. The lather was really easy to produce with just a few drops of water added. Nice consistency which held peaks and no air bubbles visible to the eye.


After painting the lather on the face I began and completed an easy and smooth 2 pass shave WTG and ATG. The lather was really slick and had great glide. There wasn't a great cushion but just enough to hold the razor at bay. The lather also held together well throughout the shave without any noticeable degradation. After the shave, I didn't notice any moisturizing effect and, if anything, the skin did feel a bit dry - not necessarily a problem, of course, as most folk use post-shave balms or aftershave etc. but worth mentioning nonetheless. I would also say, there was easily enough lather to complete a 3 pass shave but I didn't feel I needed it as the Wolfman is fairly aggressive so didn't want to push my luck too far on a first outing with a new soap.

All in all a very nice shave with absolutely no irritation nor redness. The new soap is very good indeed - easy to lather, nice a slick and can easily last the whole shave. A moisturizing effect and some more cushion are really the only two observations I have for areas of improvement but, no question about it, this is a fantastic effort by @phoenixandbeau.

Thanks Kerry for the opportunity to test!
 
That's great reading @Nico1970 - thanks for taking the time to be so comprehensive. You'd like some more cushion & moisturizing; check! The formula is superfatted to 5% and a good dose of vegetable glycerin goes in, post saponification. Nonetheless I'm already mentally adjusting the formula to version 8. Note taking has commenced :), please keep the feedback coming. With everyone's help / comments / suggestions I'm hoping to have a really good vegan soap.

@Nico1970 - was there much soap left for future shaves?

Kindest regards,

Kerry.
 
Last edited:
Hi Kerry will tryand get a pocture of it today, it broke down a fair bit as I rubbed/warmed it up, it is npw grainy similar to caties bubbles LPV, I could be completely wrong but sometimes when my soaps are starting to degrade they form hard white lumps?
 
@Nico1970 got ya, so approx 3 shaves from 10-15g and plenty of lather whilst you're going about it. :p

@Nishy yep, I think the comparison is accurate and the soap (croap) is a soft one. Nice and pliable. Let's see how you find it for shaving. :)

Kerry.
 
This is great fun.
Well, I spread these about the house to separate them, they make great air fresheners.
I shan't comment on the scents just now as mine all seem to be along the theme of lemony and something like menthol as well.
There is generally a very nice smell, but there is something that makes me feel a bit 'heady'

I am fairly new and so not as much experience as many of these guys so I will put all of my thoughts.
I have soft water and generally face lather so I thought that I would do the same as I normally do for comparisons.
I usually use hard soaps and generally add a drop of water to the soap while I shower.
(I like to use that lovely bit of water on my face while loading the brush)
I use a soaked boar brush which I then wring and shake out to load.
Adding water as required to build the lather.

This is quite soft and so pressed easily into a bowl.
It is a little lumpy, I don't know if this is deliberate?

Well, it loaded and lathered really well.
Plenty of lather for three passes.
All was looking and feeling good.
Now, I am not positive on all of the right words to use, but it did feel a little 'thin' when using it.
(Just read Nishy's comments and I think that the word is cushioning. (Protection from the blade, base slidiness))
Not saying it is bad, I am just used to soaps with a 'thicker base' (?) to it.
I also found it a teeny bit itchy, there might be something that I don't agree with in there.

I shall use it again and make further comments on later shaves if I find any different.
 
grarea said:
This is great fun.
Well, I spread these about the house to separate them, they make great air fresheners.
I shan't comment on the scents just now as mine all seem to be along the theme of lemony and something like menthol as well.
There is generally a very nice smell, but there is something that makes me feel a bit 'heady'

I am fairly new and so not as much experience as many of these guys so I will put all of my thoughts.
I have soft water and generally face lather so I thought that I would do the same as I normally do for comparisons.
I usually use hard soaps and generally add a drop of water to the soap while I shower.
(I like to use that lovely bit of water on my face while loading the brush)
I use a soaked boar brush which I then wring and shake out to load.
Adding water as required to build the lather.

This is quite soft and so pressed easily into a bowl.
It is a little lumpy, I don't know if this is deliberate?

Well, it loaded and lathered really well.
Plenty of lather for three passes.
All was looking and feeling good.
Now, I am not positive on all of the right words to use, but it did feel a little 'thin' when using it.
(Just read Nishy's comments and I think that the word is cushioning. (Protection from the blade, base slidiness))
Not saying it is bad, I am just used to soaps with a 'thicker base' (?) to it.
I also found it a teeny bit itchy, there might be something that I don't agree with in there.

I shall use it again and make further comments on later shaves if I find any different.
Click to expand...

LOL, you need to be careful @grarea! The temptation is to stick your hooter into the bag and inhale like a bastard. If you do that, you will end up a bit 'heady' as these are concentrated oils. Best to inhale slowly and sparingly...:)

Note also, when the oils go into the soap they will naturally be diluted so the scent won't just be as 'strong' as in the sample bag test.

You're right though, strategically placed around the house, they do make great air fresheners.

Which scent is your favourite BTW?
 
Hi

Firstly, I have to report that, unfortunately, the scents seem to have blended in my pack into an single scent dominated by lavender so I can't report on the individual scents.

Now to the soap.

Soap is a soft one and has an uneven texture. This is not necessarily an issue. It is in good company. Many batches of Le Pere Lucien share this lumpiness. I did find that the soap was a little too soft for my tastes as it required me to moderate my usual vigorous brush loading to prevent the soap from shredding.

I face lathered (very soft water, Whipped dog synthetic) and produced an excellent lather. It had a slight tendency to dry or 'set' initially so that I had to add a little more water after first lathering. No hardship there.

Lather was very good. Very slick and with adequate cushion. I enjoyed the shave and experienced no irritation and no nicks.

After shave feel was neutral with no particular moisturising but no drying. I personally would prefer a bit of a moisturised feel but that's what balm is for!

In conclusion, a good soap which I would certainly use. I would be elevated a notch, in my view, by a moister post-shave feel.

I estimate that the sample will do about 6-8 shaves but I'll report back on that.

Thanks for the chance to try this.
 
:)
I thought that might be the case with the scents re the dilution.
I haven't needed to shove them up my nose to get 'heady' just having the closed bags in the lounge is doing it for me baby.

Although I did have a bit of a snort when they first arrived and that made my eyes water. (lesson learnt)
All of mine seem to be along the lemony lines, all a bit of variation on a theme, is that right?
Are we narrowing this down or are they all meant to be quite different?
 
Firstly the soap...

Initial impressions were that it strongly resembled a croap, not that's a bad thing, but it will almost certainly result in a lower shave / soap ratio than a hard soap. This should be remembered when setting prices / container sizes.

Equipment today was:
  • Gillette pre-shave wash
  • Gillette Black Beauty razor
  • Nacet blade
  • Muhle Black Fibre 21mm synthetic
  • Small double skinned stainless steel bowl
After pressing the sample into the bowl, I initially went with a brush fairly well loaded with water. The soap started producing proto-lather almost immediately despite my hard water, but initially this was a bit too runny, so I poured away some of the liquid and continued. I then continued face lathering and after a little more work a usable lather appeared.

When I started shaving the lather gave excellent glide and in my opinion certainly enough cushion. I had more than enough lather for my second pass and again the quality was good, possibly a little better as the lather had dried slightly.

Post shave my face felt neither overtly dry or moist, but no issues with that.

To sum up this soap has outstanding glide and every other aspect is very competent. Combining my own experiences with others, it does however appear to have a narrow sweet spot regarding water during the lathering process, but when you hit the results are very good indeed. I'm certainly more than happy to continue using this sample.

As for the scents. Unfortunately all were to a degree masked by a mix of lavender and menthol, but the undertones in Boudicea do stand out very positively
 
Chaps, this is really good reporting back; thanks you all so far. I'm at work right now and will have more time this evening to look at folks comments in better detail.

Re the scents, I will be sending you all more secure samples that should avoid cross contamination of fragrance. All six are very different and much of that has clearly been lost.

I'll be back this way later :)

Kerry.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom