Barrister's Reserve lavender

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3,477
Location
Cumbria, England
Following a recommendation from @Bogeyman I ordered a tub of the above from Maggard Razors. Maggard again provided sterling service with fast dispatch and the soap arrived in eight days.

Presentation is really good with a high-quality plastic tub which looks like glass and very nice waterproof label. Performance is also excellent. This is a thirsty soap, the proto-lather goes through a strange stage of developing a slimy consistency which I have never seen before, but continue adding water and it comes good and forms an excellent peaky lather which is very slick and protective. Post-shave there is no dryness and both shaves I've had with it so far have been excellent.

I've deliberately not mentioned the scent yet. I've tried at least half a dozen lavender soaps and creams trying to find one with the scent that I wanted and was beginning to lose hope, CF is excellent but I prefer soaps to creams so even that wasn't perfect, although it did have the closest scent. The search is over, this smells divine! It's a gorgeous natural-smelling pure lavender. The scent is apparently based on Caldey Island lavender AS which has been described as "simply the best lavender soliflore on earth" by the perfume critic Luca Turin. Apparently Luca knows his stuff as this is exactly the scent I've been looking for. The soap's scent is quite strong and I can catch a faint whiff of it for a couple of hours after shaving.

Bottom line, if you like lavender this is a must-have.
 
@chris.hale, many in the USA consider the B&M Reserve line to be THE best artisan soap extant. I have only used a few Reserve samples a few times and the remainder was bartered out for other stuff. Not enough times IMO to make a cogent decision. How does it stack up against your previous best performance wise only?
 
@chris.hale, many in the USA consider the B&M Reserve line to be THE best artisan soap extant. I have only used a few Reserve samples a few times and the remainder was bartered out for other stuff. Not enough times IMO to make a cogent decision. How does it stack up against your previous best performance wise only?

Absolutely top notch. I have a few soaps that are so good trying to find the best one would be splitting hairs, it's up there with those. Scent aside I don't find it to be better than P&B, Stirling or Brutalt Bra but it is easily as good and (that's) enough to earn it a permanent spot.
 
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