Thank you for this comprehensive and very honest review
@PLANofMAN.
I agree with absolutely everything that you say and I think we are absolutely on the same page in terms of our thoughts about the relevant soaps. I have to confess to a little bias towards the new soap, really because I thought the initial blow of negativity was unfounded with many, well ... blowing off without actually having tried it.
Your thoughts on cost are bob-on! Personally, I think it is very much the same soap as T&H which costs ... what, four times as much? I think it is absolutely in that tier of hard British and French soaps like T&H, Floris or Pre de Provence. Appeal, likewise, well I'm reading that folks who either didn't get on with the classic version or could not lather it and now very much "Fat Heads".
In complete agreement, I still say classic MWF was a unique soap that was a country mile ahead of everything else that I've tried. I suppose that some folks had problems generating a lather made it that little bit more edge, or cult? Dunno. The new formula is, as you rightly say, "just" a good soap. I think I said it somewhere above (or in another thread) but classic MWF was that 10+ out of 10 for me as it had that
je ne sait quoi that lifted it beyond that logical 10/10; the new formula is a solid 8/10 and I can tell you ... a soap has to be pretty special (or generally vintage) to get into the 9/10 in my estimations, while only Savonniere du Moulin (and vintage Coty Avocado) hits the full 10/10 (Martin de Candre gets 9.9/10).
In terms of where this all sits with this thread, well the intention was to try to get some actual facts, some actual data around that general "I can't lather it" and see if we could split those who could not against those who had actually bought a genuine dud. Seems that while the genuine duds did exist, they were pretty few and far between ... and perhaps not entire batches.
I guess the purpose of this thread is now closed, but great to see it morphing into a sane and rational appreciation of the new formula soap - again, "Who's afraid of Vegetal Woolfat?".
*Oh, and I read on another forum that Mitchell's have committed to a revision of their box design and to drop the 1893 statement.