Pre-shave: Dr Bronners Liquid Eucalyptus
Lather: Col Conk Bay Rum
Brush: Turkish No7
Razors: Merkur 25C Open Comb and Gillette ’58 TV Special TTO, both with a Trig blade
Post-shave: Cold water rinse, alum and Krampert’s Finest Bay Rum
The Crabtree & Evelyn was one of the first soaps I bought after getting into traditional wetshaving, based mostly of the reviews available on the Norwegian webshop I bought it from. Yes, I bought this before I discovered the wide range of inexpensive hobbeist-retailers who shares my passion for a good shave – but I don’t regret buying it even at the higher price I paid.
C&E have a fair-to-decent reputation online as far as I can tell – overall good soaps that smells and shaves well. It isn’t as moisterinsing as Mike’s soaps, but it’s somewhat unfair to compare the two – one is machine made with a slightly scary list* of ingridients, the other is made by an artisan. The C&E Sandalwood comes in a nice wooden bowl though, so that’s a definite point in it’s favor.
The scent of the C&E Sandalwood might not be everyones cup of tea, but I rather like it myself. If you like natural and slightly old-fashoned scents – and lets face it, many wetshavers do – you’ll probably like the scent just fine. Building lather is easy with the C&E soap, every single brush I own does a great job of it. Like most other soaps it’s important to add enough water, but once that is taken care of the resulting lather does a pretty good job of providing cushion and glide.
Where the C&E Sandalwood fails is providing moisture; it does a better job than some other mass-market soaps I could mention, but falls well short of the Golden Standard**. It is heads and shoulders above anything that comes out of a pressurised can though, andfor those with dry skin a proper moisturising aftershave will fix any lingering dryness.
If you can live with a soap that don’t moisturise too well, and you like Sandalwood, you could do a lot worse than picking up a tup of Crabtree & Evelyn Sandalwood Soap.
*) Sodium palmate, potassium palmate, sodium palm kernelate, water, glycerin, potassium palm kernelate, stearic acid, fragrance, isopropyl myristate, tocopheryl acetate, bisabolol, sodium chloride, BHT, tetrasodium EDTA, tetrasodium etidronate, pentasodium pentetate, linalool, benzyl benzoate, benzyl salicylate, limonene, coumarin, titanium dioxide (CI 77891), iron oxides (CI 77492), iron oxides (CI 77491), iron oxides (CI 77499), yellow 5 (CI 19140).
**) Also known as Mike’s Natural Soaps…
Pre-shave: Dr Bronners Liquid Lavender
Lather: C&E Sandalwood
Brush: Semogue TSN 2012 LE
Razors: Merkur 25C Open Comb and Gillette ’58 TV Special TTO, both with a Trig blade
Post-shave: Cold water rinse, alum and Krampert’s Finest Bay Rum
A pretty nice-looking one too, even if I would prefer not having the screw in the top.
More details – and perhaps just as important, the files you need to print one – over at Thingiverse.
Pre-shave: Dr Bronners Liquid Peppermint
Lather: Mama Bear’s Awakening
Brush: Vie Long 14033
Razors: Merkur 25C Open Comb and Gillette ’58 TV Special TTO, both with a fresh Trig blade
Post-shave: Cold water rinse, alum and Krampert’s Finest Prototype Menthol
Pre-shave: Warm water rince
Lather: Arko Cool-Mint
Brush: Turkish No6
Razors: Bakelite Slant with a Persona Platinum
Post-shave: Cold water rinse, alum and Krampert’s Finest Bay Rum
The handles are rendered from the same parametric file – the inner spirals is an attempt at making make-shift screw threads.
Gotten a pretty bad cold – not feeling for slicing myself open if I cough, I just have to deal with not shaving…
With my last order from Mike’s Natural Soaps, I picked up an Orange & Black Pepper Shave Stick.
Basically, everything I said when I reviewed Mike’s soaps holds true for the shave stick, except it being a stick. It is worth noting that Mike’s is a fairly thirsty soap, so you might want to pick a brush that holds water well for face lathering.
Bottom line? Mike’s great soap in a more portable format – how can I not recommend it?
Pre-shave: Warm water rince
Lather: Mike’s Orange & Black Pepper Shave Stick
Brush: Vie-Long 14033 mixed horse-badger
Razors: Bakelite Slant with a Persona Platinum
Post-shave: Cold water rinse, alum and Krampert’s Finest Bay Rum
Slightly rushed this morning, but still a DFS.