Good day everyone,
Let me start by thanking Larry for reaching out and putting the time and effort into this project. Larry is too humble to hype and glamorize his products and I appreciate his tactic of just letting things speak for themselves.
When Larry asked me to test his new soap base I said yes and was skeptical as his current formula in my opinion is pretty solid. That said I was not provided any real information on the soap. Not until after I had used it for a week did Larry and I talk about how different this soap is. I am telling you straight away this is not like anything else on the market currently available...So heres some detail...
The tub of soap that was provided was unscented. This too me is very important because if you have a pleasant olfactory response your mind subconsciously will fill in the performance defects and give a false positive. A neutral scent provided my review to receive merits based only on performance.
What you get in the tub is a soap that is void of any water... It is not an ingredient in this soap. The consistency is a hard croap. I imagine it will set up and be quite firm over time.
Lather: As with all of Larry's soap this lathers very easily. I did not bloom the soap but rather just began using a hydrated badger brush. I swirled for about thirty seconds, adding bits of water here and there. I went to the face and continued to lather adding water. I will tell you that this soap will take A LOT of water and has a very wide range of effective saturation. What I settled on was what looked like vanilla ice cream melted from a Friday night movie marathon on the couch with the dog.. As a test of lather stability prior to my first shave I palm lathered the soap and making the same consistency I just described, squeezed the knot out and set the glob of lather in a clean dry mug and left it there. The next morning, the day of my first shave I inspected the lather and you all know that gas station chili that you look at, scrape the top off and there lies the good stuff.... That is what I experienced. The lather looked the same, had a mild crust on it and when I poked through it still had a creamy lather. So lather stability in my book receives five stars.
Shave: I have made mention in other threads I have very sensitive skin but facial hair like copper wire. Over the years I have established I need a very very slick soap or I will get razor burn. I typically use XPEC or Santa Maria Novella, Baume. Be is also in this mix and in my opinion are the three slickest soaps on the market. What I experienced with this soap is a startle and sudden disappointment in my own ability. I thought I forgot to put a blade in my razor. No I did not!! I literally did not feel the blade cutting my hair. The slickness of this soap is hard to believe. I finished with my first pass and in an experiment I splashed my face off with water, rubbed the little lather that was left on my neck around the rest of my face and did a second pass across the grain. The razor slid effortlessly across my face, NO drag period. I rinsed off for the third, squeezed the left over lather out of the knot and said what the hell, rubbed my face and did a third pass against the grain. To my dismay the razor streaked across my face. I rinsed off and had absolutely no sign a razor had just been drug across my face three times. This is a very bold claim but the slickness of this soap is higher than XPEC and SMN. Period.
Post shave: I live in Nevada and it is very dry here. I typically use some type of balm at least three out of the four days I shave. Reading the ingredient list the skin conditioning properties should be more than adequate so again to give this soap a run for its money I chose to use no aftershave splash, balm or anything just rinsed my face with water and towel dried. Went to work for ten hours got home and throughout the day I never had any dry spot itchy or really any feeling, face just felt good. The post shave of this soap is impressive in the sense it is neutral. If you have oily or dry skin, like a balm or a splash this soap leaves the face in a very neutral position for either. My face did not feel heavy or greasy or overly dry. It just felt conditioned and balanced.
As a conclusion the two areas that this soap shines and I am talking shines like the sun is the slickness. It is really unbelievable how slick this soap is. Second is post shave. I don't know any other word other than neutral to describe how my face was left feeling. It just felt balanced and healthy.
I know I have made some pretty bold statements and there are endless people giving glowing reviews like mine but I would encourage you guys to give this a shot. I truly think Larry has made a soap base that is like nothing else on the market. I have tried all the big name brands and all the artisan brands, some that get hype beyond belief and I can honestly say this soap is a game changer.
I used the same brush and razor for the last two weeks. Morris & Forndran 24mm Polo, Charcoal Goods solid bar level one with a Feather blade.
Well Done Larry
Let me start by thanking Larry for reaching out and putting the time and effort into this project. Larry is too humble to hype and glamorize his products and I appreciate his tactic of just letting things speak for themselves.
When Larry asked me to test his new soap base I said yes and was skeptical as his current formula in my opinion is pretty solid. That said I was not provided any real information on the soap. Not until after I had used it for a week did Larry and I talk about how different this soap is. I am telling you straight away this is not like anything else on the market currently available...So heres some detail...
The tub of soap that was provided was unscented. This too me is very important because if you have a pleasant olfactory response your mind subconsciously will fill in the performance defects and give a false positive. A neutral scent provided my review to receive merits based only on performance.
What you get in the tub is a soap that is void of any water... It is not an ingredient in this soap. The consistency is a hard croap. I imagine it will set up and be quite firm over time.
Lather: As with all of Larry's soap this lathers very easily. I did not bloom the soap but rather just began using a hydrated badger brush. I swirled for about thirty seconds, adding bits of water here and there. I went to the face and continued to lather adding water. I will tell you that this soap will take A LOT of water and has a very wide range of effective saturation. What I settled on was what looked like vanilla ice cream melted from a Friday night movie marathon on the couch with the dog.. As a test of lather stability prior to my first shave I palm lathered the soap and making the same consistency I just described, squeezed the knot out and set the glob of lather in a clean dry mug and left it there. The next morning, the day of my first shave I inspected the lather and you all know that gas station chili that you look at, scrape the top off and there lies the good stuff.... That is what I experienced. The lather looked the same, had a mild crust on it and when I poked through it still had a creamy lather. So lather stability in my book receives five stars.
Shave: I have made mention in other threads I have very sensitive skin but facial hair like copper wire. Over the years I have established I need a very very slick soap or I will get razor burn. I typically use XPEC or Santa Maria Novella, Baume. Be is also in this mix and in my opinion are the three slickest soaps on the market. What I experienced with this soap is a startle and sudden disappointment in my own ability. I thought I forgot to put a blade in my razor. No I did not!! I literally did not feel the blade cutting my hair. The slickness of this soap is hard to believe. I finished with my first pass and in an experiment I splashed my face off with water, rubbed the little lather that was left on my neck around the rest of my face and did a second pass across the grain. The razor slid effortlessly across my face, NO drag period. I rinsed off for the third, squeezed the left over lather out of the knot and said what the hell, rubbed my face and did a third pass against the grain. To my dismay the razor streaked across my face. I rinsed off and had absolutely no sign a razor had just been drug across my face three times. This is a very bold claim but the slickness of this soap is higher than XPEC and SMN. Period.
Post shave: I live in Nevada and it is very dry here. I typically use some type of balm at least three out of the four days I shave. Reading the ingredient list the skin conditioning properties should be more than adequate so again to give this soap a run for its money I chose to use no aftershave splash, balm or anything just rinsed my face with water and towel dried. Went to work for ten hours got home and throughout the day I never had any dry spot itchy or really any feeling, face just felt good. The post shave of this soap is impressive in the sense it is neutral. If you have oily or dry skin, like a balm or a splash this soap leaves the face in a very neutral position for either. My face did not feel heavy or greasy or overly dry. It just felt conditioned and balanced.
As a conclusion the two areas that this soap shines and I am talking shines like the sun is the slickness. It is really unbelievable how slick this soap is. Second is post shave. I don't know any other word other than neutral to describe how my face was left feeling. It just felt balanced and healthy.
I know I have made some pretty bold statements and there are endless people giving glowing reviews like mine but I would encourage you guys to give this a shot. I truly think Larry has made a soap base that is like nothing else on the market. I have tried all the big name brands and all the artisan brands, some that get hype beyond belief and I can honestly say this soap is a game changer.
I used the same brush and razor for the last two weeks. Morris & Forndran 24mm Polo, Charcoal Goods solid bar level one with a Feather blade.
Well Done Larry