Monday, May 29, 2017

A Closer Look at the Rad Soap Co Gentleman's Shave Bar

May 29, 2017 0
I like going to farmer’s markets and craft fairs to discover the different handcrafted items.  Particularly, I like to see the bath and body product artisans.  Especially if there is shave soap and other men’s products involved.  
Gentleman's Shave bar by Rad Soap Co.
I was at the Troy Waterfront Farmers Market in Troy, NY some time ago and found the stand for RadSoap Company. They had a good amount of products on display but one in particular grabbed my attention.  It was a bar of soap packaged with a paper band around it that pictured the Rad Soap Co. logo, a barber pole, and a moustache.  It only listed the ingredients and the words “Mens Shave Bar” on it.  It was a 3oz cube of soap that smelled nice and was reasonably priced (around 5 dollars at the time). So, it was yet another wet shaving impulse buy. The packaging didn’t have any directions or even a detailed description.  But the company’s web site did provide a little more detail.  
The Soap Fit Perfectly in my Old Spice Shave Mug
On the site it is listed on site as Gentleman’s Shave Bar and is described as: “A thick lathering shave bar crafted with Bentonite Clay.” The website also noted it is scented with Plumeria and Lime and goes on to further describe it as “… a moisturizing and smooth-lathering bar of soap to gently cleanse and prep the skin for shaving” as well as it not containing parabens, sulfates, Phthalates, harsh chemicals, gluten, GMOs, animal products, or nut oils.  The packaging has since been updated since I purchased mine.  I'm not certain if the formulation has changed, but the ingredients listed on the site match what is printed on the label of the bar I purchased.

Ingredients listed on the packaging
The directions/suggested usage from the site:
  • Gently massage bar onto moistened skin, or badger brush creating a thick lather.
  • Apply lather generously to desired areas.
  • Shave desired areas as you would with a shaving cream.
  • Rinse clean with water.
One of my Shave Of the Days when trying out this soap.
This block of soap fit nicely in my Vintage Old Spice Shave Mug. For my first go at this soap, I used my Col Conk badger brush. I wet it and set about swirling it over the block of soap.  While it started to foam, it didn’t yield that yogurt-like consistency that I was hoping for.  After about a minute of swirling it over the soap, I attempted to face lather.  But, much like loading the brush, it didn’t build into one with that dense, yogurt-like, consistency.  It produced a generous and bubbly lather seemed to fade after applied. After about 45 seconds, I noticed some thinning out of the lather. It did have a modest slickness to it, which is probably just a trait it has for simply being a bar of soap.  Even though the razor glided over my slick and soaped up face, I could feel that wasn’t offering the quite the protection that I was hoping for.  Though, I did finish my shave and without irritation, nicks, or cuts.
It produced a generous amount of bubbly lather
Figuring that it might have been bigger knot, I tried lathering this soap another time with a smaller brush.  But the results were still the same.  Finally, I tried massaging it onto my face and then lathering with a brush in Arko Shave Stick-like fashion.  Unfortunately, this didn’t work at all for me.  I got a small amount of bubbles on the face and a little that ran down my hand as well as brush handle.  So, I had to abandon this lather and move on to a different soap to finish the shave.

After about 45 seconds after applying, the lather seemed to thin 
I like the Rad Soap products.  The company is a purveyor of natural products and they have a Natural Insect Repellant that my mother really likes.  But, for me, the Gentleman’s Shave Bar didn’t offer the thick, stable lather that I was hoping for.  The soap smells nice and it didn’t leave me with a feeling of residue on my face.  So, personally, I’d most likely use this in the routine as preshave soap to help soften my stubble rather than a shave soap. 

Have you tried any of the Rad Soap products? Please leave a comment and let us know.


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Wednesday, May 3, 2017

Colonel Conk Bay Rum Shave Soap

May 03, 2017 0
Colonel Conk’s Bay Rum shave soap was my introduction to this popular wet shaving scent.  I think it may have been one of the first five shaving soaps I used.   I really like this soap.  Though, it probably shouldn’t have been one I started out with.  Not that it was the soap’s fault, but at the time I was using an inexpensive boar brush with a small knot.  I didn’t soak the brush and probably didn’t use enough water.  The resulting lather and protection I got wasn’t the greatest.   So, I put the soap away for a little while. 
I get the best results when using a badger brush. 
After I got more experience under my belt, along with amassing and using more brushes, I was able to get a better feel for the amount of water a soap uses to give me a lather that I like.  With the Col Conk Bay Rum Soap, I am able to get a good lather with a horse hair brush, a boar brush, and even synthetic brush.  However, I feel like I get my best lather with a nice sized badger brush, such as the Fine Accoutrements Badger Brush.
With the "Super Bar" I'll tend to keep it in the plastic clamshell.
Prior to the release of the Col Conk natural line, the company had four scents of shave soap: Amber, Almond, Lime, and Bay Rum.  Of the four, the bay rum scent was the last to be released.  Col Conk’s Bay Rum shave soap is available in a 2.25 oz puck and a 3.75 oz “Super bar.”  They are packaged in a plastic clam shell.  While the label indicates  “Glycerine,” “Avocado Oil,” and Vitamin E, other ingredients aren’t listed on the label.  After some searching around the web, there was a thread on a forum where someone published their correspondence with the Col Conk company listing the ingredients of the soap. 

 Ingredients from the thread:
Triethanalamines 
SLES (a variation of Sodium Lauteth Sulfite) 
DI water 
Propylene glycol 
Soap Flakes 
Stearic Acid 
Tatrasoddium EDTA 
Polysorbate-20 
Color 
Fragrance

 I get a nice lather with this soap that provides good protection and a nice glide.  With the super pucks, I’ll tend to keep the soap in the clam shell packaging and load the brush from it. Personally, I have a harder time loading the brush from the smaller clamshell packaging.  So, I’ll typically store the 2.25 oz pucks in a mug.  I’ve seen some wet shavers microwave the soap to make it a bit more malleable to fit the mug.  This isn’t something that I’ve done (yet).   I happened to have a Seneca Restaurant Ware Coffee mug that the 2.25 oz pucks fit perfectly.
The 2.25 oz puck fit perfectly in a Seneca restaurant coffee mug.

Scent-wise, I don’t find it to be particularly strong.  It has a nice aroma but it isn’t overpowering when sniffing the open container or even when lathering.  Col Conk’s bay rum scent does smell different than a number of bay rum scents that I’ve tried.  The description that comes to mind is that it is a bay rum on the sweeter side.  If there were a bay rum hard candy … I could envision it smelling like this shave soap.
Col Conk Bay Rum Soap in a 2.25oz Puck 
Do you like the Col Conk Bay Rum Shave Soap?  Please leave a comment below and let us know what you think.




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