Hi Pete!
Nice link, kinda like Tobin Fetters, watched him a lot the last months.
Pete is it possible, that you have different soap bases? The Le Mafioso didn' t lather as well as the Gunslinger did today - today the lather was like buttercream.
For me the postshave skincare feel is not as good as it is after Stirling soaps or the best I have with the PAA soaps - I have a feeling of tension in the skin.
Don' t know if others have that too?!?
By now my favorite soap from you is Miami nights.
Greetings
Christian
Hi Pete!
Nice link, kinda like Tobin Fetters, watched him a lot the last months.
Pete is it possible, that you have different soap bases? The Le Mafioso didn' t lather as well as the Gunslinger did today - today the lather was like buttercream.
For me the postshave skincare feel is not as good as it is after Stirling soaps or the best I have with the PAA soaps - I have a feeling of tension in the skin.
Don' t know if others have that too?!?
By now my favorite soap from you is Miami nights.
Greetings
Christian
Christian, we only have one base. It sounds like your sample came from a tub that was cured to the point of being as hard as a triple milled soap. We have not shipped any of those in a long time because it caused issues like what you experienced. It will lather well, though requires a specific technique. Rather than go into the technique, it may make better sense to move on. We don't ship soap like that any longer. Any time someone reaches out I replace it. Someone donated that tub of Le Mafioso doe the samples - we shipped it long ago.
Regarding post shave feel, there are two points I want to make. It may be that you as an individual prefer a post shave feel where your skin feels tight.
I formulated our soap to have a low cleansing factor and to leave the skin as hydrated as possible from a shave soap. The first three ingredients in our soap by weight are Cocoa Butter. Kokum Butter and Illipe Butter. Those butters provide great cushion and contribute to post shave hydration. This formulation won’t leave your skin feeling tight.
The other point I want to address is how to test products in a way many find to be easy yet achieves more accurate results. As an artisan, I need to be able to see how my products stack up against the competition. So, I borrowed some technique from the scientific testing methodology that has driven many of the advances in the past 150 years.
The Scientific testing methodology focuses a lot on reducing variables. Here is an easy way to remove many variables. shave half your face with one product and the other half with the other. (Brush, shave soap razor, or razor blade, etc...). This allows you to get real-time comparison with the majority of variables removed.
Here's a great example. We are coming out with new brushes with synthetic knots. So, I've been trying a lot of new knots. There are three knots that I felt were similar after using them without this methodology.
My initial thinking was that one was much nicer than the other two and that the other two were extremely similar. So, I did half my face with one brush and the other side with the other, using the two knots I initially thought were almost the same. When I did half my face with one and the other half with the other, I realized they were very different. One had a massive backbone, and the tips weren’t as soft. The other one had great backbone and pleasant, soft tips. I love great backbone and soft tips.
Now, I was still thinking that the other knot was far superior to the other two. So, half my face with that one and half with the one having great backbone and soft tips. I found that the knot I expected to be better was better, though not that much better. The knot that was the best costs 46% more than the other, yet there isn’t that much difference.
Because I did this testing, I realize that I can come out with a brush with the second knot that will cost customers much less yet feel almost as good. When I say much less, I mean a retail price of 24-30€. This will be a brush that performs better than all but one badger brush that I have experienced. The caveat with the badger comparison is that it’s based on my preferences and not everyone has the same preferences.