D
Deleted member 1881
Guest
After having used this base for many times, about 5-6 I believe with different combos, loading time, and water ratios, I tend to believe this:
It is not a Ferrari, it is a Corvette. I mean, surely is a good soap, but has not lived up the hype for me, personally and with great respect to Sri, who makes good products.
I want to be totally honest with the products I use, cheap or expensive and always give an real thought to the fellow wet shavers.
Let's start with slickness: This soap behaves quite simple; Load enough, load some more and start giving water. Continue giving water, until it is shiny and start shaving. I have to say I'm used to aggressive combos that could take my skin away if I don't pay attention and I tend to overdo it, every time I shave, so take this with a pinch of salt please. The primary slickness is not impressive. It is just good. Having in mind the 25$ I paid (and more) for this, automatically, does not make this one a value buy for me. Other soaps come in my mind, performance based always, that provide really fantastic first pass slickness, no matter what equipment I use. Surely it gets rich, dense and creamy but nothing more.
Stirling is a great example. Costs 13$ and once dialed in, gets really dense and crazy slick, so slick that I couldn't stretch the skin with my other hand. Residual slickness without any additional water on the face. This thing doesn't happen with Siero and I'm really sorry for that. Is Stirling a worse soap that provides 160gr of product and costs 50% less than the "king", which costs 30$ because of the Donkey and the Water Buffalo Milk? Of course not. IF Siero cost 17-19$ it would be a much better value. Now it is not.
A&E is another example. No matter what you do, the lather is so rich and dense that you can't avoid dropping the razor once the soap runs down to your razor handle. You can finish a shave without relather and the razor won't grab your skin anywhere. Price? Not cheap but far from expensive. 18$ was my Asian Plum.
Another one, Barrister's Excelsior. Very very tricky to dial in, but once you add the 1 ton of water it needs, you get something really slick, so slick and protective that makes the 16$ a fantastic value for what you get. I had my doubts about this one, after failing to dial it in, to the point I sent Will a message and asked him what's wrong with this specific base.
Let's go now to the post shave: Ok, here Siero wins. So what? I didn't buy a moisturizer, I bought a shaving soap. I don't want of course the post shave of Arko, but remember how much Siero costs. Stirling's post shave is neutral and tends to dry after some hours without a balm, Excelsior is nothing impressive to write about, gets dry after 2-3 hours. A&E is very similar to WK, and cheaper, so here A&E wins.
In conclusion, why should I buy again this soap base? Just for the post shave? No. I have 50 balms waiting on the counter. I have a L'oreal Men Expert the red one with the Grapeseed Oil and have moisture for 24 hours.
Having this in mind, I won't bother buying any soap that exceeds the 20 euros (including the shipping), if it is from the US. Imagine that I got some Varesino refill for 16 euros in Greece.
Thanks for reading.
ps : Forgot Southern Witchcrafts, 15-17$ for an excellent base, that I have it in my top5.
It is not a Ferrari, it is a Corvette. I mean, surely is a good soap, but has not lived up the hype for me, personally and with great respect to Sri, who makes good products.
I want to be totally honest with the products I use, cheap or expensive and always give an real thought to the fellow wet shavers.
Let's start with slickness: This soap behaves quite simple; Load enough, load some more and start giving water. Continue giving water, until it is shiny and start shaving. I have to say I'm used to aggressive combos that could take my skin away if I don't pay attention and I tend to overdo it, every time I shave, so take this with a pinch of salt please. The primary slickness is not impressive. It is just good. Having in mind the 25$ I paid (and more) for this, automatically, does not make this one a value buy for me. Other soaps come in my mind, performance based always, that provide really fantastic first pass slickness, no matter what equipment I use. Surely it gets rich, dense and creamy but nothing more.
Stirling is a great example. Costs 13$ and once dialed in, gets really dense and crazy slick, so slick that I couldn't stretch the skin with my other hand. Residual slickness without any additional water on the face. This thing doesn't happen with Siero and I'm really sorry for that. Is Stirling a worse soap that provides 160gr of product and costs 50% less than the "king", which costs 30$ because of the Donkey and the Water Buffalo Milk? Of course not. IF Siero cost 17-19$ it would be a much better value. Now it is not.
A&E is another example. No matter what you do, the lather is so rich and dense that you can't avoid dropping the razor once the soap runs down to your razor handle. You can finish a shave without relather and the razor won't grab your skin anywhere. Price? Not cheap but far from expensive. 18$ was my Asian Plum.
Another one, Barrister's Excelsior. Very very tricky to dial in, but once you add the 1 ton of water it needs, you get something really slick, so slick and protective that makes the 16$ a fantastic value for what you get. I had my doubts about this one, after failing to dial it in, to the point I sent Will a message and asked him what's wrong with this specific base.
Let's go now to the post shave: Ok, here Siero wins. So what? I didn't buy a moisturizer, I bought a shaving soap. I don't want of course the post shave of Arko, but remember how much Siero costs. Stirling's post shave is neutral and tends to dry after some hours without a balm, Excelsior is nothing impressive to write about, gets dry after 2-3 hours. A&E is very similar to WK, and cheaper, so here A&E wins.
In conclusion, why should I buy again this soap base? Just for the post shave? No. I have 50 balms waiting on the counter. I have a L'oreal Men Expert the red one with the Grapeseed Oil and have moisture for 24 hours.
Having this in mind, I won't bother buying any soap that exceeds the 20 euros (including the shipping), if it is from the US. Imagine that I got some Varesino refill for 16 euros in Greece.
Thanks for reading.
ps : Forgot Southern Witchcrafts, 15-17$ for an excellent base, that I have it in my top5.
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