Introducing Fortis

I would like to first say that Mo contacted me via PM to see if I would be interested in trying this because he'd seen posts I'd made on another forum about his soaps and knows I am an exclusive Stirling user and have never tried any on his soaps and I'm sure most here have seen some of the said posts and maybe even commented on them. Anyway, I received a sample of Fortis 1.31 unscented in the mail yesterday from Mo along with a sample of his pre-shave to test for him and will be posting some comments over the next couple shaves. I shave every other day so this will probably take a little time but I at least wanted to get the 1st shave posted today as its just a few hours after the shave...Upon opening the soap after unpacking it I felt it had a distinctive scent but couldn't quite grasp what it was until this morning's shave. What I got from the puck, both dry and wet, was a faint scent of lard or cooking oil but wasn't off putting in any way and soldiered on with my shave... 

I'll point out that Mo's suggestion for the test was to use only the soap and nothing else, pre or post shave ,so what you see in the pic was the only thing used... The only things different that I normally use for my shaves would include a quick use of the Alum bar after final rinse and then after shave to finish off the shave after cleaning up my brush and razor to get them ready for the next shave. As far as prep pre-shave, I normally only splash my face with warm-hot water for a moment or two to wet my face prior to face lathering. I tried pre-shaves in the past and found just like a shower pre-shave, they did nothing special for me at all and made no difference in the quality or comfort of my shave!! 

The tools used for today's shave was my 26mm DC Shaving / TurnNShave Quartermoon brush and my Ti95DC OC/SB loaded with a Shark SC (5th shave). 

All brush prep and loading of the soap was exactly the same as I'd do every shave with one of my Stirling soaps so as to keep it very routine and similar. In prepping my brush I splay the brush in the sink under water and then I gently grasp the knot in my left hand and push the knot while turning it in a wringing motion with my right hand to get most of the water released form the knot and leaving it damp to start loading. I then moved to the tub and swirled the brush for about 20-30 seconds and then proceeded to face lather. 

The Fortis may have loaded a little easier than my Stirling and created maybe a little denser lather and there was certainly enough lather for more passes than I ever do each shave, but for the 1st pass the thing that stood out the most was it wasn't quite as slick as I'm used to and as I shaved and removed the lather my face felt almost tacky where with Stirling, there was still some residual slickness left behind. I would maybe define the tackiness as more of what you would feel after washing your face with a bar of soap and the feel after you rinsed the soap off where it just feels fresh and clean. This wasn't a problem on the 1st pass WTG with the OC side, N/S on both face and neck, but where it was pronounced was on the 2nd pass with the SB side of the Ti95DC. The 2nd pass ATG is a Goatee to ear on my face and from R/L across my neck. There may have been a little drag but it was almost too minor to matter really, but thought I'd mention it anyway. Maybe the water / soap ratio was off a little as it was the very 1st time I'd lathered the Fortis... I'd say the weirdest part of the shave was not using my Alum bar and aftershave as that is just a normal part of my ritual every time I shave but I wanted to stick to what Mo suggested in our PM's earlier.

My overall 1st impression of the Fortis is very positive and the shave itself yielded a 2 pass BBS just the same as with using Stirling but the biggest difference is my skin, though soft, has an earlier oiliness to it just 5 hrs later. I have very oily skin to begin with but it isn't usually noticeable until later in the day or early evening almost 10-12 hrs later when utilizing my usual full routine. Do keep in mind this is all just thoughts after only my 1st go with Fortis and I still have quite a few shaves ahead and things could certainly change down the line.

I'd like to thank Mo for the opportunity to test his products and hope my experience can help him in development of this product...

I shaved with Fortis (1.31) for the third time this morning, and used the Muhle R41 after putting on four day's growth.  True to form, the R41 worked great, and it was smooth sailing all the way.  As with the first two Fortis shaves, I used only comfortably hot water for pre and a fragrance for post.  Nothing else was needed, and my skin feels fine.  What can I say, except that I am really satisfied and once again impressed.

One last thing, which others have addressed but I have not - about lather and lathering:  I find Fortis very easy to lather.  I lather it like a cream, scraping a little off the puck and bowl lathering, but it is soft enough so that you could scoop and face lather if you prefer.  Also, Fortis is is a very thirsty soap.  I like it a bit on the thin side, and find that it works great for me that way.  

Shave #2 with the Fortis 1.31 was yesterday and with the exception of using a fresh Shark SC for the shave, everything else was the same. The end result was the usual 2 pass BBS but again my skin felt oily earlier than normal. Again I'm not sure if this is the effect of not using any post shave products as usual but will keep an eye on it. As suggested by a few people including Mohammad, I used a little more water this time when building my lather. It was a little thinner than the previous shave and seemed to work better and didn't have the same effect and actually left some residual slickness behind after each pass. Still not on the same level as Stirling did but definitely better. Tomorrow I will work it further and get it thinner and see how that goes. I will say the 2nd pass was much better than the shave before in how it went on and how it acted during the pass. It looks promising but it will take more time. I will continue using the soap only as suggested for a couple more shaves before I try out the pre-shave Mohammad sent with the soap just to see if I can get any improvement in slickness.

I have used the Fortis 1:31 for 9 shaves. My initial impressions have remained pretty much the same. The soap is very easy to load and lather. It seems to tolerate a wide range of hydration without breaking down. I have found the soap to have excellent residual slickness and post have feel. I look forward to seeing Fortis come to market and wish Mohammad all the success.

So as of today I have had shaves #3 and #4 with the Fortis 1.31 and think I have come to a good consistency that has resulted in a little more slickness but as I pointed out in my previous post, its just not the same slickness I get using Stirling. Where its most notable is between passes when I am rinsing and getting ready to re-lather. I notice that my face just feels tacky once the lather is rinsed off. In the same way as when you wash your face with soap and rinse it clean and it has that clean feeling.

I am going to give the Fortis a break for Saturdays shave and go back to one of my Stirling soaps to compare to see if I am remembering things as I think I do. I've had no problem with getting my usual result using the Fortis but I'm just thinking from the way everyone describes GD soaps that this should just be really slick where its just not... I will use just the Stirling soap only and no post-shave products to get an apples to apples comparison.

One other thing I will add is that since using this soap and no post shave products I have been feeling the greasiness much sooner in the day than normal and in fact on Tuesday the humidity here was exceptionally high and working outside I didn't fair very well and as a result from my t-shirt rubbing my neckline, it resulted with a pretty fair amount of irritation and had to break out some shave balm in the afternoon to combat it some.

I'm about on shave #7 I think with 3.1 and today was best yet. Very stable, excellent post shave feel.

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So as of today I have had shaves #3 and #4 with the Fortis 1.31 and think I have come to a good consistency that has resulted in a little more slickness but as I pointed out in my previous post, its just not the same slickness I get using Stirling. Where its most notable is between passes when I am rinsing and getting ready to re-lather. I notice that my face just feels tacky once the lather is rinsed off. In the same way as when you wash your face with soap and rinse it clean and it has that clean feeling.

I am going to give the Fortis a break for Saturdays shave and go back to one of my Stirling soaps to compare to see if I am remembering things as I think I do. I've had no problem with getting my usual result using the Fortis but I'm just thinking from the way everyone describes GD soaps that this should just be really slick where its just not... I will use just the Stirling soap only and no post-shave products to get an apples to apples comparison.

One other thing I will add is that since using this soap and no post shave products I have been feeling the greasiness much sooner in the day than normal and in fact on Tuesday the humidity here was exceptionally high and working outside I didn't fair very well and as a result from my t-shirt rubbing my neckline, it resulted with a pretty fair amount of irritation and had to break out some shave balm in the afternoon to combat it some.

So Saturday's shave has come and gone and as I posted above it was to be an apple to apple comparison with one of my Stirling soaps only as I have been shaving with the Fortis 1.31 only for the past week. Right from the start as I lathered up some Margarita's in the Arctic and applied it to my face I noticed as I made a swipe at the base of my neck and along my goatee to clean the lines before the shave that the lather had that familiar slick feeling I had tried describing in my earlier posts that I felt the Fortis was lacking. The razor just glided across my face during the 1st pass and where it really stood out was as I rinsed after that pass and getting ready to re-lather for the 2nd pass. It was the residual slickness that had been lacking with the Fortis. There was no tacky feel at all as my hands help rinse off my face, just smooth and slick. The 2nd pass went really well ATG and the usual BBS result was had and was as slick as the 1st pass.

The post shave feel of the Stirling was somewhat of a surprise for me as I'd never used just the soap only without any post-shave products at all. My face was very soft and smooth to the touch for about the next 10 hrs or so as I kept feeling my face and neck looking for the greasiness to set in and it wasn't until early evening when I felt it happening... This was after working outside all day long same as I had all week too!! I will use a different tub of Stirling for Monday's shave to test the difference before getting back to the Fortis on Wednesday's shave and see if the results differ in any way or not...

Thank you at muzicheadnd all the testers who have taken the time to try Fortis. I have gotten excellent feedback which I have incorporated. 

The production version of Fortis will be based on version 1.4. I have added 3 additional ingredients. Fortis now has some Lusso traits since I have added Jersey Cow Milk to base.

Thank you at muzicheadnd all the testers who have taken the time to try Fortis. I have gotten excellent feedback which I have incorporated. 

The production version of Fortis will be based on version 1.4. I have added 3 additional ingredients. Fortis now has some Lusso traits since I have added Jersey Cow Milk to base.

That milk sounds like a solid addition. Does anything to your pricing?

Mo reached out to me for my full never hold back feedback.

Here is what I have.

Pricing has always been a nonissue for me. I'd pay a $100 for a tub of soap if I liked it and wanted it.


Fortis is a water hog. Probably a non issue unless you live with hard water or if price is an issue for distilled water.

Lathers easily but the lather is a bit tough to keep from breaking down if you shave slowly. This I assume is because of the amount of water originally used in the lather.

For quality of shave I'd say similar to Stirling and other quality tier 2 bases. For me it was the missing residual slickness I look for when I need to touch up that I missed here. I needed visible lather to get those touch ups done.

If you're budget conscious and want a solid shave Fortis will fit that for you.

Not sure why Mo is going with this line seeing the success of his other bases and their shave quality. Fortis won't change that (I hope and I truly think Mo just loves to tinker with things) but I think it waters down what I love about how most of the GD soaps are currently formulated. I wouldn't want someone new to GD to think Fortis is what we rave about on the forums because right now this is not a lusso, janus, donkey or mallard replacement. This is a replacement for Stirling, CFG and Eleven depending on scents added. Probably a good line for Mo for those single note needs like Citrus/lime, unscented, lavender, bay rum and possibly a mentholated for the summer as these synthetic cooling agents are all the rage.


Good soap Mo and thanks again for including me.

Sell Fortis under some other name not Grooming Department though.




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Thank you at muzicheadnd all the testers who have taken the time to try Fortis. I have gotten excellent feedback which I have incorporated. 

The production version of Fortis will be based on version 1.4. I have added 3 additional ingredients. Fortis now has some Lusso traits since I have added Jersey Cow Milk to base.

That milk sounds like a solid addition. Does anything to your pricing?

Mo reached out to me for my full never hold back feedback.

Here is what I have.

Pricing has always been a nonissue for me. I'd pay a $100 for a tub of soap if I liked it and wanted it.


Fortis is a water hog. Probably a non issue unless you live with hard water or if price is an issue for distilled water.

Lathers easily but the lather is a bit tough to keep from breaking down if you shave slowly.  This I assume is because of the amount of water originally used in the lather.

For quality of shave I'd say similar to Stirling and other quality tier 2 bases. For me it was the missing residual slickness I look for when I need to touch up that I missed here. I needed visible lather to get those touch ups done.

If you're budget conscious and want a solid shave Fortis will fit that for you.

Not sure why Mo is going with this line seeing the success of his other bases and their shave quality. Fortis won't change that (I hope and I truly think Mo just loves to tinker with things) but I think it waters down what I love about how most of the GD soaps are currently formulated. I wouldn't want someone new to GD to think Fortis is what we rave about on the forums because right now this is not a lusso, janus, donkey or mallard replacement.  This is a replacement for Stirling, CFG and Eleven depending on scents added. Probably a good line for Mo for those single note needs like Citrus/lime, unscented,  lavender, bay rum and possibly a mentholated for the summer as these synthetic cooling agents are all the rage.


Good soap Mo and thanks again for including me.

Sell Fortis under some other name not Grooming Department though.




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Hi jaxstraww 

Thank you for putting Fortis in the company of other great soaps! Fortis will be an excellent option for people who don't want the over-the-top GD post-shave other GD formula offer and/or not interested in complex scents. 

The additional ingredients strengthen lather stability and enhance the post-shave feel. The price will not go up