Questions about hot soaps right now

Gentlemen,

I have to say, I have been tempted lately by all of the more expensive soaps which are getting lots of great reviews. Included in this are Wholly Kaw (just ordered three samples), Grooming Dept and Tallow and Steel.

I'm a bit concerned about Grooming Dept because when it was beginning its hot run last year, many complained of a funky odor in the soap, an ammonia type smell? Has this been remedied? Reason I ask, is it seems like I have a hound dog type nose and if there is anything like that to be smelled I guarantee I will be the one to detect it. This was the case with a few Stirling soaps that folks were complaining about animal type smells and I still get them with a few of Stirlings soaps. I just detect a fatty animal from some of them and some of them are fine.

Tallow and Steel I'm also curious about. It seems like many were disappointed when they moved from their old line of scents to the newest line of scents. Can anyone sell me on these new Tallow and Steel scents? Additionally, most of the hype I hear is surrounding L&L, Wholly Kaw and Grooming Dept as far as performance. Does Tallow and Steel stand up to these performance wise?

First of all, I hope you enjoy the WhollyKaw samples. The donkey milk formula is something special, but so is the special edition vegan formula, which often seems to be overlooked.

Some Grooming Dept soaps may have a slight “additional smell” to them, the newer ones perhaps less than the older ones, the tallow ones more than the vegan ones. The only soap I ever ran into with an ammonia-like scent was a Phoenix and Beau, however. If you get any Grooming Dept soaps, I recommend opening the lid maybe 10–20 seconds before taking your first whiff of the soap. Also, if there is an unwanted scent there, airing out the soap might help. I left the lid off said Phoenix and Beau soap for almost two months. That fixed the issue, and the soap is now fine.

The new Tallow + Steel scents that I’ve tried haven’t been among my absolute favorites, but the performance is quite exceptional. I feel the current soap base stands right up there with Declaration Grooming (formerly L&L Grooming), Grooming Dept, and WhollyKaw. I immensely enjoy my shaves with all of those brands. (Including several others, of course. But those four are definitely among the “heavy hitters” of the day.)

Gentlemen,

I have to say, I have been tempted lately by all of the more expensive soaps which are getting lots of great reviews.  Included in this are Wholly Kaw (just ordered three samples), Grooming Dept and Tallow and Steel.

I'm a bit concerned about Grooming Dept because when it was beginning its hot run last year, many complained of a funky odor in the soap, an ammonia type smell? Has this been remedied?  Reason I ask, is it seems like I have a hound dog type nose and if there is anything like that to be smelled I guarantee I will be the one to detect it.  This was the case with a few Stirling soaps that folks were complaining about animal type smells and I still get them with a few of Stirlings soaps.  I just detect a fatty animal from some of them and some of them are fine.  

Tallow and Steel I'm also curious about.  It seems like many were disappointed when they moved from their old line of scents to the newest line of scents.  Can anyone sell me on these new Tallow and Steel scents?  Additionally, most of the hype I hear is surrounding L&L, Wholly Kaw and Grooming Dept as far as performance.  Does Tallow and Steel stand up to these performance wise?

Another one worthy of a look is the Canard (duck fat) base from Oleo Soapworks. You can buy samples quite inexpensiely. Their scents are more traditional than the others you mentioned. And the base is outstanding! On par at least with WK Donkey Milk or GD.

Personally. I didn’t like the scents from T&S..or L&L...way too intense and unappealing to my nose. The shave itself was not as good...imo..than that of GD, WK DM or Oleo. But...ymmv...

First of all, I hope you enjoy the WhollyKaw samples. The donkey milk formula is something special, but so is the special edition vegan formula, which often seems to be overlooked.

Some Grooming Dept soaps may have a slight “additional smell” to them, the newer ones perhaps less than the older ones, the tallow ones more than the vegan ones. The only soap I ever ran into with an ammonia-like scent was a Phoenix and Beau, however. If you get any Grooming Dept soaps, I recommend opening the lid maybe 10–20 seconds before taking your first whiff of the soap. Also, if there is an unwanted scent there, airing out the soap might help. I left the lid off said Phoenix and Beau soap for almost two months. That fixed the issue, and the soap is now fine.

The new Tallow + Steel scents that I’ve tried haven’t been among my absolute favorites, but the performance is quite exceptional. I feel the current soap base stands right up there with Declaration Grooming (formerly L&L Grooming), Grooming Dept, and WhollyKaw. I immensely enjoy my shaves with all of those brands. (Including several others, of course. But those four are definitely among the “heavy hitters” of the day.)

It is interesting but it seems like the Tallow and Steel recent scents  aren't getting a ton of love.  I might get a couple samples and just see what they are like.  Your warnings of the Grooming Dept still bother me a bit. Without me being able to sample and see for myself if they do not have that funkiness I'm not sure I could just pull the trigger on them.  Especially since his website is completely out of the duck base and I'll basically be playing the refresh game.  Wholly Kaw for now seems to have plenty of stock and samples which i was happy to take them up on.

Another one worthy of a look is the Canard (duck fat) base from Oleo Soapworks. You can buy samples quite inexpensiely. Their scents are more traditional than the others you mentioned. And the base is outstanding! On par at least with WK Donkey Milk or GD.

Personally. I didn’t like the scents from T&S..or L&L...way too intense and unappealing to my nose. The shave itself was not as good...imo..than that of GD, WK DM or Oleo. But...ymmv...

Yeah I like the Oleo as well. I updated the Oleo thread with my thoughts on some recent purchases from them if you want to take a look at it. After buying three full sized pucks I decided to sample four other 1oz soaps from Oleo. They are great soaps for sure and I appreciate your recommendation.

I am going to preface my response by saying that a lot of you here probably think I focus on the negative a lot of the time, but honestly, I try to give my honest opinion without the sugarcoating. With that being said (and I know this isn't going to be a popular opinion here, don't care), I think Grooming Dept soaps are somewhat overhyped on this forum. Sure, they are good soaps, but nowhere near head-and-shoulders above the other top artisans in the game right now. Up to this point I've tried all of the GD bases except for the very first vegan iteration and I would rank them like this: Tallow and Duck fat (not made anymore apparently) > Tallow > Lamb tallow > Mallard > Vegan. To be honest, it's really splitting hairs between all of the different tallow versions. Using all of these different animal fats is largely a marketing gimmick. They all perform pretty much the same. The vegan stuff falls a little behind, IMO. On a performance basis, GD does stand with B&M, WK, Declaration, Oleo canard, etc. albeit towards the bottom of that group. Where I prefer the other brands is in the scent department. Most of the GD scents I tried were all very cologne-like, which is not my bag. A lot of wetshavers like those type of scents though I'm sure. FWIW, I never detected any funkiness in any of the GD soaps I tried (After the Fire, Ambrosia, Magnolia, Mallard, Wonderland, Flight, Amber & Oud, Angel).

WKDM soaps are very good, but I've come to a point where I refuse to pay more than $20 for a 4 oz. tub of soap. For me it's just too much when I can get the same performance (with better post shave, yeah, I said it) out of a $12 puck of Mystic Water or Shannon's. Yeah, I'm not going to get all of those wonderful scents, but such is life I guess. There are plenty of great smelling and performing soaps available at that price point.

Tallow & Steel is another one that I can't justify the price tag on. The only one I had was the West Coast IPA. It was an interesting scent, but I wasn't in love with it. The performance was also very good, top tier in fact and it was very easy to dial in the lather. But since it wasn't a keeper scent wise, I sold it to buy something else.

You mentioned Oleo Canard which I just recently got a tub of. It is a really great soap and one of my new favorites (and under $20!). I'll probably pick up some more scents in the future.

I am going to preface my response by saying that a lot of you here probably think I focus on the negative a lot of the time, but honestly, I try to give my honest opinion without the sugarcoating.

You have my respect!

If someone can't express critical opinion properly, and only gives positive review of products/services, he lacks rationality in my book.

IMO, no soap (or 2 or 3) is above and beyond the other good products in market.

My opinion of GD soaps is higher than that of Jeff's, although I have smelled the funk in two soaps (Angel and Ambrosia, Mohammad graciously sent a replacement of the former which smells wonderful, offered to do the same for later but I declined and I had an Ambrosia which smelled nice as well). I think it is on par with the top tier soaps. But I agree with Jeff about GD having cologne like scents (my experience regarding GD soaps isn't as vast as some others though)

But I know OP uses Mystic Water soaps, and if I discard the difficulty in lathering, no other soap is significantly better than MW. Scents are different thing though.

I am curios about Oleo now.

I am going to preface my response by saying that a lot of you here probably think I focus on the negative a lot of the time, but honestly, I try to give my honest opinion without the sugarcoating. With that being said (and I know this isn't going to be a popular opinion here, don't care), I think Grooming Dept soaps are way overhyped on this forum. Sure, they are good soaps, but nowhere near head-and-shoulders above the other top artisans in the game right now. Up to this point I've tried all of the GD bases except for the very first vegan iteration and I would rank them like this: Tallow and Duck fat (not made anymore apparently) > Tallow > Lamb tallow > Mallard > Vegan. To be honest, it's really splitting hairs between all of the different tallow versions. Using all of these different animal fats is largely a marketing gimmick. They all perform pretty much the same. The vegan stuff lags behind, IMO. On a performance basis, GD can stand with B&M, WK, Declaration, Oleo canard, etc. albeit towards the bottom of that group. Where I prefer the other brands is in the scent department. Most of the GD scents I tried were all very cologne-like, which is not my bag. A lot of wetshavers like those type of scents though I'm sure. FWIW, I never detected any funkiness in any of the GD soaps I tried (After the Fire, Ambrosia, Magnolia, Mallard, Wonderland, Flight, Amber & Oud, Angel).

WKDM soaps are very good, but I've come to a point where I refuse to pay more than $20 for a 4 oz. tub of soap. For me it's just too much when I can get the same performance (with better post shave, yeah, I said it) out of a $12 puck of Mystic Water or Shannon's. Yeah, I'm not going to get all of those wonderful scents, but such is life I guess. There are plenty of great smelling and performing soaps available at that price point.

Tallow & Steel is another one that I can't justify the price tag on. The only one I had was the West Coast IPA. It was an interesting scent, but I wasn't in love with it. The performance was also very good, top tier in fact and it was very easy to dial in the lather. But since it wasn't a keeper scent wise, I sold it to buy something else.

You mentioned Oleo Canard which I just recently got a tub of. It is a really great soap and one of my new favorites (and under $20!). I'll probably pick up some more scents in the future.

Jeff,

I ordered a handful of Tallow and Steel (3) scents and some Declaration Grooming scents (3) as well. I figure I will just run the gauntlet of all of these since I've already ordered a handful of samples from Wholly Kaw and we will see what happens. Worst case is I'm out of a few bucks rather than buying full pucks of everything. If these are as fantastic as everyone says, I do not mind paying for them but I definitely have to make sure the scents not only agree with my nose but my skin. In addition, I want the performance to be there as well for these prices.

Hopefully i can try some Grooming Department as well here soon and then I will have been able to compare all of them. I hear that there might be a Grooming Dept release next month? We will see.

@"iamsms" I particularly like the Oleo. I'm not sure I'm the best reviewer ever but they perform very very well for me in addition to having nice scents. I think it might be a bit underrated right now.

SCShaver , if you want I can send you some GD samples. You can pay shipping if you like. PM me if you are interested.

wyze0ne I don't think saying you don't like something is negative Not everyone will like what other people like. People have different skin types, different water quality. Some people like thiner slicker soaps, some people big lather, some people don't care about post shave, some people like simpler scents, some people like complex scents, etc...

I don't believe there is a problem with people who are passionate about one product or the other. But somehow people seem to be skeptical when a product it garners praise, and usually there are people who gravitate toward other products just because they perceive the increased accolades a product is getting as hype. These reactions exists in every product category out there. This is how generally consumers behave regardless of the product.

You expressed your opinion and you have a particular taste. I think that's wonderful! Negativity is a whole other thing IMHO which you and I know where it takes place

I’ve owned 7 GroomingDept soaps (6 different scents; 5 vegan and 1 mallard). Not one of them had an off-putting smell from the base. I’m not saying it hasn’t happened to others— just giving my experience for the OP.

I haven’t tried some of the others mentioned, but I think it’s worth it to give GroomingDept a shot. He’ll have some non-cologne scents coming up later in the year.

Wholly Kaw also has the LavSublime now, which sounds nice and more subtle. Declaration Grooming is great, but I found the post shave a bit heavy for my climate. Lastly, as others have mentioned, Mystic Water continues to be a great value.


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