Ease of Lathering: Pretty easy. It’s funny, because the promotional material for this soap warns that it’s more difficult to lather than Razorock’s typical soap formulation (a croap). They actually go on at some length about it. In my experience, if it’s any more difficult, it’s a matter of small degrees. In no way do you have to fight this soap to get it to load or lather. It isn’t terribly thirsty. I’m not sure what all the hubbub is about. In the scale of hard-milled soaps, it’s one of the easiest to work with.
Protection: The WtP soap can be whipped up into a voluminous lather. It has a lot of positive qualities. It rinses easily, has no negative ingredients, and provides decent protection. It gets the job done. The really good soaps provide more glide, more protection from the feel of the blade, but that’s no reason to judge this soap too harshly. Unless you’re shaving in a daredevil mindset, trying to test the outer limits of what you can do without getting injured, this soap is more than sufficient.
Residual Slickness: WtP soap leaves plenty of slickness behind. I think the palm kernel oil in the formula may have some impact on this. I would say that this is one of the best elements of this soap. It’s not Mitchell’s Wool Fat slick, but it’s not bad.
Scent: The Orange is a candy orange, sweet and easygoing. Like all of the soaps in this group, the scent is low/moderate, but carries through the shave. The lime is a slightly sweeter version of Lime Sec aftershave, by Pinaud Clubman. Friendly, crisp citrus. The blue is a barbershop scent, with plenty of powder note and an underpinning of floral scent. I believe it might be similar to Blue Floid, but I can’t say for sure. All the scents are friendly. I’d pick the orange by a small margin. That’s the one I performance tested. Nothing particularly nuanced about these. Just forthright and useful scents. The scent isn’t going to linger around your shave nook or take the place of an aftershave. With rinse, it’s pretty much gone.
Production/Value: This is a real, honest-to-goodness hard puck formula. It’s based upon palm kernel oil. It doesn’t have tallow, but it’s not a vegan formulation, either. Razorock seems to not have a dog in that fight. They’ll throw in lanolin, as they do here, even if they’re 95% of the way to having a vegan formula. There’s shea butter in here, too, by the way. Okay. These soaps are inexpensive to buy. I paid fifteen bones for all three. The 3.5 ounce puck has a really high yield, and you can do shave after shave without any perceptible wear on the puck. I wouldn’t be surprised if the 3.5 ounces of hard soap lasted longer than 5 ounces of croap. As such, this might be right up there with the least expensive soaps around. Given its solid performance and pleasant scent, there’s very little one could complain about here. As we’ve come to expect, killer value from Razorock. Finally, the packaging is a humorous drawing that captures the playful nature of the product. (Update: as of posting this review, the trio of soaps can be purchased for an insane nine bucks. At that price, they’re perhaps the best bang for the buck in the entire industry. Seriously. Get ’em, even if you don’t need them. They’ll make good stocking stuffers.)
Notes: Razorock seems to have a knack for being able to field good products at great prices. This is another example of such a product, further diversifying their lineup. This hard soap would be great for a travel option, being smaller and lighter than the average, while still being able to provide a ton of shaves. While these are not going to unseat your ultimate, favorite, perfect soaps, they do a nice job for a killer price. They’re worth a look.
The Caveman Gym 