Taylor of Old Bond Street sandalwood shaving soap.

Taylor of Old Bond Street are very famous for its shaving creams,but its soaps are much better than I even expected,as I have been discovering for the last 8 months.

I first got my hands on a refill puck of the Lavender soap,which was a decent performer,but once I tried the Lavender of a wooden bowl (with a different formulation than the refill one),I experienced a very good soap which I do like.

After that came the experience with the new Jeremyn Street shaving soap,which is another winner,both is scent and skin care wise.

And today was the chance to try out the Sandalwood shaving soap,which I heard that doesnt smells like the TOBS sandalwood shaving cream (it gives me headaches) and its true,it smells much,much better than it.

Its ingredients are :

As you can read,its a soap wich contains Palm Oil and reminds me of the Plisson/Joris/Maison du Barbier formulation as well as one of the Floris Elite formulation,all with Palm Oils.

Plisson shaving soap ingredients :

Floris Elite ingredients :

Lathering this soap its easy,but it requires,as a good triple milled soap,the use of product,if we want to get ,good,thick and stable,non bubbly,later.

I used a Muhle silvertip brush and loaded it with soap for 40 seconds :

and this is the lather after 30 seconds of working it on my hand :

and this is after a minute :

final lather on the brush :

The lather behaves like the Joris/Plisson or Floris Elite ones,being slick and with cushion.
Doesnt dries out my skin too much,something that the TOBS sandalwood cream did.So overall a good,decent,performer.

And another thing that I truly like is its scent : according to Taylor,this sandalwood scent is a blend of rich woody blend of exotic sweet scented Sandalwood and Cedar, add Lavender and Rosemary with subtle floralcy and Jasmine and Rose. I can tell you that this sandalwood scent its very elegant and delicate,and evolves in very woody scent one the lather its made.Also last through the shave.

I have been usin the Jermyn cream and it lathers extremely well and the scent is incredible. I have only used it four times but each shave was superb.

Glad you enjoyed it; one of my favorites. I think the cream and the soap smell much alike, except that the scent in the soap is more muted. Perhaps it is the strength of the scent in the cream that causes the headache. Must admit that I almost (but not quite) get a burning sensation from the cream, but no where close with the soap. Good stuff!!

I like the TOBS Sandalwood shaving cream, but it really is strongly scented, so I can understand how it might cause problems. I haven't tried the soap to compare, but clearly from your reports it is more subtle.

Thank you for the review Teiste

I had two pucks of this stuff but had to get rid of it. I loved the scent and performance, but it burned up my face something fierce.

I have this too and find it to be a great performer. For some reason, and I don't know why, the scent reminds me of Christmas. Not sure why. Maybe some other scent I remember from the holidays in the past that I can't quite put my finger on.

Nice review Teiste. I agree 100%. I like both scent and performance of this soap.

I agree, great soap. I don't think TOBS gets the respect it deserves.

Yes,I think that Taylors soaps are better than people think.
Well,the old lavender on a wooden bowl is better than the refill one,but other than that,both this one and the new Jermyn Street are excellent shaving soaps.
The one which comes on a wrapped papper,its the same than the old Truefitt and Hill (the one with parafinum liquidum,not the new one) and performs really well too.

Great review Teiste, another to add to my "must try" list!

Thanks Teiste..A shaver that I respect very highly has been using Taylor soap exclusively for more than a year..He also reports the pleasures of using this underrated gem..I have an unused lavender refill.. But with too much product in rotation at the moment it may be a while before Taylor is next up..

Nice review as always....

Best regards,

Julian

(07-01-2012, 05:35 AM)jss Wrote: Thanks Teiste..A shaver that I respect very highly has been using Taylor soap exclusively for more than a year..He also reports the pleasures of using this underrated gem..I have an unused lavender refill.. But with too much product in rotation at the moment it may be a while before Taylor is next up..

Nice review as always....

Best regards,

Julian

I just bought this, and it seems like a very able performer. Actually better than I expected.

Yes, the Taylors soaps are top notch and so far have eluded the "reformulation bug" that England's soap makers have been lately getting...

Great review and wonderful pics. Make me want to shave.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts and pictures.

I've always wondered about their soaps. Thanks for the review!

That was my dad's go to soap for awhile. I used it a few times, but now I think I'll get rid of it as it doesn't get any use.

I have the Sandalwood and the Lavender. Both smell fantastic and present a good value.

I'm not sure if its all in my head but the Lavender seems to glide better than the Sandalwood.

Both shave super nice and for 15 Balloons per puck you just can't go wrong.

I never had any issues getting either to lather with all but one brush. The Vulfix 660 Super I am selling is just too soft and floppy. Nothing to do with the soaps however, just the wrong tool for soaps.

The Sandalwood reminds me of some high dollar incense.

thanks for the review