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Review: Taylor of Old Bond Street Traditional Luxury Shaving Soap

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The overall impression that I had from Taylor of Old Bond Street’s Traditional Luxury Shaving Soap is that it was kind of bland.
First off, the scent was extremely weak. I’ve seen it billed as having a “discreet citrus fragrance”, and it’s good that someone told me, because otherwise I would have never guessed that citrus was what they were going for. I personally would have described it as a “clean” scent, but at the end of the day, it mostly just smelled of soap. That was of course the soap itself, once lathered up, it was pretty much completely unscented.

The lather itself was also rather so-so. It was quite voluminous, but didn’t provide much above what I’d consider to be a “good enough” shave. It wasn’t particularly slick, nor thick enough for a decent cushion, and didn’t all that good stability either. And I didn’t notice all that much in the way of moisturization after the fact.

  • 6/10 Scent Pleasantness
  • 3/10 Scent Strength
  • 6/10 Lather Quality

While I got the sample I used for this review in a trade, a full 99g refill is available, or a 57g version. It is also available in either a travel tub with a screw-on lid, or a pewter or nickel-finished bowl, although it seems like most retailers other than TOBS themselves don’t often carry it.
All-in-all, there wasn’t anything about this soap that I found made it stand out from its peers. A shame, as I’m generally quite a fan of TOBS creams, and their Jermyn Street cologne remains my favourite aroma in the world. But hey, they can’t all be home runs I suppose. 4/10 overall. Oh, and a minor annoyance, but TOBS still isn’t listing the ingredients of their soaps and creams on their website. I had to find it listed elsewhere.
Ingredient: Sodium Palmate, Potassium Palmate, Sodium Palm Kernelate, Acqua, Glycerin, Potassium Palm Kernelate, Stearic Acid, Parfum, Paraffinum Liquidum, Isopropyl, Myristate, Tetrasodium Edta, Sodium Chloride, Bht, Tetrasodium Etidronate, Pentasodium Penetate, C1 77891
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Greg

Greg

7 thoughts on “Review: Taylor of Old Bond Street Traditional Luxury Shaving Soap”

  1. I dissagree. The TOBS tradional soap is just that , traditional.
    Back in the old days, shave soaps didn’t have much scent, it was mostly a lathering soap to shave with.
    Now days everyone wants to get fancy to make money buy attracting more and more wet shavers. Nothing wrong with that, need to promote our new hobby. But This soap performs about the same as other vintage soaps. To me it lathers great, light scent yes, which is good for using any after shave you want.

  2. Have you tried their Sandalwood soap, and if so would you care to offer a comparison? I started my wet-shaving journey with their Sandalwood soap, so I have a bit of a soft spot for it. I occasionally wonder whether I like it more than I should, compared to the rest of my soaps and creams. Which wouldn’t matter, except that sometimes I have to make recommendations to other people.

  3. Thanks for the review. With so many good soaps to choose from, scent is also one criteria I look for when I pick a soap.

  4. I agree that is something I enjoy too is the after effect of shaving, one thing I love is the tingling of my face but I agree I do love a good after smell. And to me a very important aspect is an excellent shaver I never skimp on shavers. Thanks for the review on this shaving soap

  5. Do you shave to get rid of the whiskers or because the shaving soap smells nice ?
    Hmmmmmmmmmmm !

    1. Both.
      I shave to get rid of whiskers. I wet shave, using a high quality soap or cream, because it makes the process far more enjoyable. One aspect that greatly enhances the enjoy-ability of the experience is the scent of that soap or cream.

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