It’s been a while since I’ve covered any of the more “corporate” wet shaving brands, so when I had a chance to try eShave’s Avacado and Linden shave soap I pulled out my wallet.
eShave
One of three varieties of shaving soaps (the other two are Mandarin Orange and Lavender), eShave’s Avocado and Linden shave soap is triple-milled and free of Parabens, preservatives, SLS, and SLES.
Ingredients: Potassium Palmate, Sodium Palmate, Potassium Stearate, Potassium Palm Kernelate, Glycerin, Water (Aqua), Sodium Stearate, Sodium Palm Kernelate, Palm Kernel Acid, Avocado Oil (Persea Gratissima Oil), Fragrance (Parfum), Cocamide DEA, Pentasodium Pentetate, Tetrasodium Etidronate, BHT, Chromium Oxide Greens (CI 77288), Chromium Hydroxide Green (CI 77289), Benzyl Benzoate, Amyl Cinnamal, Butylphenyl Methylpropional, Benzyl Salicylate, Hydroxycitronellal, Coumarin, Methyl 2-Octynoate, Eugenol, Amyl Cinnamyl Alcohol, Hexyl Cinnamal, Benzyl Alcohol, Limonene, Isoeugenol
The scent is a little difficult for me to describe–kind of powdery, kind of sweet (probably the Linden flower fragrance), and almost “vegetable” in character to me, like a cucumber. It’s strong enough to last through my shave but not so strong to be over-powering.
eShave likes to say that their shaving soaps “lathers like a cream.” I’m not sure what they mean by that but in my experience lathering this soap is not terribly difficult. It is very water-thirsty too: I can keep adding water and the lather just takes it and takes it. I would call this soap one of the more “forgiving” I’ve tried, in terms of hydration.
As you might expect from a triple-milled, high potassium/glycerin combination, performance is pretty solid. Even in my hard water it has very good cushion and lubrication: it might not be quite as good as some of the high-priced, tallow-based shaving soaps out there…but it’s pretty close in my opinion. As a triple-milled soap, I expect this puck to last a long time, too. Post-shave my skin felt well moisturized due to the avocado oil.
This shave soap is not cheap–$26 for a refill puck, $37 for a puck with metal bowl–but I think the performance is on-par with it’s competitors.