Can the Austrians make good shave soap? That was the question as I went from website to website, trying to decide which Haslinger soap to buy. I had spotted the round pucks for sale a couple of times but had never pulled the trigger.
Tallow?
One of the reasons is because they do not use tallow in their products. I shave my head and noticed a while back that soap with tallow moisturized my scalp much better than anything else. I’ve tried cow, duck, bison, you name it and if it had tallow, it made my head feel great.
But I always enjoy trying out new (to me) shaving products so I decided to go with their Sheep’s milk shaving soap in a can.
I bought it at Pasteur’s because I had read that it was formulated with lanolin and sheep’s milk for sensitive skin. Here’s the ingredient list:
Potassium Stearate, Sodium Stearate, Potassium Palm Kernelate, Aqua (Water), Sodium Palm Kernelate, Glycerine, Lac Powder, Parfum, Sheep Milk, Arachis Hypogaea (Peanut) Oil, Lanolin, Lechithin, Sodium Hydroxide, Alpha-Isomethyl, Ionone, Hydroxyioshexyl 3 Cyclohexene Carboxaldehyd, CI 77891.
Haslinger
As I waited for my order, I decided to learn a little about the company. It was created in 1949 by chemist Georg Haslinger when he bought a soap factory in Vienna, Austria that has been around since 1890. The company’s website says his life’s work was the use of honey, herbs, medicinal plants and essential oils. He would fit right in today, but I’m sure that was a stretch in the 1940’s and 50’s. Their catalog has seven soaps, all weighing 60 grams. Being an American, I had to find a website to find out how many ounces. It’s two. That seemed a bit pricey for $9.99. Granted, several of the soaps in my rotation are four ounce tubs and they cost $20. But that’s for Ariana & Evans, Barrister and Mann or Declaration Grooming products. I know each tub is worth twenty bucks. Is $9.99 for a two-ounce puck worth it? Let’s find out.
Review
Yep, it’s small. Two ounces doesn’t seem like much. It measures about 2.5 inches across and about a third of an inch thick. But it is definitely not a croap. It is very solid, almost like it is triple-milled. The scent is very light and clean.
I felt like it was too small to put in my scuttle. I used it several times by rubbing the puck on my head and face. It did not produce a lot of lather. But I just found out I have rather hard water, so I wasn’t expecting the meringue-style lather.
For this article, I did lather it from the small tin container.
This is 15 seconds of loading the brush. I am using my RazoRock three-color synthetic. I “bloomed” the soap for about a minute with hot water.
After about a minute of work, and adding a few drops of water, it produced a good amount of lather.
You can see it does produce a good amount of lather, and even has some “waves” in it as well.
The lather is pretty steeped into the brush. This was more lather than I usually produce in the shower by face/head lathering. It is definitely enough for four passes.
The lather continues the light and clean scent but will not clash with any aftershave or balm.
It provides a very good cushion and has top-notch slickness. Those are two of the ways I judge a soap and the Haslinger did a very good job.
Where it excelled…was post-shave.
Remember how I mentioned at the beginning about how tallow soaps seemed to leave my scalp feeling more moisturized than glycerin soaps? This one knocked it out of the park! I kept running my hand over my head, amazed at how slick and moisturized it felt. If you’ve never head shaved, it’s quite the experience. If you do, you know what I’m talking about.
I did some research and one website said Haslinger soaps are saponified with sodium hydroxide solution and potassium hydroxide. The company also uses a high amount of stearic acid, which helps the skin stay hydrated.
Summing Up
Whatever it is they do, it is a winner. You can bet I have this in my rotation now…and will be checking out their other offerings soon…because you know, you can never have too many soaps.
Fortunately, when I learned Haslinger was dropping tallow from its soap, I loaded up on the tallow version. Some say the new version is as good if not better. However, I found the old version superior and I am glad I have so many pucks.
This article made me dig out my puck I bought a few years ago and I’m glad I did. This stuff lathers very well and I took it for a whirl on my nightly head shave and it felt amazing, the scent was nearly nonexistent but sometimes it’s nice to have a shave without some scent punching you in the face. I feel bad for sleeping on this soap but I’m glad to throw it back into my rotation!!!
Great article.
Since this is a lanolin infused soap I was wondering how this compares with my all-time favorite for post-shave, to wit: Mitchell’s Wool Fat. If post-shave was my only criterion I would have to choose MWF forever
You seem to imply that other aspects of the shave were less than stellar. Am I right or am I right?
Well, no. What I wrote was “It provides a very good cushion and has top-notch slickness. Those are two of the ways I judge a soap and the Haslinger did a very good job.
Where it excelled…was post-shave. ”
That is not saying it is less than stellar. I am pointing out where it excelled. But I would not choose to shave with a product just for the post-shave experience. I want more, like cushion and slickness, which this soap did have.
Thanks for the review! Having tried several “vegan” soaps, and not saying I didn’t get a good shave, but as you said I just didn’t get the same post shave feel. Lanolin is defined as “wool grease” from sheep so I don’t think you can call this a vegan soap as it does have animal ingredients also including sheep milk. Might have to try it for grins and giggles. Like you said, you can’t have too many soaps and $10 bucks is not a large loss if I don’t like it.
You’re welcome! I was just perusing my stash and realized I am woefully short on sandalwood scented-soaps. I may have to buy that version of Haslinger.