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Trumpers hard shaving soap- my review

Posted: Mon Apr 21, 2014 7:03 am
by Mr.Max
Hello gents,
After reading a few positive reviews on the Trumpers soap, I couldn't help myself and I broke down and ordered a cake of the rose soap. I know that someone else had reviewed a recently purchased rose soap, but the rose is my favorite one, and if i was going to order one Trumpers soap, the rose was going to be it. So, I got the package on Saturday afternoon, but I had already shaved that morning, so it would have to wait until Sunday. Sunday morning came, I showered first as I usually do, cracked open the wooden bowl of rose soap, hit it with the bk4 and I had……….fantastic lather! Rich, creamy, generated with total ease, and had plenty for my entire shave, just as I should with a top shelf hard shave soap. This Trumpers rose soap is just as good as any I've ever had from them. The serial numbers on my box of soap were 092383, and 17508.
Now, some shavegeeks may say that the second number may indicate that this particular soap was made in 2008, and is an older formulation. I don't think any of us know for absolute certain what these serial numbers mean, or if they actually do indicate time of manufacture, but I do know that this soap is the good stuff. I ordered from QED.
In conclusion, I think we can rest easy with the Trumpers soaps. I'm thinking that the bum cakes that were floating around were a blip on the screen and the soaps are fine. I know that we were waiting for another "bad" cake to show up, so we could send it to Gordon, but as you may remember, I did receive a "bad" cake of the coconut oil scent, and I thought that it might be useful for myself to post a review after purchasing a "good" cake. At this point, if someone orders some Trumpers soap, and they get a bad one, I'm sure that the vendor, or even Trumpers themselves will take care of it, and switch it out. Im confident that the other scents are fine too. So, good news with these soaps, I'll be happy to return them to my collection.

Re: Trumpers hard shaving soap- my review

Posted: Mon Apr 21, 2014 8:13 am
by DGB452
The current formulation used by Trumper's for all of their shaving soaps now uses the same base formula as the Eucris soap. So it's not difficult to tell if you have the current formulation or a previous formulation. If you are not familiar with the Eucris formula, then key word to look out for is 'cocoate', if this word appears in the ingredients list then you have the current formulation (you don't have to be a code-breaker to work it out).

Re: Trumpers hard shaving soap- my review

Posted: Mon Apr 21, 2014 10:20 am
by gr_elias
Maybe a picture from the ingredients list will help us. Also if Brother has a picture of the lemon soap that he gave away could help us compare.

Lastly, a report from wvbias who has the rose soap and reported positively could justify if we are talking about the same soap!

Re: Trumpers hard shaving soap- my review

Posted: Mon Apr 21, 2014 10:58 am
by brothers
gr_elias wrote:Maybe a picture from the ingredients list will help us. Also if Brother has a picture of the lemon soap that he gave away could help us compare.

Lastly, a report from wvbias who has the rose soap and reported positively could justify if we are talking about the same soap!
I'm glad to help! Here's the box the Lime soap came in. It's the bottom one of the the two.

Image

Re: Trumpers hard shaving soap- my review

Posted: Mon Apr 21, 2014 7:37 pm
by John Parker
DGB452 wrote:The current formulation used by Trumper's for all of their shaving soaps now uses the same base formula as the Eucris soap. So it's not difficult to tell if you have the current formulation or a previous formulation. If you are not familiar with the Eucris formula, then key word to look out for is 'cocoate', if this word appears in the ingredients list then you have the current formulation (you don't have to be a code-breaker to work it out).
Does this mean that cocoate means good, or means bad? Afraid I have no experience with Eucris soap. Mr. Max, what does the box you received the Trumper Rose in say relative to cocoate?

Re: Trumpers hard shaving soap- my review

Posted: Mon Apr 21, 2014 9:41 pm
by bernards66
John, He is saying that 'cocoate' equals the Eucris soap type and it's true that some who tried that when it first came out said that it did not lather well. I never have used it ( then or more recently ) because I don't care for that scent. In the Limes that Gary had, and that has since been tried by two other members, that 'coconate' does not appear. I'll be interested to hear what the ingredients are in Max's cake of Rose. When I looked over the ingredients in that Limes specimen I notice two stearates are included. We have been told that stearates are usually derived from tallowate although they don't 'have' to be. Overall I am further reassured by Max's post as he was one of the members who got a bum cake and feared that it might have been what they were now selling period. That does not seem to be the case unless there is an awful lot of considerably older stock still being held by a number of vendors.
Regards,
Gordon

Re: Trumpers hard shaving soap- my review

Posted: Tue Apr 22, 2014 6:41 am
by DGB452
'Cocoate' in the ingredients list merely indicates that it is the current formulation of shaving soap being offered by Trumper's. I am working my through a Sandalwood puck of this current formulation at the moment, alongside a previous formulation of Violet. Both lather well and I get a very good shave with both.

I found this video showing the Eucris soap being lathered, I get similar looking lather to this with both soaps, which like I stated above, gives a very good shave.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rj16M3Rc0pY

Re: Trumpers hard shaving soap- my review

Posted: Tue Apr 22, 2014 6:42 am
by Mr.Max
Not the best pic, but here goes:

Re: Trumpers hard shaving soap- my review

Posted: Tue Apr 22, 2014 6:53 am
by DGB452
You've got the previous veggie formulation Rose shaving soap there.

Re: Trumpers hard shaving soap- my review

Posted: Tue Apr 22, 2014 7:18 am
by TRBeck
I don't think this soap looks all that different in formulation or approach from what Trumper has always done. They have taken a basic palm oil "toilet soap base" and added "shaving soap base" of stearic acid and palm kernel oil (which is pretty much interchangeable with coconut oil for soaping purposes). Even when it was tallow soap, the ingredient list for Trumper soap was toilet soap base, shaving soap base, fragrance. The ingredient list doesn't tell the whole tale, of course, but it doesn't appear they are doing anything radically different. Much may depend on the particular percentages of the toilet soap base and the shave soap base, or on the amount of potassium vs. sodium salts in the soap. What is the current ingredient list?

Re: Trumpers hard shaving soap- my review

Posted: Tue Apr 22, 2014 7:27 am
by gr_elias
So Matt has the broken version of the soap, but it works for him.... Hmmm weird things, these guys at Trumpers have messed things up.

The confusion that they made, keeps us from buying. Sometimes I wonder, why people want to change things when they are working.....

Re: Trumpers hard shaving soap- my review

Posted: Tue Apr 22, 2014 8:01 am
by Squire
Donno why. New and Improved seem to be a mantra for those with a marketing perspective.

Re: Trumpers hard shaving soap- my review

Posted: Tue Apr 22, 2014 9:39 am
by Mr.Max
The bum cake I had a while back was coconut oil, and it was horrid. Wouldn't lather worth a damn, or at least it wouldn't make lather that I would shave with. This cake of rose soap that I have now is aces, but it may be older stock. I would be interested in seeing a list of ingredients for the eucris or a different scent per the "new formula"

Re: Trumpers hard shaving soap- my review

Posted: Tue Apr 22, 2014 1:50 pm
by wvbias
Ingredients list on the puck of Rose soap that I tested.

Sodium Palmate, Potassium Stearate, Sodium Cocoate, Sodium Stearate, Aqua ( water), Potassium Cocoate,
Glycerin, Parfum ( fragrance ) Tetrasodium Edta, Sodium Chloride, Isopropyl Myristate, Geraniol, Citronellol,
Hydroxycitronellal, Tetrasodium Etidronate, BHT, Talc, Linalool, CI 77891, ( Titanium Dioxide ) CI73360 (Red 30)

Sorry I had to type this, but I don't have a camera.


Terry

Re: Trumpers hard shaving soap- my review

Posted: Tue Apr 22, 2014 2:34 pm
by DGB452
wvbias wrote:
Sodium Palmate, Potassium Stearate, Sodium Cocoate, Sodium Stearate, Aqua ( water), Potassium Cocoate, Glycerin, Parfum ( fragrance ) Tetrasodium Edta, Sodium Chloride, Isopropyl Myristate, Geraniol, Citronellol, Hydroxycitronellal, Tetrasodium Etidronate, BHT, Talc, Linalool, CI 77891, ( Titanium Dioxide ) CI73360 (Red 30)
You've got the current formulation of Rose shaving soap there, the ingredient list for the Sandalwood that I'm currently using is very similar to this also.

Re: Trumpers hard shaving soap- my review

Posted: Tue Apr 22, 2014 9:35 pm
by bernards66
Tim, Good point; we never really knew exactly what used to be in the old Trumper soaps because back then the ingredients list was very non-specific. Their "toilet soap" base may have, indeed, have been palm oil based...but, maybe not, perhaps it was tallow. It is interesting that DGB reports that he is satisfied with the performance of their newest stuff, the one that includes cocoate....that he really sees little difference between it and the older interim version that is the subject of the initial post in this thread as it turns out. It now seems likely that I have never personally tried this newest version but I am still somewhat reassured by a couple of posts here regarding it. It may still be that there was just a bum batch, which seems to happen occasionally with many of these products. Or, perhaps, the initial run, which included the first Eucris soaps was crappy but that they have since adjusted the formula. When the Floris No 89 soap first returned it was wretched but several respected members now report that it is very good, even though it is still veg. oil based apparently. Sooo...at this point I think I would be willing to risk ordering a new puck of the Trumpers when the need or desire arises.
Regards,
Gordon