SMF

This one is a keeper.

Ease of lathering: 9/10--Even with my hard water, I've lathered up in a bowl and face-lathered sans the bowl. No complaints here.

Longevity of lather: 9/10--Very good. The lather is stable on the brush, in the bowl, and on the face.

Shaving performance: 9/10--Slick, protective, good cushion and glide. Thick rich abundant lather just as I hoped for. The lather does what it's supposed to do: enables the razor to remove the whiskers. I never ask for more.

General skincare: 9/10--Neither too dry nor noticeably moisturizing. Post shave feel is great.

Scent: 10/10--I love it. Lime, yes. Different, yes for sure. It's addictive to my nose. Lovely and noticeably a sibling to the Lavender TOBS fragrance. I find it delightful. Not a punch in the nose, as I had feared, and not too perfumy like some other lime scented soaps. More like a gentle loving touch to me.

Price: 9/10--$15 range. A good value in a good English triple milled hard soap that delivers the goods.

Would I buy again: 10/10--Most definitely. Backups are inevitable. If you get one and find it's not your cup of tea, remember to PM me and I'll buy yours.

TOBS is in the game. Another top quality product worthy of the brand. I had an empty Taylors wooden bowl, and it looks right at home there. This one exceeded my expectations. I've got it on the shelf next to the Pens Sartorial and the home made soap. I'm going to stick with this one.

Thanks for the review, Gary. I notice on their site that lavender is one of the ingredients. I couldn't find a full list --- are they running with tallow or palm base in this soap?

This is a new formula without tallow. Note: the box describes the fragrance as "discreet". That's appropriate.

You just couldn't resist, eh, Gary? Good on you. Looks like a winner. My only hesitation is that there seems to be more glycerin than water in it. Probably won't stop me, though.

Chris

Chris, I really couldn't resist. this time it turned out to be a good decision. If you get one, I hope you enjoy it as much as you do your Lavender. For tonight's shave a few minutes ago, I loaded it on the dry synthetic brush for 20 seconds, and lathered in the bowl, adding water sparingly. I kept asking myself if I had exaggerated about any of my opinions in the review, as I went along. I don't think so.

Gary, So, after we wouldn't bite you yourself caved eh? ( chuckle ) I'm glad that it worked out well for you and thanks for the review. There was a time when I suspected that no commercially offered palm oil based soap would be any good. However, some of the more recent Trumper shave soaps showed me that I was mistaken. While I still don't think that they're quite as good as their tallow based predecessors they are still more than good enough....and it sounds like this Taylor soap is also. Like you I was wondering how they would do the scent but it sounds appealing from what you wrote above. This just might be my next, or next after that, hard shave soap purchase.
Regards,
Gordon

Gordon, they had me when they chose lime. Somebody in the fragrance department over at Taylors has a gift. This one's got that recognizable familial Taylors scent profile, then they put just the right amount of lime in there to justify the name, but then they brought in the magic. Since I first experienced both the lavender soap and the cream from TOBS I've been hooked on that subtle English lavender characteristic that seems unique to Taylors. Right out of the box, my experience was ". . . aaahhhh, Lime. . .". I could have predicted that, of course. What I never expected was that subtle but exquisite quality that made me say ". . . hello my old friend! . . . where did you come from? Fancy meeting you here! Gosh it's good to see you again . . . ". And that's just the fragrance. It seems to me that the lather started strong and never disappoints me.

Nice review Gary. Thanks.

Gary,

Thanks for the review! I like all of the Taylor soaps! When my Taylor's Jermym soap is used up I will try the Luxury Lime.

Steve

I've had the Lavender soap for quite some time and love the scent, performance and cost.
I recently purchased the Limes as well as the Jermyn. The limes has a great scent that is not overpowering and of course it has not disappointed me with the performance.
Some of these palm based soaps give outstanding performance while maintaining great value. The thing about these soaps is that there is variety. Soaps such as Trumper's, Penhaligons and Floris, although the last two are up there in price.
The Jermyn soap performs great as well, although the scent is very subdued. Mind you, my sense of smell is not what it used to be.

Hmm, exit polls indicate this one's a winner.

Squire, Indeed. It's most encouraging. The whole top shelf English hard shave soap thing was sounding a bit iffy there for awhile but things have evidently settled down.
Regards,
Gordon

Thanks for the review.

rcohen wrote:Thanks for the review.

It was my pleasure. Good soap. As soon as I finish using up my tube of Mem shaving cream, to be followed by finishing off a stick of Blueness soap, I'll dive into the TOBS Lime, and my intention is to use it up too, no matter how long that might take. This gives me something really good to look forward to (Not to mention the Mem and the Blueness on the way!)

Well, I finally was able to try this soap out as I purchased a cake at the Taylor's shop in Jermyn Street and I must agree with Gary that it is excellent. You know, I sometimes kicked myself because I failed to get any of the old Royal Yacht Lime hard shave soap back when I could have. Because of how much I like the No. 78 Lime Cologne ( which IS the old Royal Yacht Edwardian Lime ) I figured that that soap must have been really nice. Well, I think this stuff is probably pretty much what that soap was. The scent of the lather does remind me of the Lime Cologne more than a little; a definite lime hit mixed with other 'old timey' sorts of notes. Very classy and the lather produced is first rate. This is the first new shave product in some time that I've been truly enthusiastic about...good stuff!
Regards,
Gordon

Gordon this is the second product you've mentioned that piques my interest and I'm developing a growing suspicion your trip is gonna cost me some money.

Squire, Indeed. And why should it not?....God knows it cost me plenty!...sigh...
Regards,
Gordon

It is good to know that quality shaving soap is still being made, and for a reasonable price.
Thanks for the update, Gary


And for what it's worth, this is my 2800th post on SMF!

Regards,

And for what it's worth, this is my 2800th post on SMF!

15 thumbs up!

clive

fallingwickets wrote:

And for what it's worth, this is my 2800th post on SMF!

15 thumbs up!

clive

Clive,

Looks like I have a ways to go before I reach your present number!

Best,