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Nordic Shaving Company review

The King

Well-Known Member
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My first encounter with this Finnish soap maker was when I bought the Razor Master Ari shaving soap through Gifts & Care.

And as many forum readers will still remember, I thought this was one of the nicest pine / forest scents that was available in shaving soaps.
Smelling the pot, this scent was already great, but when it lathered up, the scent completely came loose and a wonderful pine scent filled the bathroom.
During the Advent period in a different life on a different forum, this was often discussed, also because the quality of this soap was more than fantastic.

However, the above is now history and a new chapter has emerged now that I have received two shaving soaps from Nordic Shaving, the Coffee and the Birch, to try them out.

If we look at the ingredient list, then its conciseness stands out. That this brevity does not of course say anything about the quality of shaving soap proves, for example, a shaving soap such as MDC which belongs to the absolute top.
In addition to the standard ingredients, Shea butter has also been added to the soap that provides extra care for the skin. No Tallow has been added so we speak of a Vegan shaving soap.

It is, as we nowadays say so beautifully, a soft soap because the structure is between that of a shaving cream and a hard shaving soap. Examples of which are, for example, the shaving creams from TFS and Meissner. The appearance of the shaving soap is similar to that of Extro, for example.

In the jar is for me the ideal amount of shaving soap namely 80 grams but I do have one note and that is that the diameter of the jar is too small for me. Through the narrow opening there is with a shaving brush of up to 24mm. drawers directly onto the soap surface. I prefer to see a jar with a larger diameter such as the travel jars from TOBS and Proraso. An additional advantage is that these jars can also be stacked more stable, a not unimportant fact if you have several shaving soaps as a hobbyist.

Of course, the above is not important for those who remove the soap from the jar with a spatula or finger and then press it into a bowl or apply it to the face, but this method is not my preference.

Before I do my first shave with an unknown shaving soap, I always do a few tests beforehand how the cream can be whipped into lather. The photo shows that you can easily obtain a brush full of firm standing lather.

Then I always take a small amount of cream between the fingers, first rub it dry between the fingers and then slowly add some drops of water. After this I will "wash" my hands with the creamy substance and continue to add small amounts of water and then wash everything off. This way I get an impression of the fatness and sliding capacity of a shaving soap. With these tests you get the idea that the soap has sufficient fatness and sliding capacity.

Remarkable was the difference in the strength of the scent between the soaps in this test, the Coffee scent diminishes faster than the Birch scent that remains perceptible for longer in the palms of the hands after "washing" the hands.

The Birch odor also remains perceptible in the lather and I really enjoy it. At first the scent reminds me of entering a not yet warmed sauna with that wonderful fresh light scent, but while shaving a slightly salty aqua scent is released that reminds me of the Meissner Salty Sea Sage. And I find the layered scent smelling fantastic.

The coffee smell reminds me of one of my favorite coffee flavors from the pot, namely the "Wiener melange" with some chocolate added to the coffee. This scent is not the first thing that comes to mind when I use shaving soaps, but the enthusiast will certainly "feast"

Latenring this shaving soap is very easy, in fact I think it will be even harder not to get a good lather than it is. That makes this shaving soap truly a everyone's friend, an experienced shave or a newcomer to obtain a good lather is always insured.

Because of its softness you quickly have enough shaving soap loaded in the brush and with some water in the shaving bowl lathering is no problem at all. Be careful when adding water because the soap is definitely not thirsty.
Subsequently, a fine-blown, full-standing lather is quickly created. Once applied to the shaving surface, the Lather also remains stable, firm and moist.
Hereby a note: it is advised on the website to load the brush for 30 seconds, which is in my view too long. Say at most 15 seconds is more than enough to have the brush fully loaded.

One of the most important tasks of a shaving soap is of course to soak and soften the beard hairs that are as hard as copper wires. That is why I consciously do not use pre-shave when testing a new shaving soap. The result is as can be expected from a shaving soap because after a minute of soaking, the beard hairs were sufficiently prepared to be removed.

A shaving soap must then protect the skin against the scraping of a razor blade and in order to achieve this with as little friction as possible, the soap must have a good sliding layer.

It is striking that the "cushion effect" and sliding properties of the full lather are above average. If you have already gone over the skin with the scraper, a layer of protective greasiness remains to go over the skin with the razor blade without any problems.

However for the qualification excellent the soap lacks in my view just as "slippery" this especially when the lather is not full enough. By that I mean that for the final finishing strokes I put the foam with wet fingers on those places where necessary and then you notice that if the lather is a bit more "watery" and the protective sliding properties are less.

The caring properties of a shaving soap are very important.
After the shave my skin felt good and for me it means a relaxed skin feeling without any kind of irritation. In addition, after rinsing the shaving soap until the moment of applying aftershave, the skin should not feel dry or irritated. The aforementioned were met, so in my opinion the hydrating properties of this shaving soap are in order.

With a price of € 14.85 for 80 grams, this shaving soap cannot be called cheap. Converted to a frequently used quantity (such as Meissner, and MDC) of 200 grams, you pay € 36.60 for the Nordic Shaving.

With this pricing you position yourself in the middle position in a category of shaving soaps that have already proven themselves, such as Meissner, St. James and a Martin de Candre.
With this pricing you know that it is in the niche and not everyone will want to pay so much money for a shaving soap.

Conclusion:

Of course a review is nothing but the personal experience of the user and as always the YMMV applies.

The Nordic Shaving Soap is a good shaving soap that has given me lots of shaving pleasure.

The scents are Birch and Coffee are excellent and also remain perceptible after lathering up. In addition, the Birch smells a little stronger in both the jar and the lather than the coffee.

Loading the shaving brush and lathering the shaving soap really gives no problem whatsoever where one must keep in mind not to use too much water.

The shaving quality of the full lather and its caring properties are in my opinion good. When using a shavette, however, I prefer a somewhat thinner and wetter layer of lather on the skin and then in my view the shaving soap performs less in terms of protection and gliding.

In terms of price, the shaving soap is clearly in the higher segment and in my opinion everything must be in order, but as described above there are still small points for improvement.

In this higher class you often see that the shaving soap is housed in a more luxurious package that does justice to its price. The current packaging of the Nordic shaving soap detracts from this feeling in my view and my advice would be to consider a slightly more luxurious packaging.

Then I want to thank Jari for making the shaving soaps available.
 
I was another lucky one who got a tub of this soap. I have used the soap so far 6 times, my experiences:
The fragance is citrus and ginger. The ginger is not explicite in the tub bit recognizable on the face. It gives the citrus a very nice body. The strength is between English and Americain scents, what I appriciate.

The quality during the shave: it is very easy to leather is soap and gives a stable lather. It helps to soften the bristles. A negative aspect: the soap does not give a good gliding film. For me the soap is not good enough for straight razor and steel safety razors but works perfect with my plastic slants.

The after shave sense: I allways use after shave so no complaints. Must say I am very sensible for soaps that Dries my skin . This soap does not do that. A plus

Totally I am positive about the soap: especially the fragance.

My thanks to Ari for giving this soap.

And are you reader getting very curious about this soap. I will sent you a sample to try it yourself and we will read your review as well. Pm me
 
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