WetShaving
This is a community of enthusiasts, hobbyists and artisans who enjoy a traditional wet shave: brush, soap, and safety or straight razor. We are a part of the WetShaving community found on Reddit, Discord, and IRC.
New subscribers welcome!
Please visit our wiki, which is always and forever a work in progress.
Check out these alternative front-ends for this server:
https://gem.wetshaving.social - a nice modern interface
https://old.wetshaving.social - designed to look like old.reddit.com
Our sister Mastodon instance is https://wetshaving.social.
Community Rules
Rule 1 - Behaviour and Etiquette
-
Be Respectful. Do not bully, flame, or harass others.
-
Malicious comments are not allowed but heated discussion and salty banter is okay.
-
Low effort replies and complaints about content will be removed.
Rule 2 - Content Guidelines
-
Mail Calls, Simple Questions, and SOTD posts belong in the recurring weekly threads.
-
Posts must have sufficient content to generate a meaningful discussion.
-
Images, links, or videos must include additional text that summarizes the topic.
Rule 3 - Reviews and Disclosure
-
Use [First Impressions] in the title if your experience with the product is limited.
-
Use the [Review] in the title if you can provide comprehensive details with enough familiarity to answer follow-up questions.
-
Disclose how the product being reviewed was acquired (e.g., PIF, loan, or purchase). If the product was provided to you directly by the maker or vendor free of charge or at a discount, you must disclose this fact even if the item will later be returned to the maker or vendor.
Rule 4 - Advertising
-
Vendors are to keep marketing within the biweekly Deals/New Products threads.
-
Non-vendors may post topics about products if it will foster a compelling discussion.
-
Do not solicit donations or share fundraisers without mod approval.
Rule 5 - Inappropriate Content
-
All NSFW/L content must request mod approval and be flaired appropriately.
-
Non-shaving related NSFW/L content is not allowed.
Rule 10 - Moderator Discretion
- The rules may not apply perfectly to every situation. The mods have final discretion.
view the rest of the comments
24.07.2024 Buena Vista Wetshaving Social Club, First Edition: AYLM Don Josรฉ ๐๐ง
So finally, the time has come for the first edition of our BVWSC shave!
This was a 2-pass head shave with a fresh blade loaded into a MMOC. I chose today's razor since it's a community favourite and it was also a gift from @[email protected] โ๐ป
Don Josรฉ: AYLMs soaps are often praised, despite getting very few usages in comparison to the largely dominant US-based artisans in the wetshaving hobby. Since I was intrigued how they'll perform for me, I was really looking forward to this shave. Much thanks to @[email protected] for providing a generous sample!
On the first sniff, the soap has a rather understated scent: coconut, pencil shavings and menthol is what I get. Wait, pencil shavings?! No offense meant, as I genuinely like the smell of that. But I guess these are the woody notes that AYLM lists in their description. Some tropical, fruity notes in the background that could be the bananas...
Upon lathering the soap, it continues to be a rather mild scent - the banana actually comes out with more water added to the mix, but the coconut stays dominant. As for scent strength though, it stays on the mild side. Perhaps a 5/10, which is not at all bad per se.
Notable thing to mention: we got very soft water in my region of Germany and this soap needs to be loaded a bit longer than your typical american artisan shaving soap. It took a bit longer than usual for me to build a nice slick lather, especially since I have a bit more surface to cover as a head shaver. I still got enough soap left for at least one, if not two more uses.
An MMOC with a fresh GEM PTFE blade is not to be underestimated, but I can report that the soap performed very well in regards to cushion and slickness. The shave was comfortable, the razor glided excellent and provided enough slickness for some cleanup after two passes were done (I need to mention, as a head shaver this is crucial since you're doing about 50% of your shaving blind for the back of your head & neck and only find the spots you've missed by feel).
Unfortunately, even on the second pass the banana wasn't quite as prominent as I had hoped for. But I need to mention that I stored the sample from sahenders in its original paper wrapping and only in my bathroom cabinet. It was also there for a prolonged period of time, so I'm not going to judge the soap negatively on the minimal scent. What could definitely be felt was the menthol though, and this was a very refreshing head shave. In terms of cooling strength, it is definitely more noticeable than Moon's Union (low amount of menthol) but not as fierce as the high menthol Stirling Glacial soap I used to own. It's not a burning sensation at all, but I advise those of you who are not fans of menthol to be careful...
Final verdict: my first impression of Don Josรฉ is that it's a nice shaving soap for summer, albeit not very strong in scent. The banana is a bit overshadowed by the coconut and menthol. It takes longer to load and lather up, but once you've done that, you'll be rewarded with a rock solid performance and good glide. If I had to rate it, I'd give it a 6.5 out of 10 based on this first impression alone. I rarely use gourmand scents, so I'd not get a full tub of it - but it has made me curious about other AYLM soaps, especially since european artisans are often overlooked. Thanks for having me on the first edition of hopefully many BVWSC shaves!
Thanks for the nice write-up, that was a good read!
I think the banana must have evaporated through the paper. My 3 year old soap in a closed aluminium tub is a banana bomb.
If you're curious about AYLM, know that the newer soaps have switched over to a hard, triple milled soap base, and there have already been at least two iterations of the hard soap.
I like both the soft and hard soaps I've tried from AYLM, but I do think that the newest hard base with the hemp oil is a step better than the others.
I didn't get the coconut, the banana was quite overwelming (if I had covered my face in ripe banana paste, it wouldn't have been very different) ๐๐๐ฃ๐ฃ
Thanks, really nice to read that you enjoy my writeup!
Yeah, I think that's the unfortunate case here. It was also sent to me in a period where the heat was unbearable, so I guess that contributed to the loss of the fragrance. The coconut scent is still very noticeable thanks to the coconut oil.
Honestly, triple milled hard soaps are even more intriguing compared to the usual soft soap bases we know. I'll see what I am able to find. Thanks for nominating this soap and subsequently getting us all to experience it! ๐๐ป
Oh, and I'm happy you still like the MMOC!
Never had a bad experience with it ever + it constantly gives great shaves. I'm certainly a fan ๐๐ป