I've not had good luck with Japanese shaving products in the past, but this one has been hovering around in my head since I first started this hobby. It's a product of the Kamisori Club, a shop/museum/wetshaving organization in Tokyo, that is pretty much solely responsible for the remnants of wetshaving on the Japanese market (all of the shaving supplies at the department stores, the Plisson brushes etc., are from the Kiya suppliers--owned by Kamisori Club.)
So these Tokyo wetshavers went ahead and made their own shaving soap, containing Catechin--which is apparently some chemical in green tea that makes it really good for your skin. They sell it at their shop, and online, and I found some at the Kyoto JR Isetan, and boy is it pricey. 1,575 JPY for a puck, which is right around $17, puts it up there above the more popular English soaps. But it was there, and I had money, and I had to try it.
I got it home, and took a look at the ingredients.
Oops.
"Ingredients: Soap base, Catechin."
Yep, this is just a plain old melt-and-pour soap with added Catechin.
Well, I tried it anyway. It's an odd soap, unscented except for a faint hint of tea, the color very dark brown/green (not at all pleasant), and soft to the touch. Not Cella soft, more like Van der Hagen Deluxe soft--if you push hard, you could drive your finger into it with little trouble, I think.
This softness means it loads up on your brush FAST. Even with a silvertip badger, it loaded up in seconds, and quickly started a foamy prelather.
And that's about as far as it goes. As you might expect, this soap simply will not produce a stable lather. It's not the worst contender in this regard, the weird, brownish lather will hold up for a couple of minutes, but soon it breaks down into a slimy film. The weird thing, though, is that the slimy film actually doesn't offer too bad a shave.
The soap doesn't offer the luxurious cushion of a quality shave soap, but it does offer both slide and protection--and I ended up with a pretty smooth, very GOOD feeling face after the shave. I didn't ENJOY the shave, but it wasn't bad. And I think they might be on to something with that catechin stuff...at least for a face wash. This soap is USABLE for shaving, I will say that, it's not a total waste in that regard...But was it worth $17? Not at all.
Give it a pass.
2 comments:
I've been meaning to get that soap as well. I always felt that would be an iffy purchase, too. It is not easy to come by in person, though I now know where to look for similar items.
Owing to your sacrifice, I now know to go for something else.
I salute you. - kodou
Thanks Kodou, it's what I'm here for. I've been through worse, but it was disappointing.
Good luck, man.
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