First up, a slight policy change announcement. Up to now I’ve been giving each soap I’m trying out at least two days worth of shaves. This was primarily in order to ensure that I didn’t accidentally give a soap a bad review based upon me just having a bad shave, or bad luck once with building lather.

But I’ve also noticed that a lot of brands seem to have a lot of consistency in the behaviour of their lather, with the only real variation being in the scents. So, in order to allow me to get through the backlog of soaps I’ve got to review a bit faster, if I decide this is the case, I’ll only be giving soaps of that type 1 day of shaving per scent. As this has definitely been the case with Mama Bear Soaps (and as I’ve still got almost 2 months worth of Mama Bear reviews to do even with the 1 a day amendment), they’ll be the first to be added to this list. I suspect I’ll probably be adding at least Honeybee Soaps, and The Shave Den to this list shortly as well.

So, on to today’s review: Mama Bear’s White Grapefruit Ice. She says that “Grapefruit is great for oil skin.. combined with the menthol, this is a great summer soap for those who want something for their oily skin that is cooling and refreshing…” So naturally I waited until a chilly day in fall to test out this soap.

The grapefruit is quite nicely done, which makes sense considering it’s apparently done with 100% essential oils, instead of artificial fragrances. And the menthol adds quite a nice kick to both the scent, and in the cooling sensation on the skin. The aroma was noticible throughout the shave, but not strongly so.

As for the shave itself, as I mentioned, consistent. Load your brush a lot, add water slowly, and you’ll end up with a nice thick lather with a decent amount of glide; just be sure not to over-shoot on the water. If you’re using a scuttle, expect to have to re-whip the lather between passes (add a few drops of water too), as I’ve found the heat to increase the rate at which the lather breaks down.

9/10 Scent Pleasantness

8/10 Scent Strength

7/10 Lather Quality (reflects new scoring as outlined here)

So overall, I give it a 7/10. As per usual with Mama Bear, trying it won’t hurt the pocket much… until you decide to try them all.

Gear used:

Ingredients: Coconut Oil, Palm Oil, Castor Oil, Safflower, Glycerine (kosher, of vegetable origin), Purified Water, Sodium Hydroxide (saponifying agent), Sorbitol (moisturizer), Sorbitan oleate (emulsifier), Soybean protein (conditioner), Wheat protein and fragrance either natural or synthetic.