So, it looks like Al’s shaving products has released a shaving soap. To kick off the review, let’s have a look at what Al has to say about the scent:

Al’s Private Stock is a mix of strong floral notes of geranium and rose otto supported by West Indian sandalwood and cedarwood in the background.

The florals are far more prevalent to my nose than the woody notes are. For those of you familiar with Al’s shaving creams, you should be aware of how his creams tend to smell very different when lathered versus unlathered; that’s not the case for the Sapone da Barba; what you sniff is what you get. All in all I thought it was fairly pleasant, and reasonably strong, without any fading that I noticed.

The lather is produces is damned good stuff, as I would expect for one of Al’s products. While overall I think I slightly prefer the performance of his creams, this did still produce a cream with a good balance of glide and thickness (ending up just a tad thinner than the cream when enough water is added to get the lubrication needed, from what I can tell), and some decent moisturization properties to boot.

8/10 Scent Pleasantness

9/10 Scent Strength

9/10 Quality of Lather

All in all, I’ll call this one a rather solid 8/10.

Cost: This sample was free from a kindly redditor (probably the same fellow who supplied the sample for this review over at The Close Shave) who wanted to see what I thought. To actually purchase some, it’ll run you $25 for a tin.

Gear used:

Ingredients: No full listing is available, but Al has this to say: “Made with coconut oil and salts of long and medium chain fatty acids for the creamiest lather in addition to water, glycerin and botanical essential oils.”