Company: Whispers From the Woods
Product: Shaving Soap
/ Sandalwood
Founder: Alexandra
Woods
Location: Australia
It all started New Years Eve Dec 31, 2015 with my first
email to Alexandra or Alex as she likes to be called. At first, she wasn’t too
keen on the idea of having her soaps reviewed but knew who I was from my
videos. Alex has witnessed the drama that goes on in the wet shaving community
and didn’t want to be part of that scene but after a few emails back and forth
she decided to give it a go. I’m glad she did, she makes wonderful shaving
soaps. During our conversations I learned that she had moved from Sydney to a
country town around Feb 16th of this year and her website was about
to open at that time as well. Finally, 4 mouths later on April 6th
2016 the package arrived.
Let me start with a little background as told by Alex. My background is Nursing which I have been
doing a long time. I bought a property in country NSW Australia just over two
years ago and this inspired my creativity. I have always had problems using
commercial soap and therefore sought out handmade soap. I did a soap making
course however, a friend who wet shaved suggested I should make shaving soap
instead as there was a lack of artisan shaving soap makers in Australia. I then
did a shaving soap, aftershave balm and aftershave cologne course which I
really enjoyed, the shaving soap did not lather very well and I thought I could
do better. With the encouragement of this wet shaving friend I started to
research how to make a proper shaving soap. I did a lot of reading and watched
videos and came up with a recipe that I was reasonably happy with. I made
several batches and gave them away to work colleagues who wet shaved, and asked
them for feedback. The girls were quite vocal as were some of the guys and gave
me a few tips to improve the soap which I took on board. I did another round of
soap which they all thought was great and encouraged me to start selling it.
What was sent to me was such a great surprise. A matt black
box with the company logo right on top. Green tissue paper covered the nestled
contents of what looks like the full collection of shaving soaps. One full tin
and the rest sample size.
All the tins have screw on lids. The logo is printed right
on the top of the medal tin, and the scent which is indicated on the bottom with what seems to
be from a handheld label maker. You might think this to be a problem but it
gets the job done, even during my tests it never moved or came off. The full
size tins have 80 grams or about 3oz the sample tins have a 12Grams or about
1oz.
When I was going through samples I couldn’t find any I disliked.
Some of the scent combinations are complex, the box contained: Sandalwood / Spearmint-Vetiver-Lavender / Bergamot-Clary
Sage-Geranium / Lime-Coconut / Orange-Grapefruit-Mandarin-Bergamot-Lemon /
Jasmine-Ylang-ylang-Sandalwood-Patchouli / Juniper-Cinnamon-Mandarin
Although I had many scents to choose from I picked sandalwood
to do the review on because I was so impressed with it. The strength is a
little above the medium side from the tin. The soap texture was soft. I could
push my finger right down into it so placing it into my lather bowl was not a
problem.
 |
| Alexandra Woods |
For this lather I didn’t have to use a brush with much
backbone. The lather came right up after the second helping of water and in no time
I had a rich creamy lather with a yogurt type of consistency that was ready to
apply. I haven’t shaved in 5 days and that lather did a wonderful job holding
on to my beard and the coverage was fantastic. Along with this great lather I
had great slickness and glide too. It allowed me to go over spots that I had
already shaven over many times without irritations.
I have to say I was pretty impressed with Whispers From The
Woods I hope to enjoy the other scents from the collection as well. I asked
Alex if anything new was on the horizon. I
am planning on keeping the popular scents as staple and then will make three to
four different scented soaps that I will make a couple of batches of and then
regularly change. I have an aftershave toner coming and I am working on a beard
wax. My website has just been launched which will stock my soaps, brushes,
razors, blades and accessories followed by my toner and beard wax. I also have
Australian wood shaving brushes in the works as well.
Company: Whispers
From the Woods
Product: Shaving Soap
/ Sandalwood 3oz $15.50
No comments :
Post a Comment