Review - Mal Pais - Old Time Shaving Soap

Company: Phoenix Artisan Accoutrements
Product: Mal Pais - Old Time Shaving Soap
Creator: Frances Towle
BADLANDS

It’s always a good day when an artisan announces a new shaving soap. When I saw the post for Mal Pais from PAA I was drawn to it by the name. I was told by one of the HTGAM members that Frances Towle was the creator of the soap. Not only did she create a wonderful scent but most importantly she has formulated a great performing soap.

The packaging is of the new kind from PAA. It’s a better tin I think the color is dark silver with the popular screw on top. I prefer this to the older offerings with the stretched plastic band although this one came with one too.

The Mal Pais scent is complex. We have many things going on here the list of notes are as follows _Leather, Cedar, Mesquite, Bay Rum, Black Pepper, Mint, Bergamot, Tobacco Absolute and Ginger._  For me almost all of the notes come thru. The scent strength is about 2.5 and when you’re lathering it jumps to about a 3. 

From time to time the community will define a shaving soaps by its scent and Mal Pair for me has a great one but I think performance is what shines here. Lathering is effortless, you wet the brush and with a touch, the soap instantly creates a rich creamy lather. It’s so thick you can paint it on your face. Not too many artisan soaps can come close in doing this. My brush was loaded so much with lather it took a while for me to rinse it all out, not to mention I had already done 2 passes with it. During the shave you get the slickness and glide we all look for with a bonus post shave feel.  

I can only compare this soap with Gondolier from the same company. They seem to share the same chemistry when it comes to performance but the scents of course are different. . I call them desert island soaps. If I were on a desert island I would want one of these with me.

So it’s no surprise that I really like Mal Pair. I had a wonderful shave. I highly recommend it. 

Company: Phoenix Artisan Accoutrements
Product: Mal Pais - Old Time Shaving Soap 3.5oz $10.95