Mickey Lee Soapworks “Italian Stallion” Shaving Soap Review
I have a rule about restaurants. If I go and the food is bad, I’ll give the place another shot. Maybe I just didn’t like the flavor of something, in actuality, prepared correctly. However, if I go out, and the service is bad, I’ll won’t go back. To me service is a reflection of the leadership in a restaurant and is indicative of, potentially, much larger issues. This theory describes perfectly how I feel about the Mickey Lee Shaveworks “Italian Stallion” Shaving Soap.
As one of my former managers used to say, bad news first. I’m not a fan of this scent. I’ve seen it described as citrusy and leathery, but to me it smells like Ivory soap, but I would describe it as a tamer version of Arko. The strangest part for me is that the dry soap smells better than the lather. On the dry soap, I definitely pick up that citrus with a touch of earthiness behind it. Unfortunately for me, once I build my lather that all disappears. Fortunately for Mickey Lee, scent is extremely subjective, and my suggestion would be to get yourself a sample from Maggard Razors and try for yourself.
Okay, on to the good news. Performance on this soap is superb! This is honestly one of the most comfortable shaving soaps I have ever used. I used this shaving soap with my new Edwin Jagger razor loaded with both Feather blades and Gillette Silver Blue blades and barely felt a thing. If you like a lightly fragranced soap with top-notch performance, this is the soap for you.
So how does this relate to my analogy? Well, I view the fragrance of a soap like the food of a restaurant. Just like not every dish is right for everyone, not every scent appeals to everyone. However, this doesn’t mean the restaurant is bad; it just means I don’t care for that specific offering. I consider the performance of a soap to be more like the service. If the performance of a shaving soap is outstanding, then there is no reason why I shouldn’t try another product from that soapmaker. And I can certainly say there are no issues at Mickey Lee Soapworks.
Based on my experience with Mickey Lee, I’m absolutely looking forward to my other reviews for Mickey Lee’s soaps: Bali Hai, Paradise Frost, and Pantie Dropper.
Regards,