Ballenclaugh: Thunder & Linen Review
One of the
unfortunate things about limited edition soaps is that no one else has written
a review on them, so you’re blindly purchasing a product with the hopes of it
being good. Unfortunately, this product was not good and that’s putting it
kindly.
Thunder & Linen
is a special scent from Ballenclaugh, so it costs more than other soaps from
the company. The 6 oz. tub costs $18, which is $3 an oz—not bad for a limited edition soap.
The tub itself is
well made and the design on the lid is gorgeous. I’ve never had a shaving soap
or shaving cream with a clear tub before, but I really like Ballenclaugh’s design.
The 6 oz. tub has a large opening, which makes loading a brush extremely easy. Unfortunately,
the tub and its design are the only two things I liked about the soap.
Before I go into
the soap’s scent, I should stress that this is my opinion and everyone enjoys a different scent. To me, opening the tub
revealed a terrible scent that reminded me of an elderly individual’s clothing.
The scent was supposed to be “the smell of fresh cleaned linens out on the line
after a storm comes through.” But I didn’t get any of that. I got a huge whiff
of old, dirty clothes with a mix of moth balls that really put me off. After
taking one whiff of the soap, my girlfriend told me to sell the tub and cut my
losses.
So my girlfriend
and I were put off by the scent, but you may like it. Everyone enjoys shaving
with different scents and that’s one of the great things about wetshaving. Because
of this soap, I feel compelled to add another category in my overall shaving
review: scent pleasantness. This will be a number (one to 10) that dictates
whether I liked the scent of the soap.
I’m not the kind
of person to spend $18 on a soap and not try it out. So I loaded my Razorock
Plissoft Synthetic brush for 30 seconds and went into a face lather. Usually 30
seconds produces more than enough lather for my face and the brush seemed to
load really well. I took the brush and went to my face. I lathered and lathered
and lathered, but all I was left with was an airy, light lather.
I thought I did
something wrong, but I kept water to a minimum and loaded a good amount, so I
was perplexed. I tried again with the same synthetic brush, but loaded for over
a minute. I then went into a bowl lather. In the bowl, the soap looked like it
was working into a good lather, but it was airy for a second time. I tried
working more water into the soap to see if that worked, but the soap just fell
apart.
I then switched
to my Semogue 1305 Boar brush and attempted a face lather, as well as a bowl lather.
I loaded the soap for over two minutes for the third and fourth lathers with my
boar brush, but was still stuck with a terrible lather.
I don’t know why
I did this, but I attempted to shave with the terrible lather. It was so airy
that as soon as I put it on my face it disappeared. It didn’t provide my face
with any slickness, cushion, or comfort. It may sound like I’m bashing this
soap, but this is one of the worst shaves I’ve ever had. I stopped after one
pass, because I couldn’t get the soap to work for me.
Scent Pleasantness: 2/10
Scent Strength: 4/10
Lather Quality: 1/10
Price: 8/10
After four
attempts with different brushes and different shaving methods, Ballenclaugh’s
Thunder & Linen didn’t work for me. The scent—to me—was incredibly off
putting, the scent was extremely weak off of the puck and when lathering, the
lather was utterly disappointing, but the tub’s design and the soap’s price were
great. I sold the soap the same day I tried it and lost $10. But it was worth
it to me. While the soap didn’t work for me, it might work for you, but I wont
be buying another Ballenclaugh shaving soap any time soon.
Overall: 2/10
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