Among the very best of shaving soaps.
Update on 01/15/2011: This review is for the Potassium Stearate based original formula of this soap not for the current veggie oil based version. The potassium stearate version is no longer available as of this update. I have not used the veggie oil based version and this review in no way alludes to that version. That said, my experience has been that veggie oil based soaps are not quite as good in the best instances and can be downright dreck in other instances. And in any instance not as skin friendly as their superior stearate versions. Ymmv.<br /><br />This is an excellent soap for the money. No doubt the user that said it was hard to lather has either very hard water or is not proficient with lathering hard shaving soaps. And the dirty little secret about the wooden bowls amongst all the vendors is that they're nearly all proprietary sizes. This forces you to get their bowl with their soap so they can make an extra buck off of you. Some are interchangeable but not many. And creams lather in almost any kind of water so no surprise about his experience with them. Creams are excellent but many men prefer the hard soaps because their performance is so good, superior even.<br /><br />Taylor's is an excellent shaving soap. In fact this soap provides lots of protection and lots of cushion yet it's versatile enough to pivot into a slicker lather with the addition of a tiny bit of water to the formed lather for application on the second pass (or even the first pass if you're so inclined). Fantastic stuff. It has a genuine sharp yet bright lavender scent that is thee classic scent of men's shaving soap. I've used all the premium hard shaving soaps - D.R. Harris, Trumper, Art of Shaving, Truefitt and Hill, Kent, Penhaligon's, Tabac and Valobra (stick version). Taylor's is right up there with all of the best. They're all fine soaps and some are better than others but at this level you're splitting hairs (no pun intended) so there's really not much difference. Of course the Taylor's costs less which is a blessing. I recommend you try all the top shelf shaving soaps (the ones I mentioned as well as many others) and decide for yourself what you like but don't knock the Taylor's on performance as it is one of the best.
Rating: 5 stars