Review (5/5): How do I express my love of Arko?
You know, every once and a while you run across a product that's almost too good to be true. I've been shaving with a DE razor for perhaps five years now, and I really like trying new stuff, but I must admit I've gotten set in my ways because I've found what works.
I usually shave with Bigelow or Proraso cream in a tube, although I'll use a high-end soap cake from time to time, there's a lot of good stuff out there. So one day I ordered some shaving "thing" from someone, and along with the "thing" they threw in a free stick of Arko. Even though I had heard some good things about it, I stuck it up in my cabinet and forgot about it, and went back to using my Bigelow.
About two months ago I happened to reach for the Bigelow tube and realized it was empty. Suddenly I remembered the stick of Arko that had been sitting in my cabinet for the last year(!) or so, and decided to give it a try while I was waiting for more of something else to show up. I like to use a scuttle, and the idea of just "drawing on my face" didn't really appeal to me too much, but hey, any port in a storm, right?
So I got my face moist with warm water and I basically started "drawing" on it with the Arko stick. The smell is ok, it's just not TOBS or anything like that. I wet my brush down and started whipping up my neck with it and was amazed at how quickly it turned into a nice lather. It took all of 15 seconds. I had a great shave.
The really crazy part is that the amount of soap that it took for my shave was essentially too small to notice! Let's just say I got used to this stuff really, REALLY fast, and it's now my go-to shave, at least for the time being. So here we are, at least two months later, and I still have well over a third of the stick left!
Highly recommended.
I'll say this also: some of these reviews mention the lack of good foam with this product. I've found that the foam is definitely different with the more utilitarian products, its more "soapy" and less "creamy." That being said though, this stuff produces more than enough for me, but that's me. I also know that water hardness makes a huge difference in the foam quality, you might want to try it again, but use some distilled water... the difference can be massive.