Review (5/5): The best.
After having used this product for a month, I find myself hooked. As YMMV when taking someone's word on shave gear, I thought I might provide some background about me: I have gentle to oily skin and stiff, tough neck hairs. I used to think I had sensitive skin until I married someone with actual sensitive skin. But the combination of the tough hairs and the gentleness of my skin leads to irritation on the neck when I am not careful. I learned to shave with a gillette adjustable years ago(which I still use), but out of "convenience" (really, a lack of good shaving products and knowhow) I stopped using it for cartridge systems in my early twenties. Since I started shaving right, some time ago, I got an EJ-89 which I use when I'm feeling raw, and an old type open comb gillette (which, for the moment at least, I favor for its closeness- I use personna lab blue blades or sharper in it). I've tried a number of different soaps and a few creams, most of which are good. Mitchell's is excellent. It has a simple, clean smell like fresh linen and is the most thoroughly hydrating shaving product I have ever used. It lathers up easily- I've used my beat up old drugstore boar brush which is now probly 15 years old and a silvertip badger brush.. In either case, the lather whips up in a minute or less with no complications. I'm not one of these people that soaks the puck either, I just heat it up in its dish, in a basin of hot water as I soak my brush and it is good to go. I've heard that water hardness and temp can make a difference with this stuff, but as I have decidedly soft water here in the city, I can't really comment on that. But once you get the lather right, with enough water, it is eaaasy on the face. Amazing even.. I dreamt wetshaving was like this as a teenager..
One might be put off by the price which may seem hefty for a newcomer to the wetshaving game, eager to start saving money (previously lost on walking the cartridge treadmill) and reticent to buy apparently expensive luxury shaving soaps, but aside from being a quality product, It lasts for a quite a while. I was really going to wait until I had exhausted mine to write this review but it's been a month, and the puck looks basically the same size! Growing up on Williams soap and favoring Van der Hagen as a drugstore standby these days, I notice one soap generally lasts me a month (some less than that), but aside from the simply larger size of Mitchells (4.4 oz to 2.5 oz for standard mug size soaps), you just get more bang for your buck. I'm guessing this one will last me three months or more.. So at that rate, the price basically factors out altogether.
To sum up, if you have gentle or easily irritated skin and aren't looking for a heavily scented product, this is the grail of soaps for you. One word: I wouldn't spring for the dish because I am cheap. You might not be.. But the soap itself does perfectly fit a rice bowl or large ramekin, in case you were wondering.. Probably not a mug though, unless it were seriously oversized..