Arko Shaving Cream Soap Stick (2 pieces) by EVYAP

I know everything and I'm never wrong, so here's how I'm going to describe the controversial scent: It's a blend of lemon and bubble gum. There. Case closed. It lathers up as good as the best artisan soaps. It's slick and cushiony like a tallow shave soap should be. Yes, the scent is strong (likely designed to overcome the smell of tallow, which stinks), but it's not overpowering, and it dissipates in short time. If you want to put the soap stick in jar or bowl, just microwave it for 30 seconds and it'll become soft and pliable. Go at it with a boar brush and you will have slick, thick, dense cream all over your face like you've always wanted. Maybe not a daily soap, but it should definitely be in your quiver of DE toys. Update: I just asked my girlfriend what she thought of the scent. She took a big whiff straight from the bowl and it made her gag. She was actually cross with me. So, I guess this shave soap is like durian melon; you either dig it or hate it.

Arko shaving sticks work great! Very slick, which makes for smooth, comfortable shaves. Much better than canned gel or foam, and better than many other shaving soaps. It is very affordable, too. It is also good when traveling, especially by air. I find the scent pleasant, although scent is subjective. Cheap and excellent makes it 5 stars for me.

Pleasantly surprised given the affordability of the two pack Arko Shaving Soap. Although it can be rubbed on the moistened wishers, and then lathered on the face with a warm wet brush, I decided to put my stick in a bowl. The soap does not appear to be easy to melt in a double boiler so as to mold it in the interior of the enamel mug, but it is malleable enough to press into place. I allowed a little hot water to sit on the soap to allow it to bloom and soaked my beautifully large Omega Professional Boar Hair brush in hot water as well, as I showered. A few minutes of soaking and blooming and I started the shave. I applied the warm water and soap that had bloomed nicely to my face. The scent is pleasing, albeit a little "soapy" - in the detergent type of smell - but clean and basic, both in a good way. Good slippery feel between the fingers. I worked the brush in the bowl and although it didn't build much lather, with the bristles loaded I proceed to lather on the wet face. Nearly immediately, the soap started building a nice slick lather with enough body for a three pass shave. Indeed, the Arko soap provided great lubrication and protection on the three passes, giving me a close shave using a Merkur Long Handle safety razor and Shark DE Blade. I finished the shave with Thayer's Witch Hazel and a splash of Fine Accouterments American Blend aftershave. Really pleased with the Arko Soap, as it provided a really pleasing and affordable shaving experience. The rating loses one star because of the "detergent-like" scent, that although still pleasing, may not be suited to some. Enjoy :)

Arko is always excellent, so the shaving experience offered by my latest order was no surprise to me. Wet your face well, wet the end of the Arko stick, rub the stick on your face, then work up a lather directly on your face using a pre-soaked shave brush. You are rewarded with easy, no-fuss lather that easily stays in the brush long enough for a three-pass shave. The best thing about Arko is its cheap price compared to many other shave soaps. There's been somewhat of a renaissance of old-school shaving for men, and as a result, many safety razors, shave brushes, and shave soaps have skyrocketed in price relative to the admittedly lesser-quality stuff one can buy in your run-of-the-mill pharmacy or grocery store. Arko is still honest about what it is. There's no bragging about a "luxurious scent" as many shave soaps do, even though I quite enjoy the lemony scent of a fresh stick of Arko (it's a bit of an acquired taste for some, I'll admit.) There's no fancy tin or illegible calligraphy script logo -- just a foil-and-paper wrapper and bold lettering that looks to have come straight out of a bygone era. And there's not a ton of slickening compounds in the soap to make your face feel like an oil spill just happened on it. Some people desire that, but I definitely do not. I'll leave the face conditioning and the good smells to my aftershave treatment, which I alternate between a lightly scented lotion (Gold Bond Ultimate Men's Essentials Everyday) and a splash of original Old Spice -- still the best scent in the shaving industry, IMO. But perhaps the best thing about Arko is its longevity. I typically shave two or three times a week, and a stick of Arko goes for several months before I wear it down to a disc-shaped puck. Based on past experience, I fully expect I'll get a year, possibly more, out of the two sticks purchased here. I have tried another shave soap stick (Ogallala Bay Rum and Cedar -- nice stuff made in America, by the way) but it didn't last nearly as long and cost several dollars more per stick than my old standby, Arko. I give Arko a hearty "buy it" recommendation for anyone whose routine includes traditional wet-shaving with a brush.

This is currently the only shaving soap I use. Reading the reviews, the majority either love it or hate it. There is little in between. I happen to be in the "love it" camp. It's not horrible, it just smells like soap. A nice clean and fresh smell. It lathers great and is very creamy. For me, the soap's purpose is to give a smooth shave, which this does. I can get all the smells I want from the aftershave lotion. I find this preferable because I don't want a highly scented soap mixing with the aftershave products. The added bonus is that this soap is inexpensive and a stick lasts a long time, 5 months for the first stick I bought. I ended up buying a box of 12. Some shavers will press this into a bowl, which is not hard to do because it's soft. I prefer to rub the stick on my face as intended. To get a good lather, I use an inexpensive badger brush with the bulk of the water gently shaken out of it. I then slowly start swirling the brush over the whole face until the lather starts to build, then start moving more briskly until it becomes very thick. Check out the 2oz twist-up container at westcoastshaving. It is a perfect container for this. I went a little overboard and even taped the Arko wrapper to the container to give it a finished look. The wrapper is so cheesy, I just enjoy looking at it. If you like simple and effective, this is a great product.

I have been lurking on different shave forums for opinions on various products since starting my DE journey about three months ago. I had been using Van Der Hagen scented luxury soap (which is a very good soap with a great smell) that I picked up from Walmart, but decided to experiment. Now, I am a very practical guy and I don't need all the fancy high dollar stuff - not that I am against that, it does have it's place, but I wanted something economical and providing good results. While lurking the forums Arko came up as being cheap, providing a great lather in all water types and great slickness. The biggest drawback that was repeated from some folks was the smell of the soap. It does have a strong Ivory soap smell, but if that doesn't bother you, you should fare well. One other thing to mention is that the soap is fairly soft, so if you wanted you could put it in a bowl and press it to the bottom fairly easy. I have mine in a plastic salsa bowl from Walmart that I bought for $1.50. So I do my normal routine of showering and afterwards apply a little pre-shave. I grabbed my boar brush and with a little water quickly mixed up a nice foam, even in the Phoenix hard water. Where it really shined is when I got it to my face because it exploded like popcorn in a kettle. I had foam falling off the brush and on to my chest or being flung against the adjacent wall. Perhaps this was my fault for possibly loading it too much - I don't know, but since then I have scaled back on the load time in the bowl and just worked on my face with great results. I used my Maggard MR6 razor with an Astra SP and the shave was very smooth. I suffered no nicks or cuts. The razor glided across my face and I could hear my razor sing as it was cutting the hair. Afterwards, my face had a nice BBS feel with no razor burn. I applied some witch hazel, tea tree and vitamin E oil as an after shave balm and felt great. This soap has become the benchmark for other soaps to test against and will be my main go to.

Great quality shave soap for a decent price. I like to break mine apart and shove them into my shave mug - it's malleable enough to mold in your hand if you apply enough pressure. The scent is really clean and soapy, great for a starting base layer to add other scents to with aftershave and cologne.

Folks make it sound like rocket science. T'aint. Peel foil and paper off stick, wet face, rub stick on face a lot. Wet shave brush a bit, rub shave brush around and around on your face--enjoy it. It lathers up. Heck if you don't have a shave brush, don't fret--rub your fingers around and lather up that way. Take some of the thick lather from the brush or your fingers and add it to the suds on your face. Shave. Rinse face. It smells good-read other reviews if you care deeply about scents. You get austerity-simplicity. Shave soap isn't all aerated, it's soap and smooth. It rinses right off. You're not left with a thick scent or anything of that ilk. It's very affordable. Anyone can use it--not rocket science. It's soap for shaving. People are making it sound like you have to be a combat veteran to use the stuff--some sort of admiral in shaving--not the case. Just shave--that skill is gained elsewhere, this is soap. Yeah there are fancy brands that do all sorts of stuff ( like assist you to shave the stubble off your face). This works and is cheap--it's old school (whatever that means). Go for it. Lathers right up. Anyone that says otherwise has got their head stuck where light doesn't shine. For cripes sake try it on your hands first if you don't know how to make lather. Used this with straight edge razors, double edged, disposables---folks that are saying it gums up their razor again don't seem to know about rinsing their razor . It's soap, not honey, not ambrosia, not oil.