I've used my Zingari Man The Magician soap for the first time yesterday. It was also my first time using a Zingari Man soap, so thought I'd give my initial impressions. Since they are just my initial impressions, I might have a completely different opinion on certain aspects after I've properly tested the soap.
Packaging:
Visually the labels are fairly basic. Nothing too crazy or extremely cool, but they are fine and I like them. The black background has a nice texture to it which I believe Heather told is done to represent leather (a reference to the tallow in the Sego base). I think they look good even though they are not my favourite labels.
As for the jar itself. The threads are fairly smooth and the build quality is nice, but my favourite tubs are still the ones from Barrister and Mann (only Wholly Kaw tubs are roughly at the same level). I don't like that the lid is bigger than the bottom part of the jar, but that's just my preference. The Zingari Man jars remind me a lot of the Declaration Grooming Milksteak jars.
Consistency:
My tub of The Magician looked like it had almost no texture to it (take a look at
this picture). It was just a flat-looking surface. It also didn't move around or anything like that. I did use my finger to feel the soap and I can say it feels firm (my lot number is: MSS1019).
Scent:
For those of you who are thinking this might be a citrusy soap, well you couldn't be more wrong in my opinion. The scent notes are oakmoss, orange blossom and fern. I can smell the fern. I had to look up orange blossom cause I had no idea what it was. I think it's a fairly fresh floral scent which isn't bad at all, but I'm not a big fan of floral scents, so this is definitely not a top scent for me. Unless the scent suddenly grows on me, I don't think I would buy another tub if I ever manage to empty it.
Scent strength is of course subjective and dependent on what you're comparing it to. I would say scent strength is somewhere in between light to medium, but probably closer to medium. It isn't as strongly scented as other American artisan soaps (e.g. A&E Asian Pear or A&E Grecian Horse), but it also isn't a very mild scent (like e.g. D.R. Harris Sandalwood).
Lather:
I started loading my brush like I always do i.e. fully submerge the knot in a bowl of water, take it out, gently squeeze the knot and start making swirls on the soap. What I noticed is that for the first 20 seconds or so nothing happened. No proto lather was seen which was a first for me. I think this might be what
@Blackmass was referring to when he said he had trouble creating a proper lather with it.
Once that 'stage' was over the brush loaded properly and the proto lather in the brush looked extremely creamy and glossy. It looked really nice. Not sure what happened during those first 20 seconds or so. Maybe it was because my Cashmere has very soft tips and hardly any backbone so it needed more time to pick up the soap particles? I loaded the brush for longer than I'm used to and I feel like I could have hydrated the lather even more. But that's normal, I always need multiple shaves to perfect my lather when I try out a new soap base.
I also noticed a few tiny, rectangular-shaped pieces of soap (1mm thick) in my brush. I'm assuming these came loose from the edges of the soap where it touches the jar. Nothing to worry about since they were really tiny and only a few of them.
Residual slickness was very good, possibly a bit slicker than WK Siero (but definitely not sure about this yet), but not as slick as DG Milksteak or BaM Reserve. Still, residual slickness was more than good enough.
Post-shave:
This is the strongest point of the soap for me. This didn't feel any worse than WK Siero and also roughly rivals A&E which is my current favourite base regarding post-shave feel. I need more shaves with it to see if it actually equals A&E though.
Overall, based on my first impressions, I'd say this is an elite soap base with the post-shave feel being its strongest point. I just have to find a scent I love (hope my tub of The Explorer that's on the way smells better).