Fulton & Roark Bar Soap Review

When people claim that this is the “best soap in the world,” naturally, we need to test it out.  

In this review, you’ll get an unfiltered and unbiased look at the Fulton & Roark bar soap.

Specifically, you’ll get to learn about the packaging, performance, and value to determine if it’s worth adding to your grooming regimen.

Let’s begin.

Quick Note: We paid for this soap with our own money – it was not complimentary.  We have an affiliate relationship with Fulton & Roark.  This means that we get a small commission if you purchase, at no additional cost.  The review below is an honest assessment of the product.

Related: Want to learn more about Fulton & Roark? Check out our brand review.

Packaging

When ordering from Fulton & Roark, expect a discrete and brandless package to show up at your front door.  

This is how the bar of soap looks like from a few different angles:

Fulton and Roark - Soap Bar Packaging

As you can see, it’s pretty standard for a bar of soap.

However, there are a few quick notes we wanted to draw your attention to:

First, the soap is made in the USA.  Fulton & Roark is located in Winston-Salem, NC.

The soap itself contains only a few ingredients, with some of the notable ones including cocoa butter, olive oil, grapeseed oil, kaolin clay, shea butter, and more.

At 8.8oz in size, it’s nearly as big as the Duke Cannon Big Ass Brick of Soap.

Lastly, the soap is triple-milled, a sure sign of its quality craftsmanship.  When soap is triple-milled, it means that the impurities have been removed.  Additionally, triple-milled soaps tend to last longer, providing better long-term value.

Size

The Fulton & Roark bar of soap is larger than your typical soap bar.  This makes controlling it a bit tougher than what you may be accustomed to.  However, to make it a little less unwieldy, the height and width are in line with a standard soap bar:

Fulton and Roark - Soap Bar Size Comparison

When held in hand, it’s not overly large like Duke Cannon’s soap bar:

holding fulton and roark next to duke cannon bar soap

Performance

Packaging and size aside, the most important aspect of this review is the performance.  Here we look at the handling, lather, slickness, and scent of this soap.

Handling

As predicted, handling the soap bar in the shower is tricky.  While you can use just the bar of soap directly on the skin and get reasonably good results on both the larger surface areas of your body, working the tight contours is a bit more complicated.  Consider using a washcloth here if you want better results.

Lather

For natural soap, it generates a predictably sufficient lather.  Here’s how it looked on the hand:

Fulton and Roark Bar Soap Lather

And here’s a short nine-second video to demonstrate how the lather develops:

https://gfycat.com/ifr/HighVastAustralianfurseal

Slickness and Finish

The Fulton & Roark bar of soap feels great when first going over the surface of your skin.  The bar has an exfoliating grit to provide a deeper cleaning that’ll remove dead skin cells, oil, dirt, etc.

However, once you are done initially washing your body, the feeling of your skin may vary depending on the hardness of your water.  If you have harder water, your skin may feel tacky or sticky when rinsing – more than a standard bar of soap.  Whereas if your water is soft, the finish should be smoother.

Ultimately, this is a question of personal preference – my preference is a smoother finish.

Scent

Labeled as Palmetto, the soap has a distinct, warm, and spicy fragrance.  This should pair well with many colognes – especially the solid colognes that Fulton & Roark makes.

If there were any downside to the fragrance, it would be strength.  While the aroma emitted by the bar is potent, once washed and dried off, the scent will dissipate from the skin in about 30 minutes.  

Regardless, the fragrance gives you a nice headspace to start your day.

Value

Paying $18 for a bar of soap is expensive, especially when you can get bars from brands like Dr. Squatch, Duke Cannon, Dr. Bronners, and more for a fraction of the price.  

If you like to bargain shop, go with Duke Cannon.

However, if you prefer a luxurious experience and want a bar that relies on more moisturizers for your skin, give Fulton & Roark a strong consideration.

Given that the soap is triple-milled, it should last you quite a while before needing to be replaced.

Final Thoughts

Overall, the Fulton & Roark soap bar is something that we’d recommend for men that love premium and naturally-made products.  It gets you clean and smells great.  While the finishing texture will vary based on your water hardness, it does perform well.

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