Tamboti is another one of our beautiful indigenous hardwood trees, the timber has a very distinct, prominent smell, and is also well known for causing havoc on the stomachs of those who have used it on the braai fire as it is poisonous for humans. The species is now protected as they have been harvested for their timber to a point where it is no longer sustainable. This highly scented wood is also highly effective in keeping away insects. Tamboti clothes hangers keep fish moths away - even a small piece of wood placed between clothes will be effective. The Herero tribe in Namibia make sweet smelling beaded necklaces from the wood. It is said that if you scrape a one hundred year old piece of Tamboti wood it will still give off its strong sandalwood-like scent. The milky latex which oozes from the tree has been used for centuries by the local tribes for poisoning fish to make for an easier catch, and for applying to the tips of spears when hunting.
The 'Nickelslip' soap base utilize a natural black clay to give the soap a badass metal-and-ash appearance, it looks like a pile of burnt African hardwood in the tub, but smooth it over with your thumb and you get a steely shimmer that is quite exceptional. We fear other soaps may quiver and go cold spaghetti in the presence of this virile offering, so you may want to store it in a special place, your gun safe being one place it will feel right at home! The scent is brand new, if you have some Tamboti furniture in your house that is not caked over with huge amounts of varnish, take your hand and rub it hard until the oils from the wood heats up and releases its fragrance, that right there....that is close to what we were aiming for, a dark, musky fragrance laced with African Hardwood scents. Simple, honest, manly. This fragrance will appeal to a lot of men, I am talking regular hard-working chaps who are not into designer labels and fine fragrances, just pure testosterone jammed into a balm, the type that makes that classy lady in high heels look over her shoulder when you pass her by in the street wearing simple stuff like jeans, a t-shirt and vellies without socks
The use of local clay is another step we took in our quest for sustainable products, it is a byproduct of the lapping process when we lap slate stones we experiment with for honing sharp stuff like knifes and straight razors. Make no mistake it is long and tedious work to do this, but certainly worth the effort and we love how it builds into the masculinity of this product. We upgraded the packaging to suit the base, of course it had to be metal; the brushed steely exterior suits the contents perfectly to create a soap that reflects so much of our local heritage in its own unique basic, primal fashion.
This is quite soft a soap that likes to be worked with the brush; when you think it is ready, do yourself a favor and take another minute until you get a lather with a very high sheen. It is quite a thirsty soap which means it holds more water than many other soaps, and with that presents great hydration properties with a beautiful glimmery sheen. a Great test to see if you are on track is to trickle a few drops of water on the side of your head and have it run down to the lather on your face, it should run over the lather rather than make a path through it. This is one of those soaps that can handle a few drops of water dripped onto the brush during the lathering process. Take your time to get to know this soap and you will be well rewarded.
While you are here, don't forget to grab a Tamboti aftershave balm also!
Ingredients: Beef tallow, Eish-two-O, Coconut oil, Castor oil, Sunflower oil, Black clay solids, Sodium Hydroxide, Potassium Hydroxide, Stearic acid, Essential and/or fragrance oils.
Tip: I love a long load from the tub with this base, it picks up only so much as the dark base is hidden under the white lather that is starting to thicken up in about 15 to 20 seconds, to get down to the soap again you actually have to press down very hard on the brush, but that is certainly not needed as your brush would be loaded sufficiently. I load/work the brush for about 45 seconds before going to the face, this will vary from person to person, brush used/amount of water in the brush and personal preferences, but do make sure you hit the sweet spot!
Note-for-now; We have two bases available of which one will be discontinued, both are soft soaps that are easily scooped and spread against the sides of a bowl or on the face for those who prefers that, but at the same time picks up very nicely on the brush. Let's call them the soft and super soft versions for now, our prediction is that the slightly harder soap will be most popular, but we have been wrong on many occasions! Let us know which one you like most and we will tally up the votes and continue make the one favored by most.