RazoRock “La Famiglia” Cumba Cheech – orange blossom and jasmine soap

Tags

8/10, Discontinued, floral, Jasmine, Orange, orange blossom, RazoRock, shaving soap, soft soap

Edit: This scent has been discontinued

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No, I have no idea what exactly a Cumba Cheech is supposed to mean or refer to. Other than a rather nice shave soap, that is. The first impression is that it’s a quite soft shaving soap. Almost seems to have more in common with a cream than with a hard triple-milled style soap, with a bit more stiffness than Play-Doh.

Now, when shaving with most soaps, I’ll typically lather the soap in the container it came in (or whatever container I put it in), whereas with a cream, I’ll transfer a bit of the cream to my scuttle and lather it there. For this soap, I did one day of each, and found I had better results treating it as a cream.

It easily lathered up into a nice thick cushioning foam, which provided enough slickness and lubrication to make the shave go well. Or at least, the aspects of the shave that didn’t go well this morning I chalk up to the blade. I think I’m done trying out the Derby Extras.

As for the scent, it was rather nice. The sweetness of the orange blossom was mostly overpowered by the jasmine, with a hint of bitterness to the aroma. Overall, it came together well, and I rather enjoyed it.

Strength-wise, it came on strong enough, but dissipated quickly. So lather early and lather often! As I usually only lather a third of my face at a time (left, right, muzzle), this wasn’t too much of an issue.

•  8/10 Scent Pleasantness
• 7/10 Scent Strength
• 10/10 Lather thickness
• 8/10 Lather slickness

Overall, I give it a 8/10. It gave a great shave, smelled good, and you certainly can’t argue with the price.

• Cost:$6.99 for 125 mL

Gear used:

• Brush: The Colonel
• Razor: Merkur 37C Slant
• Blade: Derby Extra
• Scuttle: Robert’s Feats of Clay #4

Cella Crema da Barba all’Olio di Mandorla

Tags

8/10, Almond, Cella, shaving soap, soft soap

Cella Crema da Barba all’Olio di Mandorla is widely regarded as one of the finest shave soaps Italy has produced; there is no surprise that they have been manufacturing (supposedly without changing their formula) since 1899. I should note here, that there is apparently a fair amount of debate as to whether or not Cella’s “Crema da Barba all’Olio di Mandorla” (sold in the small red plastic tub) is the exact same formulation as the “Crema Sapone Extra Extra Purissima” (sold in the 1kg bricks.) The consensus is that they are extremely similar, but no one is sure if any differences noted between the two are by design, or just as a result of the environmental effects over time due to the different packaging methods. This review is on the soap sold in the small red plastic tub.

The scent is a classic sweet almond / marzipan. It’s quite wonderful, and there is no surprise that it has inspired countless others soap-makers. Very pleasant. It is strong enough to be noticeable while shaving, but lightly so. Personally, I’d prefer it to be a tad stronger.

It quite easily whips up into voluminous clouds of thick puffy cream, with just a little bit o’ water on the brush. And it gives a very nice shave, giving just enough lubrication to allow your razor to glide over the face. It gives enough cushion, without getting in the way.

• 9/10 Scent Pleasantness
• 8/10 Scent Strength
• 8/10 Lather Quality (reflects new scoring as outlined here)

Overall, I give it a 8/10. I would highly recommend this to anyone at all who doesn’t hate the scent of almonds.

• Cost: $12.00 for 150g

Gear used:

• Brush: The Colonel
• Razor: Merkur 37C Slant
• Blade: Shark Super Stainless
• Scuttle: Robert’s Feats of Clay #4

Taylor of Old Bond Street – Eton College cream

Tags

6/10, citrus, cologne, floral, patchouli, shaving cream, Taylor of Old Bond Street

First up, we have Taylor of Old Bond Street’s Eton College Collection shaving cream.

What TOBS has to say about themselves:

“A beautiful masculine fragrance with dominant citrus lemon notes combined with fruity citrus notes of orange and mandarin. All this is blended with gentle floral notes that rest on a base of warm patchouli. Contains Lemon oil and Patchouli oil.”

As this scent is unfortunately not available in the soap format, I went with a jar of the cream. First the good. It smells nice. I’m not sure I agree with the “dominant lemon notes” appraisal, it certainly doesn’t seem like an excessively citrus-y scent; there’s a nice balance of the citrus, the florals, and the patchouli. It smells pretty much exactly how I’d expect a young British boy off to boarding-school might be striving for, nothing too stodgy like his father might wear, but still refined.

And now for the bad: In order to make out all the above, I had to stick my nose right into the bowl of the cream. It’s quite a weak scent, to the point that I’m unable to detect any scent when holding the bowl any more than a few inches away from my face. During the shave itself, I was only able to catch the occasional momentary whiff of it, which to my mind, kind of defeats the purpose.

For the shave itself, the lather is nice and thick, which of course you would expect from most creams. Likewise, you didn’t get much in the way of a foaming action. It took to the heat from the scuttle quite nicely. However, it wasn’t the slipperiest shave I’ve had, a bit middle of the road in that regard.

• 8/10 Scent Pleasantness
• 5/10 Scent Strength
• 8/10 Lather Quality (reflects new scoring as outlined here)

Overall, I give it a 6/10. It’s a decent typical cream shave, but the underpowered scent makes it one I’d not recommend for purchase.

• Cost: $15.95 for a 150g tub

Gear used:

• Brush: The Colonel
• Razor: Merkur 37C Slant
• Blade: Shark Super Stainless
• Scuttle: Robert’s Feats of Clay #4

Rating format

Tags

Ratings

So, first off, I guess I’ll go over the rating system I’ll be using.

The lather will be broken into two categories: thickness, and slickness. How easily the soap is able to whip up into a nice thick lather, to be spread on the face, and then how well the lather created helps the razor glide across the skin. Never mind! I’ll just be giving one rating for overall shave quality. Thickness of lather, slickness, moisturizing properties (if any), irritation factor, etc may all come into play here. One thing to keep in mind is that I do have rather soft water, so your mileage may vary.

The scent is also being broken up into two categories. How good it smells, and how strongly it smells. How good it smells is self-explanatory, and of course likely the most subjective component of the entire review. The scent strength is, in my humble opinion, just as important to the shaving experience as how well the soap smells. I have tried some soaps that smelled quite pleasant in the container, but when lathered, were undetectable on the brush. And on the other end of the spectrum, soaps whose scents wouldn’t vacate the bathroom over the weekend!

And finally, an overall impression and recommendation (or lack thereof). All soaps will be given at least two days worth of shaving, to ensure that the review isn’t tainted by me just having a bad day, or having to change the blade. As such, I’ll try to get out 2 – 3 posts a week. The exception will be companies that produce very consistent soaps / creams, in which case it’ll only be the scent which is expected to change; they’ll get 1 day each. So far, this will be for Mama Bear Soaps, Honeybee Soaps, Kell’s Original, The Shave Den, and Mike’s Natural, but I expect that list to grow.

Any prices listed will generally be from wherever I actually purchased the stuff from (with the exception of something I bought in a retail store without an online component). This will generally be Italian Barber, as they’re my usual go-to for shaving supplies in Canada. If an item is on sale, I’ll list the non sale price. I’m not affiliated in any way with Italian Barber, or any shave company whatsoever. And of course, if I was given a free product for the purposes of reviewing it, I will disclose this.