Acqua di Parma – Collexione Barbiere Shaving Cream

Tags

7/10, citrus, cologne, lavender, patchouli, Rose, rosemary, sandalwood, shaving cream, verbena, vetiver

Next up, we’ve got a cream that I’ve been waiting far too long to review: Acqua di Parma’s Collexione Barbiere Shaving Cream. Mind you, it’s the only shaving cream the Acqua di Parma makes, so you’ll typically see it called just that, or even just AdP.

The scent is a traditional “Colonia” scented cream, which might not tell you anything about it. Basenotes outlined the scents included in AdP’s main Colonia cologne line as being made up of citrus, lavender, rosemary, rose, vetiver, sandalwood, and patchouli. Suffice it to say that my nose isn’t trained enough to pick out those details. However, it is a scent which I do find fairly pleasant.

And, before anyone asks, yes it does smell fairly similar to the RazoRock XXX, or at least the old version, as I haven’t had a chance to pick up the reformulation yet. The XXX managed to beat it handily strength-wise however, as the AdP was relatively weakly scented during the shave. It didn’t fade all that much, but it was definitely subtle.

The lather quality was superior: whipped up easily, nice wide range of acceptable water levels producing good results, producing a nice thick lather, with great glide, and some decent moisturization properties to boot.

• 8/10 Scent Pleasantness
• 7/10 Scent Strength
• 9/10 Lather Quality

All in all, I’m giving it a 7/10. That’s rounding down rather than up, but still. The lather was great, but the scent definitely could have been stronger to suit my tastes.

• Cost: So it looks like this was actually the old version; the soap was reformulated last year, and made unscented. Honestly, there’s no way in hell that a jar of the stuff is worth $70 if we’re going on the lather quality alone. There’s better stuff out there for far cheaper.  A 4.4 oz jar of the stuff will set you back $70. As for the samples shown, I got it off of someone from /r/shave_bazaar, I’m not sure they’re readily available for purchase.

Gear used:

• Brush: Mühle HJM Black Fibre
• Razor: Feather AS-D2
• Blade: Asco Super Stainless
• Scuttle: Robert’s Feats of Clay #4

Ingredient listing: Aqua, Stearic Acid, Cocos Nucifera (Coconut) Oil, Potassium Hydroxide, Glycerin, Myristic Acid, Parfum, Propylene Glycol, PEG=150 Distearate, Limonene, Hydroxycitronellal, Menthyl Lacate, Prunus Amygdalus Dulcis (Sweet Almond) Oil, Triticum Vulgare (Wheat) Germ Oil, Linalool, Hydrolyzed Wheat Protein, Malva Sylvestris (Mallow) Extract, Melissa Officinalis Leaf Extract, Tetrasodium EDTA, Citral, Benzyl Salicylate, Eugenol, Coumarin, Hydroxyisohexyl 3-Cyclohexene Carboxaldehyde, Geraniol, Hedera Helix (Ivy) Extract, Mentha Aquatica Leaf Extract, Vitis Vinifera (Grape) Leaf Extract, Amyl Cinnamal.

La Toja shaving cream

Tags

7/10, cologne, La Toja, leather, shaving cream, smoke, wood

It’s time to cross the pond once again, this time for a product from Spain; La Toja shaving cream.

This cream seemed to like a fair amount of water, however I did over-do it at one point, so just be sure to add it in gradually while you’re building it up. It resulted in a lather that had a really good balance of thickness and glide, with a fairly wide sweet spot that would allow you a bit of adjustment to your liking. I didn’t really notice anything good or bad about it moisturization wise.

The scent was rather masculine; rather hard to describe, to my untrained nose I’d say it’s mostly leather notes I think, with some smokey / woody aspects, and perhaps some musk? Not too spicy, although maybe there’s a bit there. Doing some searching, it seems like most others also have trouble pinning down exactly what it is they’re smelling! Anyways, it was reasonably pleasant.

Not very strong however. It started off at what I would say is middling strength, but started fading swiftly thereafter, and didn’t stop until pretty much all scent was gone by the time I finished my pass.

• 8/10 Scent Pleasantness
• 6/10 Scent Strength
• 8/10 Lather Quality

Overall, I believe I’ll be rounding this one up to a 7/10. It performs decently in most respects, but there’s nothing I’d consider outstanding about it.

• Cost: While I normally don’t list sale prices, it seems Italian Barber might have this one on a semi-permanent sale price of $6.99 (from the original $9.99) for a 150g tube, since it’s still on for that price 9 months after I first ordered it. If anyone noticed the price going back up to the “regular”, let me know and I’ll fix this entry.

Gear used:

• Brush: Wee Scott
• Razor: Vintage Bakelite Slant
• Blade: Asco Super Stainless

Ingredients: Aqua, Potassium Stearate, Potassium Palmitate, Glycerin, Potassium Cocoate, Sodium Stearate, Sodium Palmitate, Sodium Cocoate, Sodium Lactate, Palmitic Acid, Stearic Acid, Parfum, Sodium Lauryl Sulfate, Sodium Myristyl Sulfate, Mineral Salts, Sodium Cetyl Sulfate, Laureth 10, Sodium Stearyl Sulfate, Sodium Sulfate, Sodium Chloride, Coumarin, Limonene, Linalool, Butylphenyl Methylpropional

J. Peterman 1903 Concentrated Shaving Cream

Tags

bergamot, cardamom, citrus, clary sage, cologne, elemi, fougère, frankincense, J. Peterman, labdanum, leather, shaving cream, smoke, tobacco, wood

To kick off the week, we’ve got J. Peterman’s 1903 Concentrated Shaving Cream.

True to its name, it’s a rather dense cream, which whips up quite easily; a bit thirstier than most creams out there, it did need a bit of fiddling with the right amount of water to get just right. It turned into a fairly thick lather, with some rather good glide. I did notice a bit of a lack of lather stability; there was some breaking down happening by the time I got near the end of each pass. After the shave, it left the face feeling rather nice.

The scent is akin to a rather spicy cologne. J. Peterman’s website makes up some story about “finding” it in a shop in Paris, but describes it as follows:

an “old woody fougère.” Clean citrus notes, bergamot, “green notes.” The middle notes: clary sage…cardamom. The dry-down: leather notes, smoky labdanum…elemi, tabac, frankincense.

I guess that sounds like a reasonable description to me. I found it to be a rather subdued spicy and smokey scent. Not too strong, but nice and steady nonetheless.

• 9/10 Scent Pleasantness
• 7/10 Scent Strength
• 8/10 Lather Quality

Overall? A solid 7/10. Decent enough all-around, nothing outstanding; I think I might like to try the cologne though.

• Cost: This sample was received from a kindly fellow redditor who wanted to know what I thought. If you’re looking to purchase some, it’ll run you $28 for a 7 oz tub. Unfortunately, they don’t ship internationally for some bloody reason, so offer valid for US residents only.

Gear used:

• Brush: The Colonel
• Razor: Vintage Bakelite Slant
• Blade: Asco Super Stainless
• Scuttle: Robert’s Feats of Clay #4

Ingredients: No clue. Can’t find a listing anywhere.

Queen Charlotte Soaps – Green Irish Tweed type shaving cream

Tags

7/10, citrus, cologne, floral, Green Irish Tweed, iris, lemon, Queen Charlotte Soaps, sandalwood, shaving cream, verbena, violet

Today’s review is of Queen Charlotte Soaps’ Green Irish Tweed shaving cream. Now, I’ve reviewed their GIT soap before, and found it to be somewhat lacking, especially in scent strength. This fared better.

The cream’s lather was pretty good; fairly thick for a cream, it lathered up with a bit of elbow grease to something with a good balance of thickness and lather slickness, with a fairly wide “sweet spot” for acceptable water content to pull this off.

The scent seemed like a pretty decent Green Irish Tweed imitation (keeping in mind that I’ve never smelled the actual stuff!). For those who don’t know the scent, here’s how QCS describes it:

This is our rendition of Green Irish Tweed, the cologne created by Creed that is a favorite among the famous and royalty. With top notes of lemon and verbena, middle notes of iris and violet leaves, and base notes of Mysore sandalwood and ambergris, Green Irish Tweed smells refined and sophisticated.

Now, back to the soap version of the stuff, I could barely detect any scent whatsoever. This stuff is far better in that regard. This isn’t to say that it’s a strong scent, mind you, but at least you can tell it’s there, albeit with a fair amount of fading during the course of the shave.

• 8/10 Scent Pleasantness
• 7/10 Scent Strength
• 8/10 Lather Quality

All in all, it’s a decent enough if rather middle of the road cream. Not outstanding in any aspect, but it doesn’t fall flat anywhere either. 7/10 overall.

• Cost:I got this sample along with an order from MenEssentials, but you can also buy Queen Charlotte’s cream samples, 5 for $8. A full tub goes for $14.

Gear used:

• Brush: Wee Scott
• Razor: Edwin Jagger DE81BL (Red)
• Blade: Lord Super Stainless

Ingredients: Water, saponified stearic acid, glycerin, saponified tallow, palm oil, olive oil, and coconut oil, aloe vera extract, fragrance oil, kaolin clay, phenoxyethanol (and) caprylyl glycol, vitamin E.

Penhaligon’s Opus 1870 Shaving Cream

Tags

6/10, black pepper, cedarwood, cinnamon, cologne, Coriander, floral, Incense, musk, Penhaligon, Rose, sandalwood, shaving cream, spice, wood, Yuzu

Yes, yes, I know. I’ve been lazy about writing reviews lately. I’m sorry! So, here’s a new one! Penhaligon’s Opus 1870 Shaving Cream! Which, judging by the fact that I can’t find any information about it on Penhaligon’s website, appears to be discontinued. It still seems somewhat available elsewhere, but if you’re a fan you might want to stock up.

It lathers up quite nicely, although you shouldn’t go by how it looks when doing so. With just a tiny bit of water, it lathered up into something that looked like it was good to go, but was still rather severely lacking in lubrication; more water and a bit more elbow grease fixed that up quite nicely, resulting in a nice thick cream, with plenty of cushioning and good glide. All in all, a rather good shave.

The scent was a bit lacking. First off, I compared it to its corresponding cologne, which I recently got a sampler of. While similar, it’s not quite there. Here’s what it’s supposed to smell like:

Opus 1870 is a complex and elegant woody chypre. Opening with a luxurious accord of sweet citrus and fiery black pepper, the heart is lit by the delicacy of English Clove Rose and evocative incense. The base notes are glorious, smoky waves of aromatic cedarwood and sandalwood. Opus 1870 is wonderfully warm and comforting, a fragrance to wrap yourself in on cold winter nights.

There’s a bit of an additional scent that I’m picking up, it seemed to me to be somewhat silty; it reminded a bit of of J&E Atkinson’s I Coloniali mango shaving cream. Also, I didn’t really detect any of the black pepper notes that’s so noticeable in the cologne. However the florals and the woods seemed about the same.

But, all that which was noticeable was fleeting; it wasn’t strong to begin with, and I found it quickly faded.

• 8/10 Scent Pleasantness
• 6/10 Scent Strength
• 8/10 Lather Quality

Overall, I’ll say 6/10. Frankly, the lather isn’t nice enough to buy it just for the lather, and the scent isn’t nice enough / strong enough to buy it just for the scent. I wouldn’t bother unless you’re absolutely a fan of the EtD already.

• Cost: I had a sample sent to me by a kindly redditor who wanted to know what I thought of the cream. Otherwise, the cheapest listing I found was on amazon for $41.36, for a 150 mL / 5 oz tube.

Gear used:

• Brush: Mühle HJM Black Fibre
• Razor: 1966 Solid Nickel Gillette Tech
• Blade: Astra Superior Platinum
• Scuttle: Robert’s Feats of Clay #4

Ingredients: Not sure! Probably rather similar to that of the Blenheim Bouquet, but I can’t find a listing online.

O Melhor shaving cream

Tags

7/10, Claus Porto, cologne, marine, musk, o melhor, shaving cream, wood

O Melhor is made by Confiança, a company which was recently acquired by Ach Brito/Claus Porto, who many of you might know as the makes of the Musgo Real line of pre-shave soaps and shaving creams.

The lather I found to be a bit tricky. It seemed to me both times that I tried it, that I had to choose between having either a thick lather, or enough slickness. If it had a sweet spot for water content that gave a good balance of both, I overshot it when I was giving it a try. The moisturization was pretty good, and I didn’t notice any issues with lather stability.

The scent is a rather “cologne-y” aroma; with marine notes, woods, and musk mostly predominate. Personally, I don’t really think it was anything to write home about; not to say that it’s unpleasant by any means, but it doesn’t quite do it for me. The strength was ok. It wasn’t too strong, but it was steady.

• 7/10 Scent Pleasantness
• 8/10 Scent Strength
• 7/10 Lather Quality

Overall, I’d say it’s a toss-up between a 7/10 and a 6/10, but I think I’m a bit inclined to lean towards rounding up to the 7/10.

• Cost: Samples are currently available for $2 per 1/4 oz from the Wet Shaving Sample Shop. A full sized tube (100 mL) will cost €10.2 (the only place in North America that I’ve seen carrying it is out of stock)

Gear used:

• Brush: Mühle HJM Black Fibre
• Razor: Gillette Travel Tech
• Blade: Astra Superior Platinum
• Scuttle: Robert’s Feats of Clay #4

Ingredients: Stearic acid, palmitic acid, aqua(water), potassium hydroxide, cocos nucifera, glycerin, sodium hydroxide, parfum(fragrance), lauryl PEG/PPG-18/18 methicone, sodium borate, lanolin, sodium lauryl sulfate, sodium myristyl sulfate, sodium cetyl sulfate, sodium stearyl sulfate, laureth-10, octydodecanol, benzyl salicylate, butylphenyl methylpropional, linalool, alpha-isomethyl ionone.

XPEC Original Shaving Cream

Tags

8/10, cedarwood, citrus, cologne, Discontinued, floral, ginger, lemon, oak musk, pepper, Rose, shaving cream, spice, thyme, wood, XPEC

Edit: This version had been discontinued. There is a new XPEC cream out there, but it is a reformulation, thus I wouldn’t base a purchase upon this review.

XPEC Original’s scent is based upon notes of rose, thyme, lemon, pepper, ginger, cedar wood and oak musk, with the rose being the scent that predominates. It most reminded me of Truefitt and Hill’s 1805, with perhaps a bit more “spice” added to the mix, as the pepper was noticeable, although I didn’t find it quite as strong as some other reports I’ve seen. All in all, I quite rather liked it.

The strength started off quite strong, however it didn’t stay there; it faded significantly throughout the shave, although it kind of dropped off to a level I’d describe as “so-so” and stayed there, not disappearing completely.

The cream lathered up quite nicely. Initially, with very little water, it looked like something that would work, however that turned out to be a mirage, as it was somewhat lacking in glide. However, a splash or two more fixed that right up, without appreciably thinning the lather. It ended up with a really good balance of glide and thickness, and what seemed like a rather wide “sweet spot” for water content. It was fairly voluminous as well, I’m thinking that you could get away with making a tub of it last a fair while. Very nice stuff, which left my face feeling nice and moisturized as well.

• 9/10 Scent Pleasantness
• 8/10 Scent Strength
• 9/10 Lather Quality

Overall, I give it a solid 8/10, not really rounding up or down. It’s a quality shaving cream. That having been said, I’m not sure I’d say it’s worth the price.

• Cost: I had a sample sent to me by a kindly redditor who wanted to know what I thought of the cream. For everyone else, however, samples don’t seem to be readily available, and a 250 mL tub will cost you $66.99. And… the manufacturer’s website doesn’t list a cream anymore, so it’s possible that it’s being discontinued as well.

Gear used:

• Brush: Ecotools Kabuki Finishing Brush
• Razor: Yuma Safety Razor
• Blade: Lord Super Stainless
• Scuttle: Robert’s Feats of Clay #4

Ingredients: Not quite sure. Couldn’t find a listing on-line of the ingredients for the cream, only for the soap. All I could find mentioned are that it includes Glycerin, Coconut oil, and Aloe, which let’s face it, could describe a heck of a lot of shaving creams!

Czech and Speake – no. 88 shaving soap

Tags

6/10, bermagot, cologne, Czech and Speake, floral, geranium, Rose, sandalwood, shaving soap, vetiver, wood

As with a lot of soaps or creams based off of Colognes, I find it’s best to go straight to the horse’s mouth for a description rather than try and describe what it smells like myself:

No.88 has a fresh, woody top note of reviving and uplifting bergamot, the richness and warmth of geranium, rose otto, cassie and exotic frangipani. Combined with dry base notes of vetiver and sandalwood, this modern classic has a full-bodied, sophisticated sensuality.

Anyways, I found it reasonably pleasant, although not enough so that I’d buy the cologne. The strength was fairly lacking, not at all strong to begin with, and faded to nothingness by the end of the shave.

The lather, however, was very good; nice and thick, very good glide, reasonably wide sweet spot for acceptable water content, and some decent moisturization.

• 8/10 Scent Pleasantness
• 5/10 Scent Strength
• 9/10 Lather Quality

Overall, I think I’ll round down and give no. 88 a 6/10. The scent is just too weak to make it worth-while, especially considering that we’re talking a shaving soap that’s supposed to be based around a cologne.

• Cost: The sample I used was from Garry’s Sample Shop for $7.50. A set of three 25g travel-sized refills goes for £18, or £65 if you want the matching anodized aluminium travel dish, although I think that only comes with a single refill puck; a full 90g puck goes for £21, or £95 if you want its matching aluminium dish.

Gear Used:

• Brush: Ecotools Kabuki Finishing Brush
• Razor: Gillette Travel Tech
• Blade: Shark Super Stainless
• Scuttle: Robert’s Feats of Clay #4

Ingredients: Sodium tallowate, water, potassium palmitate, potassium stearate, sodium palmitate, sodium stearate, sodium cocoate, potassium cocoate, glycerin, palmitic acid, stearic acid, cocos nucifera, fragrance, lecithin, petrolatum, zea mays, tocopheryl acetate, CI 77891, CI 77499

Truefitt and Hill – Grafton Shaving Cream

Tags

8/10, amber, cologne, floral, grafton, herbal, leather, shaving cream, truefitt and hill, wood

I was prompted to bust out my sample of Truefitt and Hill’s Grafton shaving cream after stumbling across this post, wherein various folks on Shavenook declare Grafton to be identical to Taylor of Old Bond Street’s Mr. Taylor scent.

Naturally, I lathered up, took a sniff, and followed up with a sniff of my bottle of Mr. Taylor’s cologne. And while I’ll agree that they’re quite similar, I thought I picked up a bit more spice in the bouquet of the Mr. Taylor. For what it’s worth, T&H describe their Grafton as “Warm and spicy, Grafton has a fresh herbaceous opening combined with a spicy floral heart, leading onto a rich, woody, amber background with a hint of leather”, compared to TOBS on Mr Taylor: “A fresh fougere accord with herbaceous top notes of lavender, bergamot, green notes resting on a heart with geranium and soft green fern. The base of this fragrance is ambery with cedar, leathery, moss and musky.” So, yeah, definitely sounds like they were at least shooting for something similar, if not exactly the same.

Anyhow, the scent was quite nice, if the above sounds like something you’d like.  Strength-wise, it was pretty darned good; about what I’d call the perfect strength  right off the bat, however I did notice some not-insignificant level of fading during  the shave.

As for the lather, it’s on par with most of the other T&H I’ve tried (I think the slightly lower quality shaves I had with the Lavender might be an abberation). You can coax a quite thick lather out of it with a decent level of lubrication; don’t overdo it on the water however or it will thin down a fair bit. And reasonable moisturization properties.

• 9/10 Scent Pleasantness
• 9/10 Scent Strength
• 8/10 Lather Quality

I assess this one to be a solid 8/10. I’d say everyone should at least
give the T&H sampler pack a try.

• Cost: The cost of the aforementioned sample pack is $10.50 for 14 of their shaving creams, aftershave balms, and the pre-shave oil. Another 9 bucks gets you a sample of each of their colognes as well. $30 for a 190g tub of the cream, or $22 for a 75g tube.

Gear used:

• Brush: The Colonel
• Razor: Vintage Bakelite Slant
• Blade: Merkur Super
• Scuttle: Robert’s Feats of Clay #4

Ingredient List: Water, Stearic Acid, Mystric Acid, Potassium Hydroxide, Coconut Acid, Glycerin, Fragrance, Triethanolamine, Phenoxyethanol, Butylparaben, Ethylparaben, Isobutylparaben, Sodium Hydroxide, Methylparaben, Propylparaben.

Man Cave Soapworks – Mountain Man shaving soap

Tags

6/10, basil, cologne, Glycerin, juniper, lemon, Man Cave Soapworks, patchouli, sandalwood, shaving soap

Mountain Man is billed as a “woodsy mix of basil, juniper, lemon, sandalwood and patchouli”. All in all, I didn’t find it too bad, but it’s definitely far too sweet of a scent for something that I would consider calling “Mountain Man”. Frankly, the sweetness was enough to mostly drown out the other scents.

Strength-wise, it wasn’t all that good. There was just enough there that you caught a bit of a whiff while shaving, but to actually get a good appreciation of what it smelled like you needed to go straight to the puck of soap.

And the lather, eh. It did the trick, nothing special. It’s your typical melt-and-pour shaving soap.  It provides a perfectly reasonable shave, with a decent balance of thickness and glide. Nothing to write home about, just a nice solid shave, which left the face feeling nice.

• 7/10 Scent Pleasantness
• 6/10 Scent Strength
• 7/10 Lather Quality (reflects new scoring as outlined here)

So, anyways, I’ll give this one a 6/10. Not bad in any aspect, but it doesn’t particularly stand out at all, IMHO.

• Cost: A 4 oz puck in the jar as pictured goes for $8, with just the refill being $4.50.

Gear used:

• Brush: The Colonel
• Razor: Vintage Gillette Travel Tech
• Blade: Shark Super Stainless
• Scuttle: Robert’s Feats of Clay #4

Ingredients: Coconut Oil, Palm Oil, Safflower Oil, Glycerin (kosher, of vegetable origin), Purified Water, Sodium Hydroxide (saponifying agent), Organic Shea Butter, Bentonite Clay, Sorbitol (moisturizer), Sorbitan oleate (emulsifier), Soy bean protein (conditioner), Wheat Protein (conditioner), fragrance