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.

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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.

The Shave Den – Coconut Lime Verbena shaving soap

Tags

6/10, citrus, coconut, Fruit, Glycerin, Lime, shaving soap, the shave den, verbena

The Shave Den’s Coconut Lime Verbena is a nice sweet fruity concoction. There is just enough coconut to give the sweetness to the scent, without it overpowering the citrus of the lime and the verbena. It’s a crisp pleasant scent.

Strength-wise, it’s following what I’ve mostly seen from the Shave Den, strong enough when sniffing the soap directly, but only weakly detectable in the lather itself. Of course, anyone who’s been reading my reviews with any regularity will know that this is by far my most common complaint with shave soaps of all types.

I’ve been yo-yoing back and forth between a 7/10 and 8/10 for lather quality on the Shave Den soaps, and on this one we’re back up to 8/10. I think the key, at least for us bowl-latherers, is to load a whole lot on the brush, and then load some more. Then add the water needed fairly gradually. It’s easy to over-shoot the amount of water required, but it definitely needs it in order to get sufficient glide. Also, for those who use a scuttle, if you’re not adding enough water, the lather will certainly be breaking down far too rapidly between passes. Anyways, one thing to take away from the Yo-yoing is that it can be tricky to get right.

• 9/10 Scent Pleasantness
• 7/10 Scent Strength
• 7/10 Lather Quality (reflects new scoring as outlined here)

Overall, this is a 6/10. Definitely a good enough shave, but the scent needs more punch.

• Cost: A one ounce sample goes for $2.50, or $6.99 for a full 4 ounce puck (an extra $2 if you want a tub with it).

Gear used:

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

Ingredients: Glycerin, Aqua, Olive Oil, Bentonite Clay, Sodium Borate, Sweet Almond Oil, Sodium Palmate, Sorbitol, Sodium Cocoate, Palm Acid, Coconut Acid, Pentasodium Pentetate, Tetrasodium Etidronate, and fragrance.