ACQUA DI PARMA shave cream

Terrific cream with a pleasant cologne scent. It doesn't take much to get a good lather. When I forget this (this isn't my every day cream!) I find it hard to break up the cream and there's sometimes a small bit stuck to the bottom of my bowl.

Use sparingly and enjoy. It probably isn't worth the price but definitely something you should try once.

Price: Mine was a large sample, but in NA it usually sells for $60-70, well into the deminishing returns region. Quality: One of the best "croaps" I have had the pleasure to use. Scent: Fabulous scent ofAdP. Latherability: Whips up like 50% cream, not to fussy with the water/cream ratio. Efficacy: Nice and slick, razor just glides. Moisturizing Properties: Not greasy, just the right amount. Packaging: Classy glass jar, what do you expect for the price. I only gave it an 8 because of price.

Only dropped a point on price as even though I believe this is incredible value for money some may struggle to justify it's high ticket.Having said that it's lather, cushion and comfort and exceptional fragrance make this a pinnacle product for the wet shaving cognoscenti. Astonishingly frugal use of product still generates mounds of lovely lubricant for your face. I've only ever used it with an SR3824 and I can attest to it's efficacy ONLY with a silver tip (sorry boar slingers!).So can I recommend it? Absolutely. This is a benchmark product that you can measure other creams and soaps against. Honestly, they could store this under a glass bell jar at Greenwich. It's tough to stay objective when you use a product this good; get some and make up your own mind. You're worth it...aren't you??

Yes, it is expensive, but it's worth it. ($62.00 on Sephora.com, but google for "Sephora Coupon Code" and it's 20% off.) Packaging is exquisite - makes you want to build a display case. The wife wouldn't even let me throw the box away.

Quality is second to none. Scent is clean. Latherability/Efficacy/Moisturizing is treat like a soap, Load/Hydrate, and stand by. Your face is about to become very happy. It makes a Feather feel like a feather.

Wow......This is what God must shave with.

I am huge fan of the Aqua di Parma Colonia fragrance and consider it to be my signature scent. Everytime I spritz it on it just makes me feel nice and fresh. So...to have a shaving cream that smells just like Colonia is absolulely perfect!

There is only on word that describes the performance and quality of this product.......SUBLIME.

Unfortunately the $62.00 price is a barrier for most folks.

But...if you are daring enough to drop the cash for the price of admission....you will not regret it!

I recently bought a tub of the much acclaimed AdP.

Having used both soaps and creams, the acclaim it gets is much deserved. Its simply superb. There are fantastic soft soaps/creams such as Cella, SMN, and Castle Forbes, and top creams such as Pens, Floris and AOS however AdP is in a class of its own.

It IS expensive, and it loses marks for that. However, you do get what you pay for, which is one of the very best products out there.

The scent is debatable, and I can see why some don't like it. Having briefly used AdP Colonia, and not liked it, I was hesitant in spending the cash for cream I may not like. While similar to the AdP Colonia the cream is muted in comparison, and has a hint of an old barbershop scent which is different to the cologne. The scent stays briefly after your shave, but won't interfere with your fragrance selection.

The lather itself is superb, just simply superb. I didn't think a lather could get any better than Castle Forbes or Cella, but I was wrong. Its thick, dense, has the right amount of slickness to it and very moisturizing.

As for the packaging, it simply is all class. The jar looks superb on the bathroom counter. It's very easy to load your brush and get started.

All in all, a wonderful shaving product.

A lovely scent and cream, truly for special shave occasions. A treat you should provide to yourself every now and then. Italian genius at almost its best. Expensive, but fair for what you get.

Highly recommended.

Acqua di Parma, Collezione Barbiere (Barber Collection).
This is, without any doubt, one of the most luxurious, expensive and prestigious shaving creams available on the market today.
It is produced by “Acqua di Parma”, an italian company internationally renowned for creating some of the best high quality perfumery items in the World.
The originis of this respected company date back to 1916, when a small perfume factory, in the old town center of Parma (center – north Italy), was created.
Here skilled Master perfiumers created a unique, fresh and light fragrance: the “Acqua di Parma Colonia”, which became the most appreciated and popular perfume in Italy between 1930 and 1960.
Anyhow the modern company, as we know it today, was created only in the 90’s, when Luca Cordero di Montezemolo, President of the Ferrari Group, and other authoritative italian entrepreneurs, decided to renovate and develop this historic brand.
The re-birth of Acqua di Parma was market by the introduction of some new, fresh lines of products and, among these, Collezione Barbiere.
Therefore Old School wet shavers like me CANNOT consider Collezione Barbiere as a classical line with ages of history.
It’s better to say, in fact, it’s a modern, top quality range that continues the great Italian Barbershop tradition, started with best-established products like Santa Maria Novella, Proraso, P.160 or Cella.
That said, I want to write down some opinions on Acqua di Parma shaving cream, the flagship in the Collezione Barbiere.
This amazing cream is housed in a very elegant, sturdy round box and the cream itself is contained in a beautiful glass bowl with a silver screw top: this is REAL class.
No other cream I’ve ever used has a so refined packaging and a so gorgeous jar.
As some other top-notch creams, this product is extremely dense and concentrated, just like Castle Forbes shaving creams or Crema da Barba Santa Maria Novella.
So a very little amount is needed to produce vast quantities of thick, slick, creamy lather.
AdP shaving cream has in its ingredients list glycerin, hydrolized wheat protein, almond oil and extracts of mallow.
This explains its unique, fresh, pleasant scent and excellent moisturizing properties.
In terms of efficacy this gem gives great lubrication and close, comfortable shaves each time I use it.
In other words its overall quality and performance is simply outstanding.
The only negative point about this product is that it is VERY, VERY, VERY expensive.
Here in Rome its price is around € 45 per piece (4.4 OZ - 125 gr) and that’s a LOT more compared to any other top-notch shaving cream I keep in my rotation.
But, again, this is the sole negative point about Acqua di Parma Collezione Barbiere shaving cream.
Seriously.
Everything else is exactly like heaven.

I cannot say much more on the positive side about Acqua de Parma that has not been said already. This is my favorite of all the creams I have tried so far (T&H, TOBS, AOS, Peterman, Penhaligon's, Pecksniff's, EJ and GFT). Even the price doesn't really put me off (although it did make me hesitate to buy it at first). Because a very small amount - less than other creams - whips into a great lather, enough for 3-4 passes, the "cost per shave" is probably about the same as the others (with the possible exception of TOBS).

However, many here in B&B give top ratings to Cella Crema Sapone and Olivia's Shave Cream which, I understand, are both far less expensive than AdP. I'm going to try those soon to see how they compare and then update this post. (I love this hobby - so many creams and soaps; so little time! )

Monica Belluci shaves her legs with it. Fabio shaves his nether-regions with it. President Berlusconi brushes his secretary's teeth with it. This was a cream I wanted to fall in love with, all the more so because my wife carried it back for me all the way from Rome, and it cost as much as my car. Is this stuff a real deal classic or simply an overpriced tub of romantic hype? "Both", says I.

Packaging: The nicest looking package of anything I've ever bought. The tub is beautiful and heavy, the labeling classy beyond repair, and the round box it comes is completely hand made by Italian virgins out of the most expensive materials available. A stunning example of understated Italian class. Your wife will seethe with jealousy.

Moisturizing properties: I personally do not find this cream to be very moisturizing at all. Not terribly drying either but not the moisture-bomb others have made it out to be. I should also note that this cream caused my face to burn the first two times I used it...all good since then though.

Efficacy: Of course it works very well...but for the price you'd be hoping for something out of the ordinary. I find it to be on par with other well-known (and much cheaper) creams such as Proraso, Speick, etc. No choruses of angels singing, no shafts of light from Heaven here folks.

Latherability: Aside from packaging, this is one area that this cream might have an edge over others I've tried. It lathers quickly, easily, and you don't need much of it to have enough for 3 good passes.

Scent: 'It's classic...it's complex...uh, did I mention it's classic?' Thus went the chant in my head as I tried and tried to fall in love with the scent. It's like tasting a mediocre vintage of a First Growth Bordeaux - your eyes and heart and pocketbook are telling you that it's amazing but the old tastebuds just aren't singing the same melody. Truth be told, it's okay. I don't find it to be complex in the least, nor do I find it offensive. It is a bit on the strong side however so you might want to sniff a sample before dropping a month's salary on a tub. I suppose hardcore fans of the Colognia scent might love the scent, but for me it smells 'classic' in the way that 4711 is 'classic'...been around forever but just not that amazing.

Quality: This is definitely a quality product, from the presentation to the ingredients to the performance.

Price: Now here's the rub. Acqua di Parma is top, top level stuff but is it really worth the price? Well, that depends on you. If the amazing package is what attracts you to it, then probably. If you are captivated by the mystique and history of it, then probably. If you are a huge fan of the Colonia scent, then probably. Or if the combined effect of the aforementioned three elements is enough to separate you from $60, then yes. If however you have bought this stuff simply to shave with, then probably not. I would not pay 48 euros again for this product. It looks good and works well but there is a point of diminishing returns at work here; does a cream that costs 5 times as much as Proraso or Tabac perform 5 times better? Of course not, but for those seriously considering buying this stuff that's probably not even the point is it?

Verdict: As amazing as this stuff is, I'm disappointed. If it were 20 or even 30 dollars I think I'd feel a whole lot better about the whole enterprise, but as it stands, this stuff is 50% the real deal and 50% romantic hype.

Is it weird that I want to eat my new shave cream?
I splurged and bought a tub of Acqua di Parma. This now complicates my sampling of new creams because I feel like I don't want to miss an opportunity to use AdP by sampling any other cream.
I'm at work and the scent is still floating around in my nasal memory.
The wife loves the scent ("Now THAT is a nice smell... I like that one."), and she's pretty picky. I've new to DE wetshaving and I've recently tried many and she only likes about 5% of them.
Everything about this cream says quality.
Being a cream man who lathers in a scuttle, I actually found this cream a little bit tougher to lather than, say, Proraso or some other very soft cream. It is, as others have noted, more like a soap. It took several tries and adjustments to get the lather to what I considered just right (and I do have a very soft Shavemac silvertip badger brush, so that's part of the reason why). But I'm going to stick with it until I get it just right.
It dries on the face faster than some, but while moist the razor glides pretty nicely.
And it doesn't smell anything like fish! It smells like... hmm... it's complex... a hint of citrus, not strong, and there is a cologne-like aspect as well, but it's quite lovely, and pretty subdued. Barbershop? Yes, that's part of it. It shares the hidden behind-the-menthol smell that Proraso gives off, though it doesn't smell like Proraso (I thought it would before I received it). You won't have people smelling it when you walk into a room, like some other British cologne creams I've tried recently (T&H Grafton?).
I'm off to find and purchase the AdP aftershaves now.
Forgive my rambling, disorganized review... but I wanted to spread the word and contribute some numbers.

Actually, I think the moisturizing properties are one of this creams strong suits. The packaging is great but I gave it an n/a because I'd rather not be paying for that expensive aspect of the product.

Lather: My lathering technique is good, that said, this cream lathers like a champ

Scent: Smells like a barbershop. Love it or hate it

Time: Around 10 seconds, a very small amount of cream, around a pea size with some water and stirred for ten seconds, my scuttle started overflowing. Top of the line efficacy.

Shave: Great shave. period.

Packaging: Cream comes in a beautiful round box.

Conclusion: I HIGHLY recommend trying to acquire a small sample of this first. Gave me one of the best shaves, very smooth and no nicks at all.

mretzloff;1239109 said:

Scent: This is where AdP will lose you or win you. It lost me. Before lathered, the cream smells similar to fish. Actually, it smells for like rotten fish because fresh fish should have no scent at all.

Click to expand...

I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks that the cream smells like rotten fish in the jar! But it's so strange how the scent changes completely and becomes something magnificent as soon as you mix it with water. This really is a wonderful shaving cream. Expensive, yes, but it was only when I moved on to AdP from my usual T&H and Taylor's creams that I understood what the next level of shaving creams is like. (If, like me, you're used to the amount of water needed to get T&H and Taylor's creams going, be prepared to adjust your method with AdP: I've found that I need a lot more water here.)

Introduction: I thought I would start with the "crème de la crème" first. It's said that AdP is some of, if not the best, shaving cream.

Lather: My lathering technique is pretty good. I am sure that even a newbie could attain a superlative lather. Do I need to say more? One last thing, for those tallow lovers out there, I dare say this rivals the creamy lather of D.R. Harris and the like.

Scent: This is where AdP will lose you or win you. It lost me. Before lathered, the cream smells similar to fish. Actually, it smells for like rotten fish because fresh fish should have no scent at all. Once lathered, the smell gets a little better. Some say it smells like an Italian barbershop. Well, it probably does...if the barbershop is ten leagues under the sea. Bottom line, I did not like the scent. Sorry.

Time: It took five seconds to produce a rich lather. I added some water and stirred for ten seconds and my bowl started overflowing. I guess this is one of the things your money goes towards (top of the line efficacy).

Shave: This part of my review is probably inaccurate. I have been dealing with acne the past few days, so my shave wasn't the best. I can say, however, that if my face had no acne on it, I'd have probably gotten a great shave.

Packaging: Umm, would saying "perfect" suffice? The cream comes in a nice, round box. I feel like I'm the Queen of England when this sits on my counter. Well, maybe a male version of the queen...

Final thoughts: If you can bear the scent, get it. I do HIGHLY recommend trying to acquire a sample of this first, or not purchasing it at all. I will go back and use this cream again and post another review of it, but I have to admit, I feel kind of silly for asking my mother to purchase this cream for me. It costs a lot and the scent is subjective. Get a sample first and go from there.

Where to purchase: Sephora.com sells it for $62 with FREE shipping. If you have a Neiman Marcus nearby (and don't mind the snooty climate) get it there. It's $62 too (you'll pay taxes but you will too with Sephora).

So, line by line:

Price; When you reach a certain price level, you are paying more for the cachet of the brand than actual performance. It seems that once you reach the $20-$25 price point, you are not going to find creams that actually perform much better. They may well be presented better, and this is certainly the case with AdP. The dark amber jar with silvered lid is just a work of art. And the box is too. But there isn't a cream on the face of the planet that is actually worth this much money. It may be worth it to you subjectively and that's fine. But in actual fact, it just isn't.

Quality; No argument here. This stuff is absolutely top notch. So are creams for less, but that does NOT take away from the superb quality of this cream.

Scent; For me, this is where the wheels fall off. I am a long way from rich, but I am a long way from poor too. I can easily afford this cream and would gladly, IF I liked the scent. I am the only one so far that doesn't. But I really, REALLY don't. To me it doesn't smell old timey or barbershoppy. It just smells bad.

Latherability; Wow. Amazing. I used my spiffy new Shavemac, just swirled the wet bristles on the top of the cream ONCE and face lathered. I immediately had enough thick, dense lather for an easy three passes and lots left to rinse out of the brush. You need VERY little cream to get awesome lather, and this offsets to some extent the cost of the cream. This jar will last you a LONG time! In that sense it may not be a stupid financial decision. Lesser creams demand more usage to get you to the same point that AdP does with seemingly almost no cream on your brush at all. You may go through twice as much Trumpers, for instance, for the same results. So maybe the price is not so bad.

Efficacy; Oh yeah. Great lubrication and slide. Makes shaving pleasant. If you like the scent. Your razor glides serenely over and through the lather, taking the stubble away with no drama or discomfort. Absolutely wonderful performance.

Moisturizing; My face feels GOOD. I sometimes end up with tight skin. Not with this stuff. You won't need a moisturizer after and AdP shave.

Packaging; Beautiful. Just pure sexy awesomenosity. The jar is gorgeous and just says hey, this here is the stuff you WISH you could use because if you do every babe you pass will drag you behind the nearest opaque (or even translucent) object and have her way with you. Even the packaging is pretty. You will be happy to have this jar out on the countertop.

So, is it worth the money? Maybe. Does it work? Sure does! Should you buy it? That's up to you.

This cream is awesome. The only down side is the price but I agree with the above post that it lasts a long while. I use mine like a soap. This cream makes the best lather in the world!

I'm surprised this cream hasn't had enough noise made about it as other creams have.

Dense like a soap, this is not the sort of cream that will run out after so many months of frequent use. Hence why it shouldn't be seen as an 'expensive' cream, but rather, potential purchasers should measure cost in terms of shaves per tub as well.

Overall, I would say that its moisturising, scent, latherability and efficacy properties rate this above any other British cream and especially higher than the over-rated Castle Forbes range.

Its scent is not the sort you'd categorise easily - it's not floral, has elements of the superb 'Colonia' scent, but as has been mentioned 'barber shop' just about sums it up.

Packaging wise - all I'll say is that this is the sort of box a man wants to be opening on Christmas day or Valentine's day as a gift from his girl, as with most Acqua di Parma products!

I think this is one of the best creams out there. The scent is unbeatable and the lather is thick and dense. I use it like a soap as this is a very thick cream. You pretty much follow the same instructions for the Castle Forbes creams.

Overall I would give Castle Forbes a slight edge over this cream because of the higher price. You can get a castle Forbes for about $27 + shipping from UK but this sucker is impossible to get discounted. I paid $58 for it.

The packaging is in another league. better than anything else out there. If you are an ADP scent fan, then this is the ultimate cream but the price/performance is high.

Seriously, the only negative about Acqua di Parma is the price.

The overall quality is absolutely top notch, from start to finish this is as good as it gets.

The scent, as many have said, is totally unique, and I can definitely understand the "barbershop" description; its fantastic!

I recently converted to face lathering (thanks to my rooney 2/1 finest) and I find that it lathers quite easily, and doesn't take much water to completely fill the brush with enough rich, thick, creamy lather for 3 full passes, and some touch-up. On the topic of lather, the lather from this stuff is totally unbeatable, nothing else that I've tried produces such an amazing lather.

As for efficacy, it gives me my best shaves, pretty much regardless of what blade I use.

As for moisturizing ability, it leaves my skin nice, soft and supply. I follow it with the Acqua di Parma aftershave splash, and my face (which is quite oily) is never dry.

Packaging, ah, it doesn't get any better than this, a true class act!

All in all, this is my favorite shaving cream and AdP is shaping up to be my favorite brand of shaving product, and I just may have to buy their aftershave balm once my TGR balm is spent.