Crabtree & Evelyn Nomad

Great scent. This is my daily shave but I use a multiblade razor. It’s a little pricey but it lasts forever. I’ve probably tried thirty different soaps and for multiblade shaving this is my favorite.

Good quality product. A bit pricey but no complaints in how it worked!

In the past I have tried C&E Nomad cream, but I never tried their soap. When I came across a puck of Nomad in a slightly strange giftstore-like store in a provincial town somewhere in my home country—which, I should add, has next to zero shaving tradition—I took it home with me, and gave it about two carts' worth of shaves (about 10 times or so).

PROS

• Scent: absolutely delicious. The packaging states it's ‘aromatic shave soap’, which is spot on. Masculine, slightly sharp, somewhat oriental, yet still fresh-oceanic and green-herbal all rolled into one package. This is, without doubt, Nomad’s main selling point.
• Lather smoothness: The packaging states that the lather is ‘rich and creamy’, and C&E weren’t kidding.
• Efficacy: effortless shaving smoothness, provided the lather is there to protect the skin (see below).

CONS

• Lather stability: Unfortunately the lather tends to evaporate and/or coarsen somewhat quicker than average, making the last strokes of the ATG pass across sensitive parts of the face a bit tricky. Too much effort placed on the creaminess, and too little on simply getting the lather stable.
• Price: is a bit on the high side with €10 per 100 g.

Moisturisation/skin care properties are great, but with the triple whammy of isopropyl myristate, bisabolol (= main constituent of chamomille eo) and vitamin E, they should be. Interesting to note: C&E Nomad is a veggie soap.

Overall, I’m reasonably happy with this product. I find it annoying that an otherwise rich formula with a lovely fragrance has been married to a somewhat less than satisfying lather stability; were this issue solved I would definitely consider Nomad to become part of the small rotation I employ at my house. I’ll definitely use the soap some more in the future, but I’m not sure I will replace it once it’s finished.

I continue to really enjoy this soap. It's not the best soap out there, but it's a top quality product for the price. I got my bowl for $18 a year ago and I still have half left. Until recently, it was in a havy rotation. Now, I have been using it exclusively for the last month in an attempt to finish it. I would say I have around 60 shaves on it and the puck is just stating to get a dent. It lasts a very long time.

Price: Great value at $18 with the wood bowl
Quality: Made in Great Britan and it shows.
Scent: Very strong. Woodsy and spicy. This is a mans scent 100%. Perfect for autumn/winter.
Lather: Stays and is nice and slick. Can be a bit drying, but the nomad ASB is the perfect remedy. I could see the strong fragrance causing a skin reaction to those with hyper sensetive skin. Nomal skin, just fine.

All of this, except the scent part, is the same as my other C&E reviews so bare with me.

Price - I got this along with the other scents, sandalwood and Nomad for less than $30 total since they had buy 2 get 1 and 20% off so the price was beyond excellent for 3 soaps in bowls.

Quality - I think it's a very nice quality soap and the bowl it comes in is also well made.

Scent - I just couldn't get into this scent. Not to say that it's a bad scent, but it just wasn't for me. Definitely a spicy, musky, manly, scent but I just couldn't get into it.

Lather - I let this soap sit with some water in it then mix lather in my scuttle with that water and soap and I get a good amount of lather every time. Pretty easy to lather for me and it doesn't dry off even in the time it takes me to strop my str8.

Efficacy - Lather lasts for a long time in the scuttle and doesn't disappear. Slick and gives me a nice clean shave.

Moisturizing - I don't know that there is that much moisturizing in the soap but I have oily skin naturally and my face still feels soft after using it so it works for me.

Bought all C&E soaps during a sale, great deal... Great scent, clean smelling... It was my first soap so it has a special place in my heart... You'll never catch me without in my collection

As someone who wears Grey Flannel, I love the scent since they're so similar. But if you think it's too strong, be aware that the scent is really a bit faint when you actually use it. The only thing I didn't like about it is that it does feel a bit dry.

Tried Vergulde Hand after shave stick and soap, Speick after shave cream and stick, Gold Dachs after shave soap and this Crabtree & Evelyn beats them all! The latherability is absolutely stunning compared to the others and while the Speick products are very good too, looking in the bowl with Nomad convinces me every time this is the better choice of all.

Speick after shave cream beats the moisturizing qualities and certainly the price because the Crabtree & Evelyn is a pricey soap (about three times the price of the Speick which I rated just a little less than this soap), but for the rest !

I bought this soap over a year ago, because I had a C&E Giftcard, and I wanted to try a triple milled soap.

Other people love the fragrance, but I am not really into it. It smells very cologne like - some people say Grey Flannel. I am not into the cologne soap/creams. Just a personal preference - not a bad smell, just not my preference.

My main complaint is that I can't get a good lather from it. I find that I get a much better lather with Col Conk than I do with this soap. I have soaked it in water while I was in the shower, I have used a wet brush, used a dry brush, and an in between brush - but I just can't get enough soap of the puck with my C&E Best Badger Brush to make a think and lasting foam. The first pass is okay, but by the time I get to the second pass, I am getting a very thin lather. Some people have recommended using a stiffer brush - I guess if I liked the scent more it might be worth trying this with a boar brush, but as I am not that impressed with the scent (personal preference) I think I will be moving on.

Here is a good discussion of this soap and some struggles:
http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthread.php?t=83623

This was my first C&E hard soap and it's great.

The scent is very sophisticated and complex without being overbearing. It doesn't linger for hours, which is a good thing if you wan to use a differently scented aftershave.

I shave every second day and usually am done in 1 pass. One of these cakes lasts me a year if not more without any decline in quality of lather or scent.

I have made great lather from this soap using both a best badger and a boar brush, using a bowl.

This is not a bad soap if you pick it up on sale. To bad it isn't tallow though.

Price: 8 bucks for a refill add ten for a pretty nice teak wood bowl. These are 100G pucks.

Quality: Well made and the bowls are very nice. A good hard soap.

Scent: Although the scent grew on me quite a bit, I find it to be pretty one dimensional with the bamboo clearly dominating. The scent is a bit chemical like.

Lather: Thick and easy to obtain.

Efficacy: Provides good glide/slickness but lacks in the cushion department.

Moisturizing: I didn't notice any drying but its definitely not a strongly moisturizing soap.

All in all grab some when you see them on sale.

This is fantastic soap and is a good deal in the wooden bowl. The smell is incredible, it yields fantastic lather very easily and it goes a long way. The lather is slick and doesn't dry out on my face and leaves my skin feeling really moisturized! What's not to like? I can get away without using aftershave with this one. I actually bought the cream first and for those of you wondering which is better - the soap wins by a long shot and I am normally a cream guy. Go for the soap, you won't regret it.

I bought this soap yesterday and had to wait till this morning to try it out. I must say when i first smelled the dry soap i nearly gagged. But after reading reviews here, i hoped for the best. Nice thick slippery lather, and it worked like a charm. Not sure i like the scent yet, i really seems to differ from the Nomad cologne. Great shave though so i'm happy with my purchase. I actually liked this better than Proraso...never thought id say that!

Azza;840931 said:

Price, it lasts forever.

Quality, C&E, pretty much enough said, it is a good quality soap.

Scent, I love it now. Initially went for Sienna at the store but the salesgirl said she preferred Nomad, I accepted her opinion.

Click to expand...

similar experience, i went for sandal wood, but she said she prefered nomad, when i said i'll take her word for it, she started hyperventilating from excitement...i guess buff guys my age don't step foot in those places...

10s all around. Quality stuff. Really easy to mill into any container. just a lil elbow grease to press it in and it returned to a consistency very similar to the milled puck. At first in the box, the scent was repulsive (but i went with it because of the cashier and a friend with a similar reaction.) During the milling, i wanted to just snort some of the shavings. Really grows on you...

Got this soap during the last 50% off sale and I'm incredibly glad I did. Despite lukewarm reviews floating around this forum I found the soap quite satisfying. While not Tabac in lather, it still manages to produce a respectable amount of slick, dense lather from a surprisingly small amount of soap. Like Tabac however, the scent is really not for everyone. I happen to love the smell and sometimes find myself cracking the lid just to catch a whiff between shaves (as I also do with Tabac and Floris), but I can understand why some would turn up their nose.

For me, Nomad soap has become a soap I truly enjoy using and manage to get excellent shaves from.

I love this soap. I currently have a stock of all three pucks made by C&E.
Only problem I have with them is that they are a bit drying. Smell is wonderful.

I didn't like this at all and actually tossed it. The lather was short-lived, lacked cushion, and was only properly slickery for the first half-pass.

It also dried my face out.

My wife bought me this as a Christmas present and I used this for a couple of weeks. It lathers well and gives a good shave but, dried out my skin too much but, no more than any other soaps do. Looking at how much is remaining in the bowl, I would think that this would be a very economical soap. The scent is fantastic. I loved it so much I bought the cream (which doesn't dry my skin) and balm.

Price: I found the price to be very reasonable considering you get a good sized puck of soap (100g or 3.5oz) and a very nice looking bowl for $18. Refill pucks are $8.

Quality: I think the quality of this soap and container is good. It might not be as nice as some of the more expensive soaps but it is good for what you pay for.

Scent: WoW! I love this scent! I'm not very good at describing it but I'll give it a shot. I would say it is sweet/earthy/woody. I like it enough to reach for it based on scent alone and I am thinking of picking up some Nomad aftershave from C&E.

Lather: It took me a few tries to get the lather right with this one. The lather, once right, is great! I like my lather to be thick and creamy. It is slick and protective. Not too much else I can say about the lather. It does what it is supposed to do.

Efficacy: The only soap I used with any regularity before this one was Tabac, which I find super easy to build lather with, so this Nomad took a little work to get right. I have to swirl on the puck for about 30 to 40 seconds, whereas on the Tabac a 20 to 25 second swirl is all it takes. I face lather and once I get the brush loaded I move to the face and lather for about 2 to 2.5 minutes, dipping the brush(Rooney 1/1 in Super) in hot water maybe 3 or 4 times. I have enough lather for 2 passes and a touch up which is all I need. When I squeeze out the brush after I am all done the lather is still thick and creamy.

Moisturizing: I don't find this soap to be very moisturizing. It does not bother me because if my face is dry I will just hit it with a balm or some moisturizer.

All in all a good soap to have in your rotation.

I'm still only a couple of weeks into wet shaving, but for me, this is a temperamental soap to find the perfect lather with. It lathers quick, but I haven't been able to get that really thick lather yet.

What I really like is the scent. Its unique, and very relaxing to me.

Another downside is the fact it doesn't have great moisturizing properties. Now I have very dry skin anyhow, but this doesn't stack up to other soaps or creams I use.

Overall though, C&E will remain on my list, at the top. Like others have said, $18 for this very large puck, and the handmade bowl from India, is a steal. Its a large bowl, which has many uses. Refills are also fairly cheap, again considering the size. Overall great deal. So its a ten in that regard, when taking into consideration the bowl. Very frequent sales are also a plus.

Wish the C&E store carried more varieties of their soaps in store.