Item Description
MBW and I are staying at the American Club in beautiful Kohler,Wisconsin and after visiting the Kohler Company showroom, which had a Crabtree & Evelyn shave soap dish glued to one of the displays, I set out to find some top quality shave soap. I could not find any C&E anywhere, but one shop had The Art of Shaving and after asking a few questions and looking around one of the clerks found a 250 ML tub of Santa Maria Novella, crema da barba. She said it was made by monks in Italy and this was the last one they had. I saw the price had been reduced to $19 from $38 USD, so I bought it.
I almost passed on it because the smell reminded me of Proraso (which I don’t like). But since there was nothing else in this town that I could find, (go figure, 5 star resort, golf course ranked #3 in America, top notch Water Spa and no place to get a shave), I went ahead with it.
Price:
This is the only negative thing I found with this product. Even though I only paid $19 the regular price of $38 seems a bit steep for me. Albeit a 250 ml tub is a pretty good size.
Quality:
The quality was misleading at first. The initial appearance is not that of a premium product, (i.e. plain package, very old styling, looks/smells similar to Proraso shave soap). The shave results proved otherwise.
Scent:
Thankfully it is not as strong as Proraso, but it does have that menthol eucalyptus smell. I am not a big fan of menthol scent but I will not lower my rating because of that, it’s still fairly pleasant and may even have a hint of lavender. Overall it is a pleasingly light menthol eucalyptus scent that I think most will enjoy.
Latherability:
I will have to update this when I get home, since I was using my old brush and the water seems a little on the hard side here. Even the spa soaps did not lather well here. It did do what it was supposed to do and after a little coaxing it lathered up quite nicely. It was rich & creamy and lasted for the entire shave.
Update from home: Now that I am home and the water might be treated different, (comes from the same lake I think), I have only noticed marginal improvement on lathering, even with my fairly new Art of Shaving pure badger brush. It does take a little effort to get a good lather. In whipping the lather it makes a transition from sudsy foam to a rich creamy lather after a minute or two of whipping. This is when I begin shaving. Once it gets to this point though it lasts the entire shave and one brush full is enough for my usual three passes.
Since this is a hard cream it has to be worked off the top with a wet brush. One nice thing about it, is it is not wasteful since you can’t accidentally smoosh the brush in too deep and get more than you needed. On one of my shaves I had to go over the top a second time to get enough to make a good lather.
Efficacy:
It is very hard for a cream, but not as hard as soap, so a little went a long way. The picture I took of the open tub was taken after I used it and you can still see the ridges from when it was filled.
Moisturizing:
This is not a property I pay a lot of attention to since I normally use an aftershave balm. However, it was not drying and left my skin feeling quite refreshed, soft and smooth. I could probably get by without even using any ASB.
Packaging:
The packaging of the tub was a plain card stock box. The tub itself is a modern plastic shave cream tub with a screw on lid that holds 250 ml of cream. It does what it is supposed to do and that’s about all there is to say about that.
The Shave:
This is what it all boils down to and it was wonderful. It provided excellent lubrication for the blade and left my skin irritation free. Using my Gillette travel DE and a red pack Personna blade, I was able to get a very smooth BBS finish.
Continued from home:
I have had two more excellent shaves using my 1962 adjustable and a Derby Extra blade. Overall I find this to be an outstanding product and if you happen to come across some in your travels I recommend it. The usual disclaimers apply, but next month, when I am in Italy I know what I’ll be looking out for.
View attachment 7591
View attachment 7592
View attachment 7593
Here is a link to the discussion thread for this review.
I almost passed on it because the smell reminded me of Proraso (which I don’t like). But since there was nothing else in this town that I could find, (go figure, 5 star resort, golf course ranked #3 in America, top notch Water Spa and no place to get a shave), I went ahead with it.
Price:
This is the only negative thing I found with this product. Even though I only paid $19 the regular price of $38 seems a bit steep for me. Albeit a 250 ml tub is a pretty good size.
Quality:
The quality was misleading at first. The initial appearance is not that of a premium product, (i.e. plain package, very old styling, looks/smells similar to Proraso shave soap). The shave results proved otherwise.
Scent:
Thankfully it is not as strong as Proraso, but it does have that menthol eucalyptus smell. I am not a big fan of menthol scent but I will not lower my rating because of that, it’s still fairly pleasant and may even have a hint of lavender. Overall it is a pleasingly light menthol eucalyptus scent that I think most will enjoy.
Latherability:
I will have to update this when I get home, since I was using my old brush and the water seems a little on the hard side here. Even the spa soaps did not lather well here. It did do what it was supposed to do and after a little coaxing it lathered up quite nicely. It was rich & creamy and lasted for the entire shave.
Update from home: Now that I am home and the water might be treated different, (comes from the same lake I think), I have only noticed marginal improvement on lathering, even with my fairly new Art of Shaving pure badger brush. It does take a little effort to get a good lather. In whipping the lather it makes a transition from sudsy foam to a rich creamy lather after a minute or two of whipping. This is when I begin shaving. Once it gets to this point though it lasts the entire shave and one brush full is enough for my usual three passes.
Since this is a hard cream it has to be worked off the top with a wet brush. One nice thing about it, is it is not wasteful since you can’t accidentally smoosh the brush in too deep and get more than you needed. On one of my shaves I had to go over the top a second time to get enough to make a good lather.
Efficacy:
It is very hard for a cream, but not as hard as soap, so a little went a long way. The picture I took of the open tub was taken after I used it and you can still see the ridges from when it was filled.
Moisturizing:
This is not a property I pay a lot of attention to since I normally use an aftershave balm. However, it was not drying and left my skin feeling quite refreshed, soft and smooth. I could probably get by without even using any ASB.
Packaging:
The packaging of the tub was a plain card stock box. The tub itself is a modern plastic shave cream tub with a screw on lid that holds 250 ml of cream. It does what it is supposed to do and that’s about all there is to say about that.
The Shave:
This is what it all boils down to and it was wonderful. It provided excellent lubrication for the blade and left my skin irritation free. Using my Gillette travel DE and a red pack Personna blade, I was able to get a very smooth BBS finish.
Continued from home:
I have had two more excellent shaves using my 1962 adjustable and a Derby Extra blade. Overall I find this to be an outstanding product and if you happen to come across some in your travels I recommend it. The usual disclaimers apply, but next month, when I am in Italy I know what I’ll be looking out for.
View attachment 7591
View attachment 7592
View attachment 7593
Here is a link to the discussion thread for this review.
