Valobra Crema Di Sapone Almond

I received this as part of a PIF so there was no charge. It lathered up very well using a Jagger Best Badger brush. Even so, with thick lather all over my face, it felt like the razor wasn't gliding along like it does with some other soaps and creams I use. Definitely not as slick as a Tabac or Arko. Still, it was a pleasant scent and not a terrible shave at all.

I will try my best to rate this product without the use of superlatives, but it will be difficult.

I will just say that this is one of the Italian soft type shaving soaps that have defined barbershop experience for over 100 years.

Lather is well about average with its strong suit being its efficacy which is a very pleasant and comfortable shave.

I use this product often and recommend it.

This is fine Italian soft soap and is one of my favorite soaps. I have been using it now for several years. It's easy to lather, the lather very slick and scent is not at all sweet. It smells like a guys kind of scent. I get mine from a local Life Check Drug store that seems to specialize in better shaving products. I get Cella there as well, and the two run neck in neck in great value for the dollar.

Another wonderful Italian soap. Thanks Marco for making us aware of such great products. I load the brush as I would with a hard soap only a little more gently and I had an explosion of thick creamy lather in the bowl.Along with the Cella and MWF this is going to be a regular soap for me.

I love this soap, best so far, one minus point, the scent is not as strong as i would have liked, but everything else exceeds, a wonderfull lather with any brush, softens the bristles and leaves the skin feeling very supple, just finished using this, so another order soon

I have Marco to blame for getting into this soap. I usually wait a week or two before I comment in the review section but with Valobra, I got the perfect shave this morning.

Valobra, Crema di Sapone Purissima is, along with Cella and P.160, one of the very best shaving cream soaps available on the market.
This AMAZING Italian product was first introduced by Virgilio Valobra, who over a century ago, and exactly in 1903, established in Genoa (north - west Italy) his factory for the production of high quality soaps.
Mr Valobra had a huge, ambitious project: he simply wanted to create some of the finest soaps in the World.
And in order to do that, he decided to strictly maintain and preserve the original formulas and working methods of the Master soap manufacturers of the 18th century.
Genoa was also the perfect place where to set his factory: it was in a strategic position, since, with his big seaport, ships coming from Africa and Asia continually brought all the raw materials needed for producing top quality soaps.
Still today Valobra takes its Coconut oil from the same island in the Indian Ocean, as over a hundred years ago.
And, as over a hundred years ago, this Italian company exclusively uses the purest natural ingredients, carefully selected to give a super rich lather.
Among the soaps created by Valobra, I want to focus my attention on their fantastic shaving cream soap.
Valobra Crema di Sapone Purissima is a VERY soft shaving soap or, to be more precise, it is so soft that it’s really much more a dense shaving cream rather than a true shaving soap.
Its consistency, in fact, is similar to many concentrated shaving creams, like Castle Forbes, Crema da Barba Santa Maria Novella or Acqua di Parma, Collezione Barbiere.
And as the creams just mentioned, only a peanut size amount of product is necessary to develop mounds of fabulous, slick and protective lather.
Valobra comes in a small, old-fashioned 150 g (5.2 OZ) cardboard box and, being so pliable, it can be easily molded into any soap container.
Here in Italy it is priced around € 7 - € 8 per brick, therefore this product is not expensive at all.
Valobra, like Cella and P.160, is the perfect example of how a great product can be, many times, very reasonably priced.
Availabilty here in Rome is, unfortunately, a negative point.
I had to order my cream soap from Novara (north Italy, close to Milano), because I’ve not been able to find it anywhere in my city.
Anyhow I got my Valobra Crema di Sapone Purissima brick after only three days, at an affordable shipping cost.
This Italian marvel is produced in two different fragrances: Almond and Menthol.
The Almond version has a wonderful, straight and pure Almond scent, very traditional, very Barbershop and very “Old School”.
The Menthol version, instead, has a nice, light and fresh smell, particularly appreciated during hot summer days.
Scent aside, these two gems perform both equally well.
Or, if you prefer, they are EXCELLENT under every aspect: with no effort you can easily build up a beautiful, super slick, super thick and super moisturizing lather.
Every shave with Valobra is a true joy, your face is left smooth, soft and conditioned.
Valobra, Crema di Sapone Purissima is a tremendously effective shaving cream soap.
And this is my tribute to the greatest Italian Master soap manufacturer.
Grazie Virgilio.

I had to try this shaving soap.
It comes from the city I was born.

So this morning I wake-up and I did a comparison applying the four pass shaving method.
I started - first pass- with this and then I tried the Proraso while for the third and the fourth one I used the Weleda one.

So I'd choose

1. Weleda
2. Valobra
3. Proraso

Weleda is the best for the scent, without any doubt. May be is worse for the lather - I'd report after more in deep trials - even if I saw it depends how you can work it.
Valobra, in terms of lather richness is the best. Its scent, however, remind me the white glue I used at the elementary school ( perhaps my first brush! ).
However, between this kind of products, Proraso cannot stand out. Even if it is a reliable product

Old school goodness this stuff is. Similar in consistency to its rich cousin, Acqua di Parma, this stuff might surprise the unwary when first opened. Like warm brie cheese it's pretty squishy and sticks to its plastic wrapper. Once it's safely scraped/squished into a bowl or mug however it's all good.

The scent, for me, is awesome. Pure almond, not too strong, not too faint. It lathers very easily, provides an excellent shave, and kept my skin pretty moisturized. I imagine it will last quite a while, making it easily worth the 11 dollars I spent on it.

Maybe I'm a sucker for old school stuff (especially Italian old school stuff) but I think this soap is top-notch and it earned an immediate spot in the rotation. If you like almond you need to give this a try.

Face lathering with the Omega 10098 went well. A nice lather. Razor went smooth, no irritation. Scent is ok, as I could not really smell much. Which is how I like it. My skin was a bit dryer than with say Cella afterwards, but certainly passable. Good soap. For me a lot like Cella.

I switched to straights from DE and I now use face lathering. Takes a couple of minutes to whip thick, moist lather out of Valobra. No complaints there! My only gripe is that the almond scent dissipates after 30 seconds and becomes a simple soapy scent.

I have tried lathering this in a bowl and directly on my face and I have found that face lathering improves the moisturizing effect of this soap. Maybe the moisturizing element just needs to be worked into the skin to function properly. That being said, I do find that on the third pass the lather does not seem as slick anymore and there is a slight stiff and dry feel to my skin when I wash off at the end. Being a newbie, I agree with TimMechEngr that this is a great beginners soap, nice scent, great lather, affordable but the moisturizing is just not top notch on a multi-pass shave. On the whole it gives a very nice shave and the slight dryness is easily taken care of with some baby oil.

John Chrissman at Shaving Essentials always sends samples with my orders, and this soap/cream was included recently. I've always been a soap kind of guy, but the smell of John's samples intrigued me. This one has a nice almond scent, not too strong, not too weak. I was expecting a cream when I went to use it and found a putty like consistency instead. Not knowing exactly how much to use, I just went with the "dollop about the size of an almond" amount usually associated with creams and placed it in the bottom of my lather bowl. After two good flicks of my soaked Shavemac D01, I went to work. Well, it didn't take much work as rich, creamy lather began whipping up immediately. In fact, it wasn't long before I had enough lather for two 3-pass shaves! And to beat that, it turned out to be some of the firmest, richest, and creamiest lather I've ever used! Unlike earlier ratings, maybe I just lucked up and hit it dead on the first time. Also, after finishing and rinsing my bowl out, I found some more of the soap at the bottom. Just out of curiosity, I wet my brush up again to see if I could make enough lather for a shave from what was left in the bottom of the bowl..... It Did!

As for the shave, the lubricity and cushion were excellent. My Gillette Super Speed with new Shark blade smoothly mowed down everything in its path. After two passes (WTG & ATG), my face felt smooth, moisturized, and soft.

I've since bought a 150 gram (5.3 oz) block of this soft soap from John and molded it into one of my wooden bowls. I load up my brush now like any soap, and it still produces the same thick, rich lather as that first time. I too, compare to Tabac and find Valobra Crema di Sapone at least equal on all counts except for smell. I like the almond scent of this soap, but hey, Tabac is just plain hard to beat in that department. I strongly recommend anyone, especially beginners (due to latherability) try this soap.

I used some of this for the first time today. My usual favorite is Tabac and it is the standard that I go by.
The Model Pharmacy here in Albuquerque always stocks Tabac soap and products, but the last time I went there to buy some, they were out.
The pharmacist recommended the Crema di Sapone and I bought a block(about four ounces I guess) for about 15.00.
Anyhow as its been said, this is a soft putty-like soap. It has a nice almond scent, but not too sweet or too strong. It's putty like nature make it easy to set up in any container you want to use. It is also possible to put a portion in your soap cup and store the rest in a zip lock baggy, Very user friendly stuff to handle.
Now, for the shave. I put about a tablespoon of hot water on top of the soap and soaked my Dovo silver tip in some hot water while showering, as usual.
When I put the brush to the soap I found that it lathered up nicely although perhaps a little thinner that I would get from Tabac with the same amount of water and brushwork. It went onto my face smoothly and felt good The combination of the light, crisp almond scent and the moisturizing effect made for a very nice sensation.
As I began to shave, however it seemed that it did not lubricate quite as well as Tabac. My Futur with a fresh Crystal blade seemed not to glide as smoothly as usual with Tabac.
Not to say that this soap did not give me a good shave, because it did. But I feel it rated a slightly lower mark in the efficacy row.
I have a heavy beard and I shave twice a day. This was my evening shave, my dear wife like me clean shaven for bedtime pleasuring purposes, so I did not go for a true BBS shave.
Post shave was nice, it left my face feeling soft and moisturized and the scent was gone as quick as the rinse. All in all, I would give this soap a very good rating. I will be using it for couple months, at least so maybe I will work out the slight lather lubrication issue.
I would recommend trying this soap.

Takes a little experimenting to get the lather right. Not that unusual for soap. Scent is a clean bitter almond, not marzipan. Not too expensive and long lasting (have used about 10 times and hardly made a dent) Overall I would say a high quality product with high quality results. Slick lather that softens the beard well and cuts close. No irritation.

Nice putty substance that can be molded into any shape. It certainly is very similar to Cella Crema Sapone but with two main differences. It has a more powerful almond scent than Cella Crema Sapone, however, I find it does not lather as well as Cella Crema Sapone. Overall it is a pretty nice shaving soap but I probably will stick with other more latherable shaving soaps.