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Acqua di Parma Colonia - what I missing?

I am currently traveling for work and came across a shop selling the yellow jar (v3). Decided to give it a go.

Shaved with the cream twice over the course of a week using the Blackland Vector and Feather Artist Club Pro blade.

It's ultra concentrated - a pea size yields 3 to 4 passes. Great old school scent, lemon and basil in the background.

Lather was thick and sumptuous. I was readying for the shave of my life but alas. It was no better than Proraso, which frankly is better.

Average glide. Average to poor residual slickness. Same for cushion.

What is your experience with the cream?
 

EclipseRedRing

I smell like a Christmas pudding
There is a reason why Proraso has been around for about 70 years - because it is an excellent product at a great price. I would argue it would be a great product even at a much higher price. I have not tried Acqua Di Parma, but I would not expect it or any other cream to be significantly better than Proraso. They may of course be different and you may prefer either one over the other. The same is true of most of the long established, and often inexpensive brands. I have become convinced that no 'high end', expensive cream, soap, brush, razor, aftershave... etc. is significantly better than the best inexpensive version and in many cases is worse. It is just a matter of personal preference; consider yourself lucky - you prefer Proraso and can have great shaves at Proraso prices 👍
 
Hi, I've used this croap and liked the small number of ingredients, and it left my skin very nice shape.
I think it's the expensive scents used that make it premium but suspect you pay a lot for the name!
I bought the shower gel, but found it well overpriced and one of the worst shower gels I've tried.
 
Cheers @EclipseRedRing I think that in comparing AdP to Proraso, I unwillingly but also inevitably brought up the price/cost factor. That wasn't my intention and I should have clarified it. I also didn't want to insinuate that Proraso is the comparison benchmark. It just happen that it's the shaving cream I am the most familiar with. I could have easily said Mon Savon au lait, a €1.50 shaving soap instead (which I think is even better than Proraso in some ways). Otherwise, I reckon that expensive is not always the better or the best, same goes with cheaper/cheap products.

Thanks for your feedback @Roy I agree that the brand's prestige and the uniqueness of the scent contribute to its price. In the end, it's an experience and AdP's scent delivers that.
 
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I am currently traveling for work and came across a shop selling the yellow jar (v3). Decided to give it a go.

Shaved with the cream twice over the course of a week using the Blackland Vector and Feather Artist Club Pro blade.

It's ultra concentrated - a pea size yields 3 to 4 passes. Great old school scent, lemon and basil in the background.

Lather was thick and sumptuous. I was readying for the shave of my life but alas. It was no better than Proraso, which frankly is better.

Average glide. Average to poor residual slickness. Same for cushion.

What is your experience with the cream?

always nice shaves with AdP cream.
Indeed, not a performance giant, but totally OK and great scent.
It's remained a 'keeper' in my den, along with its sister aftershave.
Just IMHO, FWIW.

acqua di parma art of shaving friedellko sunday may 12 2024.jpg
 
@sarimento1 Agreed. Don't get me wrong, it's not a bad shaving cream. Expectation vs Reality type of it. It's all subjective in the end. The scent alone can make it worth it. The oceanic scent of the v2 was equally fantastic - identical to Caswell Massey's Newport soap.
 
I have the ADP Colonia shaving cream and aftershave lotion in the yellow jars, bought from their store in Rome in June 2023, so I assume it's the latest version. I think it's great: excellent performance, classic scent, leaves my skin feeling and looking wonderful, relatively small amount of product needed for each shave (but very pricey to purchase).

I haven't noticed it having less performance than, say, SV or Ethos, but I've always used it with the La Faulx SE razor, which is both efficient and gentle, so perhaps with a more challenging razor I would experience it differently.
 
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