After much Proraso Sandalwood anticipation....

[7 O Menthol]

Jay, your assumption is correct, no menthol. Although some users experience a slight cooling sensation from the sandalwood oil itself.
If you're interested, Garry had red samples in stock last I checked.

 

[oldman89]

I was somewhat disappointed with the scent, but I'm hoping it will grow on me. My girlfriend thought it smelled great (she likes other sandalwood scents too). However, the performance was excellent and my face felt great afterwards. Maybe from the shea butter?

 

[Oscroft]

I'm goin to hold out for the soap version.

Yep, same here - even though I have some great hard soaps and some great creams, I think I like the Italian soft soaps the best.

 

[Fairchild86]

I really want to try this cream but can't justify it yet as I have a couple other creams to get through first.

 

[Sunflake]

The scent is more of a woody,clean, earthy light scent. Performance is there but the Shea butter is what makes this shine.

 

[YoungerThanMyRazor]

I ordered a tube of the proraso sandalwood from italian barber along with the new RR soap/asb line. I finally got around to using the proraso for the first time today and it did not disappoint. The performance was excellent. I was amazed at how much cushion the cream provided.

I really enjoy the scent, much more than C&F Cedarwood and Sandalwood. Much more earthy and less like sawdust.

 

[Earcutter]

I really want to try this cream but can't justify it yet as I have a couple other creams to get through first.

You'll need to start using more product lol! I don't even want to guess how long it's going to take me to clean out my den lol. But then I just used up the last of my AoS sandalwood - still have a ton of aftershave though, so I'll need another me thinks lol. Think I'll give this a go!!

 

[Absolute Mustard]

I was somewhat disappointed with the scent, but I'm hoping it will grow on me. My girlfriend thought it smelled great (she likes other sandalwood scents too). However, the performance was excellent and my face felt great afterwards. Maybe from the shea butter?

Yea, the felling after the shave was amazing. The butter must have done the trick.

Not the best for shaving, but does pretty well in the post shave category

 

[Westcoast67]

Just used this for the first time today. Really like the scent and performance. One of my first soaps/creams in the Sandalwood world, but I like it much better than T&H's version and RR's new version. Not sure if it is more authentic sandalwood or anything, but I do know it is quite nice to my nose.

 

[Just+Ice]

I ordered ProRaso *new* Sandalwood in the red tube before reading about it. I read a lot of poor reviews and was regretting my purchase before it arrived. However I got it today and I really like the scent a lot. Aside from that it performed like the now *old* eucalyptus and menthol ProRaso. These, for me are everyday creams but I have others I will use as occasions arise which are stronger scented.

 

[Pkrankow]

I like it, and the scent lasts for hours on me!

Phil

 

[lt114]

The Duke 3 has been my favorite shaving purchase....you wont be disappointed!

+1

 

[ricardo9505]

i enjoy the scent, fades quickly.. hell the razorock line has more smell but proraso red tube conditions better than razorock la famiglia tub soaps in my opinion. more conditioning and better slickness. i was thinking of trying the razo artisan but hell, i use a tallow soap, it's called arko and runs me $2 a stick. lol

 

[n.solo88]

I was never able to get a good lather from the Proraso creams until i face lathered.

 

[mistervee123]

I like the scent and love the performance. One thing I noticed about the new Red is that using a bit more product produces a creamier lather.

+1, Marco. I found that the shave was much better with a little more product than I used with the old Proraso. Really like the subtle scent; the hint of sandalwood is far from overbearing. I have T&H Sandalwood too, which I like a lot also, and when I want more sandalwood scent, I pick up that heavenly T&H tub.

 

[n.solo88]

The performance is great! But the scent is not appealing to me. I might be putting it up for trade

 

[ODJ]

I just received a tube of this in the mail this morning. I used to be a huge fan of the original Proraso/C.O. Bigelow cream when I first started using a DE, but found that it ended up drying out my skin, and went through a phase where I tried a LOT of different creams and soaps and have since sold them all off except for two...Geo. F. Trumper's Coconut Shaving Cream and Queen Charlotte Mysore Sandlewood Cream. As far as protection and performance, my gold standard is the QCS Mysore Sandlewood. Love the scent, and it always yields great shaves with no irritation, even after multiple passes, lots of blade buffing, etc. So since becoming a sandalwood fan, I decided to give the new Proraso a go.

I have not shaved with it yet, but did whip up a test lather just now and applied it to my face. It really does whip up very rich, and pretty slick and very creamy, and felt great on the face. With the original Proraso, it really would dry my face out, but this new formula/scent does not seem to do that. Also, the scent seems to hang around and last for quite a while. I am not sure if this is a good or bad thing.

Others have commented that this is a true sandalwood scent. By no means am I a sandalwood expert, because my only experience is with the QCS Mysore sandalwood, which is apparently real Mysore sandalwood essential oil, and is all that is used to scent that cream with no synthetic scent added. I know there are different types of sandalwood essential oil, and Mysore is just one of them. When comparing the two creams as far as scent they are worlds apart and do not smell alike in any way. To me the QCS Mysore sandalwood is a very mild, almost milky and somewhat sweeter scent, while the Proraso sandalwood scent is a little musky and a touch earthy, and is stronger than the QCS, but in my opinion the Proraso just seems a bit cologne-ish. If the QCS is what REAL Mysore smells like, the Proraso seems a bit artificial to me, or not as natural, if you will. This isn't to say it smells bad at all, because the scent is pleasing, I just am not sure if I like the fact that it does linger around for so long afterward or not. This is why I have not been a fan of other Italian creams like RazoRock (gasp! did I just say that!), in particular the XXX. The scent was incredibly overpowering and afterward felt like I just doused myself with some cheap cologne and for some reason had the urge to put on a pair of aviator sunglasses and a member's only jacket and cruise around for chicks in a 1987 Corvette and sport a lot of gold and chest hair. Not my style at all.

Keep in mind I am only 36 years young, but I when I first smelled the Proraso sandalwood, I immediately thought of the thread I viewed earlier this morning with the pics of Frank Sinatra shaving, because this scent, for whatever reason made me think of that era. It's a classy, very old-school, traditional scent. I swear it also made me think of when I was a little kid and going to Philly to see my grandfather and he would smell like back in the late 70's early 80's. Classy, tough old guy scent. I dig the scent, but time will tell if it suits me or not.

I'm sure this was probably one of the more obscure reviews of this product, but as always, you won't know if it works for you until you try it, because, as we all know, YMMV!