Steve56
Ask me about shaving naked!
Antica Barbieria Colla has re-released their hard shaving soap. This is a reformulated soap, not the same as the old version of a few years ago. Ingredient labels shown below.
TL;DR: Based on one three pass shave with a straight razor, the new version is slightly (but not much) inferior to the last version except in two areas. The new version is slicker and cheaper, it’s about half the price of the old version. The new version is priced more competitively against its peers like MdC and SV, and even the better hard English soaps (except on scent). The new version is an exceptionally good straight razor soap due to the slickness.
Price: the new version is about $32 US for 125g delivered from ABC (I bought 4 to get free shipping and they emailed a free product offer which I have not yet redeemed). The old version retailed for about $70 US from US resellers but was cheaper from ABC, about $45 IIRC.
Consistency and appearance: The new soap is denser, whiter, smoother, and with a translucent waxy appearance. It is a palm oil soap. The old version was more opaque, less dense, less smooth in appearance, less white, and was a coconut oil soap. Both are hard cured non-milled soaps similar in consistency to Martin de Candre, especially the older version.
Scent: Both are a very light almond scent. They could be considered unscented by many.
Ease of lathering: Both are easy to lather, the old version is a bit easier to lather as expected, sharing a formula very similar to MdC.
Quality of lather: Both excellent, the old version is more MdC like though it was better in all aspects, especially post shave feel. The new version‘s lather is still rich and creamy but a little slower to lather and a little thinner, though I expect that more loading would add to the new version’s lather density. One very nice quality about the new version is that it is very slick, like SV beta 4.3 slick. Shaved skin loses some slickness if it dries, but a quick wipe with wet fingers brings the slickness back without re-lathering, very much like SV beta 4.3. Post shave is still excellent.
Who should consider it: Straight razor users for certain, especially if strong scents are not a requirement.
Who should consider a pass: It’s still a pricey soap, so if that’s an issue there are soaps that are a better value. If you want a strong scent, this soap won’t satisfy you.
Below, old version right, new version left.
TL;DR: Based on one three pass shave with a straight razor, the new version is slightly (but not much) inferior to the last version except in two areas. The new version is slicker and cheaper, it’s about half the price of the old version. The new version is priced more competitively against its peers like MdC and SV, and even the better hard English soaps (except on scent). The new version is an exceptionally good straight razor soap due to the slickness.
Price: the new version is about $32 US for 125g delivered from ABC (I bought 4 to get free shipping and they emailed a free product offer which I have not yet redeemed). The old version retailed for about $70 US from US resellers but was cheaper from ABC, about $45 IIRC.
Consistency and appearance: The new soap is denser, whiter, smoother, and with a translucent waxy appearance. It is a palm oil soap. The old version was more opaque, less dense, less smooth in appearance, less white, and was a coconut oil soap. Both are hard cured non-milled soaps similar in consistency to Martin de Candre, especially the older version.
Scent: Both are a very light almond scent. They could be considered unscented by many.
Ease of lathering: Both are easy to lather, the old version is a bit easier to lather as expected, sharing a formula very similar to MdC.
Quality of lather: Both excellent, the old version is more MdC like though it was better in all aspects, especially post shave feel. The new version‘s lather is still rich and creamy but a little slower to lather and a little thinner, though I expect that more loading would add to the new version’s lather density. One very nice quality about the new version is that it is very slick, like SV beta 4.3 slick. Shaved skin loses some slickness if it dries, but a quick wipe with wet fingers brings the slickness back without re-lathering, very much like SV beta 4.3. Post shave is still excellent.
Who should consider it: Straight razor users for certain, especially if strong scents are not a requirement.
Who should consider a pass: It’s still a pricey soap, so if that’s an issue there are soaps that are a better value. If you want a strong scent, this soap won’t satisfy you.
Below, old version right, new version left.