Products you wanted to love, but...

[Galaktus]

Astra SP, not the smoothest blade for me.
Personna Labs, same, and available locally too! These two blades get near universal love, but I just can't get to liking them.

Tabac, the scent kills me.
Fine American Blend AS, too powdery of a scent for me.

 

[musicman1951]

Eucris cologne. Loved by many, I was excited to get a sample (thank God, only a sample) and applied to my wrist.

I immediately felt queasy. Disgusting is too high praise, cloying smell of death is probably closer (perhaps combined with the smell of a rotting compost heap).

I waited 30 minutes but it did not improve. Unfortunately 30 minutes was too long - I couldn't wash it off (tried every kind of soap in the house). I seriously considered taking a belt sander to my wrist.

 

[guitarslinger]

Anything that works well and smells great that also burns my face. There are too many for me to list.

 

[DCP]

Karve razor with both the B and C plates. The razor looked great, had perfect balance and weight, but it did not pair well with my face.

Sent from my Nokia 7.1 using Tapatalk

 

[StillShaving]

Boar brushes. I do appreciate them more as time goes by, but I have never loved using one. Probably not even properly broken in one, though I have a couple that are in a secondary rotation.

 

[DannyZ]

Santa Maria Novella cream

 

[bwc1976]

Green Proraso/Bigelow cream. It smells great, but the lather dries too quickly for me. Red Proraso works much better for me.

 

[MHBru]

Clearly for me its MWF. Way too much trouble to build a good lather. Life's too short to fight with shave soap.

 

[OkieStubble]

MWF. Liked the scent, feel and lather. Got sick and tired of the puck drying out and crumbling. I now get the same feel, better scent and lather without the puck drying out and crumbling with Haslinger Schafmilch.

Cella Kilo Loved the lather and scent and performance. But the animal fat in the block eventually becomes old and rancid and starts smelling like butt.

Love the feel of boar, badger and horse hair brushes. But the lather in the brush is great for the first pass, but by the time you lather for the second pass, the lather goes flat and disappears. Never have that problem with quality modern synthetic brushes.

Heavy modern DE Razors. Heads too thick and bulky and handles way too heavy. Give me a lighter vintage with a thinner 3 piece head any day, like a New, or Old, or Tech.

Straights. I like them over DE or SE. but I get a much closer shave with a Shavette without all of the maintenance.

Artisan soaps and after shaves. The few I have tried haven’t convinced me to be any better in performance or scent then La Toja, Proraso, Arko or Tabac.

 

[1Vader]

Mystic Water. The ingredients are great, and I read great reviews. Really wanted it to work for me, but maybe it's my water or something but the lather dissipates on me.

 

[Laird]

I'm the polar opposite of musicman1951. I love the scent of Eucris and my first experience with it was the absolutely un-latherable Eucris puck of triple milled soap. I tried everything, including all the advice given by other members. I gave it away and the subsequent owner faired no better and also gave it away. I bought a bottle of the Eau de Toilette instead and often blend a few drops into a dime-sized blob of Nivea ASB and use that after a cold water rinse. And yes, when I wear it I picture myself in a 60's Hammer film being hunted by Peter Cushing. Yep.

 

[RTM]

There are two soaps I couldn't get to lather - Floris 89 and Eucris. For the love of me these two - and only these two out of dozen I've used - would produce nothing but bubbly goo. I probably should have experimented with water (mine is definition of hard) but decided that life's too short and out they went.
That was real pity because both scents were "mine".
Kept wooden bowl from Floris though.

 

[emwolf]

Gillette Toggle. I think I was expecting to have my mind blown and it was just okay. It reminds me of going to see Star Wars back in 1977 when Time Magazine just had a cover story saying "The Greatest Movie Ever Made." It wasn't.

 

[DAJ]

Merkur 34C HD, wanted to like this razor but just don't.

TOBS creams, like some of the scents but just not very good ingredients.

 

[HatMagnet]

German made Wilkinson sword blades

Cremo sandalwood shave cream

Merkur blue label blades

Tabac

 

[Anick]

I had a Aristocrat Jr. that just didnt like me for some reason.

DG/Chatillion- just finished a tub and i dont think ill get another. Maybe the icarus base down the road.

Nacet blades-i was pifed a tuck and the first shave with every blade seemed to have a burr on one side that didnt take off hair for the first shave. After that it was smooth but i guess i expected more.

 

[Lavdriver]

Simpson’s Chubby 2 in best badger. My wife got it for me as a birthday gift. It was too much of a larger hog and I was getting more lather using my synthetics. I still have some badgers, but I was disappointed in the lather considering the cost of the bush

 

[Theodore]

Arko. Still some of the best lather I’ve ever experienced, but that smell made my eyes water.

DEs - spent years and tried every technique and trick in the book - just could not stop cutting myself. Realised if I kept it up I was eventually gonna look like Freddy Kruger. The Oneblade has sorted this out for me.

 

[MNshaver71]

Parker Variant. The thing's just too damn heavy.

 

[CJB3]

Tabac