I agree with you. I really enjoyed the original Cade formula. Fortunately I have a pretty good stock pile of the original. Cade is one of the few scents in shaving that I just don't tire of. I haven't tried the new soap and maybe its fine, but the old formula was a pleasure to use. If I want to use a simple vegan formula with shea butter, I'll be using Soap Commander. I have used Soap Commander all around the world with all types of water conditions and always get an excellent lather and shave. I do like Provence Sante also so there are options - but I will really miss the Cade scent. I have tons of soaps, more than I will ever use but I always looked to the large commercial chains for stability. When I want variety, there are so many great artisans but for consistency I always looked to Valobra, DR Harris, L'Occitane, Tabac, I Coloniali, etc. It seems these days, small batch artisans are driven to improve through competition while large corporations that make soaps as part of a product portfolio are more driven by political correctness or saving a few pennies per unit.
Reformulated L'Occitane Cade shaving soap?
- Thread starter macintoshBR
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I had been following this thread with great interest, and I am sad to confirm that the new formulation is not the same L'Occitane Cade that I purchased almost a decade ago. The scent is the same, but that's as far as it goes.
Right off the bat, the puck itself is more translucent -- a slightly yellowish puck rather than the white that I had been accustomed to. Imagine an off-white candle and you'll get what I'm referring to. The old formula puck was kind of a matte white -- kind of the consistency of hard white chalk.
The new puck builds up a lather really well, and I was very hopeful for the results. However, the lather is indeed not stable as reported in this thread (I did not find the review mentioned on L'Occitane's website). I mean, it did last longer than the first generation West India Limes pucks by Crabtree & Evelyn, but I think it's on par with modern Williams Mug.
The shaving experience wasn't terrible -- it was a nice slick lather, and did provide good cushioning -- but then, I was using my new Henson razor with an Astra Superior Platinum blade on its third shave...always an excellent, mild, and BBS shave with that combo. The unstable lather might have lessened any cushioning of the soap, but not that I had noticed.
I should also mention that I don't typically bloom my soaps, so that might make the difference the next time around. Will keep you all posted!
I definitely will be posting a review on the L'Occitane site. Hopefully they will do what C&E did with West India Limes and reformulate it back to the orginal formula, or something more equivalent to the old formula experience.
Right off the bat, the puck itself is more translucent -- a slightly yellowish puck rather than the white that I had been accustomed to. Imagine an off-white candle and you'll get what I'm referring to. The old formula puck was kind of a matte white -- kind of the consistency of hard white chalk.
The new puck builds up a lather really well, and I was very hopeful for the results. However, the lather is indeed not stable as reported in this thread (I did not find the review mentioned on L'Occitane's website). I mean, it did last longer than the first generation West India Limes pucks by Crabtree & Evelyn, but I think it's on par with modern Williams Mug.
The shaving experience wasn't terrible -- it was a nice slick lather, and did provide good cushioning -- but then, I was using my new Henson razor with an Astra Superior Platinum blade on its third shave...always an excellent, mild, and BBS shave with that combo. The unstable lather might have lessened any cushioning of the soap, but not that I had noticed.
I should also mention that I don't typically bloom my soaps, so that might make the difference the next time around. Will keep you all posted!
I definitely will be posting a review on the L'Occitane site. Hopefully they will do what C&E did with West India Limes and reformulate it back to the orginal formula, or something more equivalent to the old formula experience.
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L’occitane is notorious for discontinuing or altering good products. Makes me sad. It was where I got my start in trad shaving. When they discontinued the cade splash. It disappointed me. When I bought the cade edt, and it smelled nothing like the old splash, I gave it away because it was garbage. Very sad.
Hmm, disappointing!
Guess I'll need to visit my store and see if they have any old stock.
Guess I'll need to visit my store and see if they have any old stock.
I'm glad I have a couple pucks of the old formula from 2012 stashed away.
Yes, the reviews are correct. The lather dissipates very quickly, leaving a thin, bubbly soap layer.
No potassium = no lather.
As simple as that.
As simple as that.
I loved Cade; it was what I liked on all points. To Say the least I was needing therapy. Gota puck of old?
In addition to the non-lathering puck...there was also a CADE puck which lathered fine but the scent was completely different to my 2008 CADE puck (which is freaking awesome!).
Seems they messed with the scent as well as the soap recipe...both for the worse!
Seems they messed with the scent as well as the soap recipe...both for the worse!
Cade is possibly one of my all time favorite scents. I never get tired of it. I use the Cade face scrub. Anybody know of a soap/AS scent that closely resembles it? Maybe we should start a petition to beg Rod and Mandy of Stirling to make a dupe
.
I bought the newer shave soap version before reading reviews. I was buying some items for my wife in the L'Occitane store and treated myself to a puck and aluminum soap tin. Terrible soap but love the tin.
I just finished a La Toja bath bar soap. Up on deck is either the Speick or PdP No63 bar soaps...or the Cade shave soap.
. I bought the newer shave soap version before reading reviews. I was buying some items for my wife in the L'Occitane store and treated myself to a puck and aluminum soap tin. Terrible soap but love the tin.
I just finished a La Toja bath bar soap. Up on deck is either the Speick or PdP No63 bar soaps...or the Cade shave soap.
Last night I used cade soap. Mine is about a decade old and works fantastically. Shame they reformulated.
