Well, of course there is no vegetable Cella Crema da Barba, so what the heck am I talking about??
Well, TFS in the red bowl is a classic Italian soft soap (croap) with the classic Italian Almond Cookie smell (Amaretti), but without tallow. It is about as close a clone to Cella original as one can get without tallow. So, after comparing original tallow Tabac to the new vegetable formulation a while back, after using the TFS soap a few times, I decided these two were a natural for a side-by-side comparison, same way I did the Tabac comparison. Many thanks to @Marco for the all the historical information he has provided on both these soaps, and for recommending TFS soaps to me, like all his recommendations I've loved the two I have now tried. Before moving away from tallow, Cella was a Marco favorite, so having a tub of both, I naturally wanted to try this comparison.
Below is my shave rating.
No bowl, TFS Purissima face-lathered on the right side with the Yaqi Mysterious Space Brush.
Cella Crema da Barba face-lathered on the left side with the PAA Amber Aerolite brush.
I used a new Dorco Prime blade, my new favorite blade (hat tip to @Dtownvino for that recommendation).
I made as close to identical lather consistencies on both sides, which, of course, is easy for me, as I am a Lather Maestro™.
Outstanding shave! I have a leather neck, apparently, as I can aim for and get a daily BBS shave with no irritation and no need for taking a few days off, now and then. But this shave was fantastic, and, as in the Tabac comparison ... I cannot tell these soaps apart.
Now, I know many of you will be disappointed, because, darn it, we are supposed to have a winner in a comparison!
But, honestly, I did not detect a noticeable difference in lather density or slickness, in blade feel during the shave, and both the slight problem areas on right and left jaws are BBS smooth. Alcohol burn feel after the shave was the same on both sides. Honestly, no matter how hard I tried, I could not detect a difference. After my same conclusion with the Tabac comparison, I am more convinced than ever that tallow as a shaving soap ingredient is simply not a factor in how good it can be -- neither better nor worse for having it or not having it on the ingredient list.
One thing folks will ask about is the scent. I cannot tell a difference in the scent profile. Some have posted they believe the TFS may have a stronger scent. That may be true, and it seemed that way to me, but my TFS is a new tub and the Cella is about a year old. And the difference was very slight. So I won't give the nod to TFS in this regard because they may be the same on two brand new tubs, but today it was slightly stronger in the TFS. Same scent though.
Another thing people are interested in is the post-shave feel, but I have vowed to never opine on that because I've never had any sensitive reaction to anything and I must have lizard skin, which is the reason I can get a daily BBS shave for months without a break. And since some (very few, but some) have indicated they've reacted to Cella, probably to the scent ingredients, and because for some with skin issues the post-shave feel is important, I simply will not give an opinion. But I certainly could not tell a difference after the shave and I still cannot fee any difference about 3 hours later.
Conclusion: Cella is an iconic, old-school, Italian barber classic shaving soap. It would be hard to find another as iconic, except, perhaps, Proraso green. I just love it! I think I will reload with the TFS when the time comes, however. I am agnostic between tallow and non-tallow soaps, but if you keep a tallow soap long enough, it can go a little off. I don't think the vegetable formulations tend to do that. But if you are not a died-in-the-wool tallow acolyte and you like Cella, I would say buy the TFS with confidence.
I did not have another person around to load the brushes for me, but I would bet real money that in a blind test most people would be unable to differentiate these two soaps. Well, maybe Marco could, but he's unusual, perhaps unique. The rest of us mere mortals would have a difficult time detecting any difference between these two soaps.
I highly recommend either of them if you live under a rock and not have tried Cella yet.
Bring a Bluetooth speaker and your phone to the bathroom for your shave and play this:
And pick up some Italian almond cookies and have a couple with an espresso after your shave.
Well, TFS in the red bowl is a classic Italian soft soap (croap) with the classic Italian Almond Cookie smell (Amaretti), but without tallow. It is about as close a clone to Cella original as one can get without tallow. So, after comparing original tallow Tabac to the new vegetable formulation a while back, after using the TFS soap a few times, I decided these two were a natural for a side-by-side comparison, same way I did the Tabac comparison. Many thanks to @Marco for the all the historical information he has provided on both these soaps, and for recommending TFS soaps to me, like all his recommendations I've loved the two I have now tried. Before moving away from tallow, Cella was a Marco favorite, so having a tub of both, I naturally wanted to try this comparison.
Below is my shave rating.
Saturday, February 8
- Pre shave - shower
- Yaqi Ghost 90SB head on DS Cosmetics Spiral Ti handle (China)
- Dorco Prime blade #1 (Viet Nam)
- Yaqi Mysterious Space and PAA Amber Aerolite synthetic brushes
- Cella original and TFS Purissima Per Barba (Both Italy)
- Thayer's WH (USA)
- Cella red A/S (Italy)
No bowl, TFS Purissima face-lathered on the right side with the Yaqi Mysterious Space Brush.
Cella Crema da Barba face-lathered on the left side with the PAA Amber Aerolite brush.
I used a new Dorco Prime blade, my new favorite blade (hat tip to @Dtownvino for that recommendation).
I made as close to identical lather consistencies on both sides, which, of course, is easy for me, as I am a Lather Maestro™.
Outstanding shave! I have a leather neck, apparently, as I can aim for and get a daily BBS shave with no irritation and no need for taking a few days off, now and then. But this shave was fantastic, and, as in the Tabac comparison ... I cannot tell these soaps apart.
Now, I know many of you will be disappointed, because, darn it, we are supposed to have a winner in a comparison!
But, honestly, I did not detect a noticeable difference in lather density or slickness, in blade feel during the shave, and both the slight problem areas on right and left jaws are BBS smooth. Alcohol burn feel after the shave was the same on both sides. Honestly, no matter how hard I tried, I could not detect a difference. After my same conclusion with the Tabac comparison, I am more convinced than ever that tallow as a shaving soap ingredient is simply not a factor in how good it can be -- neither better nor worse for having it or not having it on the ingredient list.One thing folks will ask about is the scent. I cannot tell a difference in the scent profile. Some have posted they believe the TFS may have a stronger scent. That may be true, and it seemed that way to me, but my TFS is a new tub and the Cella is about a year old. And the difference was very slight. So I won't give the nod to TFS in this regard because they may be the same on two brand new tubs, but today it was slightly stronger in the TFS. Same scent though.
Another thing people are interested in is the post-shave feel, but I have vowed to never opine on that because I've never had any sensitive reaction to anything and I must have lizard skin, which is the reason I can get a daily BBS shave for months without a break. And since some (very few, but some) have indicated they've reacted to Cella, probably to the scent ingredients, and because for some with skin issues the post-shave feel is important, I simply will not give an opinion. But I certainly could not tell a difference after the shave and I still cannot fee any difference about 3 hours later.
Conclusion: Cella is an iconic, old-school, Italian barber classic shaving soap. It would be hard to find another as iconic, except, perhaps, Proraso green. I just love it! I think I will reload with the TFS when the time comes, however. I am agnostic between tallow and non-tallow soaps, but if you keep a tallow soap long enough, it can go a little off. I don't think the vegetable formulations tend to do that. But if you are not a died-in-the-wool tallow acolyte and you like Cella, I would say buy the TFS with confidence.
I did not have another person around to load the brushes for me, but I would bet real money that in a blind test most people would be unable to differentiate these two soaps. Well, maybe Marco could, but he's unusual, perhaps unique. The rest of us mere mortals would have a difficult time detecting any difference between these two soaps.
I highly recommend either of them if you live under a rock and not have tried Cella yet.
Bring a Bluetooth speaker and your phone to the bathroom for your shave and play this:
And pick up some Italian almond cookies and have a couple with an espresso after your shave.
