Valobra? Cella? Something that smells like P.160

[jtyson]

I absolutely love the smell of RazoRock P.160. I am not a fan of the performance of the P.160 though. I've heard rave things about the both Valobra and Cella. I heard that the Valobra is a sweeter scent, which is what I like about the P.160.

I'm also curious what it would take to maybe add some essential oil to either of them to meet the scent I'm searching for.

So what would you say about the scent of those soaps? Have you tried all of them and can compare scents?

 

[shaversnapper]

I have never tried P. 160, but of the almond scents, I like TOBS almond creme in a tub. Great performer too. Smells better than cella but I love the performance of cella as well.

 

[jtyson]

I have never tried P. 160, but of the almond scents, I like TOBS almond creme in a tub. Great performer too. Smells better than cella but I love the performance of cella as well.

Could I trouble you to maybe explain how the TOBS smells? The P.160 smells a little like almond and cherry. I believe I saw someone say marzipan, but I can't confirm what that is. The P.160 smells very sweet to me. Not like a bitter almond scent. It was also very good to my skin post shave. I just couldn't whip up a good lather. RazoRock products don't play well with my water or my technique.

 

[jtyson]

Well late last night I figured there is no better way to understand these soaps than to try them. So I put in an order at IB - 150g block of valobra almond, tub of TOBS Almond creme as suggested and a kilo of Cella as I've read the block is better than the tub. Assuming I like the Cella as much as everyone else seems to, I may try playing around with adding some essential oils to get the scent I am looking for. We shall see!

 

[dfoulk]

You certainly don't waste any time. The P160 is an absolutely excellent performing soap. I'd suggest you try using more water of more soap. It's worth taking the time to figure it out. I have it in my top 5 of hundreds of soaps I've tried. Performance and scent are excellent. Outside of that, Cella has a similiar scent with much less of the cherry note. The Valobra will perform very well but will likely have a clay smell to it, as all of their soaps do. The TOBS likely isn't as good of a performer as any of the others in my opinion. A good performer soap but the others are much better. The Cella is a great soap and definitely a worthy purchase. I think this will be your favorite of what you ordered.

 

[sarimento1]

i've not had the pleasure to try RR P160, but i've had cella and valobra almond.
three other similar italian almond-scented soaps, one is matador (made by tfs), another is antica barbiera colla, and a third is boellis panama.
of the three, i'd say the matador and abc are on the sweet side, while the panama is a little muskier.
shaved with the panama today, it was excellent.

 

[shaversnapper]

Could I trouble you to maybe explain how the TOBS smells? The P.160 smells a little like almond and cherry. I believe I saw someone say marzipan, but I can't confirm what that is. The P.160 smells very sweet to me. Not like a bitter almond scent. It was also very good to my skin post shave. I just couldn't whip up a good lather. RazoRock products don't play well with my water or my technique.

Sorry I'm late getting back to you. The TOBS almond is very sweet and has a delightful marichino cherry note and the cream is a great performer. It was the first "high dollar" cream I have bought and I was not disappointed. Although, I do love almond scented products: my shampoo is head and shoulders almond and it smells amazing. I have many "all almond" days as you can imagine. As for the cella block, I havnt ever tried it, but I would imagine that it would have to be a bit drier to not be in a tub. At least my tub is closer to cream that soap on the "croap" scale. Enjoy all that almond, I hope you don't burn out.

on another note, stirling has they're black cherry soap which is very similar in scent as you could imagine. Might try that some day.

 

[jtyson]

I tend to be a bit impulsive when looking for answers! I do intend to try my P.160 a few more times before I decide to completely give up on it. My concern is that if I do end up loving it, I'm out of luck. It has been discontinued and all that is left is a $10,000 kilo on Italian Barber. I'm not quite that impulsive. So I'm trying to chase down something that is similar in scent, but better in performance that will stick around. I'm really hoping for Cella to be the one, simply due to the cost. Even if I have to spend an extra $10-20 on essential oils to create the scent I want, I'm a long way ahead of the cost of buying some other soaps/creams.

Strangely enough, I'm really more of a creature of habit. Once I find something I like, I stick with it. I totally understand the whole "variety is the spice of life" sentiment, but I can't relate. Proven performance is more what I'm chasing.

I've been trying A LOT of soaps. I have a sensitive nose, so only some play well. I've probably spent $300 on soaps and creams alone in the last couple months just trying to get a lineup of things to try. Thus far, nothing has rung my bell in both scent and performance departments. Really I've only found three soaps that I truly enjoyed one aspect or the other. Mama Bear's Rosemary Mint and P.160's scents and CO Bigelow cream's performance. I've tried VDH, RazoRock XXX , 888 and Fresco, MdC Fougere and MdC Unscented, Tabac, PannaCremma Lavandotto, Mama Bear's Sandalwood, Rosemary Mint and Unscented. I still have another dozen or so that are waiting to be tried.

The one thing that stuck out with the P.160 besides the scent was the post shave feel. My face felt awesome. After some reading, many people say that is because of the almond, hence my head first dive into so many almond products. I've also been interested in picking up some Acca Kappa 1869 cream in a tub, but never see it pop up on the BST and I don't want to spend that much on a single tub from the source. Learned my lesson there with the MdC.

 

[shaversnapper]

At the risk of sounding like one of the hive, you should try MWF. The smell is a light spicy sweet, and if you can nail the lather (I myself have never had trouble, but never had trouble with RR either) then the aftershave face feel is second to none IMHO.

 

[jtyson]

MWF is one that I have waiting to try. Along with Pre de Provence, Proraso White, Proraso blue cream, Haslinger Schafmilch, a palmolive stick and the items I just ordered from IB. I'm trying to cover as many bases as I can afford to early in the game!

 

[shaversnapper]

MWF is one that I have waiting to try. Along with Pre de Provence, Proraso White, Proraso blue cream, Haslinger Schafmilch, a palmolive stick and the items I just ordered from IB. I'm trying to cover as many bases as I can afford to early in the game!

I understand that. this little obsession we have an get kind of pricey. I think that once you get to MWF you will like it, provided that you can get it to work with your water situation.

 

[jtyson]

Yeah ironically I found this hobby in search for a cheaper shave. I'm a head shaver too, and the price of carts is absurd. I used to spend probably $200/year on shaving equipment. I was gifted a Dovo straight and a VDH kit for Christmas and ever since then it has been downhill. I've only purchased two more straights, but I've purchased 8 DE razors, plenty of soaps - some of which are priced absurdly and a large sampling of blades. Honestly if I were to tally it all up, probably $5-600 spent in the last 7 months, most of it being since June when I really got into DE. Stupid way to save money!

I've read a lot about MWF being great for the right folks and terrible for those with the wrong water. I'm just waiting to see where I fall in that category. I have a hard time lathering RazoRock products, so I don't know if it is looking good or not for MWF.

 

[shaversnapper]

Definitely a concern. As I said before I have never had trouble with RR products, especially when using the Marco method, or a variation thereof. You could always try the distilled water test just to be sure (although after dropping that much coin, I'm sure you have tried many things to get your lather to work.)

 

[jtyson]

I actually haven't tried distilled water. Considering that is only a dollar, I'd be glad to try it. Although, if I find out it is a problem with my water, I'd rather find a soap that works than have to resort to using bottled water for shaving. Still worth giving a go.

 

[Harvid]

Have you tried the Marco method? One other poster on the board in the last 48 hours had been down on the Proraso White, but was able to get good performance from his croap by modifying his lathering technique (not only by speaking his brush, but also by immersing the Proraso tub in water. It's worth a try.

 

[jtyson]

Yes the Marco method is what I practice. That is actually the first thread I read when I came to see about how to lather. Since then, I've always stuck with it.

 

[inspiringK]

Vitos Extra Super is another P160 alternative. It has that same marzipan scent with great performance similar to that of P160.

I tend to be a bit impulsive when looking for answers! I do intend to try my P.160 a few more times before I decide to completely give up on it. My concern is that if I do end up loving it, I'm out of luck. It has been discontinued and all that is left is a $10,000 kilo on Italian Barber.

Depending on when you got your P160, it might not be out of production at all. The original P160 went out of production a few years ago. Recently, RazoRock began selling a resurrected version of the soap which, by all accounts, very much does justice to the original. So, if you have recently bought P160, odds are that your soap is still very much in production.

 

[oldtrout]

ABCBA is what you want.
Unfortunately, the real thing costs 5x+ as much as it did two years ago.

The Italian Barber offers Razorocks ABCBA on the "cheap", but I don't know if it's the real McCoy.

If you have the $$$, go to Antica Barberia Colla in Milan and buy several kilos... I'd buy one or two from you..

 

[Stubbl E]

Well I see, as ever, a lot of recommendations for the really high dollar options. But if you just want to try some other soaps with a similar scent, presumably in the hope of finding one that works better for you than RR P160, and you're not especially interested in taking out a second mortgage just for the privilege, then I'd recommend the Vitos basic green for a tallow based soap and either the Valobra crema di sapone purissima or the 3P for a veggie based soap. All of the are great soaps and none of them will set you back more than a tenner or so to try (I think the Valobra is actually 15 or so, but still...).

 

[Scott0079]

As above - 3P