The Obie Memorial First Tier Soaps and Creams Thread.

[Obie]

After reading Obie's rankings a couple of times, I sent off for samples of MdC and Harris Arlington soaps to try. Very good stuff--easily the best I've used. I must say thanks to Obie for his informative post (as his always are).

Bless your heart for the kind words. Thank you. Indeed, Martin de Candre is a celestial soap. I must say, though, that the D.R. Harris soaps, especially Arlington, is in the neighborhood. I really like the D.R. Harris soap. The lather has a good texture, nice and thick, and the scent is robust and clean. Good stuff.

[Daro]

MW,

Thank you for the kind words. Indeed, Castle Forbes is a celestial cream, as Martin de Candre is a celestial soap. If I were to have one cream and one soap, well, these two would claim the honors. Matched with my 25mm shavemac Model 167 silvertip, my lather rides a beautiful rainbow.

Obie's I would agree with you on Castle Forbes but for the soap I would go with your other T1 soap choice - Czech & Speake as the scent is brilliant and the lather is right up there.

Hats off again to your list Obie, IMHO the only T1 I would slightly disagree with is Xpec which I haven't warmed to yet and for me would be T2 but that may be down to personal preference

[Obie]

Gentlemen,

After some more experiments, I have decided to send St. James of London to Second Tier.

I have used this cream for many years with some trepidation about the quality of glide and cushion. The fragrance is lovely. Yesterday I finally realized that this cream, in those two important categories, is not in the same class as Castle Forbes, XPec and the other First Tier offerings. Once again, I do want to remind you that this is only my opinion. If you believe otherwise, that is fine with me. When it comes to anything in the traditional shaving world, personal taste and requirements play a major role.

[thebigspendur]

Gentlemen,

After some more experiments, I have decided to send St. James of London to Second Tier.

I have used this cream for many years with some trepidation about the quality of glide and cushion. The fragrance is lovely. Yesterday I finally realized that this cream, in those two important categories, is not in the same class as Castle Forbes, XPec and the other First Tier offerings. Once again, I do want to remind you that this is only my opinion. If you believe otherwise, that is fine with me. When it comes to anything in the traditional shaving world, personal taste and requirements play a major role.

I decided the same thing with Aqua Di Palma. It smells great and leaves your face feeling great and makes a really dense lather but it's lube qualities are sadly lacking and that quality pretty much trumps everything. It's place in first tier is being replaced with Acca Kappa.

[Phrank]

I decided the same thing with Aqua Di Palma. It smells great and leaves your face feeling great and makes a really dense lather but it's lube qualities are sadly lacking and that quality pretty much trumps everything. It's place in first tier is being replaced with Acca Kappa.

Really? Wow, ADP has been growing on me slowly and steadily over the last months. Personally, it has always struck me as very similar to Tabac, a high octane version with a more refined scent - but for the price tag, it's really pushing it, can see where you're coming from, though, there's just something about it that I can't figure out that doesn't quite "click" for me.

[Druid]

Gentlemen,

After some more experiments, I have decided to send St. James of London to Second Tier.

I have used this cream for many years with some trepidation about the quality of glide and cushion. The fragrance is lovely. Yesterday I finally realized that this cream, in those two important categories, is not in the same class as Castle Forbes, XPec and the other First Tier offerings. Once again, I do want to remind you that this is only my opinion. If you believe otherwise, that is fine with me. When it comes to anything in the traditional shaving world, personal taste and requirements play a major role.

I'm glad I read this, as I was just about to buy St. James of London based on Obie's rating. The world of creams has produced my greatest disappointments over the years, with the Simpsons cream being the latest ... Not that it's that bad, but I was expecting so much more! It just left me cold!

[evnpar]

I decided the same thing with Aqua Di Palma. It smells great and leaves your face feeling great and makes a really dense lather but it's lube qualities are sadly lacking and that quality pretty much trumps everything. It's place in first tier is being replaced with Acca Kappa.

If AdP smells great, you must have the older version, as the newest one is scentless (why they got rid of the scent in their cream, I'll never know). However, the new version is also worlds ahead of the old one in terms of performance. At least for me, the current version would remain in tier 1, while the previous one would drop to tier 2.

[Phrank]

I'm glad I read this, as I was just about to buy St. James of London based on Obie's rating. The world of creams has produced my greatest disappointments over the years, with the Simpsons cream being the latest ... Not that it's that bad, but I was expecting so much more! It just left me cold!

St James of London is still a great cream, to me, this cream could be Tier 1 or 2, and it's a YMMV where it belongs in my opinion, I have two flavours, both are fine, they are in my rotation, have not been banished to "the box", I won't actively seek them out to use them, but if nothing catches my eye that shave I'll use it, use the Mandarin and Patchouli a week or so ago and it was stellar actually.

[Obie]

I decided the same thing with Aqua Di Palma. It smells great and leaves your face feeling great and makes a really dense lather but it's lube qualities are sadly lacking and that quality pretty much trumps everything. It's place in first tier is being replaced with Acca Kappa.

Spendur, how right you are on this one. Acqua Di Parma is another cream with one in the Second Tier. Interesting that you bring it up, because I'm just about ready to ship it to the Second Tier, like St. James of London.
Being in the same class as Martin de Candre, Castle Forbes, Xpec and some of the others is a tall order. I think Aqua Di Parma does not quite reach the level.

[mlucassr]

Acca Kappa, humm I'm on the fence with that one, like with it being between 1st tier and 2nd tier, because the after shave feel was just so so for me it was really uninspiring, I will need to get a sample to test it again