Thread: Whatever happened to....

Originally Posted by Steve56

Could be, it gets confusing, and my original sample is not in the product packaging, but the donor is a high end soap aficionado of the first water. AFAIK, the original was made by Forrester, Milan. The current version of XPEC is made by Effimarinelli S.r.l.

No, the original was made by Fore' Te of Milan. I still have some in the original tub.

I learned something today, thank you spendur!

I had a sample of the XPEC, but I found the scent to be nauseating. The lather was good, but there's no way I would buy it because of the smell. And the lather wasn't nearly amazing enough for me to need to invest in an unscented version.

At this point in time, I probably have enough different kinds of shaving soap and creams that I doubt I will be purchasing more until I can get my stock down a bit. I also have too many straight razors since I have narrowed down to some favorites. At some point I will probably sell off a majority of what I have.

I have never tried Xpec though.

Mike

Originally Posted by mglindo

At this point in time, I probably have enough different kinds of shaving soap and creams that I doubt I will be purchasing more until I can get my stock down a bit. I also have too many straight razors since I have narrowed down to some favorites. At some point I will probably sell off a majority of what I have.

Mike

In a similar camp as I have no need for any more software but won't go so far as to part with any....well, maybe the XPEC.

However, I do need to cull a third of my razors if I ever hope to grab yet another fine strop. Plus, this will make room for any razor I find I just need to add to my quiver.

Originally Posted by Steve56

I’ll have to be the dissenting opinion here, I have a good sample of the original formula from a friend, and a tub of the current version. I really can’t tell much if any difference.

Cosmetics get re-formulated from time to time, mostly because of user wishes, eliminating parabens, and the current trend by D. R. Harris and Cyril Salter away from palm oil and back to tallow in their current hard soaps. Most of the time these don’t IME really make much difference except in internet lore. None of these companies are going to introduce an inferior version of their products unless there’s regulation involved, and they have the ability to test their products well. The idea that they intentionally released an inferior version of their own accord seems unlikely.

Im going to disprove that theory in 2 words.... "New Coke"

Originally Posted by Magpie

Im going to disprove that theory in 2 words.... "New Coke"

No not really. An outfit like coke has to continually advertise the keep up interest in their products and compete with pepsi so by introducing a new version has the potential of selling a lot more of the product. Of course if you stumble like coke did it can cost you. However either way they generated all this talk and interest in the new coke so they probably came out ahead. Who knows maybe it was all a publicity stunt and they hoped it would fail.

At any rate if you are lucky enough to have a supply of the original Xpec which goes back probably to 2005 or so it really is special stuff. Scent of course is subjective but it produces an instant lather like whipped cream with more lube and glide than you can imagine. A few twirls and you have enough lather for 3 shaves. Once on yer face it seems to stay there forever. it doesn't disappear on you. like so many other soaps do.

Originally Posted by thebigspendur

At any rate if you are lucky enough to have a supply of the original Xpec which goes back probably to 2005 or so it really is special stuff. Scent of course is subjective but it produces an instant lather like whipped cream with more lube and glide than you can imagine. A few twirls and you have enough lather for 3 shaves. Once on yer face it seems to stay there forever. it doesn't disappear on you. like so many other soaps do.

^^^^^ THIS was my experience with '12 vintage XPEC!

The tub I purchased in 2016 only resembles the previous XPEC formula in scent (close but not quite there) but nowhere near this performance that mirrored mine from the year I began wet shaving.

XPEC as a legend lives on only in my memories but no longer in my shave den. No parabens = no good with their formula evidently.

I still have a little of the good Xpec. Yes the scent was great. And it cut really well too. But in the past few years I have settled into a single soap and am not finding anything that tops it. I like to think that it was a gradual weeding out of lesser soaps. When I first started to wet shave, Truefitt and Hill was tops. I added Trumpers, then DR Harris. Proraso, MDC, Cella, and everything else. And while a lot of them were good, some clearly better than others, I've dropped them all but for what is left in my stash in favor of what seems to be working best for me. I still have a bit of the Xpec kicking around but the stuff was pricey. If its still sold, I doubt I'd replace it.

Original XPEC is fantastic. It's the one product where I actually have to focus on not dropping my razor....it's that slick. I actually dropped and cracked a Thater brush when I lathered the original XPEC.

I feel very lucky to have started my wet shaving journey just about when the original was discontinued...and I still have a tub. I haven't seen an original tub for sale in years.

The replacement was good (called 'original' but just not the same), and I think has been discontinued.

I'd trade just about 90% of my shave products for a tub of Domenico Caraceni cream....made by the same company but with the heavenly DC scent. I haven't been able to locate a tub in a decade.