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I've been thinking about picking some of this soap up and was wondering how ya'll felt about it. It seems to get good reviews at B&B, but haven't heard much over here.
I'm mostly interested in the Almond, as I have enough containers of Proraso hard soap left over from the big Target Proraso closeout to last till I'm eighty!
Cheers,
Landis
I have found C&E's sweet almond to be super nice shave cream. Just my 2 cents.Quote:
Originally Posted by BBSWANNABE
Valobra soft soaps are very nice, and are very similar to soaps costing three times more, or even more.
I have the soft almond. It is very "foody", and smells like a marzipan. Working the soft soap into a ziplock bowl was like working a brioche. I'm not the biggest almond fan in the world, so I haven't been using it often, but when I do use it, I wonder why I don't use it more. Used it this morning, in fact. I also have the menthol, but want to wait till something else is used up before cracking the package.
The lather is great, and its easy to use. Quite the bargain. Both thumbs up.
Well, my Valobra got here in the mail today.... Cool stuff!
It's consistency is much more like a hard cream than a soft soap. It has the shiny irridescence of a cream, but the consistency of... well... sticky putty maybe?? Dunno, but it's really cool.
I picked up a beautiful bowl with a lid a while back, and had been waiting for the soap to fit it, and this Almond Valobra fit the bill perfectly. You simply unwrap the box, and the soap is wrapped in plastic, and then a layer of paper. I molded the soap into this great bowl, which was something akin to smooshing refried beans into the bottom of a bowl.
The soap picks up into the bristles of my badger brush just like you might expect. Easier than a triple milled or glycerin soap, but took a few more swipes than say, Trumper's tub of cream. The brush doesn't load with a simple quarter twist like a cream, but takes fewer swirls than hard soap.
I built my lather in a bowl like I do with my creams, and was rewarded with COPIOUS amounts of thick Meringue-like lather. The lubricity was very much like a cream, but I was somehow reminded of a soap with the lather's consistency. The almond scent is not an overpowering one, but when smelling the soap itself, I had to stop myself from taking a bite several times! It seriously smells that good!
Bottom line.... If you've been contemplating this one... DO IT!! You'll need a nice bowl with a lid that you want to store it in, though I've heard that you can simply pinch a bit off and use it like a cream. I was rewarded with one of the best shaves in quite a while with my soap-like technique, however.
Great soap! I got mine on ebay, but Tryphon (Barbaria Italiana) also sells this one, along with the menthol version, for what I seem to remember as around $12.00!
Cheers,
Landis