are there different proraso soaps?
I was in target yesterday and decided to find the proraso products. Talk about a major effort. It's not in the shaving section of course. After an eternity of searching I finally found a target employee that actually knew what proraso was and took me to a "men's skin care" aisle, located deep within the confines of the "health and beauty" section. There was proraso pre-shaves, post shaves, mid shaves, . . . . well you get the idea. There was only one shave "soap" the other was the tubed cream.
I splurged and spent the $3.98 (u.s. funds) on the soap in the green plastic tub. I got in the car and opened it up. a nice menthol scent but the soap was VERY soft, more of a hard cream than an actual soap. I read the ingredients and noticed that it DID NOT list lanolin or aloe, which I thought were major ingredients in this soap. I know I've read that in a couple places but cant recall where.
Does proraso make 2 different kinds of "soap" in a tub like that?
As for the shave, I used the proraso this morning. Since the soap was so soft I treated it like a hard cream. I warmed up my empty bowl within my scuttle with the brush warming in the same water. I poured out the warming water and refilled the mug of my homemade scuttle, emptied the bowl and replaced it into the mug. I shook the brush out, recharged it with hot water from the sink, gave it a single hard shake and began to carefully massage the soap with the tip of the brush until the brush tip was properly loaded. I then quickly charged the brush under the running hot water and started working the lather up in the bowl.
MY "Professional Newbie" take on proraso soap from target?
The good:
- The soap maintained moisture through the entire first pass and again through most of the 2nd pass. I only had to touch up the upper lip and chin.
- I did NOT have to reload the brush with soap before the 2nd pass. I just quickly charged the brush with hot water again and worked up a 2nd lather. (I got that idea from one of Lynn's post about a cream)
- I like the tingly feel of the euchalyptus and menthol
- It out performs soaps like Williams, etc.
- The soap gave an overall pleasant shaving experience
The Bad:
- The lubricity wasnt the best (wasn't the worst either) compared to other store bought soaps such as Van Der Hagen (surrey)
- After the shave my skin wasn't as soft or "silky" as I like it to be after a shave
- I have to treat the soap like a cream and not a puck of shaving soap. (I don't like creams ;)
- My face was slightly more irritated when I finished than usual. (probably a sensitivity to the ingredients)
- ANTIFREEZE. Propylene Glycol was a main ingredient in many industrial antifreeze prodcuts years back until they found they could use this in small quantitites as a preservative in certain foods without immediate negative effects. Now it's a food and cosmetics preservative.
- Lather. It took me much longer to get the lather on my face that I wanted. It happend but I really had to work the brush on my face
Over all I think it's an ok soap. If there is a better version of it I'm sure it would be a better experience.
For me personally, Soaps with Aloe and Lanolin are better for my skin and provide a protection against irritation. Plus I prefer a soap with better lubricity.