Thread: The Magic of Martin de Candre

Just received my pottery bowl of I Coloniali Mango cream and it suprisingly was a hard soap-like instead of a cream. It looks like it was poured into the bowl as a cream and later hardened and shrunk to where it is not adhering to the bowl it came in but has a few mm gap and slops around in the bowl. Is this normal? I imagined this were to be a cream not a hard soap. The shave was alright but it had virtually no cushion. Nice smell but nothing like mango.

Got it from The Garden Pharmacy shipped from London for 16.50 pounds + 12.50 pounds postage. Not cheap at all and wondering if I should send it back.

Originally Posted by groovyd

Just received my pottery bowl of I Coloniali Mango cream and it suprisingly was a hard soap-like instead of a cream. It looks like it was poured into the bowl as a cream and later hardened and shrunk to where it is not adhering to the bowl it came in but has a few mm gap and slops around in the bowl. Is this normal? I imagined this were to be a cream not a hard soap. The shave was alright but it had virtually no cushion. Nice smell but nothing like mango.Got it from The Garden Pharmacy shipped from London for 16.50 pounds + 12.50 pounds postage. Not cheap at all and wondering if I should send it back.

Hey groovyd,

I wanted to try Coloniali too so I'm curious to see what people say about your dilemma. In my search for it though I saw that westcoastshaving now carries it so if you order another batch I'm sure it would be less expensive than having to pay for an international order again.

Good luck!

it looks like they sell a refill soap on westcoastshaving which leads me to believe it is indeed a solid soap and not a cream... mine does appear pretty dry however, perhaps i should order a refill to see how it compares.

yeah i wonder if it would also be worth a try at "re-hydrating" the soap if that can even be done. maybe filling the bowl with water and letting it sit for a couple hours? i dunno if there would be any way that that could make the soap useless or not but maybe someone else can chime in about whether or not one can even re-hydrate a soap

Obie could chime in with a better response, but I saw his portion of Coloniali in the pottery bowl last Sunday, and it appeared the same: coming off the edges and not seemingly holding to the pottery. He didn't mention whether that was normal, but didn't say that it wasn't. Again, Senor Obie would be the best opinion on the matter.

tuntatty,

Stop feeling guilty about spending so much on MDC shaving soap. It's one of life's pleasures. After five years and you've only used half of the soap, you'll consider it a bargain.

After all, have you ever seen a Brink's truck following a hearse to a wet shaver's funeral?

You can't take it with you, but you can shave with it.

Originally Posted by groovyd

Got it from The Garden Pharmacy shipped from London for 16.50 pounds + 12.50 pounds postage. Not cheap at all and wondering if I should send it back.

You can get that same shaving soap/cream right here in the USA from BullGoose Shaving.

As for the consistency...I would agree, I Colonialai is more of a shaving cream/soap--like Queen Charlotte or Portman Square--than a true cream.

As for the fragrance...Maybe the Mango was added for its therapeutic qualities for skin, not as a fragrance.

I have used I Colonialai cologne, deodorant and aftershave balm in the past and they are AWESOME. Unfortunately, they stopped making those products.

Originally Posted by jhenry

You can get that same shaving soap/cream right here in the USA from BullGoose Shaving.

As for the consistency...I would agree, I Colonialai is more of a shaving cream/soap--like Queen Charlotte or Portman Square--than a true cream.

As for the fragrance...Maybe the Mango was added for its therapeutic qualities for skin, not as a fragrance.

I have used I Colonialai cologne, deodorant and aftershave balm in the past and they are AWESOME. Unfortunately, they stopped making those products.

you can get the balm from westcoastshaving now. is it the same stuff that you used to use?

Gentlemen:

Since this thread is on Martin de Candre, rather than dilute the focus by bringing in I Coloniali, I will start a new thread in Soaps and Creams with my thoughts on this fine soap. Thanks.

Regards,

Obie

Resurrecting a thread from the dead. The M De Candre soap shipping amount is still toxic.

I was about 3 seconds last night from pulling the trigger on it, until I went through and it gave me a ship charge of over 20 bucks. The soap is steep, but that's OK. Steep soap and steep shipping together, not so much.

What a downer! The cost of the soap (I did register to get the VAT taken off the soap) and shipping together was a bit north of 60 bucks. I think a kilo of cella cost me $38 (I even have my wife using cella). Booger.