Thread: proraso red and some rambling

perhaps i had misread some time ago or maybe i just label the soap wrong from early readings on this board, but i have always had no interest in trying proraso cream. i have sensitive skin and thought a higher end, more well known name brand creams were always the way to go.

after buying the C&E almond last week that i dind't like, i put it up for sale/trade. had a fella really wanting the cream but he didn't have much of anything i wanted (he was a DE shaver). after some back and forth PM's i realized that i could help him out with a top quality cream that he really wanted to try by giving him my CE. thats what shaving is about, enjoying the shave/prep/ and results. so i agreed and sent it to him, in return he sent me a Proraso red tube and a small cake of col. conk (really make small cakes don't they!).

so i recieved the package today and since i needed to shave i tried out the Proraso even though i had all these prejudices about it. boy was i wrong. the cream is fantastic! the smell was right up my ally, perhaps mediciny smell but definitely not floral, the tingling feeling was intense but never burned or hurt. the lather was superb, thick and rich, overflowing my mug and was just as thick the last stroke of the SE as it was when i applied it to start. the shave was smooth and it lubricated very well (not quite as good as the CE or nancy boy). as i sit here now my face is smoooooooooooth and feels great.

also, i was having a good day at work, so i decided to meander over to the AOS store during lunch today. crazy experience. i keep hearing how great the AOS lavender is so thats why i went and low and behold i DID buy a tube of it becuase well, i just had to try it (can u believe i didn't even use it today for my shave!). but that was just the start of the experience. they had 4 creams. unscented which i didn't like the scent, it smelled like a cheap-blow up plastic raft for a pool when you first open it. they had sandalwood which i found very pleasant. soft and mild, warm and not overpowering at all. they had lemon which i won't talk about becuase it isnt worth my words. and finally the lavander. i must say the lavender smells strong. it wasn't one of my favorite smells but i have to try it anyways, at least it isn't as floral as some others and the wife likes the smell of the cream so ill wait to pass judgement till i give it a real good shave. Now, they were doing shaves in the back and a fellah walks in and askes about their straights on the wall (they had 4, cheap carbon with plastic scales, next was a stainles steel with metal scales, next was carbon with bone scale and the top was a stainless steel frameback with some kind of scales. anyways the guy starts asking about them and the shave person they had on site comes out front to answer questions and he goes on to tell the guy how carbon steel was cheaper and stainless was better. handed the guy the blades and said "feel the weight"... WELL DUH, one had metal handle other had plastic. i couldn't believe it. then he goes on to say that the stainless steel needed to be sharpend at a knife store when you buy it and then it would need to be sharpend once a year after that. i looked at the customer and could see he wasn't prepared to buy anything today so i kept my mouth shut when i wanted to tell the worker to go back to his feathers where he belonged. and thus, i left AOS definitely not impressed. OH, they did have a very nice selection of brushes though. very nice

in conclusion, i started off with prejudice of a cream but made a trade becuase i wanted to help someone else experience the shave he really was hoping for. in doing this i ended up with a cream that i really enjoy that i would have never tried on my own. just one of those times where doing the right thing yielded more then one could ever had thought. it was a good day.

~J

ps. i also got some fabulustre in the mail today. 1lb tube, has metal at the bottom and white chalky hard top. is this the fabulustre itself and if so how the heck do i apply it to my felt buff for the dremel? its way too hard to get on there. or is this top just a plug and the fabulustre is inside which i need to cut open the tube to get to? so confused and don't want to ruin the tube by just choppin into it randomly.

Great post JScott, something to keep in mind.

I also like Proraso - I have the cream in the green tube and try to use it at least once a week. I also like their pre/post shave and love the post shave liquid cream- or whatever its called.

I don't care for AOS either. They're more concerned with moving product out the door than with helping people shave. When I first went there a couple years ago, they told me the pure badger brush would only last me about 6 months, but if I got the silver tip it would last me 10 years! Unreal.

Jordan

My wife picked up some proraso (green) and soap at Target awhile back, I really wanted to like it, I loved the cooling affect but just couldn't get it to shave well (could never get it slippery enough). And the propylene glycol was a major turnoff.

I was pleasantly surprised by the Proraso-branded omega boar brush though. Blows the socks off the surrey/VdH brush I used to have.

I must concur about occasional bizarre misinformation from various staff at AoS (I've been to the one on Madison and 46th a handful of times). I've had some too, and have had to "instruct" the folks behind the counter about shaving and straight razors a bit, and in fact had to explain the difference between carbon and stainless to the woman behind the counter. She told me stropping wasn't really to sharpen the blade, but just to clean it, and I explained edge alignment to her, and we had a nice talk. She was shocked that I shave with a straight razor every day, which is funny for someone who works at a place that sells straight razors...

As for the razors you saw, they have a couple cheaper Dovos and the one with the stainless steel scales, and the frameback-looking one they have at that store is actually the Bergischer Lowe (that I own and which is currently my best, most reliable shaver). The barber, an old Russian guy named Ivan, gives a truly superb shave with a Dovo Shavette, and is the person who taught me how to shave properly. I feel that AoS's prices aren't good for enthusiasts like us who buy things and use them every day, but in general I like what they're doing, and glad they exist, and if I'm out of some product (which I'm not anymore) in a pinch, I prefer to walk in there and have a chat and buy it in person rather than mail-ordering and having to wait several days. After all, I work on 45th street just a couple blocks across town. And, as I try more and more different and expensive soaps and shaving creams, I do find I keep returning to AoS Lavender soaop as my favorite shaving medium of all. Which is good, because I still have two cakes, one large tub, and one small one left, not to mention 1 lavender oil, and aftershave balm in lavender, sandalwood, and lemon, alulm block, and rosewater hydrolizer spray, which although it smells too flowery, immediately neutralizes razor burn

Anyway, my most important reason to defend AoS is that at some point a while back, I sent e-mail about a minor pricing grievance to the AoS customer service address (i.e. politely complaining that a price was too high), and got an e-mail back from Eric Malka himself saying that he was sorry I had been disappointed, and that he would look into what their competitive pricing should be. After a very nice back and forth and discussion of shaving and products, he offered to completely refund the difference between what I had paid and an advertised price I had found elsewhere. Because in principal I want AoS to stay in business, I refused a refund in favor of a gift certificate, which I used to amass the collection of products mentioned above. I certainly don't mean this as an incitement to write letters to AoS to get refunds, HOWEVER, I am now convinced that in their eyes, the customer always comes first, and for that reason I will give them my dollars again and again from time to time.

AOS is not my favorite shaving cream. BUT I love their lavander scent and I love their lavander shaving oil and aftershave. I havent been to their store, but I will go next time I am in NYC. Is there only one store or more than one....if more than one, which is the biggest and the best?

According to Google Maps, there are actually 3 stores:

Art of Shaving - 0.7 miles NE - 10 Columbus Cir, New York, 10019 - (212) 823-9410
Art of Shaving - 0.8 miles E - 373 Madison Ave, New York, 10017 - (212) 986-2905
Art of Shaving - 1.4 miles E - 141 E 62nd St, New York, 10021 - (212) 317-8436

I've only been to 373 Madison, and it's pretty small. i.e. too small for you to browse anonymously without talking to everyone in the store. I think the 62nd St. location may be the original, and I recall this place being in the news as far back as '97-'98 when I worked a few blocks away.

Another place in NYC which seems to have a lot of wonderful stuff -- I've walked past it a million times, and lived a few blocks away a lifetime ago -- is C. O. Bigelow Apothecaries, which has apparently been around for 168 years (!). T

Bigelow Chemists, Inc.
414 6th Avenue (around 8th-9th street)
NY NY 10011

They have a wide selection of brushes (but no razors to speak of) and other product (Trumper's, DR Harris, King of Shaves, Proraso, and Acqua di Parma, whose cologne I've had and loved for many years, and whose shaving cream / aftershave balm I admit guiltily that I bought and I'm going to try this morning...). I'm going to make a pilgrimage here at some point and will let you know how it is.

AOS wow I work on 42nd street very close to the store. I took a walk there a number of months back to see what they had. The staff while very pleasent knew very little about shaving with a straight. I remember talking to this woman with an English accent who swore straights were sharp enough right out of the box and wouldn't need honing for several years. She seemed more interested in selling me preshave oil or such. ( However she was a saleman so I guess she should have been more interested in selling) However her lack of knowledge really turned me off. I found the place to be overpriced and uninformed.

I've got some of the Prorasso cream that comes in the green tub. I like it every once in a while. The eucalyptus smell is strong, and probably not something I would want every day. It's cooling though, and good for summer.

I'll have to keep my eye out for the red.

Originally Posted by russellnyc

According to Google Maps, there are actually 3 stores:

Art of Shaving - 0.7 miles NE - 10 Columbus Cir, New York, 10019 - (212) 823-9410
Art of Shaving - 0.8 miles E - 373 Madison Ave, New York, 10017 - (212) 986-2905
Art of Shaving - 1.4 miles E - 141 E 62nd St, New York, 10021 - (212) 317-8436

I've only been to 373 Madison, and it's pretty small. i.e. too small for you to browse anonymously without talking to everyone in the store. I think the 62nd St. location may be the original, and I recall this place being in the news as far back as '97-'98 when I worked a few blocks away.

Another place in NYC which seems to have a lot of wonderful stuff -- I've walked past it a million times, and lived a few blocks away a lifetime ago -- is C. O. Bigelow Apothecaries, which has apparently been around for 168 years (!). T

Bigelow Chemists, Inc.
414 6th Avenue (around 8th-9th street)
NY NY 10011

They have a wide selection of brushes (but no razors to speak of) and other product (Trumper's, DR Harris, King of Shaves, Proraso, and Acqua di Parma, whose cologne I've had and loved for many years, and whose shaving cream / aftershave balm I admit guiltily that I bought and I'm going to try this morning...). I'm going to make a pilgrimage here at some point and will let you know how it is.

Wow thanks for doing all the research!

I rarely work in NYC but next time I find a reason to go up there I will have to check a few things out!!!

Since we're on NYC stores now, have any of you ever been to Cambridge Chemists? If so, how is it? I'm been wanting to go there, but they are closed on weekends. Do they sell razors? I think they're at 65th and Madison. Thanks.