Acqua di Parma Collezione Barbiere
Best shave I've ever had today -- including my barber shaves.
I have used AdP cologne (the standard colonia scent) for several years now, and have enjoyed the woodsy, fresh lemon-orchard smell. I was in Spain a few months ago, standing in a lemon orchard, and was transported to an olfactory flashback of my cologne. Now that I'm home, smelling the cologne brings back the orchard. That's how nice it smells. Whether it's marketing or something about the scent itself, I have always found it a somewhat aristocratic, botanical, refined scent. Since I've started shaving like I care, I haven't been able to use it though, because most of my aftershave balms (with the exception of AoS lemon, which I don't use anyway) would clash with it.
Well, I recently found aftershave and shaving cream on Amazon, and decided that, I would give it a try. First off, at just over $50 per tub, this shaving cream is stupidly expensive. The after shave balm (as opposed to liquid lotion) is an even stupider $60+ per 3.4 ounces. But as I sit here in my garden with the paper and my laptop, feeling fresh, smooth, and intoxicated by this subtle and delicious smell coming from my face, I feel like the cost is justified.
The shaving cream is hard, the consistency of well-used shaving soap. You can put your finger in it and leave a depression if you push, but you'd have a hard time scooping up a finger-full without pinching it off with your thumb. But when the brush hits it, it foams up very quickly (much more quickly than soap). The lather it produces, while somewhat slick and smooth, is not particularly stiff or creamy, more foamy. I can get meringue out of AoS soap or cream and Cyril Salter with minimal effort, but with AdP, I could get foam equivalent to what goes on a cappuccino. Foam, not cream, which I don't really prefer. But it provided satisfactorily white, wet, slippery coverage. The citric acid provided useful feedback on where I was too rough or had the wrong angle, something I don't recall getting with other lemon creams I've used, and certainly don't get from the gentler ones until after the shave is over (oops).
The scent was so wonderful, I took my time with the shave (using my 5/8 Bergischer Lowe), and did two slow with-the-grain passes before doing a very slow against the grain with the razor nearly parallel to my face and very small strokes. This is not what I typically do, usually opting instead for two passes with long strokes, one down and one up. After cleaning everything up to my satisfaction, I rinsed with hot water, then cold, and patted dry. Although the tub is somewhat small, it seems as though it will last a long time (especially if it's in rotation), because it's such solid stuff. A little goes a long way, and one 15 second swirl on it served for about 4 full re-lathers.
I had used a bit of the aftershave balm yesterday when it arrived in the mail -- enough to know that a little goes a LONG way. So after drying off my face and my razor, I shook out about 4 dots of the stuff into my palm, rubbed them together, and dabbed it all over my face. There was an immediate burn -- the kind that makes you terrified for a moment that it's not going to stop -- which subsided after about 20 seconds into a slick, fresh, cool feeling (not a mentholated one, though). It's far more subtle than other aftershaves I've used, which give you a satisfying, soothing, lubricating effect immediately. The balm just distributed itself evenly and began to absorb. About three minutes after applying it, the magic appeared to take hold, and my face felt completely calm and comfortable. I can get this feeling immediately after a one-pass shave, but never immediately after a 3-pass against-the-grain. An hour later, I still feel like I just applied aftershave, and I can still smell it very slightly.
Anyway, my intention here isn't to justify this silly purchase, or to convince others to buy this stuff, but I have to say I'm impressed with the luxurious results of using these products. They're not what I have come to expect from shaving products, in that they don't give you the immediate, satisfying feedback that the English products do (big instant creamy lather, slick slippery soothing aftershave feeling, etc). Instead, the results were distributed over a longer time, and resulted in a very comfortable shave, a very relaxing olfactory experience, and a fresh and lasting feeling of clean comfort!
[edit: fixed typo]
