Had a buying binge, reviews to follow!

Well, I was browsing srd today and finally broke down and bought some high quality soaps/creams/aftershave. My current experience is limited to:

Soaps/Creams:
VDH
Williams
CO Bigelow
Arko Sensitive cream
Derby Shave Stick
Ogallala Bay Rum Original Soap

Aftershave:
Clubman Original
Gillette Cool Blue
Nivea Balm
Ogallala Bay Rum
Old Spice

Today I purchased the following:
RazoRock XXX
Proraso Refreshing/Toning
SRD EO Lime
MWF
Geo F. Trumper Sandalwood Skin Food

I cant wait to try these as I have heard nothing but good things from them! Just wanted to share my binge :) I'm sure everyone on here with all the various AD's have gone more overboard than I, but I gotta start somewhere. I figure as im approaching 1 year or straight razor/de shaving, it would be my gift to myself!

Heh, I reckon you should be set in the soap and cream department for a while.
Some nice upgrades you ordered, I'm sure you will enjoy all of those new products!

I look forward to your reviews and may use them for future guidance myself. Have purchased quite a few varieties of creams and soaps myself recently (lifetime supply?) but jeez...this is fun! Most especially looking forward to Proraso which everyone seems to rave about (sandalwood) but I have yet to try.

Holy cow. Enjoy! lol

Where do I start??? Have already applied some Sandalwood trumpers just to test and Omg it is fantastic. Had a few clients comment on the scent. I did receive the red Proraso instead of Green like I ordered, but I'm still stoked to try em all! Thinking MWF is on the agenda tonight! Need to cut off this beard I've been saving for these soaps!

Good choices. SRD Lime is one of my favorite Glycerin based shave soaps, MWF can be tricky, If you hold the soap tub upside down, and load your brush that way, it helps. Razorock is just good, like all the GFT Skin foods....

If you can, Try some Castle Forbes, Truefitt and Hill, or any of the Taylor of Old Bond st. shave creams. Sandalwood, Avacado (one of fav's) They're all good. These are more expensive, but worth evey penny imo like Xpec. Xpec is top of my list these days. It's expensive, but the tub is huge, probably twice the size of all the others.

Another good soap is DR Harris.

Mitchell's Wool Fat:

My first sr shave with no irritation. I am very Impressed with this.

Notes:
-I usually skimp on the soap and I did on this as well, I need to load brush better.
-I have hard water so it didn't lather great, but still provided excellent glide!
- the few nicks I did have sealed up quick, which I believe is a common trait of this stuff.

A+ to the fat!

I've now used all the soaps!

Srd lime: lathered quick & wonderfully! I have hard water so I think that attributed to my lather disappating quickly though. The scent rocked and I incurred no razor burn! Definitely will be trying some other scents. You get a ton of soap for the money!

RazoRock XXX: the scent was intoxicating! Exactly what I imagine a Italian barbershop to smell like. Lather stayed slick throughout the duration & got a easy bbs.

Proraso Red: I am actually happy I received this instead of the green on accident. I am officially addicted to the Sandalwood scent and this lathered amazing. A small dollop gave me enough lather for 3 passes & a post shave lather while I was cleaning everything up. Very impressed. I was a little hesitant because I thought since proraso also makes co bigelow they would be similar, but it seems the quality of this is much higher.

Geo f trumpers sandalwood skin food is amazing stuff. Feels great upon application and has definite staying power with its scent. I've gotten lots of compliments on this.

So what did I learn on my first high quality buying binge? Most soaps do there job, but these higher quality soaps(as opposed to co bigelow, vdh, etc), are just a huge leap ahead in the shaving experience. The thoughts conjured up with the different scents are ones I really can't describe..I definitely will be tryin out some different ones in the future.

Zib- I saw the xpec on srd and was shocked by the price, so it is good to know its worth it! I'll definitely be looking into your suggestions.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by phoebeusfenix

Zib- I saw the xpec on srd and was shocked by the price, so it is good to know its worth it! I'll definitely be looking into your suggestions.

---

Yes, that is an expensive cream, but you will not regret a purchase of it, I guarantee it.
Simple the best of the best available today.. IMHO.

Good thing I asked for srd gift certificates for the holidays lol.