Thread: First shave with Penhaligons Blemheim Boquet

If you really want to take your Blenheim Bouquet experience to the next level, add a splash of Blenheim Bouquet Aftershave SPLASH and a spritz of Blenheim Bouquet EDT. Go promptly to your significant others arms and you'll see a tremendous reaction. Pictured is my lovely wife chasing me down for another whiff!

Originally Posted by AntiqueHoosier

If you really want to take your Blenheim Bouquet experience to the next level, add a splash of Blenheim Bouquet Aftershave SPLASH and a spritz of Blenheim Bouquet EDT. Go promptly to your significant others arms and you'll see a tremendous reaction. Pictured is my lovely wife chasing me down for another whiff!

Now you're just bragging. Besides, I think several laws are broken, at the very least bent, when a man uses a hyper concentration of BB. How could any woman resist under such intense chemical influence?

OP,
I'm with you on MWF. Eventually sold mine away (though I kept the porcelain crock it came in). I know many others who feel the same way. As for Tabac, it falls into the same bucket as Arko for me: perfectly fine performance, but cannot stand the smell.

I've sent out lots of MdC samples to people for reasons all my own and that vary from person to person. The range of reaction has been quite small. Every single person, even those inclined to be negative, agreed that the soap performed anywhere from Good to Best Ever in Life. The disagreement centered on the scent which can be polarizing. I've never found anyway to predict who will love it and who will not. I can think of at least two friends who tend to dislike very heavily scented soaps and both of them love MdC. One of them is close to using it exclusively these days. In a couple of cases, the recipient ended up buying the unscented.

I hope you like it, but don't be shy about reporting that you don't if you discover it is just not your cuppa.

I refuse to pay $46 shipping for $80 worth of product from Martin De Candre. Just absurd that they should charge so much. Is there not one single source in North America??

Originally Posted by MrWonderful

I refuse to pay $46 shipping for $80 worth of product from Martin De Candre. Just absurd that they should charge so much. Is there not one single source in North America??

www.usps.com

Med Flat Rate box from the US to France is $59.95... by using your own box you might possibly get it a bit lower... But in the last 6 months International shipping has gone through the roof... Although I agree that the cost is nuts, it really isn't the vendor who is at fault for shipping costs...

Originally Posted by MrWonderful

I refuse to pay $46 shipping for $80 worth of product from Martin De Candre. Just absurd that they should charge so much. Is there not one single source in North America??

While I don't mean to be flippant (well, maybe I do), but to avoid the shipping you really should go to the Loire to get it yourself. If you've never been there, you can't imagine what your missing. While my suggestion really is impractical, there is an amazing connection between place and product. In the world of fine wine they call it terroir - in concept, it's the junction of time and place that suggests that when things are done right, a truly unique product is produced. I'm still waiting for my package to arrive but I wish I had known about MDC before the last time I was in the neighborhood. There really is no other place on earth like it - glorious complex wines, subtle and rich food, and architecture by Di Vinci himself. It's a long way to go for shaving soap but a trip you'll never forget. I've still never used MDC but I trust that it is inspired by the same philosophy that permeates everything else in the Loire. I really hope that any future purchases are done at the source.

Originally Posted by OCDshaver

While I don't mean to be flippant (well, maybe I do), but to avoid the shipping you really should go to the Loire to get it yourself. If you've never been there, you can't imagine what your missing. While my suggestion really is impractical, there is an amazing connection between place and product. In the world of fine wine they call it terroir - in concept, it's the junction of time and place that suggests that when things are done right, a truly unique product is produced. I'm still waiting for my package to arrive but I wish I had known about MDC before the last time I was in the neighborhood. There really is no other place on earth like it - glorious complex wines, subtle and rich food, and architecture by Di Vinci himself. It's a long way to go for shaving soap but a trip you'll never forget. I've still never used MDC but I trust that it is inspired by the same philosophy that permeates everything else in the Loire. I really hope that any future purchases are done at the source.

Unfortunately I have been to the Loire Valley many times and hope to never go back. Your experience is just the opposite of mine.

Originally Posted by gssixgun

www.usps.com

Med Flat Rate box from the US to France is $59.95... by using your own box you might possibly get it a bit lower... But in the last 6 months International shipping has gone through the roof... Although I agree that the cost is nuts, it really isn't the vendor who is at fault for shipping costs...

I wasn't blaming the vendor for existing rates. They evidently have no interest in broad distribution of their products. That's ok, just a hardship for us folks who want to try the products.

You are correct. They have no interest in, as we Americans refer to it, "going global". I find that charmingly perverse and am grateful that there are still people whose primary concern is quality and not growth. There are products just as good as MdC, but there is nothing quite like it in character. If you want it badly, then they have you by the tender bits.

Your cost numbers, however, seem off to me. I've ordered several times and the most expensive way to order is by getting one jar and it came to about 75 bucks delivered, iirc. Last time, however I ordered five and got a big savings on the shipping and split the order with a friend. All in it came out to about 60/jar. Still shockingly expensive, but worth it to me.

Well, it arrived today. I'll report my opinion on it after my shave tomorrow. The doorbell rang early. Or maybe not too early but I was in the middle of being a lazy ass and sleeping in later than normal. I didn't know I'd have to sign for it. But I caught the mail man tooling around the area an hour or two later and was able to stop him and shake the package loose. The scent is unlike any other soap I've used. Now, what razor to use?

Originally Posted by Oakeshott

You are correct. They have no interest in, as we Americans refer to it, "going global". I find that charmingly perverse and am grateful that there are still people whose primary concern is quality and not growth. There are products just as good as MdC, but there is nothing quite like it in character. If you want it badly, then they have you by the tender bits.

Your cost numbers, however, seem off to me. I've ordered several times and the most expensive way to order is by getting one jar and it came to about 75 bucks delivered, iirc. Last time, however I ordered five and got a big savings on the shipping and split the order with a friend. All in it came out to about 60/jar. Still shockingly expensive, but worth it to me.

I filled out the form for 2 jars at 39.50 euro each and the shipping was 48 euro. Quality and growth have no relationship in business. You can have one, or the other, or if you run a smart business, both. I had a fellow who used to work for me, send his French country manager to pick up a few jars in Paris. He will hand carry next trip to CA.