Advice on Acqua di Parma

Thanks Hobbyist. I ended up picking it up at Barney's (which is new to carrying AdP in general), and the soap seems fine (not visibly dry, no cracks or anything). As a big B&M fan, I get what you're saying; I don't really expect the AdP to perform like a tallow soap, but I like the idea of a clean, high-quality cream. Some day I'll have to check out XPEC and maybe Tabula Rasa as well. Oh, and SMN. So many. :-)

As a conspiracy theorist, I find many similarities between Tabula Rasa and Xpec. Similar performance, consistency etc. Would not be surprised to find that they were made by the same folks with a similar formula then rebranded/marketed.

As a conspiracy theorist, I find many similarities between Tabula Rasa and Xpec. Similar performance, consistency etc. Would not be surprised to find that they were made by the same folks with a similar formula then rebranded/marketed.

 I'm guessing that the same thing is going on with respect to shaving soaps - have you explored whats involved in soap making?  Its not rocket science but if you're going to make a high quality product that you want to market to the world you're not going to accomplish that in your basement.  So I'm guessing there are mega-cosmetics companies that have excess soap making capacity that will make your soap under contract to your specs, fragrance and packaging requirements.  Again, thats ok unless there's misrepresentation going on about how and who is making the soap.



Mark (also suspicious)
[/quote]

I disagree Marko. Many artisans are making high quality saving soaps in their homes that are marketed to the world thanks to the internet. I make bath soaps, lotions, and butters right here in my house so I know the process. In my opinion the artisans have the advantage over the mass producers to make a higher quality product because they have complete control over all variables. Proof positive for me is Barrister and Mann, Stirling, Reef Point, XPEC, Tabula Rasa, and others which all perform as good or better than all the mass produced soaps I've tried. It's the same with bath soaps, lotions, aftershaves, body butters, etc. Of course If a soap maker grows large enough they may eventually need to move to a larger facility like PAA did in AZ, but I believe most artisans can pump out pretty high volume right from their home if they so desire.

Mea Culpa, I didn't mean to paint the entire artisan community with the same brush and I apologize if I wasn't clear or if I mis-spoke.  I absolutely believe that many or even most artisans are doing it themselves and their products are wonderful.  I am grateful for the dedication of the artisan community to their craft and my/our obsession.  

I suppose I meant to say that there may be some who are not and that doesn't mean that their product is necessarily inferior either.  As in the brewing analogy, many if not most of those contract brewed craft beers were/are excellent.  The big guys know what they're doing and their products taste the way they do intentionally.  They are looking at huge economies of scale when making their products but when making product for a third party under contract they can make anything you want and make it very, very well - your input costs will be higher and so forth but the end product won't bear any resemblance to the beer the brewery makes for itself - apart from quality control etc.  Its just another business model.

I was playing into kwsher conspiracy theory on the similarity between Xpec and Tabula Rasa - I like Tabula Rasa and haven't tried Xpec.  I will refrain from excessive paranoia in future.  Like, have you noticed that all of the DE blades we use have 2 edges and are made of steel!? Conspiracy Theory - there is one mega razor blade plant in china cranking out all the blades and they're identical up to the stamping of the blade with the brand and the packaging.  They're splitting a gut over all of this YMMV talk.  Whoops, there I go again

Mark

Completely get where you are coming from Marko . I am in procurement and have a friend, also in procurement, who works for a company on the west coast. They contract manufacture the VAST majority of all the nutrition bars in retail.

Different packaging, marketing. Sometimes turnkey, sometimes working off unique ingredients/formulas. You'd never know the difference as a consumer. All about creating efficiency and reducing cost of complexity.

Regarding soaps even if true in any specific instance, not a big deal to me as the scents are unique in most cases [I do know of some specific examples of soaps being relabeled in the past but will reserve comment other than to say I still like them and again don't really care as a consumer].

Now, Scully. Mulder. Into the breach!

What!? you Cliff, Power and Lara all come form the same pot? Shock. I have a feeling thats a manufacturing process that may not be easy to watch - much like sausage making.

I concur that if the end product is of good quality and it appeals to your senses and you like it then whats the problem. I also think its cool that there is room in this space for mom and pops woking out of their garage as well as the bigs like AoS. There is something for everyone. This is free enterprise, bless the internet for making it possible.
Mark

Okay boys, to get back to the topic at hand here (though I'm rather enjoying this aside), I'm back with first impressions of AdP.

This was my very first go lathering and shaving with AdP (newest formulation), but is it just me or does this stuff take more loading than other hard cream / soft soap products (I'm thinking Proraso, or maybe Cella)? Or maybe it's that my brush didn't load as quickly as I expected (I was using my Shavemac 3-band silvertip, not a troublesome character). I went back to the jar twice: once in the first lather, again before the second pass because there wasn't enough lather left in the brush. The first lather never really thickened up the way I've seen from nearly every other product, though after that second trip to the jar before the second pass, I finally had a creamy slick lather as I would have expected. So at the moment I'm concluding I just didn't load enough from the start.

Any new soap or cream takes some time to dial in, I realize; I'm just wondering if others find AdP to behave this way.

The shave itself, once I got the lather more or less going, was pleasant. I wouldn't say it was top-tier, and I got more weepers than I'd expect (typical for me is one, maybe; usually none), but to be fair I also went XTG in the opposite direction that I usually do. Given the trouble I had getting the right amount of soap at the start, I'm willing to go several more shaves with this before I really know how it works for me. I'm hopeful, though. Still, not a walk in the park from the start, interestingly.

Happily, I like the scent! It's mild and both modern and refined. I don't like the most common synthetic notes used in mainstream men's fragrances, and thankfully the new AdP steps around that. The menthol is perfect, as others have said; I always like the cooling effect of mint or menthol when they're used like this. Combined with the light fragrance the overall effect is "refreshing."

I'm glad to be exploring AdP. I just hope I get the product-load amount down and start whipping up a good lather reliably. Any thoughts on this would be great! Thanks guys!

Mea Culpa, I didn't mean to paint the entire artisan community with the same brush and I apologize if I wasn't clear or if I mis-spoke.  I absolutely believe that many or even most artisans are doing it themselves and their products are wonderful.  I am grateful for the dedication of the artisan community to their craft and my/our obsession.  

I suppose I meant to say that there may be some who are not and that doesn't mean that their product is necessarily inferior either.  As in the brewing analogy, many if not most of those contract brewed craft beers were/are excellent.  The big guys know what they're doing and their products taste the way they do intentionally.  They are looking at huge economies of scale when making their products but when making product for a third party under contract they can make anything you want and make it very, very well - your input costs will be higher and so forth but the end product won't bear any resemblance to the beer the brewery makes for itself - apart from quality control etc.  Its just another business model.

I was playing into kwsher conspiracy theory on the similarity between Xpec and Tabula Rasa - I like Tabula Rasa and haven't tried Xpec.  I will refrain from excessive paranoia in future.  Like, have you noticed that all of the DE blades we use have 2 edges and are made of steel!? Conspiracy Theory - there is one mega razor blade plant in china cranking out all the blades and they're identical up to the stamping of the blade with the brand and the packaging.  They're splitting a gut over all of this YMMV talk.  Whoops, there I go again

Mark

Sorry for misunderstanding and I see your point clearly now. Nice analogy on the beer.

Okay boys, to get back to the topic at hand here (though I'm rather enjoying this aside), I'm back with first impressions of AdP.

This was my very first go lathering and shaving with AdP (newest formulation), but is it just me or does this stuff take more loading than other hard cream / soft soap products (I'm thinking Proraso, or maybe Cella)? Or maybe it's that my brush didn't load as quickly as I expected (I was using my Shavemac 3-band silvertip, not a troublesome character). I went back to the jar twice: once in the first lather, again before the second pass because there wasn't enough lather left in the brush. The first lather never really thickened up the way I've seen from nearly every other product, though after that second trip to the jar before the second pass, I finally had a creamy slick lather as I would have expected. So at the moment I'm concluding I just didn't load enough from the start.

Any new soap or cream takes some time to dial in, I realize; I'm just wondering if others find AdP to behave this way.

The shave itself, once I got the lather more or less going, was pleasant. I wouldn't say it was top-tier, and I got more weepers than I'd expect (typical for me is one, maybe; usually none), but to be fair I also went XTG in the opposite direction that I usually do. Given the trouble I had getting the right amount of soap at the start, I'm willing to go several more shaves with this before I really know how it works for me. I'm hopeful, though. Still, not a walk in the park from the start, interestingly.

Happily, I like the scent! It's mild and both modern and refined. I don't like the most common synthetic notes used in mainstream men's fragrances, and thankfully the new AdP steps around that. The menthol is perfect, as others have said; I always like the cooling effect of mint or menthol when they're used like this. Combined with the light fragrance the overall effect is "refreshing."

I'm glad to be exploring AdP. I just hope I get the product-load amount down and start whipping up a good lather reliably. Any thoughts on this would be great! Thanks guys!

I had to load for about 30 to 40 seconds using a synthetic 24mm brush. Mine was a soap, not a cream like I thought it would be, so I treated it like a soap. Once you load enough product and get the lather dialed in you'll enjoy it more.

I load it like there's no tomorrow, but I pretty much do that with all my soaps/creams. This one, I pretty much load directly, the consistency is kind of soft, but not soft enough for me to scoop. Plus, I find it easier to do it that way.

I am not stingy with my loading process :-)

I load it like there's no tomorrow, but I pretty much do that with all my soaps/creams.  This one, I pretty much load directly, the consistency is kind of soft, but not soft enough for me to scoop.  Plus, I find it easier to do it that way.

I am not stingy with my loading process :-)

Nor am I stingy. I have so many soaps I wonder if I'll ever get to the bottom of any. My AdP was too hard to scoop also. Catie's and RazoRock are much softer actually.

So is it indeed consensus to load this one direct from the jar onto the brush, soap-style? And if so, I take it it does indeed take a pretty decent load to create a good lather?