High End Creams - The Agony Of Choice

Welcome Toffeeman. My opinion is that if you're going to use a Mongoose, you favor a soap rather than a cream. This is because the cream is already hydrated, and you want to be able to titrate the amount of water in the lather that will work for you. Cushion is not as important to me with a SE Artist Club style razor, but glide and slip is.

St. James is an excellent cream, but for that reason, I'd put that at the bottom.

Pretty much a tossup among Santa Maria Novella, Acqua di Parma, and Saponificio Varesino. The AdP is sold as a cream, but is a more like a 'croap'. The SMN is a slightly firmer in texture, but still malleable. The SV is a hard soap.

For slip and glide, the Santa Maria. For post-shave feel, toss up between AdP and SMN. If you decide on the Saponificio, I'd recommend the Stella Alpina, which is their latest formulation and a real step forward. Second favorite would be the 70th Anniversary. Great performance, they work well with SEs, and the post shave feel is great.

I'm a big fan of Nuàvia. The way I figure it, these luxury soaps are all expensive. The Tabula Rasa (good soap, I've only had a few shaves with it, so not enough to give an informed opinion) is over $10 an ounce. The Nuàvia is about $9 an ounce and comes in a stunning ceramic bowl. AdP is about $15 an ounce. SMN is around $8.50 an ounce. I know price is no object, but I give these numbers to put the Nuàvia in perspective.

I don't think you can go wrong with any of these.

Welcome to the forum, good to have you here! The comments above share more valuable insight than I can. But I do use Tabula Rasa, and like it very much. I think your notion of the Light Cream may be right. I have not used that particular one, but have read that the scent is pleasant and, well, light.

Even though you said money is no object, you can save on Tabula Rasa (and some of the others on your list) by ordering from Europe, but of course shipping might take a while.

+1 on SMN. You won't be disappointed. Plus it smells great.

Lot of good information here. I would add that although Nuavia is almost as expensive as Tabula Rasa, Nuavia is a hard, long-lasting soap, while TR is soft and seems to disappear before your eyes while you load it. Others may have different experiences.

I would add that although Nuavia is almost as expensive as Tabula Rasa, Nuavia is a hard, long-lasting soap, while TR is soft and seems to disappear before your eyes while you load it.

I could see this happening if I loaded straight from the jar. Right from the beginning, I found Tabula Rasa to be so soft that I didn’t want to introduce any extra water into the jar (in case it would not evaporate, but instead get incorporated into the soap and potentially cause problems down the road). So what I do with TR is I simply take some soap out of the jar, smear it on my face, and face lather. (Since there is no soap in the brush to begin with, the softer the brush, the better. Bowl lathering would of course be similar to lathering any other cream or soft soap.)

Thanks for all the great responses. And useful information. I think I am just going to close my eyes and pick one from either SMN or ADP - seems I cant go wrong.

I have used GFT soaps, so I have had some experience with triple milled soaps - and found it difficult to get used to - my lather would be thin and bubbly. So I may pass on the SV. If I did plump for that one - Stella Alpina would be my choice.

Sufshaver - could you describe the SMN scent for me? Have you tried ADP - how do they compare/differ?

And Michael P - your post really gave me food for thought. I like firmer creams (I like CF but don't like the scents too much) - it sounds like ADP and SMN are both firmer (especially compared to SJOL) and provide great glide and slickness for my Mongoose.

Hmmmm, choices!

Wet shaving products are very subjective at best and soaps and creams top the list of likes by some and dislikes by others.  First of all everyone's body chemistry is different so a soap that works well one one person may be a disaster to others.  So, be careful of recommendations they sometimes don't work out for you.  Also, fragrance is a stumbling block not everyone smells the same scent.  It is just like wine not everyone can smell or taste the same notes as others.  I do not have as many soaps, soft soaps and creams as others I only have about 70, so I have tried a wide selection.  

First of all don't shy away from hard trippled milled soaps; I have several.  Most people who have problems with them developing a good lather may be because they have hard water.  I live in Los Angeles and I do.  So, for years I have been using distilled water ($0.99 a gallon).  My hard soaps create tons of lather.  It is my opinion that the most important aspect of a soap or cream is does it sting my face.  I get great lather from all of my soaps and most smell great but that is in the back seat if it is not pleasant on my face.  So you can get a recommendation from someone and the end result is it burns your face.  You named some outstanding products when you started this thread.

Let me mention some that are standouts for me without duplicating your list.

Tabac

Tcheon Fung Sing

XPEC

Czech & Speake

Antica Barbieria Colla

Alvarez Gomez

Barrister & Mann (all)

These are just a few that are great performers and have a great scent.  Will they be pleasing on you face?????

Wet shaving products are very subjective at best and soaps and creams top the list of likes by some and dislikes by others.  First of all everyone's body chemistry is different so a soap that works well one one person may be a disaster to others.  So, be careful of recommendations they sometimes don't work out for you.  Also, fragrance is a stumbling block not everyone smells the same scent.  It is just like wine not everyone can smell or taste the same notes as others.  I do not have as many soaps, soft soaps and creams as others I only have about 70, so I have tried a wide selection.  

First of all don't shy away from hard trippled milled soaps; I have several.  Most people who have problems with them developing a good lather may be because they have hard water.  I live in Los Angeles and I do.  So, for years I have been using distilled water ($0.99 a gallon).  My hard soaps create tons of lather.  It is my opinion that the most important aspect of a soap or cream is does it sting my face.  I get great lather from all of my soaps and most smell great but that is in the back seat if it is not pleasant on my face.  So you can get a recommendation from someone and the end result is it burns your face.  You named some outstanding products when you started this thread.

Let me mention some that are standouts for me without duplicating your list.

Tabac

Tcheon Fung Sing

XPEC

Czech & Speake

Antica Barbieria Colla

Alvarez Gomez

Barrister & Mann (all)

These are just a few that are great performers and have a great scent.  Will they be pleasing on you face?????

Awesome reply, thanks Tidepool. And yes, this hobby of ours is like music and movies - so subjective. Some of those products you mention:

Tabac and ABC - undoubtedly great products as SO many people recommend them - but I do not like their scents - they are just not, me!

B&M and C&S dried my face out - like most soaps. I'd really like to stick to a soap, but ALL the ones I have tried dried MY face out. There you go again - subjective!

Never even heard of Alvarez Gomez or Tcheon Fung Sing

XPEC - hmmmm. A hard cream yes, and ALWAYS gets mentioned in the same sentence as ADP and SMN. Im trying to narrow my choice down and I didn't mention XPEC as one of my choices as all the 'personal views' on scent were not as positive to me as those who compared them to ADP and SMN.

Saponificio Varesino intrigues me. I So want to try it, and its not too expensive so I may by a puck of it at the same time I buy my expensive cream, just to try it out. As for my choice of cream - its either going to be ADP or SMN.

Wet shaving products are very subjective at best and soaps and creams top the list of likes by some and dislikes by others.  First of all everyone's body chemistry is different so a soap that works well one one person may be a disaster to others.  So, be careful of recommendations they sometimes don't work out for you.  Also, fragrance is a stumbling block not everyone smells the same scent.  It is just like wine not everyone can smell or taste the same notes as others.  I do not have as many soaps, soft soaps and creams as others I only have about 70, so I have tried a wide selection.  

First of all don't shy away from hard trippled milled soaps; I have several.  Most people who have problems with them developing a good lather may be because they have hard water.  I live in Los Angeles and I do.  So, for years I have been using distilled water ($0.99 a gallon).  My hard soaps create tons of lather.  It is my opinion that the most important aspect of a soap or cream is does it sting my face.  I get great lather from all of my soaps and most smell great but that is in the back seat if it is not pleasant on my face.  So you can get a recommendation from someone and the end result is it burns your face.  You named some outstanding products when you started this thread.

Let me mention some that are standouts for me without duplicating your list.

Tabac

Tcheon Fung Sing

XPEC

Czech & Speake

Antica Barbieria Colla

Alvarez Gomez

Barrister & Mann (all)

These are just a few that are great performers and have a great scent.  Will they be pleasing on you face?????

Awesome reply, thanks Tidepool. And yes, this hobby of ours is like music and movies - so subjective. Some of those products you mention:

Tabac and ABC - undoubtedly great products as SO many people recommend them - but I do not like their scents - they are just not, me!

B&M and C&S dried my face out - like most soaps. I'd really like to stick to a soap, but ALL the ones I have tried dried MY face out. There you go again - subjective!

Never even heard of Alvarez Gomez or Tcheon Fung Sing

XPEC - hmmmm. A hard cream yes, and ALWAYS gets mentioned in the same sentence as ADP and SMN. Im trying to narrow my choice down and I didn't mention XPEC as one of my choices as all the 'personal views' on scent were not as positive to me as those who compared them to ADP and SMN.

Saponificio Varesino intrigues me. I SO want to try it, and its not too expensive so I may by a puck of it at the same time I buy my expensive cream, just to try it out. As for my choice of cream - its either going to be ADP or SMN.

SMN is a fantastic product. I also use AoS Oud and Eucalyptus creams with great success.