The very best luxury soaps/creams, money no object

onethinline you nailed it in much more detail than my own explanations. From one frag head to another, well said!

Aw shucks! By the way, if you enjoy Blu, you really must grab some Caron Third Man EDT. Very similar, and a bargain these days.

Wonderfully helpful responses onethinline & NeoXerxes. So if my favorite fragrance is Amouage Jubilation XXV, then I should get Rossa like yesterday?

Wonderfully helpful responses onethinline & NeoXerxes. So if my favorite fragrance is Amouage Jubilation XXV, then I should get Rossa like yesterday?

Hm. Yeah I'd say if you appreciate Jubilation XXV, you should appreciate Rossa. They don't smell alike (as I said above, Epic Man would be closer), but they're in the same category and have a similar vibe for sure. Jubilation opens with that great dried fruit effect, then blooms into a diaphanous, spicy-woody radiance, which nevertheless is somewhat dry. But both have an oud accord, and actually the more I think about it, the more I'd say, yes indeed, you'll probably really enjoy Rossa. They're really not worlds apart.

Given that Nuàvia is also an across-the-board star when it comes to performance, I'd say let that itchy trigger finger start squeezing. These soaps are a real treat.

Is Nuavia only available for purchase direct from PannaCrema?

Is Nuavia only available for purchase direct from PannaCrema?

Either direct from Pannacrema, or apparently by walking into Pasteur's in NYC.

@"Schrittmacher" I live and breathe the Stars and Stripes my friend . Close, but no cigar!

Thanks for the Alvarez Gomez recommendation! You recommended that in your introduction post I believe, and I've been on the lookout for a sample ever since. I can purchase the full size product here in the US at a local retailer, but I'd prefer to try a sample before shelling out (that's how I've been trying a majority of these expensive products - if I love them I make the purchase). If I can't find a sample within a reasonable amount of time I'll likely make the purchase.

I've also tried Edwin Jagger. I'm not a big fan of the soaps/creams, which are nice, but in my opinion not exceptional. However I really enjoyed the Pomegranate and Limes aftershave balm, which seems to work very well with my skin. I do agree though that the middle range of products usually offers the best bang for the buck in performance. Edwin Jagger was one of the first products I tried when beginning to upgrade from entry-level gear, so I think of the brand fondly.

celestino also mentioned Eufros. If either of you are able, once you've tried both Jabonman and Eufros, I'd love to hear (and it would be helpful for the purposes of this thread) your impressions of the performance differences, if there are any. It would be interesting to know if the differences are solely in scent or if you notice a difference in performance. Jabonman is an excellent soap. I haven't yet tried Eufros, but if I did it would be the Vetiver de Haiti.

I will only be able to tell you the performance of the Eufros as I haven't tested the any Jabonman, but what I heard is what Celestino says, that Eufros is just Jabonman with an improved scent. Eufros Premium, though, uses better quality oils, scents and ingredients, hence the higher price. According to Manuel, this weekend he should have his Vetiver de Haiti after shave balm ready, so if everything goes according to plan, next week I should be having my first shave with my Eufros soap and after shave balm, which is, needless to say, something I'm strongly looking forward to doing.

Samples. Broadly discussed matter in many places. I myself find it a bit frustrating that they're not so readily available. I've seen samples of Alvarez Gómez EdC, not of their shaving cream. By the way, the EdC is lovely and I purchased shortly after the shaving cream. I understand and respect how you do your tests and purchases, but just as a note, if some day you do succumb to temptation and impulse buy this shaving cream, I bet you won't be dissappointed

Oh Boy, all subscribed and hunkered down to enjoy this thread! Love your style NeoXerxes, and though hunkered down, I'm on the edge of my hunker eagerly anticipating each review.

Though all the tangential input from we readers will add interest and color to NeoXerxes' reviews, we should remember that there will seldom be a meaningful correlation between our results and his. And, why is that you ask? (See, you've forgotten already) NeoXerxes' raison d'être for his testing is based on two and only two special criteria. 1. Price is ABSOLUTELY NO OBJECT! and 2. He is blessed with a skin condition that few of us share... Thank God! Worse, it seems far more soaps exacerbate this condition than not!

Therefore, his reviews are aimed almost wholly on amelioration of that condition with the knowledge that it may require the holdings of Ft. Knox to enable the purchase of 'the good ones'. (Forgot, there's little left in Ft. Knox, so how about some of Donald Trump's billions)? And that, dear friends, is why our favorites will usually not correspond with those of NeoXerxes.

Where can one get the Steam Punk EdT?

IndieScents.com is the only place I know of. There aren't many places where one can purchase the EDT, especially in the US.

Thanks for the tip.

NeoXerxes, I ordered the Steam Punk EdT last night so, again, thanks for the tip.

My best performing creams/soaps that I own are:

Le Pere Lucien - own 6, 5 200 gram pots and one 125 gram pot

Martin de Candre - own 2 200 gram glass pots

Savonniere du Moulin - own one 100 gram 30% ASS milk pot

Savon de Volcans - own 6 150 gram pots, all 6 perform fantastic, only let down by the presentation

Acqua di Parma - own 2 pots, one performs slightly better, the other smells much better. Love both.

Boellis Panama 1924 Almond - own one 250 gram refill puck, which I have in my empty 200 gram Martin de Candre Unscented glass pot

Antica Barbierra Colla - own both the soap and the cream. Both are excellent.

Castle Forbes - own the lavender and the Lime. Both are fantastic performers.

Penhaligon - own 4 of their creams, and they perform great. Opus 1870, Blenheism Bouquet, Endymion and the new Sartorial. Own 2 soaps, Sartorial and Bayolea, the soaps are nice, but the creams are better.

Floris No. 89 shaving cream - arguably amonst the best shaving creams I have ever owned.

Meißner Tremonia - own 14 soaps & pastes. 7 scents total. Great perfomers. Great scents. Great presentation.

Haslinger - own 4 of their pucks. Great performance at a great price.

Klar Seifen - own their 3 newer scented soaps. Fantastic performance through and through.

Tabula Rasa - own 4 of their soaps/creams. Will add 2-3 further soon. Amazing performance.

Musgo Real creams. Own all 6. Love them. Slick and fantastic performance. Disliked TSE instantly, where Mr. Plisson Sucks Brush of the Devil took his Musgo real cream and threw it in the sink, because he didn't like the scent. Lost all respect right there......

Alvarez Gomez shaving cream - very underrated performer. Love this stuff.

Portus Cale - great performer. Awesome scent. Contains SLS though. Still love it and rate it highly.

Antica Barbierra de Bairo - made by Portus Cale, again an awesome and underrated soap. Excellent scent. Shave the Man, know his stuff.

Xpec - own the original unscented and the new scented version. Both performs extremeyl well. The old one may be a bit more slick, but hard to differ for me between the two, even though some thinks they are like night and day performance wise.

Baume.Be - own both the cream and the soap. The cream is among the best creams you can find. The soap is okay.

Esbjerg - own two of the,, will add 2 more soon. Perfect cream.

St. James - own all 5 glass jars. Perfect cream

Czech & Speak - own 2, fantastic soaps.

Valobra - own 3 pots, fantastic soaps. Valobra makes the C&S mentioned above.

Santa Maria Novella v1 - a better performer than Proraso. Some say they are identical. I disagree. Better slickness. Better cushion. Need to get v3 of the SMN soap.

Saponificio Varesino - own 5 of their soaps. All are great perfomers.

Barrister &  Mann - own 14 of his soaps now. Scent is an scquired taste. Performance is not. It's fantastic.

Cold River Soap Works Select - own 8 total of version 1. Great great soap.

Caties Bubles - own 8 of Caties, enjoy them all highly.

I Coloniali - own both their Rhubarb shaivng crea, which is awesome, and their Mango soap, which also is awesome.

Atkinson Lavender cream - made by I Coloniali. Fantastic performance.

O' Melhor - a great great Portugese cream. Can turn rock hard on you. Only down side this amazing shaving cream.

Tabac - own both versions of the soap and the old version of the cream. What a great classic perfomer.

MWF - best post shave feel in the business. KING of post shave feel.

These are what I think are the best performers in my current collection. I may edit this, if I forgot some or when I buy the two Nuavia soaps and SMN v3.

Thanks for this detailed post Claus! This will be very helpful to many people.

You're welsome.

I know this was a lot of soaps and creams, but I truly believe all these are great perfomers.
I enjoy having each and every one of these in my collection.

Claus, you clearly have an extensive knowledge of luxury shaving creams and soaps.  Thank you for sharing it.  Among your collection, which ones have really grabbed your attention, which ones have wowed you?  For example, when I started wet shaving, my first non-canned goo purchase was T&H 1805.  I was amazed at how good it was in comparison to the canned gels I was using.  I remember thinking "If there is more stuff like this out there, I am completely hooked!"  I have tried quite a few classic soaps since then that work fine (PdP, MWF, Cella, MdC), but the next one with the "wow!" factor was CRSW Jardin D'Orange.   What are the standouts in your collection for you?

Thanks for your kind words.

The list I made here, though very long, is actually a list of the favourite creams and soaps in my private collection.
It's not a list of my entire collection, it's just a list of the ones in my collection, I consider to be great performing products.

I own far more soaps and creams, than is on the list.

The list only contains all my great top performing soaps and creams.

The first shaving cream, that really wowed me was probably Truefitt & Hill Ultimate shaving soap. I loved the weak lavender in it, I loved the quality of the lather and just thought this had to be the best shaving cream ever made.

Then I bought Acca Kappa 1869 almond shaving croap, the old now discontinued version, and this wowed me even more.
I still to this day think this croap is up there with Boellis 1924, but since it's now discontinued and the new version, with the same name, is a gooey mess of a soft cream, is not worthy of attention IMHO.

After that the old Acqua di Parma Colonia croap was a product, that really wowed me with it's lather quality and its great scent.

Finally I remember buying Castle Forbes Lime and Castle Forbes Lavender (2 soaps). Both these soaps really had a great scent and really nice performance.

Since then my collection just kept on growing and growing........