The very best luxury soaps/creams, money no object

Freddy Thanks much for taking the time! As I suspected, the scent of Steam Punk seems to be made mostly with perfume oils (which isn't a bad thing by any means). For comparison, I'll update this post in a bit with a picture of the Vetiver & Tangerine cream.

Incidentally, in case any of you are interested, Erik Kormann (the perfumer) puts out a fragrance that matches the Steam Punk cream exactly.

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.

You can get a decant of Steampunk from the Perfumed Court. I have found their service to be very good. Its a great way to try out expensive or hard to find scents.

Gifts and Care has a very good price on the shaving cream, if you order a couple of items to offset the shipping cost and don't mind the wait. They also carry the aftershave gel.

Freddy Thanks much for taking the time! As I suspected, the scent of Steam Punk seems to be made mostly with perfume oils (which isn't a bad thing by any means). For comparison, I'll update this post in a bit with a picture of the Vetiver & Tangerine cream.

Incidentally, in case any of you are interested, Erik Kormann (the perfumer) puts out a fragrance that matches the Steam Punk cream exactly.

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.

You can get a decant of Steampunk from the Perfumed Court.  I have found their service to be very good.  Its a great way to try out expensive or hard to find scents.

Gifts and Care has a very good price on the shaving cream, if you order a couple of items to offset the shipping cost and don't mind the wait.  They also carry the aftershave gel.

I have the aftershave gel and think it is fantastic.  The feel reminds me a bit of Geo. F. Trumper Coral Skin Food.

As promised, here is the ingredients list for Tabula Rasa Vetiver & Tangerine:

For the best performance, which, for me, means, slickness and cushion, first and foremost, then ease of lathering and face-feel, with scent important (it doesn't have to wow but it mustn't be awful), as of today, LPL is tops, with Stirling and Soap Commander right behind. As far as creams, St. James of London and DR Harris are both fine, more than adequate. Catie's Bubbles has been hit or miss. I love the performance and the ease of lathering. But a couple of them felt like fire ants, had to give them away/trade or trash. I have only the Ocean Grove now, which is fantastic. Great scent, great performance. I used to love Saponificio Varesino. I still like it but the honeymoon's over.

Good luck in your quest!

stroppinglad thanks for your post!

If I may ask, what Saponificio Varesino soaps did you try, and what didn't you love about them? From what I understand they have a few different formulas.

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.

If I'm not mistaken the OP is British and lives in the UK. Then you should give a go to the "Barbería Alvarez Gómez" cream, if you'd accept the suggestion. I have a short experience in this traditional shaving thing but I can distinguish quality when I try it. Price is reasonable at 16€, but the performance is excellent.  The scent is nice. Citric and woody.

Edwin Jagger makes some very interesting middle of the range products. Quite gentle with your skin without hurting your pocket. Sometimes, you find in the middle range the best bang for your buck, as it is there where you find the actual difference with the low end products, and the difference with the high end products is not that big, and comes at a difficult to justify price quite often. Lea Classic cream is a good example of this, also.

I'm waiting for Manuel (Jabonman) to finish his last batch of products and my Eufros "Vetiver de Haiti" will get home soon. According to Manuel, the oils and scents used in his "premium line" are of a higher quality than those he used before, and that sounds like good news. I'll keep you posted on how this soap turns out.

@"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.