I tried shaving with this today but couldn't make it through my regular 3 pass shave. I had to switch over to proraso green in the middle of the 2nd pass. I used a generous amount in my shave bowl, added a little water and started lathering. It lathered well in the bowl, but as soon as I brushed it on my face it dissipated very rapidly. For the second pass I squeezed a generous amount onto my hand and added a little water and used my hands to apply it to my face. Same thing but even worse! It was almost like just shaving on wet skin. This is where I stopped and just finished with the the proraso cream. I bought it at Flowerland of all places lol. The company does have some bar soaps that didn't look or smell too bad. Sent from my SM-N920V using Tapatalk
I saw their bar soaps in MN last fall. I regret not picking one up. Goes under the name big ass bar of soap or something like that. It had a great scent.
Was it the blue one? I smelled all the bars and that I thought was the best. Expensive though. Hope the bar soaps perform better than the shave cream. Sent from my SM-N920V using Tapatalk
Duke Cannon has four or five versions of the bar soap. I think the black one is especially for getting grease and dirt off mechanics' hands and has some pumice grit in it for that. I have the white bar ("Productivity"), which smells pepperminty and has some menthol in it for a morning wakeup. I like it. I also have their shampoo which is supposed to be menthol and tea tree and a combined shampoo and conditioner. Any menthol in it is overwhelmed by the smell of the tea tree but it does get hair squeaky clean and leaves it easy to manage. I don't know that it's any better than Dove or any other shampoo you buy in your local drugstore but it's certainly no worse. Lastly I have their shave cream (I bought all three products at the same time from Fendrihan up here in Canada). I hadn't tried it before reading this thread, so I broke it out today and gave it a whirl. It worked fine for me. I put about an almond-sized squirt on my damp synthetic brush, added about half a teaspoon of water to my lather bowl and whipped it. I did whip it for longer than I have some other creams or soaps (but not as long as others). I estimate it took about two minutes of whipping to have a stable, yogurty lather that stayed wet and latherlike both on my face and in the bowl waiting for later passes. The shave was fine with good glide and no nicks or irritation, and my alum rub afterwards was totally quiet. The cream has aloe vera, shea butter and all the usual other good ingredients in it, so it should hydrate and protect properly. Maybe you didn't whip it quite long enough to get fully stable lather at first and it's one of those products that never re-stabilizes if it once collapses? (I've heard Mitchells Wool Fat is like that: if you let the lather get too airy at the start, it just never ever "gels" quite right.) Or maybe it just doesn't work well with your particular hardness of water? Shaving soaps and creams are definitely YMMV. I have a tube of Dr. Bronner's Magic Organic Shave Gel that I am using as handsoap and I garbaged a tube of Burt's Bees Natural Shave Cream that I wasn't even willing to use as handsoap, but the Duke Cannon worked well enough for me that I will use it up as shave cream. I don't think I would run out to buy it again if this tube just vanished though -- it's okay but I don't think it's anything super fabulous that is going to win my undying brand loyalty.
