Still being a relative noob, two months a DE shaver, I am still experimenting and trying new things. My first soap was a VDH puck, that came with a brush and bowl set. All I can say is that it worked. It produced lather and had a pleasant scent. Next was Proraso Red. I was in love. The scent was wonderful and I got a really good lather. So a couple of days ago I got a tub of Cella. Based on all of the good comments I have read about Cella, I was excited to try this soap out. Here are my first impressions. I have had two shaves with Cella and I must say that it produces beautiful, thick, slick lather. In my opinion, it lathers much better than Proraso. The lather was like fresh heavy cream that had been whipped into a nice dense foam with beautiful peaks. It provided the kind of slipperiness on my face that allowed my Slim set on 7, to glide right over my skin and mow down my whiskers without any irritation or burn. I loved the shave. Now as far as the scent goes, I did not like it much. I am much more fond of the sandalwood scent of Proraso. If Cella had a sandalwood scent, it would be 100% perfect. Of course, as always, YMMV.
Glad you like the Cella. Cella is great, but I guess you have to like the almond scent. Since you don't care for the scent very much, you might consider leaving it for some time with the lid off, so the scent can dissipate. Place it somewhere where the dissipating scent doesn't hinder you. It works with Arko (which has a smell not everyone likes), so why not with Cella?
It is not strong scent. I find the sandalwood scent of Proraso much stronger. Even so, the Proraso scent does not linger long. I do think that Cella is a keeper. The lather is just superb.
That's interesting. I was gifted with some cella and it just smells like good clean (ivory) soap to me. Thanks. Your comments mirror mine. You can always add a touch of essential oil.
I'm also a Cella virgin. I wanted to try a sample of it before I buy it, certain almond fragrances irritate me for some reason.
Some are taken aback by the dominant, sweet almond scent of Cella. It does smell as if one is lathering with marzipan. It has a 'clean, fresh-smelling' scent—but there's simply no mistaking the dominant 'almond' fragrance. Many refer to Cella as 'cherry-scented'—this is due to almond oil and almond flavoring having been used to scent or flavor 'cherry' products for years (think of the dyed-red maraschino cherries, which are almond-flavored).
Since my girlfriend has got the Wetshaving Fever, she smelled at my Cella and said: This smells so wonderful...i would eat it instead of shaving with it... So...guess what i will give her as a christmas present?!
This would really be a win win... but i think that would be too much for Both of us. She wants to test some of my other soaps in the near future. Everytime i buy a new soap, she asks how the soap smells and that she wants to try it out...
Hahaha it would! I don't know if it's to much, shaving the legs requires more lather =) Look at me, recommending buying 1kg of a soap when I haven't even tried it haha
When I returned to using a DE razor/soap/brush shaving a number of years ago, one of the first soaps I ordered was Cella. Over the years, I wandered away from Cella and, especially in the past year, to artisan soaps. I ordered a tub of Cella tonight. To me, it is kind of an old school, retro soap whose lather quality and scent has remained the same for many, many years. I look forward to the great lather and wonderful almond/cherry scent.
Cella is a good cream, but the brick is Cella soap, which is a little different. I didn't think the performance of the cream was excellent, but do plan on buying a brick of the soap at some stage to try that out.
