Is anyone here from Minnesota? I am in the Twin Cities, and I am a huge fan of being able to see and smell things in order to make a decision, particularly for soaps and the like that have scents. To that end, if there are any Shave Den folks from my neck of the woods, is there any place you know of where I could go? I found out that there is a Crabtree & Evelyn at MoA, but I cannot find anything else. Any help you could offer would be much appreciated.
I'm not from MN, but visit every couple years as about 1/2 of my family lives there. I'm sure you can find a L'Occtain store, a Bath & Body Works (for C.O. Bigalow), The Body Shop, and Nordstrom's carries Art of Shaving products. Maybe more, but all those should be available.
Right next to Crabtree and Evelyn at MoA there is a L'Occitane. They make an excellent soap. There are a few Sally's beauty supply stores around and they have some Clubman products, but I haven't spent too much time checking out what kind of goodies they have. There is also a store in Saint Paul I heard about from another member here, that I have been meaning to check out but haven't yet called William Marvy Co Barber 1540 Saint Clair Ave St Paul, MN 55105-2344 (651) 698-0726 Good luck and welcome
I didn't know Marvey was based in MN. The only product I've seen in person is the boar brush, and can't recommend it. I've heard somewhat better about the Marvy shave soap, but only by a limited group of shavers.
Yeah, I can't speak for their products, but I would like to check it out. But they have a barber pole factory. According to the website they are the "only remaining manufacturer of commercial barber poles, in North America". So it has to be worth a trip.
William Marvy Co on St. Clair was a good find - I've driven past it at least a hundred times without realizing it! Inside there was quite a collection of scents and aftershaves (a good number of Pinaud scents, including large sizes - we're talking milk jug sizes), and a couple of very unexpected pieces - including a Gillette DE razor! So, really having only the money in my pocket right now, and badly needing a snack, too, I just got a 10-pack of Dorco blades for $1.05 (100 blades for $10.50 seemed like a pretty good deal) and a little jar of styptic. Thanks again for the recommendation.
Marvy brand has a few low cost products that are excellent. Marvy No. 4p Plastic handle boar brush, Omega, Italian made brush rebranded. Marvy No. 4 Silver handle boar brush, Omega brush rebranded. Marvy Professional Rubber Shaving Mug. Marvy brand products are hit and miss. Some are bad Chinese made junk like the small shaving brush and 2 kinds of their powder duster but the above listed items are great and should be priced in their store from $10 to $12. I've used a multitude of brushes, scuttles, mugs, and the Marvy ones listed are as good as anything . The mug has been around for 50 years? and is great for soap use and the Omega brushes are sold by shaving vendors for twice the price that Marvy should have them.
I highly recommend The Garden of Eden, which is only located on Grand Ave at the moment, although it used to be in additional locations. There's also a few shops at The Galleria that carry nice shaving stuff. I think there's a L'Occitane shop, although that might have moved; Ampersand (I think that's the name) also has some nice shaving stuff, along with Twill.
Hello gents, thanks for sharing the info - may have to check a few of these locations out. Winston's barbershop in the Macy's store downtown (skyway level, 700 on the mall) carries the whole line of eShave products and is a great place for a haircut to boot. Sally's Beauty Supply has a couple of location's in the metro and carries a well regarded Bay Rum aftershave along with some Pinaud products and other misc mainstream/low end shaving products.
La Petite Parfumerie sells Creed, Penhaligon's, AOS, and Aqua di Parma. Seems geared more towards women and expensive, but might be worth a look. http://www.lapetiteparfumerie.com/ La Petite Parfumerie 287 Water Street, Suite 100 Excelsior, MN 55331 (952) 475-2212
Yeah, been biking around. Marvy's is a great find, they've got great deals on 100 packs of at least two brands, one under ten bucks. They have a very nice selection of Pinaud, but also a great selection of Lucky Tiger products. That's a very nice place to visit. I consider it a must to at least peruse once for a dedicated wet shaver. Great prices. Garden of Eden has some selection, but clearly despite the high-end decor they are hit or miss as far as product selection. The tubs of Khiel's cream smelled horrible (my cream in a tube "white eagle" smells nice and medicinal with primary smell of camphor), they have what I remember to be called "Lightfoot's" pine scented soap, which has horrible reviews. But they have the Omega shave soap (Proraso) and Pre de Provence for about ten bucks and of course some Crabtree & Evelyn soaps. I really like C&E's "Nomad" soap, works good and smells great. Sally's Beauty Supply doesn't have much, but if you want the kind of disposable straight razor that takes a DE blade broken in half look for the razor labeled "Magic". They may also stock (can't speak for all stores all the time) a 12 ounce bottle of Pinaud's "Clubman" for the same price most stores charge for a six ounce bottle. Clubman's so strong and long lasting I'm not tempted to buy one.. I've hardly put a dent in mine (like to dilute with water in my hands and never worry about wasting it dripping off). Last and certainly not least is Heimie's Haberdashery (downtown St. Paul). This is a clothing, grooming and shaving barbershop store all in one. They have many of Trufitt and Hill's line of creams and soaps (couldn't find any other brand). I notice now that I can't find scents other than the triple milled "luxury" on Trufitt & Hill's own website. I prodded in other ways with a search engine and found the other scents, which were not represented on their web site in soap form. Lo and behold they do make the other scents in soaps, I wasn't hallucinating! It's just difficult to access that part of T&H's website (dingbats). It's fancy but not well designed. It's just like how the products at Garden of Eden's are hit or miss, and the staff have almost no knowledgeability about it and don't seem to care. If you go there and they still have Lightfoot's, don't trust what they say! Use your internet-borne supersenses to warn you of the bad products! I couldn't smell the pucks of T&H's soaps very well through their paper wrappings, they didn't have samples, but if you're curious about them, the refill pucks all cost about 10 bucks, which is very good, even considering the internet market, and you don't have to pay shipping. I think it's worth a visit. I talked to the only barber there at the time, a lady, and we discussed the hygeine codes and the "death" of the traditional straight razor shave, she showed me the only hanging strops I've ever seen. We had a nice chat. She discovered I not only have straight edges but also hone my own and lightly wondered if I'd hone up her two family heirlooms. But she's a female and it doesn't make as much sense, they can shave their various body parts better with disposables or a DE if they're really bold anyway.
Because she said as much and we both agreed that as attention/effort-to-results she was better off with the DE/disposable-to-results than screwing around with a straight edge razor. Now, granted, this was not with something as monumental as a straight edge on the full cranium of a head shaver, but, clearly, this was a major undertaking (as all you leg shavers know). Going for the achilles heel is not fun with a straight edge, nor the dips inside.
