L'Occitane Cade - Stubborn? Maybe, but well worth the effort!

Good evening all. I'm sitting here browsing some forums in-between patients and I keep finding myself looking up all I can on the L'Occitane Cade soap. It seems to be a very polarizing soap when it comes to performance while it is almost unanimously loved for its scent. Due to the high number of posts I've read where people just can't get this soap to lather I almost didn't purchase a puck. However, when I saw that there was an actual L'Occitane En Provence store in a mall nearby (45 minutes) I couldn't pass up the chance to pick it up without any shipping cost. Considering I have pretty hard water in the city I live in I was still hesitant to drop $10 on this puck but on this day I felt up to the challenge.

Upon initial inspection the scent is very light but very pleasing. The juniper is very nice along with some earthy, woodsy tones as well. It's not a favorite for TWGW, but it's not vetoed either...thankfully! The store was out of the nice nickel bowl which is fine for me as I was struggling internally over wether or not it was worth an additional $18. Instead I purchased a tin from a neighboring Container Store for $1.50 and now I'm all set.

Like I said, I was up for a challenge so I first went at this soap with my Vulfix 2234 super badger brush. I loaded a fairly dry brush for approximately 1 minute as I was hoping to scrape off as much soap as possible with this softer and more flexible brush. I came away with a slightly thin, but very wet lather that gave me great glide though minimal cushion. I even needed to revisit the puck between the 2nd and 3rd pass as I was running out of lather in the brush. I still ended up with a great shave, but I could tell that I hadn't reached this soaps potential.

Shave 2 was this morning and I wasn't going to take any prisoners today. I soaked my Simpson's Commodore X2 thoroughly and only let the loose water dip off of it before taking the sopping wet brush straight to the Cade. I had it sudsing up almost immediately. I still made sure to load thoroughly so I kept scraping the soap off for a full minute. From here I took the best badger hair to my face and ended up with a much creamier lather that was even slicker than my previous attempt. There was also no need to revisit the puck as I had lather left over after my 3 passes that would have been enough for at least 2 more.

I forgot to mention how this soap makes my face feel. It is definitely not as moisturizing as a tallow based soap like MWF, Cella, etc but neither did it leave my face feeling dry and that says a lot. My face is extremely dry in the winter which is one reason why I purchased the Kiehl's A/S balm. Even before I put on the balm though, I did not notice a huge drying effect from this soap. So not very moisturizing, but also not drying for me. My face feels very smooth and hydrated afterwards, but I am also using a high quality balm.

I'm not sure why so many struggle with this soap. There are definitely a lot of variables involved which is why we can each have completely different experiences with the same products. It is up to each of us to determine how much time, energy, and effort to put into reaching each soap's potential. You have to decide what it's worth to you. You very well may be getting excellent results from a soap/cream that requires very little effort and if you are then I'm very happy for you. It is my hope, though, that more people do not miss out on an extraordinary product simply because others have had a tough time with it. While Cade may be a harder soap to lather compared to others I think for only $10 it is quite worth your effort. If you find that it's not worth it to you, then I'm sure you can move it on the B/S/T or just throw it in the drawer and try it again a few months later.

Here's my haul from the mall which not only has the L'Occitane En Provence store, but also a Kiehl's and a Container Store:

Kiehl's Ultimate After-Shave Balm and Moisturizer; Kiehl's samples inside my new brush container for traveling; L'Occitane Cade soap; 2 tins for shave soaps (the Cade is in one of these now).

 

You know, this has been one of my biggest personal kicks-to-the-butt I've had, Cade. There was this really cool flea market place that is now defunct, but they had a table full of Cade L'Occitane shave soaps in the little sake' looking tin bowls for $9 each and I passed them by because, at the time, I didn't know that they were any good. Unlike with razors, I'd pass stuff up back in my early days in the hobby. Now I'm too cheap to get some.

 

Love the stuff....but dont use it as much as I should. I did a multi buy a while back and have several pucks. In general I prefer tallow soaps....but this one works! I love the smell....and it guarantees a close shave every time.

 

It works pretty much like every other triple milled vegetable based soap, but I still think Trumpers has the edge on that market.

 

Aaron don't say that. Now your going to make me want to try some GFT soaps.

 

No problems here. Lather it up just like all the rest. Never an issue.

 

Haha, between the scents and performance, they make great soaps; albeit not cheap.

 

Nice light scent, for some reason I don't reach for it very often, but it is a nice performer.

 

As I said in a pervious thread Im gonna revisit this soap in Feb, The GF was gonna get some for yesterday when we was in Liverpool but the L'Occitaine shop did't have any in!!! they had everything else.

 

I've been fairly successful with the stuff. I'm going to give it a go again tomorrow and report back. I really can't fault the smell though, beautiful.

 

Does anyone know if there is a TSD scent that is similar to Cade? I can't seem to get enough of this scent, and to be able to mentholate it may just be shave soap nirvana!

 

It took a slightly longer break-in period (about 5 shaves) but now it lathers and performs great. It seems to lather fastest with my boar brush however.

 

How'd your most recent Cade run go? Hrm I like that. Instead of the Blade Runner we could all be Cade Runners!

 

TSD Blue Juniper is almost exact.

 

Good to know, thanks Steve. Looks like Blue Juniper & Honeysuckle will be the first TSD soaps I'll try.

 

I had a difficult time getting the lather going the first two times I used it. So the last time I let the soap soak in warm water while I showered, like I do with MWF. Used a pretty dry brush and easily whipped up a nice lather using this approach.

 

I followed a tip from another board from a Google search that suggested shaking most of the water out of the brush, loading it, and face lathering, adding water as needed after it is on the face. I started that method over a month ago and it totally eliminated any inconsistency I was experiencing. Lather and shaves now are consistently top-shelf.

 

DL, that's the method I'm using, works really well.

 

Many of the soaps i've recently acquired (including Cade) have been said to like a dryer brush, so I got in that habit. All that did was ruin my lathering technique. I now use a wetter brush again, and it seems to work fine with Cade, you maybe just need to load a little longer. I grate almost all my soaps though, so loading is maybe a little easier.

 

Cade does seems to take some extra loading time. Even with a dryer brush, it will go in the face way too thin if you don't take the extra time and load enough. I have done the wet brush and the dry approach. I found the dry to be a little quicker since it seems easier to add water than to take it away. If I use a wetter brush (only with one dewatering shake instead of 2 or 3), I get lots of thin, airy foam that takes even more time to thicken in the mug, and then I have way too much lather (enough for 2-3 shaves). Either way it lathers great but does take some experimentation.