On a thread here, someone pointed out to me that the proraso tub was supposed to be a tallowate soap, but the maggard website lits the tub and the tube as having the same ingredient list, and the ingredient lists do not contain anything other then shea and conocun oil, and cocoa butter?
it would be a major improvement, its why I got excited and looking into the tub. The addition of shea butter is most definitely a big help to it, as the tube of blue I got had no shea butter that I can remember, and that soap needed help... And so the thought of tallow in proraso would I believe really help them out. There stuff DOES lather a tad easier the cella, but it lacks something that tallow provides in all my other soaps. A bit of moisture to the face for one, and an amount of luxury feeling during the shave.
Cella is one of the few I've not yet tried. Right now I am on a Arko kick. It's just such a reliable soap.
arko has low cost and ease of lathering in its favor. the scent is decent but I have stopped using it because like others, I have an interesting rash like reaction to it. I use cella, not every day, but I have discovered it does better if used every day and left with a little bit of hot water on the top when you close the lid after the shave. I have crappy hard water, much like the culigan commercial where the cartoon character turns the water on and has rocks coming out. One load will give me enough lather for a single pass. If I want a second pass I gotta reload.
I haven't tried any factory soaps yet but I'm interested in starting with Proraso red or white, especially the cream version. Interestingly, Proraso calls the cream "shaving soap in a tube" on their own website. I compared the ingredients between the soap and the cream and it looks like they're almost identical except for the addition of sodium metasilicate to the cream. I have no idea what that does but my best guess is that it's a preservative, although I can't imagine why it's needed when both products otherwise have the same exact ingredients. Surely somebody here has tried both the cream and the regular shaving soap? A firsthand comparison of the two would be appreciated. Regarding the first post, there definitely isn't any tallow in any of their products because they clearly state that they do not use any products of animal origin.
It's been awhile, but I believe the only difference is texture. I can't recall any real difference in performance. The soap is a soft soap, or commonly called "croap", sort of midway between a hard soap and a cream. I expect the cream would have more water and emulsifiers, but that is all.
Interesting. I've been meaning to ask if creams leave the skin feeling more moisturized than soaps since I assumed that they don't contain any emulsifiers. I always found it a little strange that soaps were used for shaving since their main purpose is to remove oil from the skin, thus drying it out, but if creams do the same exact thing, then are are pretty much just softer, more watery soaps.
I was just recalling my experience with Proraso. There are a few soapmakers on the forum who can give much better explanations about soap, but soap doesn't necessarily dry out skin. Since the Proraso is a relatively soft soap, I just found it similar to the cream in performance.
I use both the Proraso white cream and soap. From my experience, the soap needs a tad more water to build up a good lather, all other things being equal (brush, water temp, face or bowl lather). Of all the Proraso creams I like the white the best. The scent hits the spot for me and I get a consistent slick, cushioned lather.