Susan Darnell is the company, Vitos is the line of shaving goods, Sapone Extra Super is the soap. Let’s proceed slowly, step by step, and discover a relatively new, fantastic Italian product. First of all the company: Susan Darnell Snc di Caserza O. & Co. This firm is specialized in supplies for hairdressers and barbers and is based in a very small city called Sori, in province of Genova. Yes, Genova, the city of Valobra, where the legendary Virgilio set his factory in 1903, over a hundred years ago. A city that has a really huge, respectable and well-known tradition in manufacturing high quality soaps. Top notch soaps that are still produced with natural ingredients and century old proven methods and, therefore, soaps that are universally recognized as some of the finest in the World. In this contest we have to consider the Susan Darnell company. An Italian firm that currently has seven lines of items. Each line is dedicated to a specific purpose and Vitos is the complete range of shaving goods. This range includes pre-shave treatments, aftershave splashes and balms, lotions, colognes, a shaving cream and two shaving soaps. The shaving soaps are presented in the classic kilo bricks, are tallow based and continue the great Italian tradition of soft soaps started with highly appreciated products like Cella and P.160. As just mentioned, the Vitos range includes two tallow based soft soaps: a regular version housed in a white and green cardboard package and an upgraded version housed in a white and red cardboard package. The upgraded version is called Extra Super and has, unlike the regular, glycerin plus tallow (the regular has only tallow). Therefore Vitos Extra Super represents the best of the two worlds put together and is the finest soap currently made by the Susan Darnell company. It is priced here in Italy around € 6/7 per kilo, essentially the same price of Cella (€ 8/10) and P.160 (€ 6/7). It is a ridiculous price for a stunning soap that performs at the same high level of both Cella and P.160. Its scent is simply wonderful. A strong, intense and pleasant fragrance of Almonds or, for connoisseurs, of “amaretto”, the most loved by Italian men. The latherability is exceptional. You can use any quality boar or badger brush with soft tips and good backbone, and you easily get a terrific lather with great slickness and cushion. Moisturizing properties are outstanding and the post shave feeling is amazing. This soap is so good and effective that many Italian Master Barbers and experienced wet shaver already consider it as one of the very best ever made in Italy. My opinion is that Susan Darnell Vitos Sapone Extra Super is not only a marvellous soap, but is much more. It’s P.160’s worthy successor.

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Marco, Old School Wet Shaver

Steward in the B&B Shave Clinic & Newbie Check-In forum

My Wiki

"Because a real Gentleman shaves, every morning" (My grandfather)

Marco, well done, as usual. As you might have seen, I reviewed the green and white package Vitos a couple of days ago.



It appears there are two areas in which these outstanding soaps differ from one another. In addition to containing glycerin (red label), from reading your description of the fragrance, the red smells of amaretto, (which I like, i.e. P160) while the green and white package variety does not smell like amaretto, but instead, it smells like a mild version of Cella.



Of these two choices, I am very happy to have selected the green and white mildly fragranced version, due to the fact that the much stronger fragranced original Cella always gags me, and I cannot tolerate it.



So in addition to an alternative to Cella, we also have a successor to P160. Now that we have the Vitos family of shaving products, there are even more choices for us to enjoy.



Gary

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Gary

. . . He went around back and into the basement because he was hungry. He ate cold beans out of a can and drank some water, and then he saw the small mirror Parker had bought with the razor and the can of lather. He looked at himself and knew he had to take a chance on staying long enough to shave. He shaved, and that made him feel better. . .

The one question not answered is who sells this soap and what is the cost.

I googled for mine!

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Gary

. . . He went around back and into the basement because he was hungry. He ate cold beans out of a can and drank some water, and then he saw the small mirror Parker had bought with the razor and the can of lather. He looked at himself and knew he had to take a chance on staying long enough to shave. He shaved, and that made him feel better. . .

Thanks but a link would have been nice. I have Googled but my Italian is a bit rusty.

It's a UK vendor, I think. I googled "Vitos shaving". There's not any Italian there!

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Gary

. . . He went around back and into the basement because he was hungry. He ate cold beans out of a can and drank some water, and then he saw the small mirror Parker had bought with the razor and the can of lather. He looked at himself and knew he had to take a chance on staying long enough to shave. He shaved, and that made him feel better. . .

Italian ebay has it for 12 euros shipped ($16.57)



**Edit - it looks like it's an extra 35 euros to ship to the States**



link - http://cgi.ebay.it/Susan-Darnell-VIT...#ht_1256wt_922

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-Dave

Originally Posted by ezeman

Thanks but a link would have been nice. I have Googled but my Italian is a bit rusty.

FYI - If you use Google Chrome it will translate the page for you

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-Dave

I was curious about this soap as I can not use Cella (one of my favorites) because of the almond oil. This one contains benzaldehyde instead, and my skin can handle that. The soap is inexpensive (5,50 euros per kilo), but shipping is not. For me it boils down to some 20 euros shipped, and that is still a good/fair price. It lathers easy enough, but at first I had "bad" shaves with it. The lather was nice and slick but too thin. I had to use much more product to get a good lather. And reload the brush for every pass. But now I do get close shaves. The scent is not for me, I do not like almond scent. But it is not too strong, so I can live with it. The post shave feeling is very good, one of the strong points of this soap. I recommend this soap, if you can get it a at a reasonable price. Can be a good alternative for those whose skin does not tolerate almond oil/Cella.

Good prize/quality ratio soft soap.

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My wallet is in the hospital...

As far as a soap is concerned this product rocks.



Much better than Cella in terms of lather and moisturising. The fragrance is less Almondy but still refreshing.



Very easy to load and face lather and washes away very easily without excess tallow residue. All ready for a Speick finish.

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SAFETY RAZORS ARE THE FACE BROOMS OF MEN