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View Full Version : Classic Sandalwood VS T&H Trafalgar VS QED Violetta ...



joel
08-13-2005, 05:28 PM
Gents,
I got a small cake of the Classic Shaving Sandalwood soap in a few days ago, and have gotten the chance to use it a few times, and lather it many times.

http://www.badgerandblade.com/images/tfa/comparo/P1010145.JPG
As some of you may remember I had an irritation problem with Classicshaving's soap with the previous formula. Much to my delight there was ZERO irritation from this soap and Ray's claim of having dramatically decreased potential irritation is right on in my opinion.
http://www.badgerandblade.com/images/tfa/comparo/P1010146.JPG

Scent - In cake form it smells quite nice. Although it smells nice, you have to get your honker pretty close to it in order to bask in the sandalwood delight. Unfortunatly once lathered, it seems to lose it's scent, and in fact changes its scent a bit. When lathered it is not very luxurious (scent wise) and is very lightly scented. Off hand I cannot think of a scented soap with a lighter fragarance.
http://www.badgerandblade.com/images/tfa/comparo/P1010147.JPG

Price/value - Personally I do not feel this soap is a very good value. It seems to get used up much quicker than other soaps, and is a terribly small cake for $5. Here are a few pics of the size difference between the classic shaving sandalwood cake soap $5 and the QED Violetta shave soap in a plastic tub $9.50...
http://www.badgerandblade.com/images/tfa/comparo/P1010161.JPG
http://www.badgerandblade.com/images/tfa/comparo/P1010162.JPG
As you can see, the QED soap dwarfs the classicshaving soap.

Latherability - The Classicshaving soap lathers quickly and easily, with minimal effort... here are a few pics...
http://www.badgerandblade.com/images/tfa/comparo/P1010163.JPG
http://www.badgerandblade.com/images/tfa/comparo/P1010164.JPG
http://www.badgerandblade.com/images/tfa/comparo/P1010165.JPG

Here are two pics of the Shavemac XXL Silvertip hanging from its stand full of classicshaving sandalwood lather...
http://www.badgerandblade.com/images/tfa/comparo/P1010166.JPG
http://www.badgerandblade.com/images/tfa/comparo/P1010167.JPG

Shave - Unfortunatly like the former version of this soap, I found it nearly impossible to get a decent lather built up on my face, and once I did, it would quickly evaporate away. I found this to be extremly frustrating, and annoying. I played around with this soap QUITE a bit and eventually had to relegate it to a bathing soap (which might I add works exceptionally well as a bathing soap.)

Here are some pics of the lather drying out on my face, bowl and in the Shavemac brush after about 30 seconds to 1 minute...
http://www.badgerandblade.com/images/tfa/comparo/P1010171.JPG
http://www.badgerandblade.com/images/tfa/comparo/P1010172.JPG
http://www.badgerandblade.com/images/tfa/comparo/P1010173.JPG
http://www.badgerandblade.com/images/tfa/comparo/P1010174.JPG
http://www.badgerandblade.com/images/tfa/comparo/P1010175.JPG
http://www.badgerandblade.com/images/tfa/comparo/P1010176.JPG
http://www.badgerandblade.com/images/tfa/comparo/P1010177.JPG

Because of my poor experience with the classicshaving soap, and because of the tremendous results I have been having with this shavemac brush I decided to lather up with some T&H Trafalgar shaving cream as well as some QED Violetta to compare with the classicshaving soap.

Here is the T&H after a few stirs..
http://www.badgerandblade.com/images/tfa/comparo/P1010178.JPG

Once it got going after 20 seconds or so, the lather was so profuse, and so dense, you could plop the huge brush in the bowl and the lather would support it...
http://www.badgerandblade.com/images/tfa/comparo/P1010179.JPG

Down the bucket...
http://www.badgerandblade.com/images/tfa/comparo/P1010180.JPG

Side shot...
http://www.badgerandblade.com/images/tfa/comparo/P1010181.JPG

As you can see the T&H was a heck of a lot richer and denser than the previous classic sandalwood pictures.... now onto QED Violetta.

To show you just how amazing this Shavemac XXL Brush is with some QED shaving soap, simply feast your eyes gentlemen! BTW, I suggest you compare these pics to the pics from the QED Rose thread where I lathered the soap with my Vulfix #41. As you can see, the shavemac does a jaw dropping job at creating uncanny amounts of lather in about 30 seconds.
http://www.badgerandblade.com/images/tfa/comparo/P1010182.JPG

Look how creamy and rich this is...
http://www.badgerandblade.com/images/tfa/comparo/P1010183.JPG

This thing looks boss on the stand full of QED Violetta Lather. I really REALLY like this stand, as it allows me to hang the brush up while shaving, without making ANY sort of mess. It is VERY easy to retreive from its stand, and looks marvelous stored on it.
http://www.badgerandblade.com/images/tfa/comparo/P1010184.JPG

QED Violetta lathered on my face...
http://www.badgerandblade.com/images/tfa/comparo/P1010185.JPG
http://www.badgerandblade.com/images/tfa/comparo/P1010187.JPG
http://www.badgerandblade.com/images/tfa/comparo/P1010188.JPG

You simply cannot go wrong with the shavemac brush / qed soap combo. I am becomming quite a cheerleader for shavemac... this brush I got is really amazing, and I think I might have to get 1-2 more.