not sure what proraso/omega soap to get

[randomtw]

Is there only one proraso soap and one omega soap out there? I know that proraso has a new white soap coming. How do these soaps later? Are they good/great for shaving? If neither of these are that great are any soaps on this page a good buy? http://www.razorandbrush.com/barberiasoap.html

I'm planning on ordering a couple items from tryphon enterprises and since I need more soaps anyways, I might as well order one from there to save on shipping.

[Two Rivers Man]

I prefer the Proraso soap to the tube because of the way it lathers. The Proraso and Omega soap are just about indistinguishable from each other. There is another Proraso soap coming out . . . green tea I think, which, AFIK, is currently only available in Canada, but Giovanni from Tryphon said he is looking into stocking it. But for now, you can't go wrong with either the Proraso or Omega soap, since they are more or less the same product.

[randomtw]

hopefully he gets it in stock soon as I'm running low on cream, was kinda suprised on how fast it went by, hopefully soaps last longer though

[DMac]

I REALLY like the Pre de Provence (so-so scent, but one of the best performers I own), and people say really good things about Institut Karite - it's on my short list of things to buy.

[Must Dash]

The Proraso soap is one of my favorites. I can get a bigger and richer lather with this soap than any other soap in my (admittedly somewhat meager) collection. I put it down to the fact that the Proraso is softer; almost a hybrid soap/cream.

[Suzuki]

The Proraso soap is quite good for the price - as others have said, its a soft soap with a consistency between a cream and glycerine soap.

It should last a little longer than an equivalent amount of cream, but its not going to last like a hard soap.

The Omega is a dead wringer for the Proraso and can often be found for less money.

You can get the Omega and Proraso products from qedusa.com - cheaper than Tryphon.

The QED website sucks, but if you send the owner, Charles, a note, he'll get back to you lickety split - great range of products and great customer service. You can also get some of Charles' great proprietary soaps that, unlike many of the Tryphon glycerine soaps are scented exclusively with essential oils (which are all natural and have IMHO a better scent) - despite the fact that essential oils are more expensive that artificial scents, Charles' soaps are LESS than Tryphon's (with the exception of soaps containing sandalwood essential oil, which is very expensive). He also sells his soaps in stick format and the sticks are a lot of fun, easy to use and perfect for travel.

Charles carries a huge array of products and it a pleasure to deal with - if you take the time to correspond with or call him, he will share his wealth of knowledge regarding mens' shaving and grooming products, as well as help you pick the best products for you and give you tips on how to get the most out of them.

In short, I can't say enough about Charles - I'm a repeat customer, as are several other members of B&B.

[randomtw]

The Proraso soap is quite good for the price - as others have said, its a soft soap with a consistency between a cream and glycerine soap.

It should last a little longer than an equivalent amount of cream, but its not going to last like a hard soap.

The Omega is a dead wringer for the Proraso and can often be found for less money.

You can get the Omega and Proraso products from qedusa.com - cheaper than Tryphon.

The QED website sucks, but if you send the owner, Charles, a note, he'll get back to you lickety split - great range of products and great customer service. You can also get some of Charles' great proprietary soaps that, unlike many of the Tryphon glycerine soaps are scented exclusively with essential oils (which are all natural and have IMHO a better scent) - despite the fact that essential oils are more expensive that artificial scents, Charles' soaps are LESS than Tryphon's (with the exception of soaps containing sandalwood essential oil, which is very expensive). He also sells his soaps in stick format and the sticks are a lot of fun, easy to use and perfect for travel.

Charles carries a huge array of products and it a pleasure to deal with - if you take the time to correspond with or call him, he will share his wealth of knowledge regarding mens' shaving and grooming products, as well as help you pick the best products for you and give you tips on how to get the most out of them.

In short, I can't say enough about Charles - I'm a repeat customer, as are several other members of B&B.

does he carry other items like alum block, stylic pencils, carry case for a razor, etc? the website is indeed hard to navigate but if does indeed carry those items then I would probably purchase from him instead if I can get all the items I needed at one place

[boboakalfb]

does he carry other items like alum block, stylic pencils, carry case for a razor, etc? the website is indeed hard to navigate but if does indeed carry those items then I would probably purchase from him instead if I can get all the items I needed at one place

Give Charles a call or drop him an email, he will take care of you. What his site lacks, he more than makes up with his excellent products and service. I echo Suzuki's sentiments 100%.

[Suzuki]

does he carry other items like alum block, stylic pencils, carry case for a razor, etc? the website is indeed hard to navigate but if does indeed carry those items then I would probably purchase from him instead if I can get all the items I needed at one place

Definitely has alum blocs and cases that might fit whatever razor you have.

The styptic pencils I wouldn't worry about too much - first off, if you use alum, you might not need one and second, you can find styptic pencils in most drugstores for a couple of bucks.

Definitey think about getting a stick of his soap - truly great products.

Even if its not on his admittedly lousy website, he either has it or can get it.

Great prices and a great vendor to deal with - its also much more fun to deal with him in person.

In addition, he won't oversell - if something's not right for you, he'll tell you NOT to buy it.

I've been entirely satisfied in all my dealings with Charles.

[randomtw]

Definitely has alum blocs and cases that might fit whatever razor you have.

The styptic pencils I wouldn't worry about too much - first off, if you use alum, you might not need one and second, you can find styptic pencils in most drugstores for a couple of bucks.

Definitey think about getting a stick of his soap - truly great products.

Even if its not on his admittedly lousy website, he either has it or can get it.

Great prices and a great vendor to deal with - its also much more fun to deal with him in person.

In addition, he won't oversell - if something's not right for you, he'll tell you NOT to buy it.

I've been entirely satisfied in all my dealings with Charles.

any recommendations on what soaps to get?

[SteveW]

The Proraso soap is quite good for the price - as others have said, its a soft soap with a consistency between a cream and glycerine soap.

It should last a little longer than an equivalent amount of cream, but its not going to last like a hard soap.

The Omega is a dead wringer for the Proraso and can often be found for less money.

You can get the Omega and Proraso products from qedusa.com - cheaper than Tryphon.

Am I looking at the right part of QED's site? It looks like he gets $8.50 for the Proraso soap vs. $7.00 for Tryphon? QED is a buck cheaper on the tube.

Similarly it looks like QED gets $6.50 for Omega vs. $6.00 for Tryphon?

EDIT:

I took a closer look. It's true that the list QED's soaps are $12 vs. $15 for Tryphon's, but I see if that if you buy two Tryphon soaps it's $25 and free shipping, so that's pretty close. I cannot speak from personal experience how they compare. Both seem pretty popular.

[Aztecface]

As a frequent purchaser at Tryphon and a new customer at QED i have nothing but good to say about the 2 gentlemen(Giovanni at Tryphon and Charles at QED) and their business.

Unfortunatly the QED site "sucks"(Charles's own words) but Charles informed me that he is working on an improved and better version of his site. Unfortunatly he never has the time to complete it but as the old saying goes "Expect it when you see it". Email or phone him and he will be very helpful to meet your needs.

Tryphon on the other hand has a very well functioning site and is continously updated with new and unusual products. Very recently with a lot of new Tryphon(their own brand) soaps, razorblades and other shavingproducts. Email or phone Gio as well and he will be more thain happy to oblige and give a lot of good advice.

Both vendors sell a few of the same products and have different pricings on those. Both vendors also make their own branded shavingsoaps. Tryphon gives a discount if several soaps are ordered at the same time(that info is on the site) and I'm sure QED might as well(I've never purchased many at the same time from QED so I really don't know).

When it comes to their own manufactured soaps they both use essential oils and seldom use fragrance oils. Both of their Wild Rose(QED) and Rosa(Tryphon) soaps use FO(fragrance oils) and not EO(essential oils). Mostly to cut cost on the manufacturing process because the Rose essential oil is extremely expensive and they would have to sell the soaps a lot more expensively to cover the cost. Remember though that both vendors allthough they might have similar soaps are not the same. Very different interpretations on the Rose or Lime.

[Aztecface]

Am I looking at the right part of QED's site? It looks like he gets $8.50 for the Proraso soap vs. $7.00 for Tryphon? QED is a buck cheaper on the tube.

Similarly it looks like QED gets $6.50 for Omega vs. $6.00 for Tryphon?

EDIT:

I took a closer look. It's true that the list QED's soaps are $12 vs. $15 for Tryphon's, but I see if that if you buy two Tryphon soaps it's $25 and free shipping, so that's pretty close. I cannot speak from personal experience how they compare. Both seem pretty popular.

Tryphon is cheaper and they also have a rather large stock of the Red Proraso(for now).

The first time I purchased Tryphon soaps I bought 6 at the same time and got them for $10 a piece. I also bought several other things at the same time as well.

[Suzuki]

Aztecface - I double checked the Proraso pricing:

Proraso Cream: QED $9 Tryphon $10

Proraso Soap (Regular) QED $8.5 Tryphon $7

Omega Cream: QED $7 Tryphon $8.5

Omega Soap: QED $6.5 Tryphon $6

So, to be fair, QED is cheaper for the creams and Tryphon is cheaper for the soaps.

While I was looking around, I found some other interesting comparisons

Tabac Soap in Bowl: QED $15 Tryphon $20

Tabac Soap Refill: QED $6 Tryphon $13

Tabac Cream: QED $9 Tryphon $9.5

Some other price comparisons:

Erasmic Soap Bowl: Superlather.com $7.5 Tryphon $12

Palmolive Classic: Superlather $7.5 Tryphon $14

Italian Palmolive: Superlather $8.5 Tryphon $12 to $13

Palmolive Stick: Superlather $3.25 Tryphon $6

Ingram: Superlather $8 Tryphon $12

Noxema: Superlather $12 Tryphon $18

Itialian Gillette Cream: Superlather $8 Tryphon $12.5 to $14

So, after comparing several of Tryphon's prices with other well-known sources, Tryphon is generally more expensive - in many cases more than 50% more expensive! That's enough of a difference to split your order, pay multiple shipping costs and STILL save money!

I only added this beacuse I didn't want people to look at the competitive pricing on the Proraso and conclude that Tryphon has good prices generally - which is far from true.

My sense is that Tryphon had a good run when he was one of the only people stocking many of these products in North America - and he set his pricing accordingly (basically he priced at just under what it would cost to source and ship this stuff in small lots from the UK/EC). Fortunately, there are more people sourcing this stuff for us and pricing it on a cost plus margin basis, instead of what the market will bear (and yes, I do think that vendors are entitled to good margins - otherwise they have no incentive to stay in business - I just don't like to be gouged because a vendor knows they're the only show in town).

As for Tryphon's soaps, I have NOT tried them and make no comment on their shaving quailites, I will say however, that Tryphon claims his soaps use "all natural ingredients" despite the fact he uses FO's in his rose soap, his sandalwood contains "sandalwood scents" - which I bet are artificial, since he's quite specific in mentioning the use of EO's in other soap descriptions, his eau de cologne is certainly artificially scented, and I suspect his Florida Water, American Spices and Old American Barbershop are all ARTIFICIALLY scented.

I also believe that, unlike QED products, Tryphon's soaps do not provide a list of ingredents and I don't see one on his site. This is an issue for me, as I like to know what's in any shaving products I use.

Is it a crime to use synthetic fragrances - certainly not.

Is it misleading to claim your products use "all natural ingredients" and then use synthetic fragrances - you're damn straight it is. Especially when you have to figure it out for yourself - and the descriptions are designed to be confusing.

As for QED, the only non all-EO soaps Charles makes are specially-requested group buys - ALL of the soaps he sells on his site (and yes, I agree that its lousy!) are only scented with EOs. Despite this, they're cheaper (except for the products that contain sandalwood EO, as its very expensive - another reason why I suspect Tryphon's sandalwood variant is not an EO-scented product).

So what should people take from this - pick your vendors carefully, price shop and make sure you know what your products contain - especially when it comes to fragrances (in particular if you have senstitive skin). In additionally to knowing about possible reactions, the scenting agents have a real impact on price - QED's sandalwood soap (which is scented with copious amounts of high grade sandalwood EO - which runs anywhere from $100 - $200 per ounce!) is a truly unique product and a bargain at $17. On the other hand, a glycerine based soap scented with artificial fragrance oil (which runs a few bucks per ounce) is expensive at $15 and isn't a great value even at $10 for a 5oz tub.

Just wanted to clarify a few things so people can make informed purchasing decisions.