Initial RR La Famiglia thoughts...

[7 O Menthol]

duplicate post, sorry!

[7 O Menthol]

As the RR soaps are filled to the brim it is easier to lather though. I gladly will take less product for more ease in use!

For the sake of clarification, I believe you meant aren't​.

[soloz2]

For the sake of clarification, I believe you meant aren't​.

Oops, fixed it. Thanks....stupid auto correct on my phone...

[brucered]

You may want to try the 888 Aftershave wax, first ingredient is Orange Blossom. And it comes through quite strong.

so that's what that is. i just started using the 888 stuff (fantastic by the way) and wasn't sure if the smell of the wax was Tea Tree oil, but it may be a combination of the 2 (tea tree and Orange Blossom).

[Artimid]

Hrm, I think my nose works differently than the vast majority here. I ordered two of each, and the main thing that hit me with each smell was the slap in the face with the perfume. For the Sandalwood ASB, I have no idea what I will do with it, but from the smell alone it won't touch my face. Smelling this stuff was like walking into a Macy's where the ladies spray anyone who stands still long enough with whatever they can... everything smells on the flowery side to me.
Now, I did try it, and I got an awesome lather (bit thin, but that was nothing since it was my first try, that was obviously user error), but the smell near my nose was almost painful with the artificial smell. Not sure why I was hoping for something like Mama Bear's Mysore Sandalwood, or even like some of the old handcrafted fans made out of the stuff, but this was far from it.

With the exception of the Jasmine one (that is of course flowery, and that is going to someone who hopefully likes it), all of them had strong hints of flower to my nose. It might just be chalked up to the chemicals that make perfume work, and that those have particular smells that make almost all perfumed scents smell the same to me, and due to the artificial chemicals, I am obviously not in the right group to appreciate this stuff. So I will be passing it all off to my friends who will take it (had to talk someone into it last night, he seems to be like me in the scent market), and will note to stay away from the brand these came from. Pretty disappointing over-all for me, didn't help that I was beyond hyped for the order. :(

[Aldershot]

I got my Italian Barber package last night. Tried Don Marco this morning. I felt the smell was orange ice cream and none too strong. i would have like a much stronger scent. the lather was all right but I like RR XXX better. I'll try the other scents tomorrow and this weekend. I also used the don marco balm and found it really nice. scent is still subtle but moisturized very nicely. so i liked the balm but the soap isn't any better than any of my other italian soaps and the scent was too weak.

[JCinPA]

Wow! These are really great shaving soaps! Last couple shaves have been terrific!

I'm kind of anal about these things, but I like to have one scent from one maker, and I think this one will be Don Marco. I will try the Nonno Michelangelo (sandalwood) tomorrow to be sure, but I think the Don Marco is going in my standard lineup.

The Zi Peppino is very nice. I know it is different that Tabac, but for those of you who can't pick up the fact that it is in the same family of scents need to have your sniffers recalibrated! I just like the Tabac scent better, and it's a classic performer, so I won't add the Zi Peppino to my lineup for that reason.

Current lineup of always haves:

• Tabac
• Proraso green soap
• TOBS Rose cream
• Queen Charlotte Green Irish Tweed cream
• RazoRock Artisan Mughetto di Bologna

To that, I think I will be adding the Don Marco, final determination soon. At that point, I think I'll stop collecting. Other things may float in/out of rotation on occasion, but for the most part I will lock down my favorite lineup.

Boy, these are nice shaving soaps!

[Sqratch]

Wow... I am very surprised by this, I feel like you more than likely didnt mix the lather correctly. This soap is one of the best performing soaps I have used and I have used a lot of different soaps. Give it a few more lathers and I am sure you will say the same. The scent is not overpowering but I feel it's perfect and doesn't overpower my colognes.

I got my Italian Barber package last night. Tried Don Marco this morning. I felt the smell was orange ice cream and none too strong. i would have like a much stronger scent. the lather was all right but I like RR XXX better. I'll try the other scents tomorrow and this weekend. I also used the don marco balm and found it really nice. scent is still subtle but moisturized very nicely. so i liked the balm but the soap isn't any better than any of my other italian soaps and the scent was too weak.

[kingfisher]

My soaps arrived today. I got Don Marco and Cumba Cheech. I haven't lathered either one of them, but my sniffer likes both of them. I actually think I prefer the Cumba Cheech. It's got a really nice floral scent. I'll see what they smell like lathered up.

[kingfisher]

So this morning I tried out the Cumba Cheech for the shave.

Lathered up nicely without much effort. Made a creamy, stable lather. Loved the scent, which was subtle and nice.

Unfortunately, I had probably the worst shave I've had in about six months. Not sure if it had anything to do with the soap; may have been careless or had a bad blade. I'll definitely try this one multiple times with multiple razors and mutiple blades before I say anything negative about the cushion of the soap. Too many variables in my shaving routine.....

Post-shave face feel was OK, but not as nice as what I am used to with Mystic Water soaps or even with the RR Artisan line Boston Tea Party. Updates to come after more time and experience with the soap.

[TallyShave]

I hate posting very initial impressions, but I have used this soap a few times now and lathered several more. I have had some mixed results with these soaps. However, I have produced some wonderful lather so I knew/know there is potential there. This morning I went back to my old trusted theory...more is more. More loading, more water, more mixing. I loaded for about a full minute with a fairly wet brush and then went to town. The resulting lather was very nice...the cushion and comfort during the shave was outstanding. I would like to get it a little slicker, but will continue to tweak. I think the concept of "very easy loading" has been exaggerated with these soaps and I think this may be causing issues for some who assume you can just load it up in 15 seconds. For anyone having issues, I would suggest trying the more is more approach. At these prices, there is no need to worry about how much you are using.

I also think these soaps would also benefit from a larger container and I plan to move mine. As discussed above, I think these soaps require a good bit of loading and that can be tricky in such a small container. Similar to Cella, I think a larger bowl would make it much easier to really load it up nicely.

[CGBradley]

At first I was not sure about the Zi Peppino soap and ASB that I got. It seemed to me to smell overwhelmingly soapy (almost an Ivory soap smell). This was neither bad nor good, it just was. Now, having used both several times, I can report that my initial impression was wrong. Zi Peppino seems to me now to be a fairly complex scent (that I cannot do justice with a description), which has grown on me to the extent that I have found myself rubbing my face and checking the scent on my hand just to get a fresh whiff of it. It's fantastic.
As far as performance, I am still fairly new to building lather but have gotten good results with this product. As primarily a face latherer, I have used the Marco method to get a slick rich lather, which, as far as I can tell, provides good cushion.
All in all, the Zi Peppino (and Don Marco, which I test lathered yesterday) are great products, and I am very happy with my purchase.

[The Nid Hog]

I got the four tubs I ordered yesterday and gave the bergamot/neroli a try this morning. In the tub, I notice the same Creamsicle fragrance that people have described, but I think it opens up into a more citrusy scent as you lather it. It doesn't evoke any of the bergamot or neroli fragrances that I'm familiar with, but it's an excellent soap. This should be a very nice way to start the day this summer.

[brucered]

So this morning I tried out the Cumba Cheech for the shave.

Lathered up nicely without much effort. Made a creamy, stable lather. Loved the scent, which was subtle and nice.

Unfortunately, I had probably the worst shave I've had in about six months. Not sure if it had anything to do with the soap; may have been careless or had a bad blade. I'll definitely try this one multiple times with multiple razors and mutiple blades before I say anything negative about the cushion of the soap. Too many variables in my shaving routine.....

Post-shave face feel was OK, but not as nice as what I am used to with Mystic Water soaps or even with the RR Artisan line Boston Tea Party. Updates to come after more time and experience with the soap.

these are my thought as well. i have the TFS BN, not the RR versions. i used it yesterday after not using it for a while and had good looking lather, good consistency but a bad shave and terrible post shave skin feel. not as protective as my others products, not as moisturizing, and yes i used plenty of product.

here's what i'm thinking: TFS got a lot of publicity and forum time from the group buy. shortly after (a few months) RR announced they would be sold under new names for the RazoRock line at unheard of prices but be identical to the $30 soap that many of us had just purchased. now, after people have started using them, they are coming the realization, they are not as good as say QCS or the RR KL/888/Artisan lines and other products. for me the big thing holding TFS back is the moisturizing post shave feel, that QCS, MW and others have going for them. yes, you can put a balm on, but my shave with TFS yesterday was followed with a balm and my skin still felt horrible all day.

i'm guessing many of the experienced users (not all) will find these products good and well worth $5-8 but they won't take over for GFT, CF, MdC, Cella and/or whatever your favorite products are. most if not all of us are past looking at prices for shave products and nickel and dimeing it. we don't care if a soap/cream costs us $15-20 or $5-10, as long as it works and protects during the shave, smells good and leaves our faces feeling how we want them. if this had been one of my initial products when i got in to wet shaving, i would have thought it was FANTASTIC, coming from electric and canned goo, but after using so many top tier and top quality products over the past year, the TFS just doesn't compete with many, if not all of my current soaps/creams.

my TFS has been relegated to break in brush duty and kids shave duty. the fancy container has been cleaned and filled with Valobra Lavanda, to class that one up a bit.

my thoughts and opinions are not directed at anyone specific and i hope no one takes them as such and as always, YMMW. i am very happy for all of you who are getting these soaps to work. at $5-8 a pop, it's wonderful to see.

[insomniac]

I got the four tubs I ordered yesterday and gave the bergamot/neroli a try this morning. In the tub, I notice the same Creamsicle fragrance that people have described, but I think it opens up into a more citrusy scent as you lather it. It doesn't evoke any of the bergamot or neroli fragrances that I'm familiar with, but it's an excellent soap. This should be a very nice way to start the day this summer.

I agree with the scent description, it seems to be straight orange-citrus. Describing it as Bergamot Neroli is inaccurate IMHO.

here's what i'm thinking: TFS got a lot of publicity and forum time from the group buy. shortly after (a few months) RR announced they would be sold under new names for the RazoRock line at unheard of prices but be identical to the $30 soap that many of us had just purchased. now, after people have started using them, they are coming the realization, they are not as good as say QCS or the RR KL/888/Artisan lines and other products. for me the big thing holding TFS back is the moisturizing post shave feel, that QCS, MW and others have going for them. yes, you can put a balm on, but my shave with TFS yesterday was followed with a balm and my skin still felt horrible all day.

This was me yesterday as well - I used the BN and had razor burn for about half the day. Today I used another croap, QCS, and my face feels great with no burn.

[7 O Menthol]

you can put a balm on, but my shave with TFS yesterday was followed with a balm and my skin still felt horrible all day.

This was me yesterday as well - I used the BN and had razor burn for about half the day. Today I used another croap, QCS, and my face feels great with no burn.

I'm sorry to hear these results, gentlemen. Just to add a bit of YMMV variety, I had my first ever TFS shave last night (also don marco), and I did so using a new Semogue, which was only on its second lather.

Even with the brush being in less than ideal circumstances, and with this being my first attempt at lathering TFS, I ended up with what I considered a superb face feel. Adding some of the matching balm was just the icing on the cake.

I realize I have far less lathering experience than either of you, but I am putting this up against some other great "after shave face feel" soaps. I have enjoyed MWF, Mike's Natural Soaps, and Mystic Waters.... all of which seem to be well known for their after shave face feel. I'm hesitant to draw a direct comparison between these and the TFS this early in the game, and with a less than ideal brush, but I was certainly pleased with my initial results.

[brucered]

Even with the brush being in less than ideal circumstances, and with this being my first attempt at lathering TFS, I ended up with what I considered a superb face feel. Adding some of the matching balm was just the icing on the cake.

good to hear and goes to show you, not all products are for everyone and another case of YMMV.

someone else had suggested skin type difference and how our bodies react to them and it makes sense.

[Fileroman]

I ordered all four of the new La Fam soaps and have been going through them this week. Have to say the lather from each is insane. This is what was left after a three pass shave (and I like the Santa Claus look ). Loaded the brush for 30 seconds or so, whipped it up and used a fresh SI in the razor. Great shave and my skin is very moisturized. Followed it with a pea sized dab of 444 mixed with Floid blue. Gents, it doesn't get much better.



Ron

[TallyShave]

Interesting comments. This product seemed to get better reviews when it was hard to find, came with a fancy bowl and cost $30+. Hmmm...

[josie67]

I have both the TFS (BN and green tobacco) and the RR counterparts. After using them side by side, the RR versions are EXACTLY THE SAME as the TFS. They not only perform the same but they look and smell exactly the same too, which is to say, they are outstanding.