New Soap Photos - I Coloniali, Tcheon Fung Sing

Good morning gentlemen. I just received four new shave soaps yesterday. I Coloniali and Tcheon Fung Sing. First let me say that J&E Atkinsons has a CLUE when it comes to packaging. Too many times we see expensive items in low rent plastic whatever type of packaging. The I Coloniali approach is a bit better in my opinion and somewhat exudes an exclusiveness to them. Very identifiable. If you have spent any time looking over their website, class is word that keeps coming to mind. Having said that the soap had better perform well because it is quite possibly the ugliest shave soap cake I have ever seen. No uniformity to the cake, pock marks, cracks, and gaping holes abound. I loved it. To me this bespeaks a bit of hand made quality. A very indistinct stamp looking mark on the top of the cake is all that kept it from looking a bit like an unformed, overcooked scone. I still loved it.

The TFS soaps have a wonderfully understated, old school look to the soap wrappers that I really appreciated. Again, it gives the product a bit more upscale look. Classic and classy all at the same time. The cake itself its a bit mottled in colour but with the name stamp in it the look is old world, old school all the way. So without further gilding the lily here are the shots.









Mashed into aluminium tin I grabbed at WCS. It was a scratch and dent which seemed to suit this soap!

Tcheon Fung Sing. I really like the old school look of them.

Tobacco Verde

Bergamotto Neroli. Sorry, I forgot to snap a shot of the ingredients.



Zagara & Gelsomino

Great images and prose!

Looking at the pictures, I can fully agree with your opinions. Hopefully the soaps will perform well.

The Coloniali err.. blob.. really does look a bit sad... good thing they ship it in a classy looking paper bag.

I shaved with the I Coloniali this morning. A bit interesting. If I had to compare it to another soap the first that came to mind was Mystic Water. Mystic was not as pock marked and crumbly as the IC but that is not really the story. IC lahter building was very similar to Mystic. I built a thick paste and added water. And then more. And then some more. The lather was closest to Mystic Lily of the Valley or the unscented. I did not find the shave to be quite as efficacious as Mystic but mind that Mystic LofV is the best soap for me. This is tall company. It lathered easily, was protective and the menthol was present though not a face freezer which I prefer. In honesty if the menthol was more prominent I would trade the soap away. I am very picky about menthol and the amount of it per product. I love Alt but cannot use Aqua Velva. This is usable for me but just so. The scent is very enjoyable to me. Note the photo of the IC contents. It says mango seed oil. I seriously doubt there is any mango fruit scent anywhere in it. The list says parfum so this could be synthetic, organic or both types of compounds for scent. The scent stayed subdued and was not really stronger than in the tin. I found the dried down remnant of the scent after rinsing to be quite masculine, a bit exotic, and gentlemanly. A requisite I would say for something with the name Atkinsons on it. I will use this a number of times before making a real review but did want to share some initial thoughts. The main one would be; Impressed.

Cheers, Todd

Nice pics and write up. I love getting new soaps.

I really like that I Coloniali. I finally finished a puck, high praise indeed.

+1 on pics...:-D

Good afternoon chaps. I used the Tobacco Verde this morning and have to say I was more than impressed. First a comment about scent. These may be labeled intenso but I find them to be very mild. The scent melds into the lather and did not seem to bloom as other soaps do. Mores the pity as the scent is quite nice. Other than that it lathered like a top shelf tallow soap! I put the cake in one of those aluminium tins like the IC and covered it with hot water. After maybe one minute I dumped most of the water and started loading. The B&B le 2009 loaded fast and it bloomed up in a hurry. I started face lathering and it felt just like an old school English tallow soap before they were mostly reformulated into mediocrity. CREAMY is the only apt description. I painted it on and then added water multiple times to build and richen the lather. Very dense and stable. The shave was good and a/s feel was okay but I most certainly want to get a number of shaves under my belt before commenting further. It really drives home that soap base has less to do with lather quality than proper formulation. Whoever formulated this at TFS certainly knows their work. Future comments for both this soap and IC will be in discussion threads for each. I am motivated to take some lathering photos of Tobacco Verde. Stay tuned.

Cheers, Todd