I posed Matt's question to Darren Siebert last night by email. He quickly responded, but I was off to be so here's his reply the next morning:
"The EU made Shaving Station and all EU retailers to stop carrying US made products unless they obtain EU certification by fulfilling there product testing procedures...for every product in every scent. This certification comes with a big sticker price and is incredibly time consuming to work through. We have began the process but due to time constraints, we just simply cannot move forward on this certification process at this time. We have obtained information from an unbiased bath and beauty consulting firm that will walk us through it if/when we ever get that extra time. But as stated Maggard Razors, Shave Revolution and Luxury Barber all sell our products internationally."
So the good news is that folks in the UK can buy Soap Commander from many U.S. vendors, the bad news is that they won't have the convenience of having a British vendor.
Well, that's the E.U. for you isn't it. But in the unlikely event that everyone votes U.K.I.P. we'll be out of the E.U. I was surprised that Italian Barber doesn't have it either. The big problem with some U.S. retailers is that they want to charge a minimum of US$38 shipping to the U.K. whatever is bought. So that's US$38 to ship a pack of 5 razor blades thank you very much.
I posed Matt's question to Darren Siebert last night by email. He quickly responded, but I was off to be so here's his reply the next morning:
"The EU made Shaving Station and all EU retailers to stop carrying US made products unless they obtain EU certification by fulfilling there product testing procedures...for every product in every scent. This certification comes with a big sticker price and is incredibly time consuming to work through. We have began the process but due to time constraints, we just simply cannot move forward on this certification process at this time. We have obtained information from an unbiased bath and beauty consulting firm that will walk us through it if/when we ever get that extra time. But as stated Maggard Razors, Shave Revolution and Luxury Barber all sell our products internationally."
So the good news is that folks in the UK can buy Soap Commander from many U.S. vendors, the bad news is that they won't have the convenience of having a British vendor.
Wow thanks a million for going to the trouble you did to find out and get in touch with SC. This here folks is what is great about B&B!
I think I'll probably go with Maggard Razors for ordering some because I like the small family run business style they have.
Also true with the *** for tat US/UK products stuff. I really want Soap Commander & Wickham soaps now. So it's only the same situation if i were US based wanting the same products!
Do you recommend a scent of theirs to go for? My favourite scented cream is TOBS Shaving Shop (Funnily my first ever cream) and sort of citrus based ones like Penhaligons Endymion, I'm daily using MWF at the minute and actually enjoy the scent of that also. Not a big fan of lavender or things like that.
Tough break.
I've always been envious of European wet shavers because you can buy so many products for a lot less than we can in the U.S. However the artisan soap movement has been able to take route in the U.S. and Canada in a way that it hasn't in the EU countries.