A Bittersweet Cella Experience!

Well, thought I may as well add my Cella experience here:

My experience was up 'till now, bittersweet. I have the small red 10 dollar tub.

The sweet: It smells great! And unlike TOBS almond, the scent lingers in my mug and foam. Very nice! And despite my rushing and producing a relatively poor lather, I got a good, comfortable, reasonably lubricated shave, I believe better than my TOBS, and that was with my very mediocre lathering! I'm hooked! And I've always love Italian personal care products. I'd like to make it my current daily! And the price is right.

Now for the bitter (possibly): I have skin allergies, and they've been acting-up a bit lately, but they seemed to have back down the last two weeks when I ditched the Edge Gel for TOBS. Well, that is until yesterday, where it felt like I had a slight allergic reaction to my first use of the Cella. I haven't used it today. I get no reactions to the TOBS, even though it's also an Almond scent.

A little research here shows a very small few believe they've had allergic reactions to Cella, but it would seem to be a pretty rare occurrence from the vast preponderance of good experiences.

So I can't say for sure it's the Cella, and I'm going to withhold judgement on that for now, and revisit the Cella in a bit. I hope it's not the Cella, 'cuz I really like it and would like to make it my regular soap.

Like I said: A bittersweet experience!

Indeed that's a bummer - maybe.

You may be allergic to something in Cella, but before you arrive at that conclusion here are a few things to check first:

1. Usually allergic reactions come from fragrance/essential oils used to provide scent to the soap or cream rather than an actual core part of the soap.
2. Try small sample of the lather on the inner elbow joint and see what happens.
3. Wait a week, or two and give it a try again. My experience (not based on any science, or other B&B posts - so take with a grain of salt) is that our skin changes, sometimes becoming slightly inflamed and other times dialing becoming less inflamed.

If you are partial to Cella, but it turns out that indeed it's not for you. Perhaps you could try Cella-like shave soaps such as Valobra's soft soap, Vitos or some of the RazoRock alternatives.

Wishing success!

OT, I know, but it always strikes me that so many post about Cella in the creams subforum.

Cella contains tallow, which is rendered beef fat. TOBS uses glycerin. Some people are sensitive to one or the other. I prefer tallow based cremes like Cella and Proraso. Mitchell's Wool Fat is lanolin based (sheep fat) and irritates my face. Glycerin soaps and cremes don't bother my skin but they don't leave it feeling as good as tallow. Find the type that gives you the best shave and leaves your face feeliing good all day!


Marty

I thought I was allergic to a Chiseled Face soap..I revisited it and I had no irritating burn so it was most likely my shaving technique at the time. That being said, I had a burn with Caties Bubbles LPV and I tried to give it another shot and it once again felt like hot sauce on my face so I'm definitely allergic to LPV. So now I'm stuck with an 8oz tub of soap I can't use but love the scent and it lathers like nothing else. It happens, soaps we want to love just don't work for our skin. I'd recommend you give Cella another try and if it irritates you again, just cut your losses because it wasn't meant to be.

Cella was my first quality soap when I (re)started wet-shaving. I read all the praises and just had to try it.

Loved the fragrance, lathered it up and shaved. I had quite a bit of redness, and I thought I had wasted my money on something I was allergic to.

After some thought, I realized that my lather wasn't wet enough, and therefore my shave was impacted by a not-so-slick lather...hence the irritation.

I read about the Marco Method, tried it...voila!! Very slick smooth shave...and no irritation! Cella was -- and is -- in my rotation. I'm partial to hard soaps, so Cella doesn't get used all that often, but when it is...it's very good indeed.

Bottom line: Cella (like all soaps, actually) has its own unique lathering requirements. Test the soap on you arm to be sure you're not allergic first. And if you're OK...try fine-tuning the lathering technique.

Thank you all, very much!

Yep, going to revisit the Cella down the road, soon.

The good news is: my concerns may get me to back-step a bit on my emerging AD, which is a good thing!

Still going to get some samples from Shannon's Soaps, though.