Czech & Speake Oxford and Cambridge Shaving Soap

[longplay]

Forgot to post this from a few weeks back:

For such a premium product I was expecting a premium experience. Perhaps it was due to only using a small sample, but this didn't impress.

Creating suds was fine, but I was forced to go back and load again in order to achieve a decent lather on several occasions. The provided slickness wasn't great even then.

Protection was likewise found wanting and I picked up nicks on all of my shaves. You wouldn't mind if the finish was good, but on all bar one occasion it was barely better than average.

Very odd considering this is supposedly made by Valobra.

As a proclaimed fragrance house you would expect this to be a strong point, only it wasn't for me. The scent strength wasn't very potent and the Oxford and Cambridge fragrance — described as a mix of lavender, peppermint and rosemary — didn't stand out. It was pleasant enough but not something I'd need to try again.

As I say, maybe I didn't use enough of the product, but for me this didn't deliver anywhere near where it needed to for the price to be justified.

Full review here.

 

[Bogeyman]

Sometimes with small samples it can be difficult get the whole "nine yards" experience wise IMO. It can be a SOB to lather from such a small container and you have to resort to transporting a large portion to a bowl to get more surface area. Just my 2 cents.

 

[Bandito]

I'm a big fan of this. The fragrance is somewhat muted compared to the edt, and it is compromised by a clay / tallow note.

Performance wise however I find it excellent and it is a Valobra soap. I also don't regard it as a particularly expensive soap, although the aluminium does add a significant premium .

 

[Len]

C&S O&C is in my top 3 for soaps. As mentioned above, in my experience for whatever reason, samples of soaps very often do not bring out the best measure of a soap. Also, I would note that if you find the performance of Valobra very good but do not find the performance of C&S to measure up, the issue cannot be with the soap itself as it contains the same base.

As to price, it is expensive for a hard soap. However, being triple milled, it will last much longer than any artisan soft soap or cream, and on a per shave basis is much cheaper than any of these.