The PIF Review Thread

riverrun

riverrun

Joined
Monday July 28, 2014
Location
Brighton
After much consideration (5 minutes) just sniffing and looking, here are my first conclusions
No 1 - Lavender. Different from my favourites CF and T&H. Definitely added colouring.
No 2 - Soap. Smells similar to De Vergulde Hand
No 3 - Sage? Maybe some Rosemary? Definitely herby.
 
Got mine through this morning too!

I did a three pass shave using a different sample for each pass. Same brush, same razor, same blade. I washed my face with some face wash between passes and dried it with a towel to try and keep things fair.

1.

Scent - 3/10 (Don't like lavender but it seemed quite natural and not synthetic)
Slickness - 8/10
Cushion - 10/10
Post Shave - 8/10
Cost - High
Guess - Meißner Tremonia

2.

Scent - 5/10 (Barbershop - bit generic)
Slickness - 6/10
Cushion - 3/10
Post Shave - 5/10
Cost - Low
Guess - Edwin Jagger Cream

3.

Scent - 8/10 (Sweet, spicy)
Slickness - 7/10
Cushion - 10/10
Post Shave - 7/10
Cost - Medium/High
Guess - Wickham's Club Cola?

Ok, so in terms of performance I would say number 1 was the best and number 2 was the poorest. Scent wise (which is obviously subjective) I would put them in reverse order (3,2,1).

Excellent fun this. Really enjoyed it so many thanks to Nick for setting it up. Looking forward to hearing what thoughts riverrun and JayGee have and also as to what these samples actually are!
 
Day 1 - PIF sample #1

I have noticed that I hadn't used my Digress razor in a little over three months. It feels like 90% of my shaves this year have been SE/Injector shaves. Last week I thought I should use this lovely razor again and I have now decided that all my shaves with the PIF samples will use the same basic setup:

Preshave whatever...
MÜHLE 33K257 synthetic brush
PIF cream, bowl lathered in my Suribachi bowl.
Digress with a PolSilver blade on 2.5
Aftershave whatever...

Sample #1 is a very soft cream, with an artificial bright purple colour. The scent (unless my nose is tricked by the colour) is lavenderish, but not as earthy as my Truefitt&Hill or Castle Forbes (which are also much lighter in colour). It's as if there are some fresh citrus notes somewhere underneath. It's certainly not an overpowering scent. I love my strong, pure lavenders, so 5/10 is the most I can award.
A small amount lathered up quite easily and gave a lot of lather, enough for my standard 4 pass pass-around (or PIF in this case) routine. It's not as slick as other creams (T&H is a 10/10 slickness cream for me) so this gets a 6/10 from me. Cushion was OK, 8/10 perhaps.
The shave however was amazing. Welcome back, Digress. I missed you. As smooth as it gets, so the cream can't be all bad. The lather did collapse a little bit on the last two passes, but that could be me using the wrong amount of water. We'll see.
Post shave was good 8/10.
SWMBO is not in until much later, so I finished off with Cella Eau de Lavande (“What's that awful smell? You smell like my grandmother. Don't use that again!”). Now (that's) lavender.
I can't rank the samples yet. As for a guess what it is… Based on the colour and a Google image search…. I have a theory…
TOBS?
:p

Thanks, Nick. Excellent fun indeed.
TBC... Sample #2 tomorrow...
 
Morning all!

Here is the thread to review the three nameless samples, the control Palmolive stick and if you wish, the blade samples provided.

To recap, there were the three unmarked (bar 1,2,3) pots, the control subject (Palmolive stick) and three blade samples. I'd like the users to give a little feedback as to how you would rate them. The criteria are each scored 1-10 (1 being the lowest, 10 being the highest score), and are as follows:

Scent
Glide/Slickness
Cushion (protection from blade)
Post Shave Finish

Once that's worked out, I'd like you to put them in order of preference, with a guestimate of the cost of the item (designated as budget item, average item, expensive item etc, whichever you see fit).

The participants are @riverrun, @JayGee and @MikeyJ :)
 
Day 2 - Pif sample #2

MÜHLE 33K257 synthetic brush
PIF cream #2, bowl lathered in my Suribachi bowl.
Digress with a PolSilver blade (second use) on 2.5

Sample #2 is an even softer cream than #1. It think this cream comes in a tube. The color is a neutral ‘cream' and the scent is a fairly classical barbershop soapy smell. Nothing special, but a scent I could live with every day. Middle of the road. 5/10.
A small amount lathered up very easily and gave a vast amount of lather. After four passes I had plenty left over. No lather collapse this time. Creamy lather right to the end.
I was quite happy with the slickness. After the lather was removed from the face, the skin was still nice and slippery. No complaints. 9/10.
Cushion was OK, again 8/10, just like cream #1.
Another great shave from the Digress. AGAIG.
Post shave was OK 7/10.
I finished off with Cella Colonia Classica and some Speick Intensive Facial Cream. That stuff doesn't smell very nice, but it does work.

I think this is a fairly bog standard shaving cream as found all around the Mediterranean. All in all a very good performer. Are the three included blades a hint? I guess it might be something like
Super-Max
.

TBC. Sample #3 tomorrow.
 
Okay, test lathered the Palmolive last night & glad I did, it was all I used for years before getting distracted by much, much dearer artisan offerings. It is amazingly good, better than most @£10/100g & 10x cheaper!
I will shave at the end with it against my favourite of the 3.

The tools:
Ikon deluxe oc
Perma-sharp blade
TGC synthetic stubby brush.
Prep is a hot shower, wash beard with some pears soap.
I've been using the above combo for the last 2 weeks with great results.

This morning, sample #1.
2days growth.
Blade on 4th use.
A cream type & very easy to lather.
Provided more than enough for 3 passes from a small dip & twist of the brush, picking up a pea sized ball of product. Thought I would probably need some more product later, really didn't.

The scent is lavender & very good.
Unfortunately something in this soap reacted with my skin, I'm still red/itchy now.

Shave itself was okay, I managed 3 passes.
The irritation to the soap was noticed whilst building lather on my face from the start. A decent close shave with no nicks or cuts.

Scent 9/10
Loved the scent, lavender is a favourite.
It is straight up lavender, simple.

Glide 7/10
above average, there is better for sure. It swallowed quite a lot of water & was pretty slick.

Cushion 5/10
Didn't get that feeling of pushing through the lather which a top notch product generally provides, it worked fine though. No nicks or weepers.

Post shave 0/10
Face is on fire! This is just me, without my allergic reaction I'm sure it would be decent.

Conclusion:
A decent mid-tier cream. Something like ToBs or Trumpers. Unfortunately not suited to my skin. Great scent.

Will leave it to Saturday for sample # 2 to give my face some time to settle down.
 
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JayGee said:
Okay, test lathered the Palmolive last night & glad I did, it was all I used for years before getting distracted by much, much dearer artisan offerings. It is amazingly good, better than most @£10/100g & 10x cheaper!
I will shave at the end with it against my favourite of the 3.

The tools:
Ikon deluxe oc
Perma-sharp blade
TGC synthetic stubby brush.
Prep is a hot shower, wash beard with some pears soap.
I've been using the above combo for the last 2 weeks with great results.

This morning, sample #1.
2days growth.
Blade on 4th use.
A cream type & very easy to lather.
Provided more than enough for 3 passes from a small dip & twist of the brush, picking up a pea sized ball of product. Thought I would probably need some more product later, really didn't.

The scent is lavender & very good.
Unfortunately something in this soap reacted with my skin, I'm still red/itchy now.

Shave itself was okay, I managed 3 passes.
The irritation to the soap was noticed whilst building lather on my face from the start. A decent close shave with no nicks or cuts.

Scent 9/10
Loved the scent, lavender is a favourite.
It is straight up lavender, simple.

Glide 7/10
above average, there is better for sure. It swallowed quite a lot of water & was pretty slick.

Cushion 5/10
Didn't get that feeling of pushing through the lather which a top notch product generally provides, it worked fine though. No nicks or weepers.

Post shave 0/10
Face is on fire! This is just me, without my allergic reaction I'm sure it would be decent.

Conclusion:
A decent mid-tier cream. Something like ToBs or Trumpers. Unfortunately not suited to my skin. Great scent.

Will leave it to Saturday for sample # 2 to give my face some time to settle down.
Click to expand...
Sorry to hear about the reaction :( You are correct in your thoughts that the cream (at least for me) offers a decent post shave otherwise.
 
Day 3 - Pif sample #3

MÜHLE 33K257 synthetic brush
PIF cream #2, bowl lathered in my Suribachi bowl.
Digress with a PolSilver blade (first use) on 2.5

Sample #3 is a paste rather than a cream. The consistency reminded me of Meissner Tremonia paste. The scent reminds me of sage with hints of pine. Quite pleasant and quite strong. 8/10.
A small amount lathered up vast amounts of lather, but it didn't look as creamy as I expected it to be.
I was disappointed by the slickness. Nowhere near as goos as sample #2. Not slippery at all after removing lather from the face with the razor. 3/10
Cushion was not great either. I got two weepers that I didn't get when using either of the other creams. 3/10
Post shave was OK 7/10.
I finished off with Tüff Sensitiv ASL and Paco Rabanne EdT. It worked well with the scent of the cream.
As I was disappointed with the lather, I put another pea size bit of the cream into my suribachi bowl and starting lathering up with a merely moist brush, adding more and more water until the lather collapsed into a runny mess. At no point in between did the lather look great. Maybe I'll try face lathering, but so far I'm not impressed.

Because of the nice scent and the consistency I'm going to guess Meissner Tremonia here.

So here are my preliminary rankings:

Scent: (best first)
  1. Sample #3
  2. Sample #1
  3. Sample #2
Performance: (best first)
  1. Sample #2
  2. Sample #1
  3. Sample #3
Price: (lowest first)
  1. Sample #2
  2. Sample #1
  3. Sample #3
I have used each sample only once, so if I use more/less product/water I might get different results. I'll report back again when all the samples are gone or if I learn something amazing in the meantime.
 
Yesterday morning, sample #2, (sorry typo)

2days growth.
Perma-Sharp Blade on 5th use.

A cream type & even easier to lather than the first sample, not quite as economical though, needed a bit more product for the same number of passes.

The scent is clean & fresh, fabric conditioner like. Very pleasant, not strong.


Shave was a very enoyable 3 passes.
The results were good, I picked up a couple of small nicks which is unusual with this blade/razor combo.

Scent 8/10
Light & pleasant. I wouldn't buy this for the scent alone.

Glide 8/10
Well above average, lather was yogurt in no time (face lathered). For me the stand out quality of this soap, super easy to get a decent lather no special technique (mwf), just a few drops of water and some light agitation.

Cushion 4.5/10
Felt fine during the shave, however, gave myself a couple of small nicks which is unusual.

Post shave 8/10
Very good, face felt great for the rest of the day. Well above average, knocking on the door of some tallow based soaps I have.

Conclusion:
Very good, I think if I hadn't had the reaction to sample 1, sample 1 would be in front.
It really isn't the norm to get any cuts however minor, so the cushion or something isn't quite there.
The look & ease of the lather generation was exceptional. A good solid choice for someone just starting out with a brush & soap.

Tonight sample #3 and then I plan a shave off:
Favourite of the three vs. Palmolive
Using the feather blade included in the PIF.

Thanks all,
Jg
 
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riverrun said:
I'd really like to know, but @JayGee has only tried one... Maybe his face is still on fire...
Click to expand...
Hello Andreas,. I'm back in the ring!
Was out all day yesterday & unable to post my review for #2.
3 will be tonight.
The reaction was quite bad, savlon sorted it.
Always seem to get a better shave with a couple of days growth, so not a bad thing.
Best,
Jon
 
Sample #3, finally

36hr beard
Perma-Sharp Blade on 6th use.

A croap & needed a fair bit more product than the previous samples for the full 3 passes,. I had to reload the brush with a tad more after the 1st pass as the lather was dying on the brush. A bit more soap & all was fine for a full 3 pass shave + some more.

The scent is terrific, very much to my liking.
Results were very good, best of the 3.

Scent 9.5/10
Reminds me of P&B Sanskrit with some added citrus, lovely. Not too strong, spot on.

Glide 8.5/10
A smidge in front of sample 2, I think I was on the cusp of having too much water in the mix for the 1st pass. After I reloaded the brush again giving a slightly stickier mix, it worked very well.

Cushion 6/10
With a slightly drier consistency the best of the bunch. I have had better results, it was decent.
No cuts or weepers, did the job. In fact, thought the blade was finished with sample 2, with this sample it felt good for a couple more shaves at least (usually get 6 shaves from perma-sharp).

Post shave 8. 5/10
Best of the 3, followed it up with some floid black, face feels great.

Conclusion:
I like this one, scent is lovely & a solid, not quite stellar, performance.

The scores on the doors:

1st is sample #3
I think this may be the expensive soap, well I liked it, so subjectively would pay more for it.

2nd is sample #2.
I think this is the budget item. Nothing wrong with it, scent was only okay & thats why I think it to be less expensive.

3rd is sample #1
I think this was actually quite good, unfortunately my reaction to it means it has to be last place.
This I feel is a dearer soap than #2, so that would make it the average price item.

Now I will read the other results, it's been a challenge to not peek!
A big thank you to @nick_s for the PIF, great idea, really enjoyed it.
I will review #3 vs. the mighty Palmolive, however
, please put us out of our misery, what are they?
 
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