L'Occitane cade

I'm on my second puck of this, and I still don't seem to be able to get it right. You may wonder why I returned to it a second time. I badly wanted to like it! The scent, the bowl and the whole Provence-thing ;)

The lather always looks nice, but offers little glide and protection. I mean, I get acceptable shaves with it, but it's not Tabac-standard.

Anyway, I guess it will still hold a spot in the rotation(that bowl looks nice) and maybe someday I'll get it right :|
 
You are a better man than me Elman, if i got to the end of a whole cake of soap and still thought it was mediocre I doubt I would embark on a second one. There are so many excellent ones and too few shaves to try them all.

I admire your persistence but if it ain't working for you it doesn't mean you are wrong, no matter how well it works for someone else it may not suit you.
 
Shaved with this for the first time today, after trial lathering it yesterday, so thought I'd post a review.

Price: Just under a tenner for a refill cake is pricey, but it's a sizeable thing, and, being triple-milled, should last well.

Scent: Unusual and distinctive, at first I was unsure about it, but it's definitely grown on me. I can't describe it except to say that it's not pungent or aggressive at all - it speaks softly but carries a big stick.

Latherability: Superb - I have very hard water and it lathered easily with a damp Semogue 1305, taking much less swirling than Provence Santé. Another difference is that the Cade takes a lot of water before it explodes and develops it's full lubricating properties.

Cushion and lubrication: Top notch - once thoroughly hydrated it's dense yet not tacky and very slick. It needs a lot of water, but is well worth the time and effort.

Moisturisation: Could have been slightly better - I completed the shave with some of Sunbury's Barbershop Bay Rum and my face felt a little dry afterwards. Probably best to use a balm after shaving with his soap - but this is, IMO, the only area where Provence Santé outperforms the Cade.
 
I had the greatest difficulty in lathering the cream until I found out that it was brushless (according to a subscriber on SMF)
Might consider the soap at some point. (swapsies anyone?)
 
Adding my thoughts about the soap:

Having found the cream to be excellent and hearing good things about the soap I had high expectations, maybe too high. It would be fair to say it didn't blow my socks off.

I like the juniper fragrance, but I didn't get a lot of it. Blooming it seemed to help, but even then I had to hunt for it and it all but vanished while shaving. So not an olfactory smash.

Slickness was hit-and-miss, generally good but never outstanding. Protection was found wanting a few times too.

Post shave feel was generally up to snuff though, but not exactly top-notch.

It would be fair to say I wasn't as enamoured with this as I was with the cream. Which may be moot as it's not currently available on the UK website (and the cream is sold out), so your chance to pick this up may have passed anyway. There are rumours it's being discontinued, but maybe they're planning to relaunch it. Going on my experience, I won't miss it if it stays dead.

Full review here.
 
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