Provence Santé site - very interesting!

[chrisbell]

Provence Santé's Verlaine was the first hard shaving soap I ever tried, and, when we had a group buy about 18 months ago, I stocked-up on it, as the Provence Santé site only listed a new, citrus-oil formulation. As I recall, this new version contained talc, though I was never able to ascertain whether this was the case with Verlaine. Anyway, after mentioning it in a thread earlier today, I casually visited the company site, and, surprisingly, their current shaving soap contains linden and vervain http://www.provencesante.fr/?p=prod...4&PS=9bc906fde9cdff1042d09ea9004ac442&idCat=4, and therefore appears to be the old soap minus the Verlaine name.

Shipping to the UK for orders under 75 Euros is expensive, though (14.50 Euros), so it might be better for someone to organise a group buy if there was interest. I hasten to add that I am unable to organise a group buy, but I just thought I'd mention that it appears that the old favourite is in production again.:icon_cool:

 

[SmallBeard]

I've snagged a puck originally from the group buy from Audiolab, and I'm very much looking forward to trying it!

I've tried Tabac, and was really impressed. How good is this against the Tabac performance wise?

 

[chrisbell]

I've snagged a puck originally from the group buy from Audiolab, and I'm very much looking forward to trying it!

I've tried Tabac, and was really impressed. How good is this against the Tabac performance wise?

Takes a little more work to lather than Tabac, IMO (but then again, what hard soap doesn't?), but it compares well in both cushion and lubrication, though perhaps not quite as high in lubrication as Tabac. Post-shave care is, I'd say, probably better - the shea butter puts it only just behind MWF for my money in terms of post-shave care. Scent is a mix of vervain (verbena) and linden - quite a sweet floral.

P.S. Bear in mind they used to make a green tea version as well (never used it, but, as far as I'm aware it was the same stuff with a different aroma). In addition, as I said, both were supposed to have been replaced by a citrus-based soap about 12-18 months back, but I've yet to find any reference to such a version on the forums.

 

[SmallBeard]

I've snagged a puck originally from the group buy from Audiolab, and I'm very much looking forward to trying it!

I've tried Tabac, and was really impressed. How good is this against the Tabac performance wise?

Takes a little more work to lather than Tabac, IMO (but then again, what hard soap doesn't?), but it compares well in both cushion and lubrication, though perhaps not quite as high in lubrication as Tabac. Post-shave care is, I'd say, probably better than Tabac - the shea butter puts it only just behind MWF for my money in terms of post-shave care. Scent is a mix of vervain (verbena) and linden - quite a sweet floral.

Thank you

Tabac is the easiest lathering ANYTHING I've tried, and hard soaps are more work but it's good to mix it up a bit. It will be nice to have a decent hard soap. Tabac leaves my skin feeling great, so if this outperforms it on that front then I have a lot to look forward to.

MWF is, from what I've read, is notorious for being an arse needing more work to lather up, I have a sample here which I'm yet to try, I know I'll have my work cut out! But again, if the post shave care is good, then it's worth the effort IMHO.

I'm never any good at describing scents, but floral sounds good to me, thank you for the information . I'm certainly excited about trying it, this is the only outlet where I can announce my excitement for a soap and not be deemed sad or weird. At least I hope I won't be :icon_razz::angel:

Alex

 

[chrisbell]

I've snagged a puck originally from the group buy from Audiolab, and I'm very much looking forward to trying it!

I've tried Tabac, and was really impressed. How good is this against the Tabac performance wise?

Takes a little more work to lather than Tabac, IMO (but then again, what hard soap doesn't?), but it compares well in both cushion and lubrication, though perhaps not quite as high in lubrication as Tabac. Post-shave care is, I'd say, probably better than Tabac - the shea butter puts it only just behind MWF for my money in terms of post-shave care. Scent is a mix of vervain (verbena) and linden - quite a sweet floral.

Thank you

Tabac is the easiest lathering ANYTHING I've tried, and hard soaps are more work but it's good to mix it up a bit. It will be nice to have a decent hard soap. Tabac leaves my skin feeling great, so if this outperforms it on that front then I have a lot to look forward to.

MWF is, from what I've read, is notorious for being an arse needing more work to lather up, I have a sample here which I'm yet to try, I know I'll have my work cut out! But again, if the post shave care is good, then it's worth the effort IMHO.

I'm never any good at describing scents, but floral sounds good to me, thank you for the information . I'm certainly excited about trying it, this is the only outlet where I can announce my excitement for a soap and not be deemed sad or weird. At least I hope I won't be :icon_razz::angel:

Alex

I've got very hard water here, and MWF is definitely a bugger to lather, though it's damn good when you get it right. As I understand it, the softer your water, the less temperamental it is, though I'd still suggest loading the brush well.

 

[Yellow Jim]

I organised the very first group buy Chris (prior to the one your talking about) and I don't think the soap has ever changed. It's always contained talc. At one point they were thinking about updating their whole men's line, but it never happened.

 

[Bechet]

At the time I ran the last one, the old hands were greatly concerned about the buy being of the new formulation (unknown) rather than the old formulation (well regarded). As it turned out, we got the old formulation and everyone was pleased. Are we now saying there wasn't a new formulation - it never happened? Or that another new formulation (the new, new formulation) didn't happen?

Whatever, I have a still wrapped puck of that soap - the Verlaine, old formulation - sitting in my cabinet. If anybody wants it, PM me and we can work out a price - you could search out the Group Buy and discover what we all paid for a puck back then. It's brilliant stuff but I have a puck in use and anyway have gotten lazy and gone to creams and soft soaps.

 

[chrisbell]

I organised the very first group buy Chris (prior to the one your talking about) and I don't think the soap has ever changed. It's always contained talc. At one point they were thinking about updating their whole men's line, but it never happened.

That's what I suspected.

---

At the time I ran the last one, the old hands were greatly concerned about the buy being of the new formulation (unknown) rather than the old formulation (well regarded). As it turned out, we got the old formulation and everyone was pleased. Are we now saying there wasn't a new formulation - it never happened? Or that another new formulation (the new, new formulation) didn't happen?

Sounds like the former, Carl (see Yellow Jim's response above) - the Verlaine name seems to have been dropped, possibly at the request of the descendents of Paul Verlaine, but the ingredients suggest that it's still the same soap.

Whatever, I have a still wrapped puck of that soap - the Verlaine, old formulation - sitting in my cabinet. If anybody wants it, PM me and we can work out a price - you could search out the Group Buy and discover what we all paid for a puck back then. It's brilliant stuff but I have a puck in use and anyway have gotten lazy and gone to creams and soft soaps.

Here's an idea, Carl - I'm cutting a disc from my current puck to send to NotTheStig in exchange for some soap stick discs. Would it be do-able for you to do the same with yours? That way, several people could try samples, as opposed to one person receiving the whole puck and then, if they don't like it or it causes irritation, they've got much more to pass on or dump.