Acqua di Parma Bath Soap for Shave Lathering

Well, I received my order of Acqua di Parma Colonia bath soaps, and I test lathered one with a brush and scuttle. It required quite a bit of work but did make fairly good lather, which improved markedly with the addition of a 1mm x 2mm dab (about the size of a pencil lead tip) of AdP Colonia shaving cream. Not the thickest or creamiest of lathers, but of moderate quality. It's definitely worth trying with a real shave, which I'll do sometime in the next couple days.

John, you definitely are adventurous, considering you have so many wonderful vintage soaps in your collection!

John, you definitely are adventurous, considering you have so many wonderful vintage soaps in your collection!

Celestino, exploring and experimenting - just playing - are a big part of the fun of wet shaving for me. Although I have more great soaps now than I'll ever use up, I still like to play.

With one of my best brushes and a lot of effort, the AdP bath soap, with a tiny dab of added AdP Colonia shaving cream, produced an acceptable lather this morning. Its razor glide was fine, but the cushion was barely adequate. After-shave care was not very good, with my face skin getting quite dry despite use of the balm.

At this point I am not encouraged about the bath soap lending itself to shaving. I'll give it another try tomorrow before deciding, but since I already have a lot of other great soaps, this one will have to improve markedly in order to stay in the rotation.

Once again the soap produced, with a lot of effort, a mediocre lather. For someone wanting to save money and willing to work hard to make the lather, this might be a reasonable choice. But the money involved is not a concern for me, performance is paramount, and I have plenty of other great soaps, so this one is going to be relegated to shower duty.