Well, I couldn't wait until morning. I had to see how this performed.
As you might imagine. coming from Marco and
PannaCrema, the makers of Nuávia, this is a very easy-to-lather product. I wanted to see how it would do with a synthetic and a badger. The brush was not very dry (I'm in the desert) nor super wet, shaken not squeezed, taken to the DFS Pure20 and loaded, then to the bowl. I usually face lather, but I shaved closely this morning, and didn't feel like having a brush on the face this afternoon in the 105 degree heat.
Here are some pics:
Ready to go with a Simpson Chubby 2 Synthetic and Super Badger
Synthetic Brush Loaded-about 25-30 seconds
After just a little time in the shaving bowl, one addition of 4-5 drops of water
Super Badger Loaded-again, about 25-30 seconds
After just a little time in the shaving bowl, one addition of 3-4 drops of water
Nice texture, gloss, and peaks-and this was with about 30 seconds of loading and not much more time than that in the shaving bowl. When I shave with it tomorrow, I'll take a little more time, but I wanted to do quick test lathers.
Fragrance is very pleasant. Starts out very fresh, I get some 'orange' and some lavender, and then more of a very fresh 'barbershop' scent. There's something underneath that's just a touch woody, but I can't quite tell what it is. While it's different than the Nuávia Verde, that's the closest in terms of overall scent.
Also, it was also very easy to get a glossy lather with this. Perhaps this is the tallow base at work, I don't know. Like the Nuávias, I put a bit of the DFS Pure20 lather on my face to see if it had the same kind of after shave effect, and after rinsing it off, my face feels very soft and moisturized, but not oily at all.
Overall, first impressions are very, very good.