The very best luxury soaps/creams, money no object

I also have a tub of Boellis Condotti shaving cream. It is incredibly amazing. It makes me want to travel to Naples just to have a shave in their barber shop.

My other luxury soap/cream choice is Santa Maria Novella. Amazing performer.

Shaved with Santa Maria Novella again this morning, and it was lovely as always. This time I went with a suspicion and paired it with Bvlgari Black EDT, and yes indeed, they're a close match. The "Tuscan tobacco" scent in SMN is a dead ringer for the rubber vibe of Black. NeoXerxes you'll have to try this soon and see what you think.

I would say for a luxury brand my favourite soaps would be the Valobra hard soaps (AOS Tallow/Valbora/C&S) followed by SV, Klar Seinfen, and then MdC for soaps and then GFT and AOS for creams. Haven't tried AdP or PannaCrema Nuavia but I understand they are great high priced brands as well.

Thanks for your contribution dabrock! Czech & Speake and MdC are among my favorites . SV is good too, though the only one I've tried (Colonia) became less impressive relative to the other top soap/cream brands after further use. Which SV scents have you used?

Trumper's Lime is one of my favorites for scent, though it isn't a top performing cream for me.

 In my view, when evaluating performance, there is a crystal clear top tier of shaving creams - some are simply better than others (for me). Santa Maria Novella sits at the pinnacle. ....  I've used Proroaso quite a bit, and for some reason these two creams are unjustly compared - SMN is vastly superior to Proraso in post-shave and in-shave performance. There is simply no comparison for me.

NeoXerxes I tried SMN today for the first time.

WOW. Anyone who thinks Proraso is identical must be in left field somewhere. There is NO comparison.

Although I have a few more things to try, I am not sure how anything can be better than SMN, although I think it a summer thing. I'm not sure I would want to use it on a cold winter morning because of the menthol.

Thanks much for your impressions grim! Yes, the comparisons to Proraso are unjustified in my opinion. And overall, SMN is one of the finest creams on the market . Expect it to rank very high in the upcoming comparison chart!

By the way, I realize I'm being a bit slow on that roundup post. Apologies! I have a few other review/comparison projects that are currently taking up my time.

I believe it was SMN V1 that was compared to Proraso. The current version is V3.

shevek I've seen the comparisons with all the versions on other forums. It's true that V1 (and to some extent V2) is compared more often, but because of that lingering reputation V3 is unfairly incorporated into that comparison.

V3 is completely different from Proraso IMO. Not even close.

shevek I've seen the comparisons with all the versions on other forums. It's true that V1 (and to some extent V2) is compared more often, but because of that lingering reputation V3 is unfairly incorporated into that comparison.

V3 is completely different from Proraso IMO. Not even close.

I've read it constantly in the last year or so. It inevitable come up. Every time I read it I know its just a rationalization trying to compare a $10 item to a $71 item. Some people want to think they are getting something for nothing and just kid themselves.

shevek I've seen the comparisons with all the versions on other forums. It's true that V1 (and to some extent V2) is compared more often, but because of that lingering reputation V3 is unfairly incorporated into that comparison.

V3 is completely different from Proraso IMO. Not even close.

I've read it constantly in the last year or so. It inevitable come up. Every time I read it I know its just a rationalization trying to compare a $10 item to a $71 item. Some people want to think they are getting something for nothing and just kid themselves.

Probably true. Though I wouldn't begrudge others their opinion, to me SMN is in a completely different league. Many of the comparisons to luxury products often take into account price and value, which is why I'm glad we have this thread - the "money no object" notion enables us to focus solely on analyzing performance.