Valobra Almond Shaving Soap Stick

When I travel I use a shave stick and travel brush to make shaving lather. Based on some comments on [...], a forum that deals with shaving among other things, I bought this shave stick - and I am glad I did. The first time I tried it I rubbed some of the soap onto my beard and dipped my shaving brush in warm water and made a great lather. The aroma has a light almond scent to it. The shave was great. I was able to do a four pass shave with just this one application. The product results in a slick, rich lather. I would recommend this product to everyone.

I was somewhat disappointed in the lather produced by this product after reading several reviews of the product, but here and on some shaving forums. It has a very light scent, probably best described as "unscented soap", which I found very nice, compared to ever other Italian soap I've tried that have been heavily scented, usually with almond, I found it to be a very pleasant surprise. The lather builds nicely with either a boar or badger brush, giving lots of cushion, however the product falls far short of many other shave sticks, creams, soaps when it comes to the glide, or slickness produced by the lather. The amount and thickness of the lather is average to slightly above average, although the slickness is well below average. I would not consider this a moisturizing soap by any means, nor does it dry the skin. I would consider it fairly neutral in that regard. Arko is a fraction of the cost of this product, yet provides as protective of a lather with much more slickness, La Toja shave stick provides far better lather all around, and is less drying to the face than Valobra, at about the same price. Speick shave stick also provides lather that is comparable or better than Valobra, and also provides good slickness, and at a slightly lower price. There is nothing *bad* about this shave soap, just nothing that is *great* about it either, unless you want your product to smell like unscented soap, in which case this would be a good choice for you. I won't toss this in the trash, I'll continue to use it occasionally for shaves, but I won't be purchasing it again.

I love shaving sticks for their portability and ease of lathering, but this one falls short for me. Using the same technique I use with Arco & Speick sticks, this Valobra develops a thin, not particularly slick foam, and the resulting shave is rough and unpleasant. I would definitely not buy it again.

No matter how hard I try, I just can't get a good lather out of this stuff. I know I have a bad case of hard water, but I'll be sticking with soaps that I know will lather despite that in the future.

Since I purchased this shave stick (MONTHS ago!) my husband has not touched his traditional shaving cream. It lasts forever and has saved us almost $25 because I haven't been buying a can of shaving cream for him every 3 weeks. He says it is a closer shave than cream and makes the hair softer so it comes off more easily. After 6 months of using the same stick every day I'd say he has just about half left. Great buy! The only small complaint I have is that it should come with a case or stand of some sort. My husband shaves in the shower and we have to keep it out of the water or it will melt. Other than that small inconvenience it's great!