Palmolive European Stick (secret?)

brothers · Post by **brothers** » Tue Mar 19, 2013 5:48 am

Haslinger's SchiefMilck is a somewhat more recent entry. Sheep's milk with lanolin. It's a great little puck of tallowy lather that can perform right up there with the best of 'em. I like it, and just a heads-up. Bernd at Shavemac has the best price, including shipping.

DavidB · Post by **DavidB** » Tue Mar 19, 2013 2:35 pm

I just ordered a Palmolive shave stick and a Speick shave stick. I had 'em throw in a tub of de Vergulde Hand soap.

Dave

Seamaster · Post by **Seamaster** » Thu Mar 28, 2013 2:19 am

My late father would use nothing else.

gsgo · Post by **gsgo** » Thu Mar 28, 2013 6:34 am

While I have never used the Palmolive soap I have used a tube of the shaving cream which I found punched way above it's price. Merz (Smallflower) has both in stock so it is always easy for me to pick up one of the German made products.

jww · Post by **jww** » Thu Mar 28, 2013 6:40 am

Palmolive stick and cream are both excellent.

gsgo · Post by **gsgo** » Thu Mar 28, 2013 7:46 am

Ugh! Tim, please refrain from such compelling shave soap stories.

While in Germany a couple of seasons ago, I can't remember how many boxes of Palmolive I walked by for under a euro.

Thalay Sagar · Post by **Thalay Sagar** » Thu Mar 28, 2013 9:42 am

Tim, I'll have to give it another try. I think I'll hit it with my SR3722 just to even things out.

Post by **drmoss_ca** » Thu Mar 28, 2013 3:57 pm

Not that I would ever intend to drag a thread down to serious matters, but it is my considered opinion that any German shaving soap is better than any French shaving soap, and furthermore, any German shaving soap is better than many English shaving soaps.

The reasoning behind this bold statement goes thus: every single French soap I have (and I have bought all that can be found on the interwebs) has been rather disappointing, and some have been abysmal and have been relegated to use as bath soap. Every single German shaving soap has been a prizewinner. I haven't been disappointed by any English soaps and most are good enough to buy again - more for their scent than for their functionality. But those German prizewinners - Tabac/Irisch Moos, Speick, German Palmolive, Klar Kabinett original - all tallow, and all excellent. They may lack the scent you like, but they work remarkably well.

Chris

bernards66 · Post by **bernards66** » Thu Mar 28, 2013 9:57 pm

Chris, Yes, but there is ( or at least was ) that superb Joris shave soap from France. Didn't much care for the scent but it worked superbly....eh?...well, yes....it was in fact actually MADE in England...but....oh, nevermind....
Regards,
Gordon

gsgo · Post by **gsgo** » Fri Mar 29, 2013 8:19 am

My preferences lie firmly in the Continental Euro camp for shaving soaps and my experience with the French are much better than Chris. Provence Sante, Pre de Provence and Institut Karite have all been superlative preformers for me in the past and currently I have PS and PdP in the rotation.

However everything is getting overshadowed with my return to the soft Italians - ABC is getting nearly daily play, with the odd check shave from others in my rota.

While I always covet to collect a few of the UK classics, it's hard to justify given the performance of everything else.

bernards66 · Post by **bernards66** » Fri Mar 29, 2013 3:15 pm

Tim, Well, some of the German and Italian shave soaps do provide excellent lather, no doubt. I always thought that the Tabac soap, for instance, produced a very fine lather but unfortunately the scent was too much for me and it irritated my skin. But really, I've never been as high on most of the Italian stuff as many members seem to be. The Boellis, Valobra, and Cella soaps actually did not, for me, produce as good a lather as what I was used to with Trumpers or Harris's. Now this Barbieria Colla stuff definately does, but still I don't find it to be 'better'....just 'as good'. A couple/few days ago I shaved with Trumpers Almond soap ( the newer stuff, not the old tallow based ) and today with the Barbieria Colla and both lathers and shaves were equally fine. The Trumpers smelled better though ( chuckle ).
Regards,
Gordon

F.W. Fitch · Post by **F.W. Fitch** » Fri Mar 29, 2013 5:07 pm

Palmolive, as part of Colgate-Palmolive, is very much a U.S. company. Here's a historic shave brand tidbit: The "PO" shave soap; formulated in the same Midwest city, that Ingram's shave cream was also first formulated in!

As to their creams: The 'Classic' version is made in Belgium. The 'Sensitive' in Romania. The 'Menthol' version in Italy. The 'Refreshing Lemon' in India. The shave soap only made in their German facility. It's very much American in origin. What's depressing is: that they don't sell it in the N. American market any longer! When it was made here, it came in cake or stick form, with it's matching after shave lotion.

The U.S. is a victim of it's own successes. The aerosol shave cream can (invented by a Mr. Fine while working for Colgate-Palmolive-Peet Co) and the cartridge razor system, moved habits steadily in that direction. Oh, and Madison Ave. advertising is the most savvy ever created!

lanolite · Post by **lanolite** » Fri Mar 29, 2013 6:07 pm

F.W. Fitch wrote:Palmolive, as part of Colgate-Palmolive, is very much a U.S. company. Here's a historic shave brand tidbit: The "PO" shave soap; formulated in the same Midwest city, that Ingram's shave cream was also first formulated in!

Product of Bristol-Myers, wasn't it? Ingram's, I mean. Or did they buy Ingram's later?

As to their creams: The 'Classic' version is made in Belgium. The 'Sensitive' in Romania. The 'Menthol' version in Italy. The 'Refreshing Lemon' in India. The shave soap only made in their German facility. It's very much American in origin. What's depressing is: that they don't sell it in the N. American market any longer! When it was made here, it came in cake or stick form, with it's 'matching' after shave lotion.

Here's a question for you, Fitch...you may be the only one who knows.

Are you familiar with the Palmolive brushless cream that was discontinued a few years ago? It had a distinctive scent. I got some of the Australian Palmolive shave sticks and noticed that they smell exactly the same!

The German Palmolive doesn't smell like any U.S. made Palmolive that I can recall. It may be the same or a similar formula, being made with tallow, whereas the Aussie version is not.

Then again, in the 1920s, Palmolive advertised that its bath soap was made only with palm and olive oils, I think. Do we know what was in their shaving soap?

Anyway, if you have a cake of American Palmolive, does it have any scent left and does it smell like their brushless cream?

F.W. Fitch · Post by **F.W. Fitch** » Fri Mar 29, 2013 6:50 pm

When I first took-up DE shaving (seven years back) both the brushless & lather versions were still on the shelves here at my local CVS. I first used a Gillette T.V. 1958 razor ,along with the brushless Palmolive, in the white, black & green tube. I might not of owned a brush yet. I liked the cream and the 'pearlized' texture too! When it was being discontinued, a tube was .79 cents. I noticed they had about five tubes of the lather version. I thought...I'll grab some in a few more days...when I returned it was all gone! Only the Colgate cup soap remained ,which, is long gone too. No loss there!

Ingram's was bought-out by Bristol Myers in 1928 from the Frederick F. Ingram Co. of Milwaukee. It is the worlds first mentholated shave cream! Maybe someone can see if Bristol-Myers-Squibb is still on the rear of a current box?

The Palmolive shave soap is way before my time, but I've seen a vintage cake, and it was the same green color as the current German-made stick. Of course they 'tweak' things for certain markets. Palmolive-Peet was bought out by Colgate. Was once known as: Colgate-Palmolive-Peet Co. They have long since dropped the Peet side of things. Of course it was tallow! As all American shave soaps were, the worlds largest slaughterhouses being down in Chicago!

Both these companies/products ,along with "PREP", are/were American! With Prep though: it's the Pre Post cream that Italians have used for generations. That has an interesting story too! It was first made in 1866. The inventor - Mark Allen of Detroit, MI was in Italy during WW1 ,and an Italian friend of his, liked it so well...he became an importer for him in Italy. The brand eventually was sold to a firm there called Sirena in 1935. Below is an old US jar of it.

lanolite · Post by **lanolite** » Fri Mar 29, 2013 11:35 pm

Thanks -- I used that Palmolive brushless for several years in the late Seventies, when I started to shave. The scent is quite evocative.

I still have a little of it and the brush version, but the latter has gotten so hard in the tube it may not be usable.

I have some vintage US ads for Prep somewhere that I've been meaning to scan. They're either in Collier's or the SatEvePost. I like their current production shave cream.

I didn't know that about Ingram being bought by Bristol-Myers. The current tubes say they're made by "Lornamead" and "Est. 1932." Either that's the date it was put on the British market, or they just made it up!

F.W. Fitch · Post by **F.W. Fitch** » Sat Mar 30, 2013 5:25 pm

Here is an ad from 1953 that shows Bristol-Myers is still the sole owner. You can see they had offices in London. So they must of introduced it into Gr. Britain in 1932 as the tube states. How long Lornamead has owned it is moot at this point.

*To Everyone Else: Don't mind lanolite & myself...we're just in our own corner having some bridge mix, coffee and sharing a few Old Golds*

gsgo · Post by **gsgo** » Sun Mar 31, 2013 3:57 am

Thanks for the look back! I love these little reflections on the history of these products!

bernards66 · Post by **bernards66** » Sun Mar 31, 2013 12:07 pm

Fitch, Quite so, but I have very much enjoyed listening in ( and sponging a couple of the Old Golds in the process ).
Regards,
Gordon

lanolite · Post by **lanolite** » Sun Mar 31, 2013 9:06 pm

F.W. Fitch wrote:
*To Everyone Else: Don't mind lanolite & myself...we're just in our own corner having some bridge mix, coffee and sharing a few Old Golds*

Not a cough in a carload!

You may regret getting me started. Did you know Palmolive after shave had more than one use?

After a hard day at you unair-conditioned job, the combination of aftershave and underarm scent would have been powerful stuff.
Hey, it had to be if it made that poop-a-doop attractive.

(Collier's, June 7, 1952)

F.W. Fitch · Post by **F.W. Fitch** » Tue Apr 02, 2013 11:18 pm

Here is a better picture of a neglected & scorned refill from 60+ years back. Then the high water mark in the 1960s pushing (with the help of Madison Ave.) the 'Rapid' shave cream(s) in a can they had invented. That's precisely why the shave soap became neglected & scorned with production moving to Europe permanently.

Then lastly...another once upon a time offering by the J.B. Williams family. I recently noticed this pot lid going for big $$$ and wanted to share. I would love to have had a chance to try this! Then their decades-long evolution into the 60's with Aqua Velva in a can...oh my!