Floris soaps performance and scents

[brothers]

Have they fixed it? Which ones smell the best? Who uses Floris shaving soap a lot?

[Nitrox]

I have the Floris 89 and love the scent. I don't know if they fixed them or not but mine lathers and performs very well.
It's one of my favourite soaps although it is quite pricey.

[brothers]

Bruno, did you get yours fairly recently?

[Nitrox]

Gary, I got it maybe just over a year ago.

[Thalay Sagar]

I second Bruno's sentiments. My No. 89 is a good performer but is only worth the purchase if you just have to have the scent. On another note, I received an e-mail notice from ShopLondons that Floris, Here is a link to ShopLondons website: http://www.shoplondons.com/89-shaving-bowl.html Floris's site makes no note of this.

[churchilllafemme]

I haven't been impressed with the lathering performance of the modern Floris soaps that I have tried (Elite, JF, No. 89), although their scents were good. But I have a couple pucks of vintage No. 89, and it lathers beautifully, as well as any other top-quality soap that I've used. And I am using a vintage Harrod's-branded Floris shaving soap that has a sort of cologne scent. It also easily produces great lather.

[Squire]

I liked the old version but don't want the scents enough to pay for the name.

[EL Alamein]

I have the modern iteration of the No 89 and it lathers beautifully. It came in the tan packaging, which was the iteration just before what they sell now in the blue and gold. Mine is at least three years old.

Of course, nothing lathers quite like the old soaps but they come close.

I really hope they don't discontinue the No 89 again, it's quite a wonderful product and the scent is fantastic.

Chris

[TheMonk]

I've got the 89, JF and Elite in the same tan packaging. They lather very nicely IMO, and the scents and strong and not too powdery. I particularly like the Elite.

[ltjaw]

I second Bruno's sentiments. My No. 89 is a good performer but is only worth the purchase if you just have to have the scent. On another note, I received an e-mail notice from ShopLondons that Floris, Here is a link to ShopLondons website: http://www.shoplondons.com/89-shaving-bowl.html Floris's site makes no note of this.

I think the notice on the ShopLondons website may be a bit misleading. Checking the Floris website, it looks like they have redesigned the packaging, not discontinued the product. This begs the question: has it been reformulated? Again?

[brothers]

I hope they haven't discontinued it altogether. This new package is pretty classy. I think maybe I should do a little research to try to run down the ingredient lists and/or reviews for the most current, recent, and not so recent versions for comparison.

[Squire]

Or we could email Floris.

[brothers]

Right! We could do that too.

(Edit: Written questions have been submitted via Floris' website. That ball's now in their court, and I anticipate a reasonably prompt and informative reply I can share with the forum. Meanwhile, the independent research will continue at this end.)

[Flash G]

Last summer I bought their JF soap on summer sale in their Jarmyn Street shop. No trouble with the lather from the soap and I really enjoy the scent.

[Squire]

That's good to hear Eric. Next time you visit there please inquire about discontinuations or reformulations within the shaving soap line.

[ltjaw]

Cathy at Colonial Drug seemed to know about some new Floris products when I spoke to her the other day. Perhaps she knows what's going on with the shaving soaps?

[jaguar]

The Floris No. 89 soap I have is a poor performer - wonderful fragrance but the lather is thin and virtually useless by the second pass. It has been demoted to use as a shower soap. My JF and Elite soaps however, which have slightly different ingredients than the No. 89, are wonderful soaps. Both have delightful fragrances and perform admirably, but are not in the top performance echelon of soaps such as D.R. Harris, Valobra (including Czech & Speake), Haslinger, Klar Seifen, Martin de Candre, etc.

[brothers]

Here's an update on the current activity at Floris London. First of all, I checked The Shaving Room, a UK-based shaving forum. Here's a post from one of the members on May 10 2015.

RE: Floris shaving soaps
Just to update an older thread - I received conformation today that the new Floris skin care line 'The Gentleman Floris' is to be launched on the 4th of June, the No.89 shaving soap it was decided will continue and the new products a face wash, face scrub , pre/shave oil, aftershave balm in a tube, daily facial moisturiser and eye cream will all be infused with the No.89 scent! Great news for all No.89 fans.

Next, I received the following prompt response from Floris. Both of these posts seem to clarify the current status of the Floris Shaving ranges.

Dear Gary,

Thank you for taking the time to email us here at Floris, we always appreciate hearing from our customers.

In regards to our shaving soaps, in the past year we have reformulated the ingredients on all of our shaving soap range, we have also recently released a new range (The gentleman Floris) and with that has come a small amount of rebranding.

I hope this has been helpful to you, please feel free to contact us anytime with any more questions you might have.

Best wishes and kind regards,

Hugo
Hugo Saunders
Customer Services

J. Floris Limited,
89 Jermyn Street,
London. UK.
SW1Y 6JH

T: +44 (0) 330 1340180
W: florislondon.com

Bottom line, #89 will be renamed "The Gentleman Floris", and several new skin care products will join the range.

[jaguar]

It will be interesting to see the ingredient list of the newly reformulated shaving soaps and even more instructive to see how they perform. Hopefully this initiative will result in a truly exceptional range of shaving products and is not simply a new marketing, branding, and packaging exercise.

[brothers]

I replied with an inquiry as to the ingredient list of the new soap formulations, and received a standardized response directing me to the FAQ link. They also stated that it is possible I may receive a specific response to my inquiry within a reasonable time.