L'Occitane Shaving Soap (Cade)

What is your opinion on fine shaving creams and hard soaps? Do you like Trumpers, Coates, Taylors, Truefitt & Hill? Post your reviews and opinions here!
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WetTheFace
Posts: 52
Joined: Wed Jul 15, 2015 2:45 pm

L'Occitane Shaving Soap (Cade)

Post by WetTheFace »

Company: L'Occitane
Product: Shaving Soap
Location: Paris
Website: http://usa.loccitane.com


Being an I.T. consultant in Manhattan you get to see some amazing places like the Trump Tower, Russian Tea Room and Rockefeller Center to name a few. I also came across one place I always wanted to go into and that’s L'Occitane. A high-end company from Paris that carries Men’s shaving products I’ve always wanted to try them. I’m currently on a budget so I had to be very selective and I finally picked the modest $12.00 shaving puck called Savon A Barbe Shaving Soap in the Cade scent.

The puck comes in a simple box but the cashier gave me this little bag to carry it in. I didn’t want to walk around the city with this so I stuffed it in my tool bag until I got home. When you open the box the puck was wrapped in cellophane but I did see that you can purchase a beautiful aluminum shaving bowl and the puck together for $40.00. If I had the chance to do it again (and budget) I would opt to purchase both.

The scent is a peppery cedar and with so much pepper added I think it could even make you sneeze. The website describes the scent as a spicy, woody fragrance that evokes the dry wood, red soil and hot stones found in the sunny Garrigue landscape of southern France. Top notes of bergamot lead to a generous heart of cedar wood and pink pepper. A base of cade wood and citrus linger. Enriched with essential oils of cade wood and pink pepper.
It’s still a great scent but once you start to lather you’ll will notice that it fads quickly. This was the most disappointing aspect of the soap other than that I had no other issues with it.

I loaded my brush after blooming the puck for several minutes and then began to apply. The face lather happened very quickly and turned into a rich creamy lather. At this point I noticed the scent starting to fade. The slickness and glide are very high on the scale and the post shave feel was very pleasant too. Normally you can detect some scent after your shave but with this soap it left me empty. I guess why leave you with a scent if they are willing to buy something else like the Cade Eau De Toilette.

So, I liked L'Occitane shaving soap and will use it again in my rotation. If your looking to purchase the soap do yourself a favor and get the bowl & soap set.

Company: L'Occitane
Product: Shaving Soap
Website: http://usa.loccitane

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brothers
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Joined: Sun Sep 14, 2008 7:18 am
Location: Oklahoma City USA

Re: L'Occitane Shaving Soap (Cade)

Post by brothers »

Donald, I've got a soft spot for the Cade soap. It's not bad, and not too expensive, considering the prices L'Occitane charges for all of their excellent products. I liked it when I had a couple of pucks. I thought the juniper scent was a bit on the strong side, and even had a tube of the Cade aftershave for a while. I don't recall how I came by the pretty metal bowl, but I've still got it somewhere in a drawer.
Gary

SOTD 99%: Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, soaps & creams, synthetic / badger brushes, Colonial General razor, Kai & Schick blades, straight razors any time, Superior 70 aftershave splash + menthol + 444
CMur12
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Joined: Mon Dec 18, 2006 8:41 pm
Location: Moses Lake, Washington, USA

Re: L'Occitane Shaving Soap (Cade)

Post by CMur12 »

I ordered this soap once in the standard scent and in the green tea version. Both burned my olfactory so badly that I gave them away without ever trying them.

- Murray
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Brutus
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Location: Vancouver (Canada), Coimbra (Portugal)

Re: L'Occitane Shaving Soap (Cade)

Post by Brutus »

The OP bought obviously the refill, there is also the already mentioned aluminium shaving bowl for the soap available.
Quite nice, but the aluminium tends to oxidize and looses its shiny appearance.

The company established in 1976 is not Paris based, they are based in the South of France in Manosque (Provence) and the name "L'Occitane" means "the woman from the Occitane" (a region encompassing southern France, Monaco and some parts of Italy where "Occitan" used to be spoken). That also explains they heavy emphasis on "Provence" including occasional dried lavender twigs and essential oils. I do like the scent of their products.

But to the soap:
I have had it on my bathroom shelves for years, as I am attracted to the unique Cade scent, but the performance is only average and the soap is always at risk of getting tossed when I need to make more space.
There is also a Cade EdT, aftershave balm and two creams (tube and jar).
I guess it's the scent that keeps it on my shelves.

The shaving creams are reformulated, the original cream in the tube was IMO an embarassment and needed to be avoided at all costs.
The reformulated shaving creams are o.k.

Shaving soap prices are relatively high, roughly on par with D.R. Harris shaving soap, which clearly performs better.
I know of a L'Occitane in the Premium Outlet Mall in the Seattle area, so there might be similar L'Occitane outlets elsewhere in the US.


B.
The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts.

Bertrand Russell
Rufus
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Location: Greater Toronto Area

Re: L'Occitane Shaving Soap (Cade)

Post by Rufus »

Cade is not a bad soap, for a soap. It will not, however, replace my TOBS, Trumper or Harris shaving creams when it comes to efficacy and comfort.
Bryan
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