L'Occitane Cade - My First French Soap

I took my parents to the Mall of America today. Sadly, the store my mother wanted to see had closed down. I did get to go to pretty much all the shaving-related stores while we were there.

One of the is L'Occitane, where I smelled and checked out the colognes and the Cade shaving products. I liked the smell, so I picked up the $12 puck of soap.

I made my first test lather tonight before turning in, and I have to say that if this is indicative of how French soaps lather, I understand their popularity.

Loaded for about 30 seconds with a damp brush, added a bit of water to my lather bowl, and started getting lather right away. A bit more water and I'm starting to worry I'm going to run out of space. I think it actually could have taken a bit more water, too.

My new puck safely in a ceramic bowl:


After a quick and easy lathering session:


After standing in the bowl for 5 minutes:


I plan to shave with it in the morning.

This is one of my absolute favorite soaps. Some people have trouble lathering it, but I think it's fantastic!

Cade is one fine example of how good are most of the french shaving soaps.Also another example of how good could be a soap with no tallow on it.Its fragrance its not maybe for everybody but it not also the worst out there.
Welcome to the French shaving soaps,if you enjoy this,dont hesitate to get more like Provence Sante,Pre de Provence,eshave,Institut Karite,Savon du Midi,and Martin de Candre,perfection made a shaving soap..

I also really enjoy Cade & have no problem lathering it. Even for those that find it hard to lather they like everything else about it do much that they keep at it. While Teiste says the scent may not be for everyone (I agree, no scent is for everyone) it is the scent that I hear the most love for. I personally wish the scent was stronger. It's one of my favorite scents. I look forward t hearing how your shave with it goes.

Thanks for the review, I have one PIF-ed to me as we speak, I'm looking forward to trying it

Eric, I look forward to your opinion on this soap.

Where can one buy this soap?

(04-04-2012, 04:13 AM)Dave Wrote: Where can one buy this soap?

If you ever get to Nashville, there's a L'Occitane store in Green Hills Mall. That's where I got mine. They also have C&E.

Thanks Brian. I'll check around Knoxville and see

(04-04-2012, 04:59 AM)Dave Wrote: Thanks Brian. I'll check around Knoxville and see

I checked out their website and looks like the only place in TN is in Nashville.

(04-04-2012, 05:30 AM)Brent Wrote:

(04-04-2012, 04:59 AM)Dave Wrote: Thanks Brian. I'll check around Knoxville and see

I checked out their website and looks like the only place in TN is in Nashville.

Yep.

The CADE balm is probably my favorite--I love the scent. I was a little disappointed that the soap doesn't smell the same, BUT it's a superb soap and generates fantastic lather.

This is a funny soap for me. Great lather, plenty of slickness and overall good shaves. But for the life of me, I'm puzzled by it's tendancy to "flake" once it's on my face. It's like a mini snow storm around my head sometimes!! This doesn't seem to change with weather, water or any other variable. Anyone else have this issue? Or is it limited to texbilly's den?

I've been lucky and I get a good lather from it. What's helped me is starting out with a drier brush and building up the moisture content. Really is a great smell and works well from me. I would recommend it and also would say if you're having problems with it to keep trying until you find the secret.

I know that the reviews of the cream have been pretty bad - but recently heard that it's been reformulated again so hopefully it's been upgraded to a better product.

(04-04-2012, 06:44 AM)Brent Wrote: I've been lucky and I get a good lather from it. What's helped me is starting out with a drier brush and building up the moisture content. Really is a great smell and works well from me. I would recommend it and also would say if you're having problems with it to keep trying until you find the secret.

I know that the reviews of the cream have been pretty bad - but recently heard that it's been reformulated again so hopefully it's been upgraded to a better product.

A great case of YMMV as I use a wet brush (as I do on all soaps, hard or soft) and get a great lather from Cade. Usually if you take the time to learn your soaps, you will be rewarded with excellent shaves for decades to come. Find what works in your Nook & enjoy the experience that is Cade!

Had my first Cade shave this morning. Loaded with a damp Omega 10049 for about 30 seconds. Learning from the dry (yet pretty and slick) nature of my test lather, I added more water, and got approximately 3.8 cubic liters of lather. I got a nice dense lather like a good whipped cream made w/ a mixer rather than aerated from a can.

It felt wonderful on my face, and gave me a nice, slick surface to work from. Unfortunately, a preshave I've been testing seems to be making me more easily irritated instead of less, so I ended up with a fairly low quality shave, but I don't think the cade was to blame. On the contrary, I think it kept me pretty much nick and irritation free for the first two passes.

Next time, I'll load for less time and see if I can get a slightly less wasteful amount of lather.

(04-04-2012, 06:06 AM)texbilly Wrote: This is a funny soap for me. Great lather, plenty of slickness and overall good shaves. But for the life of me, I'm puzzled by it's tendancy to "flake" once it's on my face. It's like a mini snow storm around my head sometimes!! This doesn't seem to change with weather, water or any other variable. Anyone else have this issue? Or is it limited to texbilly's den?

What I found last night was that you get a really nice slick lather well in advance of the soap being full of water and totally stable. It seems like it's kind of easy to overload/underhydrate and still get a good shaving lubricant - as long as you don't mind whipping it back up between passes.

(04-04-2012, 07:03 AM)SharpSpine Wrote: A great case of YMMV as I use a wet brush (as I do on all soaps, hard or soft) and get a great lather from Cade. Usually if you take the time to learn your soaps, you will be rewarded with excellent shaves for decades to come. Find what works in your Nook & enjoy the experience that is Cade!

My basic approach seems to be a damp brush. Wetter than that used by the Squeezers but drier than the Sloshers. With Cade though, my damp brush load required the addition of lots of water, still. I think a fully wet boar brush would be a good start with this one.

Nice review.

It has prompted me to go and track some down when I'm in town tomorrow.

I have a puck of this sitting in my den but I've been trying to trade it away. I have a few samples of the balm and I enjoy it a lot. Still have a few samples of the hand cream but haven't tried it out yet.

I realy like the soap very creamy lick lather. The l'occitane stores are having a special event tomorrow and are giving away free gifts with each 25 dollar purchase.

I pulled out my puck of Cade last night, in anticipation of the L'Occitane event tonight to see if I wanted to buy some more. It had been over a month since I've used it. Using a moderately shaken super badger brush, I easily whipped up plenty of luscious lather. Man, that was nice. I think I'll be buying a backup puck tonight.