The Cella Italian Shaves

Okay, okay. Yes, I know Cella is Italian, so this probably is a redundant name for a shave week. But I’m reinforcing the Italian…ness with a couple of new items to the collection.

First, when I planned this week’s shaves, I had one of these lathers as a sample. But I found a good price and a sale on it’s full sized option, and I picked up the Cella Professionale Riserva Fresco shaving cream.

I really like this stuff, having given it one of my top ratings for a lather. It has a fresh, but kind of traditional barber-y shaving scent. It smells kind of like what a men’s barber shop smelled like when I was a kid. And that tub is gorgeous (more on that in the mail call post when I put it up).

And the lather itself is rich and thick and just wonderful. The Italians really know how to make a luxurious lather. I’m really looking forward to using it, even though this will be my third lather with this cream, but it will be my first from this tub.

I also picked up (in the same order) the Fatip Classic Testina Gentile Closed Comb. This is a classic mild razor made by an Italian company that dates back to the early 1950s. While Fatip makes a pretty wide range of razors, they are most known for their open comb design, but the Gentile versions all have a closed comb design to make the razors more…well, gentile.

You can check out the future mail call post to find out why I got this razor and what it’s replacing in the collection.

This was a late swap-in, as I was planning on using one of the Treet blades with the Henson mild, but I really wanted to get the Fatip in and I was willing to delay the Treets in favor of a known quantity with the blade.

Oh, and what blade am I using to inaugurate the Fatip, you ask? I thought about using the Astra blue or the Nacet, but those both felt stale. I thought about the 7 O’Clock green, but I just used that last week. And I just don’t want to try a new to me blade with a new to me razor–too many variables. So I settled on the Gillette 7 O’Clock Super Platinum black blade. I’m thinking this will be a nice, efficient, comfortable, smooth week of shaves. But the proof of the pudding is in the shaving.

But the plan for this week (and next) has always been to let the Italian software shine. Next week, the TFS and SV lathers come out to play, and I may just go with the Henson mild and Treet combo. But we’ll see if I have any better ideas. I’m very excited for this week of shaves, as the Cella products have always worked well for me. so both of the other Cella soaps will help out this week, leading off with the Cella Organic.

This should be a wonderful couple of weeks of shaves! Let’s get to them.

The Ratings

Sunday’s Shave #346 The Fatip Debut Cella Green Sunday Shave.

The setup:

Because I don’t come back to them as often as I should (or like), I forget just how much I like the Cella product lines, and especially the Cella Organic line (that’s the green stuff…or blue-green stuff). The gel is slick, the lather is rich and thick, and the balm is pleasant, wonderfully moisturizing, and it all just has a pleasant, mild scent. I’m going to really like this week of shaves, let me tell you.

So how’d the first go with the Fatip go? I’m very impressed, I must say. It was comfortable, mild (or probably on the milder end of mild-medium), glided beautifully and comfortably, and was a joy to use. The weight of the brass razor seems just about perfect for its size, and the handle, while shorter than I’d like, is grippy enough for me. I’ll also offer this up on the review of the razor next week, but I really like how the base plate and top cap grip the blade solidly in a curve. I’ll explain that in the review post, but it was an unexpected design plus.

The pairing with the blade seems perfect, or at least perfect to start. It’s efficient enough to have gotten most of what I wanted in the standard 3 passes, with only a few cleanup strokes to follow. I do have a bump (blemish, zit, pimple, whatever) on the left side of my neck that I knicked and made bleed, but it wasn’t a huge problem, and honestly, it probably would have happened with any of my razors.

So overall, a great first shave that falls just slightly short of outstanding because of some light irritation and a couple of very limited spots of stubble left behind. Practice with the Fatip will improve that in the future.

Comfort: 9 of 10 | Quality/Closeness: 9 of 10 | Satisfaction: 5 of 5 | Overall: 23 of 25

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Tuesday’s Shave, #347 The Cella Riserva Fresco Shave

The setup:

RAZOR	Fatip Classic Testina Gentile Closed Comb
BLADE	Gillette 7 O’Clock Super Platinum (black)
PRE-SHAVE	Cella pre-shave gel (red)
BRUSH	Yaqi R2002-S Lucky Dice synthetic
LATHER	Cella Professionale Riserva Fresco
AFTER SHAVE	Cella aftershave balm
STATS	3rd shave with the Riserva Fresco lather 8th shave with the Cella red pre-shave 7th shave with the Cella red balm 7th shave with the Yaqi Lucky Dice brush
RANKING	156th almost perfect shave 33rd shave with a rating of 21 (11.7%)

Well…This was kind of a tale of two shaves. One the one hand, the Cella lather is just amazing. It’s a croap (cream/soap) or a very thick, semi-hard cream, and it made an amazing rich, thick lather that was slick throughout the shave. But on the other hand, the Fatip razor and Gillette 7 O’Clock black blade combo seems to be mild enough where I need some extra passes to get the closeness I want. Which resulted in some more irritation than Sunday’s shave had.

Or I’m just learning the technique demanded by the Fatip. I could just be riding the wrong angle. Only time will tell.

I mean, all-in-all, this was a good shave. But that lingering scraping feel on my neck is not enjoyable so it lost some satisfaction scoring. While the irritation has faded quite a bit in the hour since I shaved, it’s got a ways to go.

Comfort: 7 of 10 | Quality/Closeness: 10 of 10 | Satisfaction: 4 of 5 | Overall: 21 of 25

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Thursday’s Shave, #348 The Third Fatip Shave.

The setup:

RAZOR	Fatip Classic Testina Gentile Closed Comb
BLADE	Gillette 7 O’Clock Super Platinum (black)
PRE-SHAVE	Cella pre-shave gel (red)
BRUSH	Yaqi Rainbow synthetic
LATHER	Cella Sweet Almond shaving cream (red)
AFTER SHAVE	Cella aftershave balm
STATS	3rd shave with the Fatip razor 15th shave with the 7 O’Clock black blade 4th shave with the Cella red lather
RANKING	156th almost perfect shave 63rd shave with a 24 rating (22.3%)

I’m learning. I think I’ve been using the Fatip at too steep an angle, causing too much blade contact with my skin, and at the wrong angle. I worked hard today to maintain what felt like the razor’s natural angle (which I think for this one is closer to 45 degrees), and the feel was a lot better than Tuesday’s shave.

Just a lesson for you starters out there: pay attention to the head of your razor and don’t get lazy.

At the same time, I’m trying to figure out if the razor is super mild or more mild-medium. The next shave with it and a different blade will tell the story.

But this shave was great–close, mostly comfortable, and very satisfying. While the Cella red lather isn’t my favorite of the line, it delivers a very satisfying and comfortable experience, so I’m happy with it. The pre-shave and balm contributed as expected and helped make this a great shave to close out the week.

Comfort: 9 of 10 | Quality/Closeness: 10 of 10 | Satisfaction: 5 of 5 | Overall: 24 of 25