Goodfellas Smile Panama and Dominus: First Impressions

Howdy, welcome back. Got a product spotlight for you today, and everything I’m using is brand new to me. All Goodfellas Smile, sent over by Howie at Super Safety Razors. Howie, I really appreciate it.

I’ve been on a Goodfellas Smile razor kick lately. The Libra, the Stainless Stiletto, the Bayonetta. Really loving their lineup. The Dominus is a brand new one that just dropped. Alongside it I’ve got the Panama shaving soap, the Panama non-alcohol splash, and the Panama bar soap. Whole set, brand new, first time using any of it.

The Panama Shaving Soap

Panama is a new scent for the summer of 2026. The label reads: fresh, bright, and enveloping like a summer day. A contemporary fragrance designed to evoke light, warmth, and freshness.

The olfactory pyramid: top notes of strawberry, peach, mango, pear, apple, plum, and melon. Heart notes of rose, jasmine, cyclamen, and lily of the valley. Base of masculine musk and caramel.

I know what that top note list sounds like. Seven fruits. It sounds like a fruit basket dumped into a tub. It’s not. Nothing is over the top, and none of them runs over the others. What got me is you can still pick out each individual fruit even though the whole thing comes together as one scent. That’s hard to do, and I don’t think I’ve run into it before with a shaving soap.

Dry, off the tub, it’s fruit-heavy. Load the brush, add water, and the florals start moving up. Rose and jasmine push through, the fruit backs off a bit. By the second pass I had it settled into a nice medium intensity. Fruits and florals met somewhere in the middle. The musk and caramel are sitting in the base right now, and I expect they’ll come forward more in the dry down once the splash goes on.

This is one of the best summer fragrances I’ve used, full stop. I’ve been going through a stack of tropical and summer scents, and Panama is sitting at the top. If this had menthol in it, it’d be hard to beat in a Blizzard Battles fragrance round.

Loading is easy, as expected. You can go to town on the tub with a Goodfellas Smile soap. I had a full load in my CB Brush Works Honeycomb without any trouble, and the lather came up slick and rich.

Goodfellas Smile makes bar soaps, beard oils and balms, hair waxes, and aftershaves across their fragrance line. If you want to look at the full range, the Italian site rasoigoodfellas.eu has everything laid out, though it doesn’t ship to the US. Super Safety Razors carries most of the lineup for US buyers at a good price.

The Dominus Razor

The Dominus is chrome-plated brass. Just over 100 grams. I wasn’t expecting that weight when I picked it up, but it feels solid and balanced in the hand.

One thing to know before you buy: this razor loads the blade on the base plate, not the top cap. The alignment insets are on the top cap rather than the base plate, so when you set the blade down on the base, nothing holds it left to right. It can slide freely until the top cap seats. What that means in practice: when you’re threading the top cap on, hold your fingers on either side of the blade to keep it centered. Make sure it’s straight before you tighten down. Not a flaw. I’ve got several razors that work exactly this way and they’re all great. Just want you to know going in.

Shave impressions: mild. Very mild. There’s a little bit of blade feel, I won’t call it zero, but it’s minimal. What came through clearly is how efficient it is. Mild and efficient together is the combination you’re looking for, and this one appears to deliver both.

The third pass on my neck is where I usually make up my mind on a razor. The Dominus did well. Blade glided, nothing pulled, the soap had plenty of slip left. I need more time before a final assessment, but first impressions are very positive. Right up my alley.

The Panama Splash

The non-alcohol splash comes in an apothecary bottle. The alcohol versions come in clear glass flasks. Easy to tell them apart when you’re ordering.

After rinsing, I put on the Panama splash, and this is where the fragrance really opened up. I could pick out the strawberry, the peach, the mango, the pear, the apple, the plum, the melon, each one separately. Then I took a full breath and it was this one unified, completely blended scent. Both things were true at the same time. I don’t know how to explain it any better than that, and I don’t think I’ve experienced it before.

Lily of the valley came through clearly. Jasmine was there. The rose was very quiet. The musk and caramel are sitting back in the base right now. I expect they’ll come out more as it dries down. Going to be interesting to see where this one lands after a few wears.

First use of both the Dominus and the full Panama set, and it was a great shave. I need more time with the razor before I give a final verdict, but I’m already very happy with the soap and splash. Panama is going in my regular rotation.

If you’ve never shopped Super Safety Razors, go visit. Ton of Goodfellas Smile items, Parker razors, and a lot of things you won’t find everywhere else. Thanks for watching. Happy shaving.