First Shave with Saponificio Varesino Desert Vetiver
Hello everyone, welcome back for another shave. Hope you’re all doing well. This one’s a first for me: Saponificio Varesino, out of Italy. Look at this label. These guys have been around since 1945, so they’ve had some time to figure out what they’re doing.
Before I get into the scent and the performance, I want to give credit where it’s due. This set was a gift from a wet shaving friend, William, who was traveling through Vancouver with his wife. He didn’t have to bring me anything. He surprised me with this instead. I don’t really have the words for how much I appreciate that. Thank you, William. And it means even more because I’d never tried SV before this.
First Look
Italian soap makers know packaging. Classy, timeless, the kind of design that doesn’t age. This one ships in a tin, and I know some guys aren’t fans of tin containers. I don’t mind them at all, and this execution is fantastic. This is Desert Vetiver, and down at the bottom of the label they call out Date Tree Oil as one of the ingredients.
It’s a triple milled soap, you can hear it when you tap the puck, and that’s a soap built to last. A little goes a long way with these, so even though the price point on SV runs higher than most, you’re not buying it as often. I’ve got another triple milled soap I’ve put fifteen or twenty shaves into and the puck hasn’t visibly moved.
I do wonder if SV started out making shaving products, or if soap came first and the razors and splashes followed later. If you know the history, tell me in the comments.
The Scent
SV lists the pyramid for Desert Vetiver as top notes of elemi, incense, orange, and artemisia, a flowery, peppery, spicy heart of black pepper, juniper berries, oregano, and lavender, and a base of vetiver, cloves, and amber.
That’s a lot going on, and my nose had a hard time picking apart where one note ended and the next started. What I get off the puck: woodiness, some spice, fresh citrus up front. It’s beautiful. Pleasant. Leans a little warmer, and I’d still call it right for a hot summer day. I’ve been smelling this tin daily since I got it, more than once a day if I’m honest. William, that’s a fantastic scent.
The Setup
I thought about face lathering this one, it’s been a while since I did that on camera, but I wanted to judge the soap’s real performance, and I’m a regular bowl latherer. So the bowl it is: my Brousseau & Dov, a genuinely gorgeous piece, and it’s a good match for SV’s packaging. Both brands clearly care about how the thing looks in your hand.
For the brush I’m on my Zenith boar, also out of Italy, already soaked and squeezed out. I don’t have an Italian razor to round this out, so I’m running the Muhle R89 instead, the 80th anniversary limited run. CNC machined stainless steel head, and from what I recall reading, the handle is stainless too, just built from separate pieces assembled together. Comfortable, efficient razor either way.
Loading the brush, I added a splash of water to the tin and went generous on purpose. Boar brushes and triple milled soaps get along well, and lather started forming almost right away. A few more swirls and the scent got a touch fresher, though that same layered blend held on underneath.
Over to the bowl. A little water and the lather started shaping up fast, creamy, with real structure to it. I ended up adding more water than I expected to need. This soap takes it well. If you like a wetter, more hydrated lather, don’t be shy with SV, it can handle more than most soaps I’ve used.
What I ended up with: thick, creamy, shiny lather, and the soap smell staying in the background rather than fighting for attention. Maybe a 5 or 5.5 out of 10 on scent strength off the lather, which for a relaxed shave like this one is exactly where I want it.
The Shave
I worked some of that lather onto my face before picking up the razor, treating it like a pre-shave layer. It felt great going on, creamy, and that scent again on the way in.
First pass, with the grain, running a Personna Comfort Coated blade in the R89. Slick. Genuinely slick, and the residual slickness held up after the pass too. This is a luxurious feeling lather. I spent extra time just working it into my face before I ever touched the razor, the kind of lather that rewards a little patience instead of rushing straight into the first stroke.
Second pass against the grain, and there was still enough cushion for comfortable buffing. Lost a little pimple on that one, it survived the first pass but not the second.
Plenty of lather left over for a face wash after, and there was a lot of it, going everywhere as I rinsed. Working it off got me thinking: there’s something going on with these Italian vegan soaps, SV, Panna Rey, that whole category. They’re not the slickest soaps out there. What they give you is enough for a comfortable shave and a proper buff, but the feel on your skin after a face wash is its own thing, in a way I can’t fully explain. The label points to that Date Tree Oil down at the bottom of the tin. I still don’t know exactly what it’s doing, but whatever it is, I felt it.
Post-Shave and Splash
Then the matching Desert Vetiver splash. Same story on packaging, a big open pour spout on the bottle. It comes out milky white. I got that light alcohol tingle right away, and it wasn’t drying at all, almost like putting on lotion. My skin was happy about it.
That’s a soap and a splash that both deliver on the post-shave feel, and the scent carried the whole way through without losing itself. Nothing else in my collection smells quite like this. William, thank you again. Desert Vetiver earned a spot on my shelf I wasn’t expecting to open up.
Good performance across the board: easy to lather, goes a long way, and it held up fine to a heavier load because I wanted to push it and see. Packaging like this is what I’ve come to expect from Italian shaving brands. They don’t cut corners.
If you want to see more from William, look him up on Instagram, he posts his shave of the day regularly and he’s worth a follow. William, if you’re watching this, come back soon, we’ll put together a bigger meetup with some of the other wet shavers around here.
Thanks for joining me for this one. I’ll see you in the next shave. Stay safe.