I purchased The Essentials bundle so I could get into DE Safety Razor shaving. The bundle is high quality and does its job very well. I have been very happy with my purchase and am having quite a bit if fun learning the art of DE shaving.

I really like everything except the bowl. I'm not looking for an olive garden salad bowl but was hoping for something slightly larger. It was the only disappointment in the kit. I wasn't planning on buying more hardware so soon.

I bought the 'Most recommended' kit, although I'd recommend the 'give it a try' kit over this. Don't get me wrong, I am very happy with the soap, brush, and handle. Although, I may end up buying a more aggressive handle, this one is suitable to start. My gripe is that $110 gets you nearly a year's worth of soap but only 21 blades (20 in the package plus one feather with the handle) Furthermore the beginner blade assortment included with the kit isn't the same one that's available separately in the store! Come on guys!

Let me start with the good: This kit is a pretty good value and for sure gives you the chance to try wet shaving. The razor, which I think is a Weishei, isn’t a bad razor to start with, and the sample pack of blades are a very wide variety. The bowl is thin and small but hey, it’s a bare bones starter set. One cannnot be too picky at this price point. And now my sore points: The “software” (cream, pre shave, etc) is of good quality and brand. Proraso is great stuff and it’s used around the world and has been for a very long time. BUT I got 1.5 shaves out of the cream in this set. For me personally, I think that the products need to be a tad larger to get a real “do I want to do this” test run. To clarify, Matt and the Guys and Gals at Razor Emporium can not control what Proraso sells and they can’t be expected to take a loss with hopes of return business. That’s just crazy. What I would suggest is to step up to the next kit; it’s an overall better “bang for the buck” purchase and you’ll get some nice upgrades over this kit. In summary, Razor Emporium is an amazing company and they take pride in Traditional Wet Shaving and the history behind it. If you have questions about ANYTHING, they’re just an email away and seem very happy to help. I personally hope to do much more business with them in the future and this kit started what I consider to be an awesome relationship with a small American business.