Who are The Goodfellas Smile?

My name is Marco Donghi and with my brother Nicola manage the Company Barbieri Uniti Srl, owner of the brand The Goodfellas Smile, Officina Artigiana Milano and Mad Dog. I live in Italy, in a small town in the province of Bergamo and have been happily married to Sara for 23 years. We have three children (a boy and two girls) and a Labrador dog called Syd (in honour of the founder of Pink Floyd). My brother Nicola, on the other hand, is happily married to Luisa and has a daughter and a French bulldog dog called Stella. They also live in a small town in the province of Bergamo. I really like to play tennis, but I’m not a champion! I don't have a standard breakfast! There are days when I eat yoghurt with honey, almonds and muesli and others when I eat pasta or cold meats...it depends on how I wake up!!! 

The story of the name The Goodfellas Smile is very peculiar. It all began thanks to my brother Nicola who more than 15 years ago had a 'vision' of the market when the sector was not yet as crowded with shaving products as it is now. At the time, the known names were mainly the historical names of historical companies, and no one would have ever thought that wet shaving could be the subject of such growth and spread, even though we are obviously still talking about a niche market.

What happened was this, my brother's wife used to buy the the disposable razor we all know at the supermarket. One day, however, he went to the supermarket because he had run out of disposable razors and had to shave for dinner. When he saw the cost of the replacement blades, he was so amazed that the next day he was already searching the market to see who could produce cheap razors for him at what price, that's where the story starts! If we consider that according to the sales analysis of the year 2022, The Goodfellas smile brand is sold in 36 different countries belonging to three continents, I would say that we have done a lot of work and that people appreciate these wet shaving products, but above all we have to thank the day Nicola bought himself disposable razor parts at the supermarket!

Do you wet shave with a safety razor?

Of course I am a wet shaver! In rotation I use a safety razor or straight razors, of course The Goodfellas smile brand!  The strangest place (at least for me) where I wet shaved was in the hospital bathroom where I was hospitalised following a delicate bowel surgery.  As soon as I was able to get out of bed I could not resist the urge to shave, with much effort but with great satisfaction! 

When did you start shaving soap making & why? 

We started developing The Goodfellas smile more than ten years ago and, step by step, the brand has grown exponentially. When we started producing shaving soap, we tried to bring a quality product to the market at an affordable price and, this logic is still the same today.  

My favourite The Goodfellas Smile scent is a difficult question because, being our products, it is easy to answer that I like them all! So I will do this, I will tell you what I like best and what I like least. The fragrance I prefer is SOLO, because in my opinion it is very elegant and can be worn on any occasion. The one I like least, despite being our bestseller, is LOOP Amber Fougere. Believe me, it is difficult because actually for each fragrance there is a study and research that lasts many months before a product goes on sale. 

With the Officina Artigiana Milano brand (which is our luxury brand) we have made products with very interesting fragrances. The latest one is called Maremoto and is enjoying great success all over the world. We will be releasing another fragrance under this brand in the coming months, and I am sure it will be very popular! But also with The Goodfellas smile there will be new scents and one of them will be aimed at a female audience.

What is your secret to achieving the perfect lather from your shaving soaps? 

The best way to get the most out of our shaving soaps is very simple and, if followed, will give you a great result: 

• Do not put water in the soap bowl, rinse and squeeze the shaving brush well.
• Start drawing the shaving soap using the brush in circular motions, you will notice that the shaving soap dries in the bowl. 
• Then add a few drops of water to the shaving bowl and start, repeat this operation 2 or 3 times, until the shaving soap in the bowl has created a thick cream. At this point the brush has correctly loaded the soap.
• Pick up with your finger in the bowl the remaining soap that the brush has not absorbed and put the soap on your face as a cream. Start the assembly in the face. 
• After spreading the shaving soap on the face you will see that it dries...at this point use the secret ingredient, which is water! 
• Soak the brush in lukewarm water and continue mounting in the face. Repeat this operation a couple of times and you will obtain a thick, shiny, smooth and protective cream
• At the end of the wet shave your skin will be soft and smooth because our soaps contain ingredients that are very important for our skin.

What is coming soon from The Goodfellas Smile?

In the last period, we have expanded the accessories part for the brand, such as synthetic brushes and shaving bowls and we have focused a lot on the production of 100% Made in Italy safety razors. The Goodfellas smile brand is well known, but it is not easy to also be recognised as a razor manufacturer, so the path will be long and certainly not easy! However, the Styletto aluminium razor, with coloured plates, has been an unexpected success and this has made us realise that we are on the right track (in eight months, almost 2000 razors have been sold worldwide!). Every razor we produce will be permanently in our catalogue. 

In January, we created a new steel razor called Syntesi and the first batch of 500 pieces sold out in less than a month, and now we are producing the second batch because we receive so many requests. By the end of 2023 we have already planned four more razor models and we expect positive feedback from the shaving community. As they say in these cases, calm is the virtue of the strong.

We would like to thank Marco at The Goodfellas Smile for taking time to go undercover with us & learn more about the brand and we cannot wait to see new stock coming to Agent Shave!