Al’s Shaving Products – Lather Shaving Cream – Blue

Tags

7/10, Al's Shaving Products, amber, Coriander, geranium, Jasmine, lavender, musk, peppermint, rosewood, shaving cream

So Al’s got a new line of shaving cream which he’s in the process of developing. He sent me out a sampler pack of a bunch of scents that he’s trying out right now, including the one that he currently has available, Blue.

It’s supposed to be a more affordable option than his main line of creams. I guess the million dollar four dollar (the price difference between the two lines) question is whether or not the savings in cost came at the expense of performance? Well, IMHO, yeah, a bit.

Don’t get me wrong here, the lather shaving cream is still a good cream. It’s just not a great cream, which I feel that Al’s main line is. It lathers up easily, however I wasn’t able to get it quite as thick and creamy as I can get the main line. It’s not a very thirsty cream, so just a tad of water would be needed. Folks used to his main line should be warned not to over-water it, as it will start to thin out appreciably if you use the same amount. Still, it yielded a nice and slick cream with some good thickness. Some minor stability issues, but I do mean minor, only thinning out a bit while applied to the face during the shave. One thing it does share with the original formulation is a good amount of volume produced.

The line is designed to also appeal to those who like a more subtle scent to their shaving cream. So, well, anyone who’s been reading my reviews will know that is one aspect I’m not going to be a fan of. That seemed to be the case for the sample I tried, coming in at what I’d consider to be just under a medium strength scent. So great for those of you who don’t like their scents strong I guess.

The “Blue” is designed to be a rendition of Davidoff’s Cool Water, which was itself an homage to Creed’s Green Irish Tweed. It’s a pleasant blend, although like most “cologne-y” scents, I have trouble picking out any of the individual notes. Al says it’s crafted with lavender, peppermint, geranium, jasmine, coriander, rosewood, musk, and amber. Quite pleasant.

• 9/10 Scent Pleasantness
• 7/10 Scent Strength
• 8/10 Lather Quality

Overall, I’ll give it a 7/10. It’s a good cream, but I’d mostly recommend sticking with the originals instead, unless you’re one of those folk who do like their creams to not be as heavily scented.

• Cost: $14 for a 100 g tub.

Gear used:

• Brush: Mühle HJM Black Fibre
• Razor: Edwin Jagger DE81BL (Red)
• Blade: Sharp Durablade
• Scuttle: Robert’s Feats of Clay #4

Ingredients: Aloe Vera, Water, Stearic Acid, Myristic Acid, Potassium Hydroxide, Glycerin, Coconut Acid, fragrance, Sodium Hydroxide

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Whoos Shaving Soap – Death or Glory

Tags

7/10, amber, cardamom, cedar, cinnamon, clove, patchouli, sandalwood, shaving soap, teakwood, Whoos

Whoos’ shaving soap is, claims of being handmade nothwithstanding, fairly obviously a melt-and-pour soap. Not surprising really, seems like most of the soaps sold on etsy are!

It’s got the usual issues you see with a lot of the melt-and-pour soaps out there, the most notable being a sub-par lather stability. It can’t really be claimed to provide all that much cushioning, given that by the time you finish half of your pass, the other half has already started to fade. Unfortunately, adding enough water to fix the stability issues also thins it out too much. All in all, not enough to make it unusable by any stretch, but there’s far better soaps out there.

The scent is a nice spicy concoction; they say it’s got teakwood, cardamom, cinnamon, clove, cedar, amber, sandalwood, and patchouli. The spices are predominate, with the rest providing a nice backdrop.

It comes on quite strong when lathered up, and mostly stays that way without too much in the way of fading while you shave.

• 8/10 Scent Pleasantness
• 9/10 Scent Strength
• 6/10 Lather Quality

Overall, I’m willing to round this one up to a 7/10. Smells nice enough to make up a bit for the performance.

• Cost: A puck of the Death or Glory (or any of their other scents for that matter) will set you back $4.25. Or you can get a set of three pucks of any scent for $11.25.

Gear used:

• Brush: Mühle HJM Black Fibre
• Razor: Feather AS-D2
• Blade: Asco Super Stainless
• Bowl: Hand painted by myself (Yes, I know it’s ugly).

Ingredients: Coconut oil, palm oil, safflower oil, glycerin, purified water, sodium hydroxide, sorbitol, sorbitan, soybean protein, wheat protein, bentonite clay, aloe, fragrance oil, mica.

 

New York Shaving Company – Tonsorial shaving cream

Tags

7/10, amber, barber shop, citrus, floral, Fruit, iris, lavender, lemon, lime and mandarin, musk, New York Shaving Company, shaving cream, wood

My initial impression of New York Shaving Company’s Tonsorial cream was of a “barbershoppe” scent, which for those of you like myself who might have to look up the word Tonsorial, seems to be exactly what they were going for. They describe it as follows:

Warm and masculine, this scent opens with a citrus fusion of lemon, lime and mandarin. It emerges with lavender and iris, finishes with a warm musk and amber woods.

Personally, I think the notes that I pick up the most would be the amber and the citrus, but it’s a nice blend of all of the above. It’s fairly reminiscent of Taylor of Old Bond Street’s Shaving Shop, but without quite straying away from a clean scent to a sterile scent, as I mentioned in that review.

Strength-wise, it is indeed a lightly scented cream, however it does stay fairly steady throughout the shave, without any significant fading.

The lather was exactly what I recall from the review last week, so I’m just gonna copy it here: The lather provided a good shave. I was able to hit the sweet spot for a good combination of thickness and slickness each time, with a bit of tinkering; it seems to be a reasonably sizable but not large range of acceptable water content. Very good lather stability, decent moisturization.

• 8/10 Scent Pleasantness
• 7/10 Scent Strength
• 8/10 Lather Quality

So, it kinda looks like I like this cream almost exactly the same as I did the other New York Shaving Co cream I tried last week. So, overall rating’s the same too; 7/10.

• Cost: I haven’t seen samples of this scent readily available (this one was provided to me from Men Essentials). A 2 oz travel container goes for $12, or $18 for a full-sized 4 oz.

Gear used:

• Brush: Mühle HJM Black Fibre
• Razor: Feather AS-D2
• Blade: Ladas Super Stainless
• Scuttle: Robert’s Feats of Clay #4

Ingredients: Dunno! Couldn’t find a current listing. Best I could give you is this from their website: “This rich cream contains such beneficial ingredients as Coconut oil, Glycerin, Organic Cocoa Butter & Organic Aloe.”

Taylor of Old Bond Street – St James shaving stick

Tags

7/10, amber, bergamot, citrus, Coriander, floral, Fruit, geranium, lavender, lemon, mandarin, ozone, patchouli, pine, shaving soap, Spearmint, St. James, Taylor of Old Bond Street, wood

St James is nicely scented, a rather complex scent that I would have failed to realistically describe, so I’ll let the manufacturer speak to that:

A fresh masculine fougere opening with bergamot and mandarin intertwined with citrus ozone notes supported by a fruity floral heart resting on a woody amber base. Contains Coriander oil, Geranium oil, Lavandin Grosso, Lemon oil, Patchouli oil, Pine oil and Spearmint oil.

So… kind of reminiscent of Eton College, with some woody and ozone notes added. All in all, I think I slightly prefer Eton College, but they’re both nice enough scents.

Strength-wise, it’s decent enough. It isn’t really strong at all, but it also doesn’t seem to fade noticeably during the shave, staying at a nice medium level steady-state.

I was rather pleased with the lather as well. It lathered up easily, producing a thick cream with great glide, and excellent stability (it managed to stay there while writing most of this review). Not much in the way of moisturization properties, and the volume produced was perhaps a bit sub-par, but all in all, it’s what I’d say is a good shave.

• 8/10 Scent Pleasantness
• 8/10 Scent Strength
• 8/10 Lather Quality

So, Overall, I’m going to say a 7/10. It’s a nice middle of the road shaving soap, nothing outstanding about any aspect of it, but nothing to complain about either.

• Cost: While I got this one off someone on /r/shave_bazaar, a new one can be had for $14.50. This scent of soap is unfortunately only available in the stick.

Gear used:

• Brush: Wee Scott
• Razor: Gillette Travel Tech
• Blade: Astra Superior Platinum

Ingredients: Glycerin, stearic acid, aqua (water), potassium hydroxide, myristic acid, sodium hydroxide, parfum (contains: benzyl salicylate, linalool, hexyl cinnamal, limonene).

Truefitt and Hill – Grafton Shaving Cream

Tags

8/10, amber, cologne, floral, grafton, herbal, leather, shaving cream, truefitt and hill, wood

I was prompted to bust out my sample of Truefitt and Hill’s Grafton shaving cream after stumbling across this post, wherein various folks on Shavenook declare Grafton to be identical to Taylor of Old Bond Street’s Mr. Taylor scent.

Naturally, I lathered up, took a sniff, and followed up with a sniff of my bottle of Mr. Taylor’s cologne. And while I’ll agree that they’re quite similar, I thought I picked up a bit more spice in the bouquet of the Mr. Taylor. For what it’s worth, T&H describe their Grafton as “Warm and spicy, Grafton has a fresh herbaceous opening combined with a spicy floral heart, leading onto a rich, woody, amber background with a hint of leather”, compared to TOBS on Mr Taylor: “A fresh fougere accord with herbaceous top notes of lavender, bergamot, green notes resting on a heart with geranium and soft green fern. The base of this fragrance is ambery with cedar, leathery, moss and musky.” So, yeah, definitely sounds like they were at least shooting for something similar, if not exactly the same.

Anyhow, the scent was quite nice, if the above sounds like something you’d like.  Strength-wise, it was pretty darned good; about what I’d call the perfect strength  right off the bat, however I did notice some not-insignificant level of fading during  the shave.

As for the lather, it’s on par with most of the other T&H I’ve tried (I think the slightly lower quality shaves I had with the Lavender might be an abberation). You can coax a quite thick lather out of it with a decent level of lubrication; don’t overdo it on the water however or it will thin down a fair bit. And reasonable moisturization properties.

• 9/10 Scent Pleasantness
• 9/10 Scent Strength
• 8/10 Lather Quality

I assess this one to be a solid 8/10. I’d say everyone should at least
give the T&H sampler pack a try.

• Cost: The cost of the aforementioned sample pack is $10.50 for 14 of their shaving creams, aftershave balms, and the pre-shave oil. Another 9 bucks gets you a sample of each of their colognes as well. $30 for a 190g tub of the cream, or $22 for a 75g tube.

Gear used:

• Brush: The Colonel
• Razor: Vintage Bakelite Slant
• Blade: Merkur Super
• Scuttle: Robert’s Feats of Clay #4

Ingredient List: Water, Stearic Acid, Mystric Acid, Potassium Hydroxide, Coconut Acid, Glycerin, Fragrance, Triethanolamine, Phenoxyethanol, Butylparaben, Ethylparaben, Isobutylparaben, Sodium Hydroxide, Methylparaben, Propylparaben.

Kell’s Original Hemp Blend Shaving Soap – Black Tea

Tags

8/10, amber, bermagot, black tea, cedarwood, citrus, floral, Fruit, Glycerin, Jasmine, kell's original, lemon, musk, Orange, shaving soap, tea

Kell’s Original Black Tea is one of those ones were it’s probably best just to start off by giving you the listing of how they describe the scent:

This smoky, sexy and sophisticated fragrance is reminiscent of roasted tea leaves with strong overtones of tobacco. With surprising top notes of Italian Bergamot, Sicilian Lemon and Southern Orange, the blend winds down with Black Tea Leaves, Star Jasmine, White Cedarwood, Amber Crystal and a rich musk. This is a bold and unusual scent sure to intrigue.

So, as you can see, it’s a fairly complex scent. I’m not going to lie, had someone asked me to sniff it and give a description, I’m not sure that “tea” would have popped up. But, knowing that’s what they’re going for, I can see how it hints at that. I’m not entirely sure that I pick up everything listed there, in particular I don’t get all that much of a citrus impression at all, be it lemon, orange, or bermagot. As an aside, I think I would greatly enjoy a shaving soap that manages to capture the essence of Earl Grey, a classic blend of black tea and bermagot.

Anyways, it’s a complex scent, but it’s rather enjoyable; I found it to be somewhat invigorating, it’s just spicy enough to give a little bit of a kick to the senses. It comes on just shy of “strong”, but manages to avoid fading noticeably from there.

As is expected now from Kell’s Original, the lather is quite nice. It’s provides good performance in thickness, glide, and moisturizing properties, provided that you remember to use enough water! Quite voluminous as well, a fully loaded brush will provide far more lather than is needed for a typical 3-pass shave.

• 9/10 Scent Pleasantness
• 9/10 Scent Strength
• 8/10 Lather Quality

All-in-all, 8/10. I’d definitely recommend at least trying out a sampler. Also available with aloe, although I haven’t tried that formulation.

• Cost: The sample puck used was $2 for 1 oz, also available are 2.7 oz cakes for $5.25, 4oz in a tin for $8, or a 2.5 oz shave stick for $9.

Gear used:

• Brush: Ecotools Kabuki Finishing Brush
• Razor: Vintage Bakelite Slant
• Blade: Bolzano Superinox
• Scuttle: Robert’s Feats of Clay #4

Hemp blend ingredients: Coconut Oil, Palm Oil, Olive Oil (Grade A extra virgin), Safflower Oil, Glycerine (vegetable origin), Hemp Seed Oil (unrefined), Purified Water, Sodium Hydroxide (saponifying agent), Sorbitol (moisturizer), Sorbitan oleate (emulsifer), Soy bean protein (conditioner), Wheat Protein (conditioner)

Honeybee Soaps – Hydrogen

Tags

7/10, amber, Apple, citrus, floral, Fruit, Glycerin, grapefruit, honeybee soaps, hydrogen, peach, raspberry, sandalwood, shaving soap

Hydrogen from Honeybee Soaps is a rather complex scent; mostly fruity with a few woodsy undertones. Honeybee describes it as “Apple, grapefruit, peach and greenery mix with soft floral middle notes, rounded off with base notes of sandalwood, amber and raspberry musk.” It’s a light and fresh, and I really rather quite like it. I’d be a good summer fragrance methinks. I’m pretty sure that’s not what H2 smells like however.

Unfortunately, when I said light, I mean too light. It’s not strong enough for my liking, just barely above the threshold where it’s noticeable when first lathered on; by the end of the shave it faded to the point where your get a sporadic whiff.

As for the lather, it’s what I’ve come to expect from Honeybee soaps; use a lot of water and a bit of elbow grease, and you’ll get a nice balance of thickness and a good amount of glide.

• 9/10 Scent Pleasantness
• 7/10 Scent Strength
• 8/10 Lather Quality

Overall a nice decent all-around soap. A tad stronger (ok, probably about 3-4 times the fragrance level) would have been nice though. 7/10.

• Cost: Samples are $1.59 per ounce, full 3.5 ounce pucks are $4.49, or $5.99 for 4 ounces in a plastic tub.

Gear used:

• Brush: Ecotools Kabuki Finishing Brush
• Razor: 1966 Gillette Tech
• Blade: Gillette 7 O’clock Black
• Scuttle: Robert’s Feats of Clay #4

Ingredients: Coconut Oil, Palm Oil, Castor Oil, Hempseed Oil, Safflower Oil, Shea Butter, Glycerine (vegetable origin), Vitamin E, Water, Sodium Hydroxide, Sorbitol, Sorbitan Oleate, Soybean Protein, Wheat Protein, White Kaolin China Clay, Cosmetic Color and Fragrance Oil.

The Shave Den – Winter Pagoda shaving soap

Tags

6/10, amber, Glycerin, musk, shaving soap, the shave den, wood

The Shave Den’s Winter Pagoda is fairly sweetly scented. And that’s about it; other than the sweetness, it’s not all that distinctive. It’s supposed to be “frost and white woods with sweet amber and light musk”, but to be honest, it’s hard to really make out any of the individual scents. Maybe a bit of the musk, but overall, it’s kind of bland. Vaguely pleasant, but boring.

And that’s when sniffing the soap itself. Once applied to the face, there’s not much there at all.

For the lather, the usual caveats for the Shave Den apply; load your brush very heavily, and then add your water gradually, and you’ll should be able to hit the sweet spot with a good balance of lather thickness and glide. It’s easy to overshoot though, and can be tricky to get just right.

• 7/10 Scent Pleasantness
• 7/10 Scent Strength
• 7/10 Lather Quality

So, overall, meh. 6/10 I guess. There’s definitely better stuff out there.

• Cost: A one ounce sample goes for $2.50, or $6.99 for a full 4 ounce puck (an extra $2 if you want a tub with it).

Gear used:

• Brush: Ecotools Kabuki Finishing Brush
• Razor: Merkur Progress
• Blade: Croma Diamant
• Scuttle: Robert’s Feats of Clay #4

Ingredients: Glycerin, Aqua, Olive Oil, Bentonite Clay, Sodium Borate, Sweet Almond Oil, Sodium Palmate, Sorbitol, Sodium Cocoate, Palm Acid, Coconut Acid, Pentasodium Pentetate, Tetrasodium Etidronate, and fragrance.

Man Cave Soapworks – Gatsby shaving soap

Tags

6/10, amber, cologne, Glycerin, Man Cave Soapworks, musk, shaving soap, spice

Gatsby from Man Cave Soapworks is a pleasantly spicy, masculine scent, which is complex enough that I can’t really describe it in much better detail than that. So, I’ll rely on what the proprietor Carrie says about it:

A throw-back to 1920’s Jay Gatsby with base notes of warm, sophisticated rum and amber. Afterthoughts of hazy musk and bay leaves make this blend irresistable. A nice, clean barber’s soap that’d make Daisy Buchanan swoon…

Seems accurate enough to me. It’s a nice scent, and I think I might order one of the solid cologne sticks that they produce in the same scent.

Strength-wise, it was so-so. You could make it out a bit when lathered up, but certainly not strongly.

And the lather itself is typical of many melt-and-pour shaving soaps that I’ve come across. It provides a perfectly reasonable shave, with a decent balance of thickness and glide. Nothing to write home about, just a nice solid shave, which left the face feeling nice.

• 8/10 Scent Pleasantness
• 7/10 Scent Strength
• 7/10 Lather Quality (reflects new scoring as outlined here)

So, I’m giving it a 6/10. Stronger scent would have been nice, but I’m not complaining too much here.

• Cost: A 4 oz puck in the jar as pictured goes for $8, with just the refill being $4.50.

Gear used:

• Brush: Wee Scott
• Razor: Edwin Jagger DE81BL (Red)
• Blade: Shark Super Stainless

Ingredients: Coconut Oil, Palm Oil, Safflower Oil, Glycerin (kosher, of vegetable origin), Purified Water, Sodium Hydroxide (saponifying agent), Organic Shea Butter, Bentonite Clay, Sorbitol (moisturizer), Sorbitan oleate (emulsifier), Soy bean protein (conditioner), Wheat Protein (conditioner), fragrance