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 – Shaving Shop cream

Tags

7/10, barber shop, citrus, crisp, floral, herbal, shaving cream, shaving shop, Taylor of Old Bond Street, wood

Next up we have another cream from the “court hairdressers” Taylor of Old Bond Street. They describe their Shaving Shop scent as:

A classic aromatic citrus fragrance opening with top notes of fresh lemon blended with uplifting herbal nuances of lavender, thyme and rosemary, A fresh, green floral heart of jasmine and white cyclamen is warmed by a subtle spice accord before descending into a base of precious woods, moss, and amber musks. Contains essential oils of: Lemon, Thyme, Rosemary, Lavandin, Galbanum, and Patchouli.

The lather was wonderfully thick, while still being nice and slick. I find that with a lot of creams and soaps, “the wetter the better”, but that really wasn’t all that necessary with Shaving Shop. Just a bit of water and a tab of cream was able to be whipped up into a great lather, that gave a nice shave with plenty of cushion. It gave a better shave than the other TOBS creams that I’ve tried. It’s also a fair bit thicker than a lot of the other TOBS creams I’ve seen.

The scent… I could take it or leave it. It’s not bad by any stretch of the imagination, but something just doesn’t do it for me. I would say that the description above is rather accurate as to how it comes across, but it just doesn’t appeal all that much to me. It’s like a “clean” smell, but like it goes a bit too far into almost being sterile.

Strength-wise, it’s a bit underpowered. I can smell the cream itself quite clearly, but the lather comes across weak and fades.

• 6/10 Scent Pleasantness
• 7/10 Scent Strength
• 9/10 Lather Quality (reflects new scoring as outlined here)

Overall, I give it a 7/10. Really nice shave, but the scent didn’t impress.

• Cost: $15.99 for a 150g tub.

Gear used:

• Brush: The Colonel
• Razor: Edwin Jagger DE81BL (Red)
• Blade: Gillette Silver Blue
• Scuttle: Robert’s Feats of Clay #4

Ingredients: Aqua, Stearic Acid, Myristic Acid, Potassium Hydroxide, Coconut Acid, Glycerin, Triethanolamine, Sodium Hydroxide, Parfum, Methylparaben, Propylparaben, (Parfum contains: Benzyl Salicylate, Linalool, Limonene, Amyl Cinnamal, Hexyl Cinnamal, Alpha-Isomethyl Ionone, Butylphenyl Methylpropional).