Kiss My Face – Key Lime Shaving Cream

Tags

8/10, citrus, Fruit, key lime, kiss my face, lemongrass, Lime

The scent is a refreshing aroma of tart lime; very nice. Although a glance at the label reveals that the underlying ingredients which made that scent are a fair bit more complex. but it definitely comes together as something that strongly reminds me of key limes. Unfortunately, it’s not really strong enough. It’s certainly noticable when lathered and put on the face, but not strongly so, and it faded away quite a bit while I was shaving.

The lather seems to be the same as any other Kiss My Face cream; requires a medium amount of water to get going, and a bit of elbow grease, but leaves you with a creamy lather with a pretty good balance of lubrication and cushioning. Nothing really out of the ordinary when it comes to moisturization.

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

All in all, we’re looking at a 7/10 for this one.

• Cost: $4.99 for the 100 mL (3.4 oz) tube shown, (although current on sale for half price) or a 325 mL (11 oz) hand pump type container for $7.95 (currently on sale for $6.45). Also, it’s one of those brands that is more likely to be available locally, especially at places that specialize in organic foods (both in Canada and the US).

Gear used:

• Brush: The Colonel
• Razor: Feather AS-D2
• Blade: Big Ben Super Stainless
• Scuttle: Robert’s Feats of Clay #4

Ingredients: Aqua, Myristic Acid, Glycerin, Stearic Acid, Potassium Hydroxide, Cocos Nucifera (Coconut) Oil, Olea Europaea (Olive) Fruit Oil, Aloe Barbadensis (Aloe Vera) Leaf Juice, Tocopheryl Acetate (Vitamin E), Allantoin, Salvia Officinalis (Sage) Leaf Extract, Arnica Montana (Arnica) Flower Extract, Hydrastis Canadensis (Golden Seal) Root Extract, Equisetum Hyemale (Horsetail) Extract, Alchemilla Vulgaris (Lady’s Mantle) Leaf Extract, Cymbopogon Schoenanthus (Lemongrass) Leaf Extract, Citrus Aurantifolia (Lime) Fruit Extract, Citrus Aurantium Dulcis (Orange) Flower Extract, Saponaria Officinalis (Soapwort) Root Extract, Nasturtium Officinalis (Watercress) Leaf Extract, Eucalyptus Globulus (Eucalyptus) Leaf Oil, Citrus Medica Limonum (Lemon) Peel Oil, Cymbopogon Schoenanthus (Lemongrass) Leaf Oil, Citrus Aurantifolia (Lime) Fruit Oil, Citrus Aurantium Dulcis (Orange) Flower Oil, Hydroxyethylcellulose

Queen Charlotte Soaps – Key Lime soap

Tags

5/10, citrus, key lime, Lime, Queen Charlotte Soaps, shaving soap

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Or, if you’re an American, Columbus Day. Or if you’re neither American or Canadian, Monday. Today I’m going with Queen Charlotte Soaps’ Key Lime formulation, based on a recommendation from a fellow redditor. To start, this is what QCS says about their soap:

With a nice citrusy pop to it, this lime scent smells like freshly cut limes and lime zest. Unlike other lime scents, ours is dry, rather than sweet.

Once again, I found this scent to be lacking in strength. It wasn’t nearly as bad as their Green Irish Tweed formulation was, since I found that one to be essentially scent-less, but the soap didn’t have a strong smell of limes, lime zest, sweet dry or otherwise. What I could smell smelled pretty decent, mind you, but it definitely didn’t have enough to carry over anything but the faintest of hints to the lather.

I’m finding this to be somewhat frustrating, as of the 4 soaps from Queen Charlotte that I’ve tried thus far, the only two that were strong enough are two that have since been discontinued. Their not-available-anymore Monaco (my review here) was just a bit shy of strong enough, and their likewise discontinued Hanami (which I might get around to reviewing if I start running out of soaps that are still in production… a few years down the road at the rate I’m ordering stuff) was, if anything, a tad too strong. I know they can do it, hopefully a few of the other samples I’ve got turn out better.

I did find that it lathered better than the other QCS soaps I’ve tried out thus far. It turned up nice and thick, and really slick. This wasn’t a soap that required a whole lot of water for the lather, just whatever was left on my brush after flicking the excess off was enough to lather and and give plenty of glide. It didn’t produce as much in the way of volume, but made up for it in cushion. Quite a nice shave.

• 7/10 Scent Pleasantness
• 4/10 Scent Strength
• 7/10 Lather Quality (reflects new scoring as outlined here)

Overall, I give it a 5/10. Hopefully one of these days I’ll be able to find a Lime shaving soap I really like, but this isn’t it.

• Cost: I paid $2 for a quarter ounce sample. A full sized puck starts at $13, a plus $7 if you want a wooden bowl or $2.50 for a plastic tub.

Gear used:

• Brush: The Colonel
• Razor:Edwin Jagger DE81BL (Red)
• Blade: Astra Superior Platinum
• Scuttle: Robert’s Feats of Clay #4

Ingredients: Saponified tallow, water, saponified castor oil and shea butter, glycerin, saponified stearic acid, cocoa butter, and coconut oil, essential oil(s), saponified avocado oil, palm oil, and olive oil, aloe vera extract, kaolin clay, lanolin, vitamin E.