Knockout Shave Cream – Sonny

Tags

7/10, cedarwood, citrus, floral, knockout shave, lavender, lemongrass, shaving cream, wood

The real question here, is which Sonny are they referring to? The Corleone? Or the Bono?

Sonny is a blend of Cedarwood, Lemongrass, and lavender. The Lemongrass is the strongest of the bunch with the lavender coming in for 2nd. It is a rather pleasant scent; I am a fan of lemongrass overall.

The strength was pretty much spot on, strong, with nothing noticeable in the way of fading. However, the strength probably contributed to one problem:

While I generally have fairly bullet-proof skin, I did notice a fair bit of irritation and a burning sensation from this one. Thus, I’d probably recommend avoiding it if you’ve got sensitive skin, as it’ll probably hit you harder than I. I’ll be docking some points directly from the overall score for this.

Since this cream uses Al’s Shaving Products main line as a base, a lot of you should know what to expect. A very darned fine shave, great thickness and lather slickness, as long as you’re sure to use enough water (and elbow grease)! Good moisturization, good lather stability; great shave.

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

So, normally this would probably be a 9/10, however due to the irritation I experienced, I’m going to downgrade it to a 7/10. Still usable, but there’s better stuff out there.

• Cost: I was provided my samples free of charge for the purposes of this review; you however can get samples (0.25 oz each) of the four current Knockout Shave scents for $7.50, or buy a 4 oz tub of the “Sonny” for $25.

Gear used:

• Brush: Wee Scott
• Razor: Feather AS-D2
• Blade: Gillette Silver Blue

Ingredients: sodium and potassium salts of fatty acids (stearic, oleic, linoleum, palmitic, myristic and lauric), water, glycerin, essential oils (for fragrance).

Knockout Shave Cream – Citrus of Paradise

Tags

9/10, cedarwood, citrus, floral, Fruit, grapefruit, knockout shave, shaving cream, wood, ylang ylang

Happy new year folks. Here’s to hoping that 2014 treats you all well. As mentioned previously, I’ll be starting off the first bit new year with new soaps and creams. Although I’ll admit, this one isn’t exactly completely new.

It’s a new brand, but it was developed in conjunction with Al over at Al’s Shaving Products. Ralph over at Knockout Shave is using, and I quote, “Al’s cream base with different essential oils to create a different scent experience.” So at the least, we’ve got a darn fine idea of how we can expect the lather to work.

So, first up I’ve got a sample of their Citrus of Paradise. Were I to have judged this one blind, I would have said that I thought I smelled predominately a sweet lemon-y scent (or maybe lemongrass-y) with some wood as a base. Their website outlines how they crafted this one from essential oils of grapefruit, Virginian cedar wood, and ylang ylang. So, my nose wasn’t all that far off I guess. No calibration required.

Both myself and the girlfriend really liked this scent, her a bit more than I. The strength was pretty much spot on; it started off quite strong, and only experienced minor fading throughout the shave. All in all, I’d say Ralph did a great job of crafting the scent for this cream.

As for the lather, well, like I said, it uses Al’s as a base, so a lot of you should know what to expect. A very darned fine shave, great thickness and lather slickness, as long as you’re sure to use enough water (and elbow grease)! Good moisturization, good lather stability; great shave.

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

This is clearly a strong 9/10. I like it a lot. So much so in fact, I think it may have earned a spot on the top 10 list… it doesn’t quite beat out TOBS’s Avocado, but I think it’ll bump Tabula Rasa’s Herb off the list.

• Cost: I was provided my samples free of charge for the purposes of this review; you however can get samples (0.25 oz each) of the four current Knockout Shave scents for $7.50, or buy a 4 oz tub of the Citrus of Paradise for $25.

Gear used:

• Brush: The Colonel
• Razor: Vintage Bakelite Slant (with iKon handle)
• Blade: Big Ben Super Stainless
• Scuttle: Robert’s Feats of Clay #4

Ingredients: sodium and potassium salts of fatty acids (stearic, oleic, linoleum, palmitic, myristic and lauric), water, glycerin, essential oils (for fragrance).