Man 5 shaving cream – Dynamic

Tags

4/10, citrus, herbal, lemon, shaving cream

So, to follow on from a local soap which is terrible, next up we’ve got a cream from halfway around the world, which still isn’t very good at all! Hailing from Istanbul, Turkey, Man 5 shaving cream is, well, quite similar to the bulk of the cheap shaving creams that I’ve seen coming out of Eastern Europe.

The performance of the lather was, eh, I’d say sub-par. I wasn’t quite able to get as good of a balance between the required lubrication and the thickness of the lather, but it was certainly still useable, definitely on the thin side. Also needed a fair amount of elbow grease to get it to that level too. Nothing either good or bad to write about its moisturization, and the lather stability also left something to be desired. To call it a so-so shave would probably be pushing it.

The scent, well, it smelled pretty much exactly like the Ikar Tornado that I reviewed last week; reminded me of a herbal scent, with a fairly harsh chemical-y citrus layer. Not something I’d say smelled natural, or pleasant.

It was a bit stronger than the Ikar, lingering longer during, and even after the shave.

• 5/10 Scent Pleasantness
• 8/10 Scent Strength
• 6/10 Lather Quality

So, what can I say? All told, with both a poor lather and unpleasant scent, I’m gonna knock it down to a 4/10.

• Cost: But, like the Ikar, really dirt cheap. $2.39 for a 100g tube. I wouldn’t recommend it.

Gear used:

• Brush: Wee Scott
• Razor: Edwin Jagger DE81BL (Red)
• Blade: Big Ben Super Stainless
• Bowl: Hand painted by myself (Yes, I know it’s ugly).

Ingredients: Stearic acid, Aqua, Glycerin, Coconut Acid, Potassium Hydroxide, Sodium Silicate, Sodium Hydroxide, Parfum, Cetearyl Alcohol, Sodium Borate, Tocopheryl Acetate, Potassium Chloride, Methylparaben, Aloe Barbadensis, Benzyl Salicylate, Butylphenyl Methylpropional, Hydroxyisohexyl 3-Cyclohexone Carboxaldehyde, Linalool, Limonene.

Lavena – Ikar Tornado shaving cream

Tags

5/10, citrus, herbal, lemon, shaving cream

Onwards to Bulgaria for the next shaving cream review! Ikar Tornado, produced by Lavena, which is apparently one of the country’s leading cosmetics manufacturers. Kinda weird I got to this one today, as the girlfriend picked Getaway for tonight’s movie, which is set in Bulgaria. But hey, I guess that’s the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon at work.

To start with, the scent is not really all that pleasant. It’s mostly a citrus scent, but that harsh chemically fake lemon scent that’s far too ubiquitous. It’s also got some tinge of what I’d say is a herbal scent. All in all, it’s not something I enjoyed.

Fortunately, it’s a fairly weak not-all-that-pleasant scent.

The lather turned out to be pretty good. It lathered up easily, with just a small dash of water needed to produce a nice thick cream with good lubrication. However, rather that being useful for skin moisturization, I found this caused more of a drying effect.

Also, while looking for what might have prompted this drying effect, one of the ingredients was unfamiliar to me, so I looked up this “Cocamide DEA“, which turns out to have been identified as a possible carcinogen in humans, which led to it being banned for sale in California. So… yeah, take from that what you will.

• 5/10 Scent Pleasantness
• 6/10 Scent Strength
• 7/10 Lather Quality

Overall, I can’t really justify giving this any more than a 5/10. The smell alone would drive me away from using it, even without the whole “not sure if it’s safe to put on my face” thing.

• Cost: But, at least it is dirt cheap. I got it for $3.90 for a 125 mL tube.

Gear used:

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

Ingredients: Aqua, Myristic Acid, Stearic Acid, Glycerin, Potassium Hydroxide, Boric Acid, Cocamide DEA, Sodium Borate, Parfum, Limonene.

Wm. Neumann & Co – Old Fashioned Soda Shaving Cream

Tags

9/10, Birch, cinnamon, citrus, clove, Coriander, floral, Fruit, lemon, mint, Neroli, nutmeg, Orange, shaving cream, soda, spice, Star Anise, vanilla, Wintergreen, Wm. Neumann & Co, wood

Now, some of you have probably noticed that I’ve been pretty lazy with getting these reviews out lately. For that, I apologize. It’s had one side effect; rather than trying several soap or cream a couple times, without getting updates out, I’d just been reusing and reusing one of them. So, rather than getting the usual 2 – 3 tries that other soaps and creams get, this upcoming cream has gotten used about ten times that. One of my most thoroughly reviewed products ever!

Wm. (William) Neumann & Co’s schtick is that the descendant of a pharmacist from the turn of the last century found a notebook wherein said gentleman had found the recipes for a bunch of custom scents that the fellow had created.

So I was prompted to purchase this product after seeing Mantic’s review of it. He says that he smelled Cola and Root beer, with a bit of cream soda; his wife got a citrus cream soda vibe. Personally, I’d say it’s cola, root beer, with a bit of Dr. Pepper. It’s a sweet, slightly tangy scent that I think if I were to sniff it blind and be asked what it smelled like, I would probably reply with something similar to “Old Fashioned Soda”. Really suits what they were going for. They describe it as a “secret combination of Orange, Lemon, Nutmeg, Coriander, Neroli, Cinnamon, Wintergreen, Clove, Birch, Star Anise, and Vanilla”, which seems like a reasonable description to me; it comes together quite nicely.

The strength of it was pretty good. It starts off pretty much perfect, although it does experience fairly significant fading as the shave progresses. Still, it was “strong enough” for the time it took to finish off each of my cheeks and the neck, which isn’t too shabby.

As for the performance of the cream itself, it’s very good, although I did find it a bit tricky to get just right. In particular, I found it was fairly easy to over-do it with the amount of water added, leaving a lather that’s too thin. Not too much water is needed at all, and a bit easy to overshoot. That said, when you do get it right, it does result in a very fine lather with some great glide and cushioning, and some good moisturization to boot.

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

All in all, I’d say it’s a pretty damned fine cream. Fine enough that I believe it deserves a spot on the top ten list; I think I’ll be putting it at number 8 for the time being. 9/10.

• Cost: $24 for 8 oz (236 mL) of the shaving cream, in a container with a hand pump. They do also make a shave soap, an aftershave (which they can’t ship outside the US due to its alcohol base), and an aftershave balm in the same scent.

Gear used:

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

Ingredients: Water, stearic acid, glycerin, myristic acid, potassium hydroxide, cocos nucifera (coconut) oil, olea europaea (olive) oil, aloe barbadensis (aloe vera) leaf juice, hydrolyzed silk, fragrance (contains natural oils), menthol, tocopheryl acetate (vitamin e), butyrospermum parkii (shea) butter, retinyl palmitate (vitamin a), allantoin, camellia sinensis (green tea) extract, aphanizonmenon flos aquae (blue-green algae) extract, urtica dioica (nettle) extract, stellaria media (chickweed) extract, ulmus rubra (slippery elm) extract, silybum marianum (milk thistle extract), althaea officinalis (marshmallow root) extract, hydroxyethylcellulose.

Al’s Shaving Products – Scent of the Month: Al’s Spice Shaving Cream

Tags

8/10, Al's Shaving Products, allspice, Cardamon, cinnamon, clove, Coriander, geranium, lemon, nutmeg, pepper, shaving cream, spice

Heya folks. Long time no see; sorry I’ve been a bit busy lately, haven’t gotten around to writing up any reviews. But the next on our plate is a cream from one of my favorite artisans; one of Al’s Shaving Products scents of the month: Al’s Spice (pun intended methinks).

If initially asked to describe this scent, I would have told you it’s like a bay rum, without the rum or the bay. It’s got a focus on the spices that often show up as supporting characters to many bay rum scents out there. Here’s what Al has to say about it:

Al’s Spice character is inspired by the Caribbean. Al’s Spice opens with notes of lemon and geranium and coriander. Cardamon, pepper and nutmeg follow in a rampant parade of exuberance. Clove, cinnamon and allspice support the incredible presence of this powerful yet classy offering. Al’s Spice’s scent is reminiscent of your last trip to Grenada (Island of Spice) very spicy with a bracing and invigorating character and a clean refreshing finish.

All in all, that seems mostly accurate, although I will say that the spice aspects of the scent predominate to my nose, with only a faint bit of the citrus and the floral aspects. Overall, I quite liked it. As did the girlfriend, which helps since we’re often in disagreement there!

The strength was also pretty good; it had great staying power, staying at a medium-strong level throughout your shave.

I would have liked just a tiny bit more oomph to it. It’s not strongly scented, but not weak either. Once applied, it does manages to last the shave without much in the way of fading.

The lather was the usual from Al: top notch. A thirsty cream, you’ll want to make sure you’re using enough water. Don’t overdo it on the amount of cream you use, with enough water you’ll get a lot of volume out of just a little bit of cream. Otherwise it’s hard to mess up, with a wide sweet spot for a good balance of glide and thickness, and some nice moisturization to the face as well.

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

Overall I’ll say this merits a strong 8/10.

• Cost: This sample was provided gratis for the purposes of this review. A 4 oz tub is available for $20.

Gear used:

• Brush: The Colonel
• Razor: Vintage Bakelite Slant w/Ikon SS wave handle
• Blade: Astra Superior Platinum
• Scuttle: Robert’s Feats of Clay #4

Ingredients: “The forumula of Al’s Shaving Cream is Triethanolamine and preservative (parabens) free and only contains sodium and potassium salts of fatty acids (stearic, oleic, linoleic, palmitic, myristic and lauric) in addition to water, glycerin and botanicals.”

Queen Charlotte Soaps – Green Irish Tweed type shaving cream

Tags

7/10, citrus, cologne, floral, Green Irish Tweed, iris, lemon, Queen Charlotte Soaps, sandalwood, shaving cream, verbena, violet

Today’s review is of Queen Charlotte Soaps’ Green Irish Tweed shaving cream. Now, I’ve reviewed their GIT soap before, and found it to be somewhat lacking, especially in scent strength. This fared better.

The cream’s lather was pretty good; fairly thick for a cream, it lathered up with a bit of elbow grease to something with a good balance of thickness and lather slickness, with a fairly wide “sweet spot” for acceptable water content to pull this off.

The scent seemed like a pretty decent Green Irish Tweed imitation (keeping in mind that I’ve never smelled the actual stuff!). For those who don’t know the scent, here’s how QCS describes it:

This is our rendition of Green Irish Tweed, the cologne created by Creed that is a favorite among the famous and royalty. With top notes of lemon and verbena, middle notes of iris and violet leaves, and base notes of Mysore sandalwood and ambergris, Green Irish Tweed smells refined and sophisticated.

Now, back to the soap version of the stuff, I could barely detect any scent whatsoever. This stuff is far better in that regard. This isn’t to say that it’s a strong scent, mind you, but at least you can tell it’s there, albeit with a fair amount of fading during the course of the shave.

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

All in all, it’s a decent enough if rather middle of the road cream. Not outstanding in any aspect, but it doesn’t fall flat anywhere either. 7/10 overall.

• Cost:I got this sample along with an order from MenEssentials, but you can also buy Queen Charlotte’s cream samples, 5 for $8. A full tub goes for $14.

Gear used:

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

Ingredients: Water, saponified stearic acid, glycerin, saponified tallow, palm oil, olive oil, and coconut oil, aloe vera extract, fragrance oil, kaolin clay, phenoxyethanol (and) caprylyl glycol, vitamin E.

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).

Penhaligon’s Blenheim Bouquet shaving cream

Tags

9/10, Blenheim Bouquet, citrus, lavender, lemon, Lime, musk, Penhaligon, pepper, pine

I’ll admit, I try a lot of shaving soaps and creams that a lot of people rave about, and a lot of the time I just don’t really see what they’re going on about. Once in a while, I do, and Penhaligon’s Blenheim Bouquet is one of those times.

It’s mainly a citrus scented soap, however after the first hit of the lemon and lime, it reveals a nice complex mix, tempered by lavender, and supported by pine, musk, and a bit of black pepper. I really really quite liked it.

The strength was great as well; not much fading, good strength throughout the shave.

The lather too was rather good. Relatively thirsty for a cream, once enough water was added it easily lathered up to a nice thick consistency with great glide. Rather voluminous as well. Nothing outstanding in the way of moisturization / skin care, bad or good. My only quibble would be that the stability could have been a bit better; it didn’t become unusable or anything, but the lather was visibly fading by the end of my shave.

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

Overall, I’m giving it a 9/10, and I think I’ll slot it in at #7 on the top ten list. Because, damn that stuff smelled nice. Seriously, I need to get the cologne. So… if anyone’s got a spare $120 kicking around, I’d really appreciate it!

• Cost: I had a sample sent to me by a kindly redditor who wanted to know what I thought of the cream. For everyone else, however, I do recall Garry’s Sample Shop having had it in stock at one point, although he doesn’t right now, you might want to keep your eye there, and on the Wetshaving Sample Shoppe. Or, you could just go for it: 150 mL can be found for $45 in a travel tube or $55 in a glass jar, shipping included.

Gear used:

• Brush: Ecotools Kabuki Finishing Brush
• Razor: 1966 Solid Nickel Gillette Tech
• Blade: Lord Super Stainless
• Scuttle: Robert’s Feats of Clay #4

Ingredients: Aqua, stearic acid, myristic acid, glycerin, potassium hydroxide, coconut acid, glycol distearate, sodium C14-16 olefin sulfonate, parfum(fragrance), limonene, linalool, citral, phenoxyethanol, methylparaben, butylparaben, ethylparaben, isobutylparaben, propylparaben

XPEC Original Shaving Cream

Tags

8/10, cedarwood, citrus, cologne, Discontinued, floral, ginger, lemon, oak musk, pepper, Rose, shaving cream, spice, thyme, wood, XPEC

Edit: This version had been discontinued. There is a new XPEC cream out there, but it is a reformulation, thus I wouldn’t base a purchase upon this review.

XPEC Original’s scent is based upon notes of rose, thyme, lemon, pepper, ginger, cedar wood and oak musk, with the rose being the scent that predominates. It most reminded me of Truefitt and Hill’s 1805, with perhaps a bit more “spice” added to the mix, as the pepper was noticeable, although I didn’t find it quite as strong as some other reports I’ve seen. All in all, I quite rather liked it.

The strength started off quite strong, however it didn’t stay there; it faded significantly throughout the shave, although it kind of dropped off to a level I’d describe as “so-so” and stayed there, not disappearing completely.

The cream lathered up quite nicely. Initially, with very little water, it looked like something that would work, however that turned out to be a mirage, as it was somewhat lacking in glide. However, a splash or two more fixed that right up, without appreciably thinning the lather. It ended up with a really good balance of glide and thickness, and what seemed like a rather wide “sweet spot” for water content. It was fairly voluminous as well, I’m thinking that you could get away with making a tub of it last a fair while. Very nice stuff, which left my face feeling nice and moisturized as well.

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

Overall, I give it a solid 8/10, not really rounding up or down. It’s a quality shaving cream. That having been said, I’m not sure I’d say it’s worth the price.

• Cost: I had a sample sent to me by a kindly redditor who wanted to know what I thought of the cream. For everyone else, however, samples don’t seem to be readily available, and a 250 mL tub will cost you $66.99. And… the manufacturer’s website doesn’t list a cream anymore, so it’s possible that it’s being discontinued as well.

Gear used:

• Brush: Ecotools Kabuki Finishing Brush
• Razor: Yuma Safety Razor
• Blade: Lord Super Stainless
• Scuttle: Robert’s Feats of Clay #4

Ingredients: Not quite sure. Couldn’t find a listing on-line of the ingredients for the cream, only for the soap. All I could find mentioned are that it includes Glycerin, Coconut oil, and Aloe, which let’s face it, could describe a heck of a lot of shaving creams!

savor – Earl Grey shaving soap

Tags

6/10, bermagot, citrus, earl grey, lemon, savor, shaving soap

The Earl Grey is what prompted me to make a purchase from savor in the first place. I suppose I should have read the description, since it’s not really an Earl Grey scented soap; it’s Bergamot with a dash of lemon, without an attempt to replicate the tea portion of an actual Earl Grey tea. That having been said, it’s still nice and citrus-y.

But it’s fairly weak at that; I’d say barely perceptible when lathered up and applied to the face.

Much like my previous experience with savor, the lather is typical of a decent melt-and-pour with a few tweaks made. Does the trick good enough, as long as you can get the water balance right (to get enough glide while maintaining viscosity). Nothing to write home about, but it’ll do the trick.

• 8/10 Scent Pleasantness
• 6/10 Scent Strength
• 7/10 Lather Quality

Overall, a 6/10. Not terrible, but kinda plain.

• Cost: The 85g / 3 oz puck shown will set you back $5.

Gear used:

• Brush: The Colonel
• Razor: Edwin Jagger DE81BL (Red)
• Blade: Crown Super Stainless
• Scuttle: Robert’s Feats of Clay #4

Once again, the ingredient listing on the website and on the label differed, but this time I went to the trouble of e-mailing the proprietor to clarify which is which, and apparently the listing on the website was correct:

Ingredients: coconut oil x palm oil x castor oil x safflower oil x glycerin x purified water x sodium hydroxide x sorbitol x sorbitan oleate x soybean protein x wheat protein x fragrance x Shea butter