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j.m. fraser's polar ice

I got a tub of this cream yesterday and shaved with it this morning. And I have to say don't let the price or the look of the tub fool you. This is a really good cream for the money. I paid 9.95 for it and I think it is a great price you could charge another $10 and it would still be worth it.

This cream is really slick and my face felt great after! I fallowed up with the polar aftershave and there again another great product for the money. The smell is not bad at all really didn't even pick up on it once it was mixed up in the bowel. If you smell the cream in the tub you will smell the scent but it is nothing over powering. A must try product!
Price
5.00 star(s)
Scent
3.00 star(s)
Quality
4.00 star(s)
Efficacy
4.00 star(s)
Packaging
1.00 star(s)
Latherability
4.00 star(s)
Moisturizing Properties
5.00 star(s)
All is great with this cream, lather and moisturizing are excellent, I got a descent shave, but the smell is horrible, I could not see where they got polar ice from, to me it smelled like a hand moisturizing cream or some soft bathing soap, I will use it cause I bought it, I read somewhere about someone claiming that it smelled like proraso red, I think that guy should have his nose and brain examined as this does not come close in the scent department. Aside from the smell for 11 bux it's a damn fine cream that will last you along time, the positive thing I saw was that it did not linger, so the scent dissapears quite fast. It can mix with any type of after shave or cologne.
Price
5.00 star(s)
Scent
0.00 star(s)
Quality
5.00 star(s)
Efficacy
4.00 star(s)
Packaging
0.00 star(s)
Latherability
4.00 star(s)
Moisturizing Properties
4.00 star(s)
so much has been said in the thread concerning this much-anticipated cream that i figured it, at last, deserved its own review indepent of the 'original' fraser's.

as an introduction, i will say that this cream is the brainchild of john c. and john h. of shavingessentials.net who, along with the manufacturers in canada, brilliantly combined their love of j.m. fraser's shaving cream with the wonderful booster polar ice aftershave and an instant classic has been born.

price;
10/10. $9.65 for 225ml/8 ounces, approximately double the quantity of many finer creams at this pricepoint. value has long been a fraser's hallmark and the polar ice version is no exception.

quality;
10/10. for me, this is simply the cream. it has everything in a shaving cream that i could possibly want. i won't take anything away from the following categories because each quality deserves to be individually analyzed and praised.

scent;
10/10. fraser's polar ice has a very mild peppermint fragrance belonging to its inspiration; booster polar ice aftershave. many feel the fragrance is too muted and understated, preferring something more bracing and present. i'm a fan of mild and minty fragrances, so this is perfect for me. i'm about performance first and frangrance way later. luckily for us all, polar ice has both.

latherability;
9/10. once one achieves the correct cream to water to brush ratio, polar ice explodes as well or better than any other cream on the planet. however, achieving that balance may or may not take you a bit of practice to understand its properties. therefore, as it's not automatically an immediate lock and load, i docked it a point. as a footnote, i'm sure that the immediate latherability properties, or lack thereof, are in direct opposition to its skincare properties (in other words, what it lacks in fast lather explosion it more than compensates for in skincare).

efficacy;
10/10. what can i say? scraping the pillowy mounds of minty marshmallow clouds off my beard is f-u-n. it feels as if fraser's polar ice is actually doing something constructive and repairative to my skin. how many creams can you say that about?

moisturizing properties;
10/10. fraser's polar ice is, hands down, the most moisturizing shaving cream i have ever shaved with. absolutely zero drying effects like so many of the menthol creams. it leaves my skin feeling soft and supple and well cared for all day long. finishing my shave off with any number of balms or creams seals in that moisturization until my next shave (as i shave every other day).

packaging;
9/10. it's a big tub. just like the original j.m. fraser's. in a perfect world, it might be nice to have an effecient way to dispense this minty wonderfulness. until then, we get to scoop it outta the tub like so many generations of shavers and barbers before us.

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some additional footnotes to consider in respect to my review;

* i've been a wetshaver for over 20 years.

* although i own eight vintage gillette double-edge razors, i mostly use a couple different single-edge gems and occasionally a european wilkinson or american bic single blade disposables (when traveling) as they treat my sensitve beard mildly (and yet still allow me a good multi-pass bbs).

* before assessing the skincare or moisturizing properties of any cream, i not only lather a batch up and leave some to dry on the inside of my wrist, i also wash my face with it for a minimum of two evenings to determine its residual effect on my hyper-sensitive beard.
Price
5.00 star(s)
Scent
5.00 star(s)
Quality
5.00 star(s)
Efficacy
5.00 star(s)
Packaging
4.00 star(s)
Latherability
4.00 star(s)
Moisturizing Properties
5.00 star(s)
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