Solo Menthol Shaving Cream

This is a cheap European-made cream which I bought from a chap in Germany and I loved it as soon as I used it for the first time. It lathers like there's no tomorrow, it smells nice and clean, and it feels so moisturizing on my skin with good razor glide. It has a very mild cooling sensation as well. Apparently this stuff is no longer being produced according to what I was told. Too bad, because it's really good stuff.

I'd never heard of this cream before, and when an opportunity to receive a sample arose, I decided to try it. Well, I have used this a couple of times now and I'm actually rather pleased with the results.

The scent is subtle and fairly pleasant, but not minty in any way. It's what I would call a "green" smell and while it is noticeable, it is not strong. This is a positive thing for me, because if I can't have a "knock your socks off" fantastic smell, then an inoffensive, pleasant light fragrance is preferable to a strong but disagreeable odor.

The cream came out of the tube in a fairly dense consistency, firmer than, say, Speick or Muhle tube creams. I tend to use a bit more than the usual "almond-sized" snurdle of cream, usually 1 ½ almonds worth. This amount, when whipped up with my good old Rooney 1/2 super, provided a pretty dense, slick, cushiony lather. I got a shave that was as good as any regular cream I've ever used. Will this replace my Blenheim Bouquet or my Castle Forbes? No. But it does make me wonder about the price of those creams a little bit, considering how cheaply a decent cream can be made from many of the same ingredients.

Speaking of ingredients, here they are: Water, myristic Acid, stearic acid, palmitic acid, potassium hydroxide, glycerin, boric acid, sodium tetraborate, menthol, parfum, limonine. I think the box said this was made in the UK, but my wife threw it away so I can't go back and verify that.

The amount of menthol in this cream must be minimal. I got none of that face freeze that comes with Proraso / Bigelow and for me, that's a good thing. I'm one of those people who dislike that freezing feeling during a shave, but enjoy it in an after-shave splash. So this cream is good for me, but will not satisfy a menthol-head.

This is a bargain priced cream, $2.39 for a 100ml tube. It is better than the similarly-priced Derby cream that I got last year, so if you're into DE shaving as a cost-cutting alternative to modern shaving, you may like this product quite a bit.