Good evening gents. As one of the older hands around here I have ran the gamut of lathering products. Staring off as a newbie nearly a decade ago I went through the usual suspects of English creams. Trumper Violet, serveral TOOBS, several T&H scents, and a few others. After a few trials with hard soaps I knew I was done for the most part with creams. Here is how it went. All the scents were great. Yet after awhile they became cloyingly sweet and a bit off putting. Particularly the Trumper violet. And the dyes. Good lord. The violet would run purple rivers out of your brush. And all of them had very common traits. Superb glide but the shaves were not as close as the soaps and if you went over the beard enough you would get a mild case of razor rash. So you learned to ease up and depend on the great soaps for tougher beards. Slowly but surely my cream stocks disappeared altogether and other than Castle Forbes lavender, I do not buy creams. Only occasionally will I indulge in one and that is usually for scent niche.
Yet one brand sat ignored in my cupboard for over five years since its last use. C&E sweet almond oil. I have two iterations of it. One in the typical Creighton plastic jar and two(now one since a recent trade) in these beautiful honking glass jars that are quite classy. From what I can tell, product is the same. And what a product it is(was). I broke out my old plastic jar and there is about an inch left in the bottom. It has dehydrated a bit and is more like Castle Forbes in consistency. This is a good thing. It has also turned a very light pink-ish colour. The proof was in the pudding or rather, the shave. And a grand one it was.
The discontinuance of this cream is one of the greatest mysteries in wet shaving. And in my opinion, a blunder. This was a signature product of C&E. And to my mind, it works just a bit better than the other English creams. They may all be made by Creighton but there were and are subtle differences between each brand. C&E almond was amongst the very best. Years later, I was still astounded at the lathering quality and the comfort of the shave. It is not quite up to the best soaps but takes a back seat to NONE of the other classic soft creams. Do yourself a favour and cadge a sample from someone who has a bit left. This is wonderful stuff that is not long for the world. There are a few guys out there with some hoarded back but I suspect you will find few who will part with it. Sorry to be long but I had to give Crabtree and Evylen some serious support, and chagrin. Please bring this one back.
Cheers, Todd
Yet one brand sat ignored in my cupboard for over five years since its last use. C&E sweet almond oil. I have two iterations of it. One in the typical Creighton plastic jar and two(now one since a recent trade) in these beautiful honking glass jars that are quite classy. From what I can tell, product is the same. And what a product it is(was). I broke out my old plastic jar and there is about an inch left in the bottom. It has dehydrated a bit and is more like Castle Forbes in consistency. This is a good thing. It has also turned a very light pink-ish colour. The proof was in the pudding or rather, the shave. And a grand one it was.
The discontinuance of this cream is one of the greatest mysteries in wet shaving. And in my opinion, a blunder. This was a signature product of C&E. And to my mind, it works just a bit better than the other English creams. They may all be made by Creighton but there were and are subtle differences between each brand. C&E almond was amongst the very best. Years later, I was still astounded at the lathering quality and the comfort of the shave. It is not quite up to the best soaps but takes a back seat to NONE of the other classic soft creams. Do yourself a favour and cadge a sample from someone who has a bit left. This is wonderful stuff that is not long for the world. There are a few guys out there with some hoarded back but I suspect you will find few who will part with it. Sorry to be long but I had to give Crabtree and Evylen some serious support, and chagrin. Please bring this one back.
Cheers, Todd
In fact, so much so, that I ordered a spare tub...and the ASB and Cologne. Stuff is great. Hope they don't kill that one.
