I'm a relative newbie, and I'm interested in trying a few high end shaving creams on my fairly new Rooney and Shavemac brushes. I'm interested especially in "woodsy" or complicated smells in them, but not floral ones. What 3 creams would you recommend as the best? And a related question: do you have any small samples of them you'd be willing to PIF or sell to me or could you tell me where to go to find samples? Thanks a lot!
High End Creams
- Thread starter churchilllafemme
- Start date
You are only interested in creams? No soaps?
A quick internet search will allow you to purchase shaving cream samples from D. R. Harris, Geo F Trumper and Truefitt & Hill. These are a few of the wonderful English shaving companies- if you want to spend more on your shaving cream you will certainly be able to, but as to whether the quality will be better or not is another question.
You could try
- Penhaligons Opus 1870 shaving cream;
- D.R. Harris Marlborough shaving cream;
- Art of Shaving Sandalwood shaving cream.
These are the first that come into mind.
The Opus is pretty good, their balm is very good as well (used as a complement.)
The Marlborough is also possibly close to what you describe, though not so complex as a scent.
The AoS is exceptional in lathering and rich as a cream in general, if you have not tried an AoS cream or soap product you owe it to yourself to do so.
- Penhaligons Opus 1870 shaving cream;
- D.R. Harris Marlborough shaving cream;
- Art of Shaving Sandalwood shaving cream.
These are the first that come into mind.
The Opus is pretty good, their balm is very good as well (used as a complement.)
The Marlborough is also possibly close to what you describe, though not so complex as a scent.
The AoS is exceptional in lathering and rich as a cream in general, if you have not tried an AoS cream or soap product you owe it to yourself to do so.
- Thread starter
- #5
Yes, I'm only interested in creams for now. Once I've "mastered" the use of cream, maybe I'll think about moving on to soaps. I have soft, sort of floppy silvertip brushes, which seem perfect for the creams. But I just haven't been happy with the reltaively low end creams, e.g. Arko, Erasmic, Connaught, etc.
For the mid-range price, I really like Taylor of Old Bond Street, especially the heavily scented Sandalwood or Mr Taylor. I recently got some samples of the high-end Castle Forbes, including Cedarwood. I've tried the CF Lime Oil which smells great and makes a great lather, but not sure yet if it's worth 2 or more times the cost of TOBS. On the plus side, CF comes in a larger tub and I find I need half as much as TOBS, so it's a bigger cost up front but may last longer. I haven't used the CF Cedarwod, but to me it smells like the lumber isle of Home Depot in its little sampler. Vintage Blades sells smaller jars of CF, but even they are expensive. Trumpers has a great sample pack here.
Last edited:
For what you're describing, I would consider getting Persian Musk. See it here:
http://www.westcoastshaving.com/Vulfix-Luxury-Persian-Musk-Shaving-Cream_p_720.html
http://www.westcoastshaving.com/Vulfix-Luxury-Persian-Musk-Shaving-Cream_p_720.html
Love my Acqua di Parma. Sure, it's a little pricey per tub (50-60 in Europe, don't know about the States), but you only need about 1/2 of it compared to other creams for the same amount of lather, and the tub is quite big, around 125 grams, if I remember right. Lathers up great, great smell, great shaves. Only minus is that it's not the most moisurizing product out there, but it's not bad either - just average.
Actually just had a great BBS shave with it a few hours ago!
The English high-end products already mentioned are also definately worthwhile to try. I'd buy various things now and then, keep what you like and maybe donate/sell the rest forward to "new converts" to quality old-school wet shaving.
Actually just had a great BBS shave with it a few hours ago!
The English high-end products already mentioned are also definately worthwhile to try. I'd buy various things now and then, keep what you like and maybe donate/sell the rest forward to "new converts" to quality old-school wet shaving.
Where can you get Harris samples? I have looked for these and haven't been able to find any. I've been wanting to try the Marlboro for awhile now..
+1 on the T&H samples and Trumpers samples which can be ordered directly from their respective websites for very little $. If you order the Trumpers sampler from their site, tho, you have to specify which creams you are interested in (they don't send them all to you like T&H) or they will just toss in random creams.
If you are into the woodsy smells, I would give T&H Trafalgar a go. I'm a big fan.
Colonial Drug is good about sending samples of what they have. I recently received samples of the full line of Castle Forbes creams, balms, & colognes. For woodsy, there's CF cedarwood sandalwood which is completely dominated by the cedar (imo) and smells exactly like fresh cedar carvings. A damn fine shave and my wife and kids tell me I smell like christmas day to boot
TOBS jeremyn street is a fougere (fern) scented cream that is not only a sensitive skin formula, but has a lovely green scent.
I love the AOS cream, especially the Sandalwood and Lavender! Great creams!! You can also try TOBS Avocado. That's highly regarded here too!
Acqua di Parma, Acca Kappa 1869, and Castle Forbes Lavender.
Fabulous stuff.
David
Fabulous stuff.
David
Castle Forbes will be a good choice 
. If you hurry, Gentleman's best is having a 30% off sale for Halloween and it ends tonight at midnight. You can't beat Castle Forbes at 30% off. I also like Al Raz' cremes. His website is here. If you don;t find anything that fits your scent criteria, Al can customize it for you.
. If you hurry, Gentleman's best is having a 30% off sale for Halloween and it ends tonight at midnight. You can't beat Castle Forbes at 30% off. I also like Al Raz' cremes. His website is here. If you don;t find anything that fits your scent criteria, Al can customize it for you.
You have many excellent options to take in consideration. My favourite shaving creams are:
Acca Kappa 1869
Santa Maria Novella
Proraso
Musgo Real
Castle Forbes Lime
Taylors Avocado
Acca Kappa 1869
Santa Maria Novella
Proraso
Musgo Real
Castle Forbes Lime
Taylors Avocado
I agree, they are awesome creams!
Similar threads
