How does Nancy Boy SC compare with GFT?

[kingfisher]

Just curious whether anybody out there in B&B land who has tried both creams could give me an idea.

I love the way the Trumper's creams lather, and they give me a great shave. I have heard a lot of good things about Nancy Boy, as well. I was wondering whether Nancy Boy cream could possibly lather and shave as well as the Trumper's creams. Any thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

[HoratioCaine]

It's subjective, of course. Trumper creams are in the traditional mold, with a soap base and glycerin to help add slickness, cushion, and a little moisturizing. They are also (mostly) colored and fragranced with perfume oils. Nancy Boy's creams add a TON of emollients to their base to help condition the skin. They are rather idiosyncratically scented with essential oils - their signature is lavender, rosemary and mint, and their replenishing is cucumber - and include no coloring agents. Some people love the scents, some don't. Basically, I find the differences to be that the Nancy Boy conditions my skin better, and cushions slightly more. This added cushion comes at the expense of latherability; all those emollients make it so the cream doesn't lather as royally as Trumper. Instead, it remains denser and closer to the skin. The NB signature has a bit of a cooling effect (less pronounced than Proraso) due to the mint oil, whereas the cucumber has no cooling. The NB creams are also more reasonably priced than the Trumper, ounce for ounce. Honestly, I prefer Trumper, but I still think the NB creams are excellent.

One other note of irony: Trumper Coconut Oil cream - along with all the other Trumper creams - contains no actual coconut oil. It contains coconut acid, which is the refined portion of coconut oil that can be saponified. Thus, the botanical "benefits" from coconut oil are missing from coconut acid. NB, on the other hand, does contain coconut oil.

 

[kongjie]

This added cushion comes at the expense of latherability; all those emollients make it so the cream doesn't lather as royally as Trumper. Instead, it remains denser and closer to the skin.

Yes, NB isn't what you would expect perhaps as a great lather but I love that denseness. It's created as a brushless cream but I in fact prefer it lathered with a brush. Just don't try to add too much water or you'll miss out on the dense quality.

 

[RILEY]

It's subjective, of course. Trumper creams are in the traditional mold, with a soap base and glycerin to help add slickness, cushion, and a little moisturizing. They are also (mostly) colored and fragranced with perfume oils. Nancy Boy's creams add a TON of emollients to their base to help condition the skin. They are rather idiosyncratically scented with essential oils - their signature is lavender, rosemary and mint, and their replenishing is cucumber - and include no coloring agents. Some people love the scents, some don't. Basically, I find the differences to be that the Nancy Boy conditions my skin better, and cushions slightly more. This added cushion comes at the expense of latherability; all those emollients make it so the cream doesn't lather as royally as Trumper. Instead, it remains denser and closer to the skin. The NB signature has a bit of a cooling effect (less pronounced than Proraso) due to the mint oil, whereas the cucumber has no cooling. The NB creams are also more reasonably priced than the Trumper, ounce for ounce. Honestly, I prefer Trumper, but I still think the NB creams are excellent.

One other note of irony: Trumper Coconut Oil cream - along with all the other Trumper creams - contains no actual coconut oil. It contains coconut acid, which is the refined portion of coconut oil that can be saponified. Thus, the botanical "benefits" from coconut oil are missing from coconut acid. NB, on the other hand, does contain coconut oil.

Wow great answer, I really enjoyed reading that

 

[HoratioCaine]

It's created as a brushless cream but I in fact prefer it lathered with a brush.

The notion that the cream was created as brushless is debatable. Once in an e-mail to Eric Roos (co-founder of Nancy Boy), I happened to mention it was a brushless cream, and he said really it wasn't. Back when he and Jeff created it, they didn't use brushes, so they didn't even think about brushes. As such, it wasn't specifically designed to be used to the exclusion of brushes; hence, in Eric's opinion, it's not a "brushless" cream. I do think, though, insofar as Eric and Jeff only considered applying the cream with their hands when they designed it, one can argue it was designed to be used without a brush. It's just a happy accident it lathers at all. Lucky for them, too, since a lot of their clientele are traditional, brush-using shavers. Had they created something that didn't lather and really couldn't be used with a brush, they would have missed out on a very lucrative marketing segment.

For the record, I find it to be better applied with a brush, as well.

Edit: Riley, glad you liked it.

 

[kongjie]

The notion that the cream was created as brushless is debatable. Once in an e-mail to Eric Roos (co-founder of Nancy Boy), I happened to mention it was a brushless cream, and he said really it wasn't.

Ah. I didn't mean to suggest that it was a brushless cream in the sense of creams that specifically call themselves "brushless" as many do, so I should have been clearer.

I had in my mind some text, either from the container or from their website in the past, that suggested, jokingly, that if you're a shaving fanatic you could use a brush with it, but that it wasn't necessary.

I've tried to use creams specifically labeled as "brushless" with a brush and their performance is usually unsatisfactory and not at all like how NB behaves.

 

[HoratioCaine]

No worries, Kongjie. Like I said, I was calling it brushless too, until I made the faux-pas of saying so to the cream's designer - ahem. If you think about it, the NB cream is about as "brushless" as any other lathering cream, insofar as all of them can be smeared on your face by hand. AOS says it can be used brushless, too, but I'll bet most folks around here wouldn't dream of using it that way. The Nancy Boys aren't traditional shaving guys anyway. I think it was in the same e-mail, Eric mentioned that he only shaves once a week, on average, and uses a Mach3. Corey Greenberg once actually sent Eric a DE, and Eric didn't see the difference. Given that, it's remarkable that such shaving "heretics" should be able to put out such a good shaving cream. In fact, all their products are pretty good. Their face cleanser is the only one I use.

 

[bokaba]

I like them both. GFT smells great and is very smooth. NB lathers like a dream but smells medicinal and the EOs are a tad irritating.

 

[tsmba]

To me, NB cream has similarities to Prograso. Not sure if it has eucalyptus, but it does have a nice, cooling sensation on my face. I like both, but favor the NB. I recall reading on the NB web site (FAQ's?) something to the effect of, if they could recommend but one product from their entire line, that product would be the shaving cream. They're proud of it (and rightly so!)