My Review of the Truefitt & Hill shave cream lineup

[HiPowerRon]

My favorite T&H scent is Trafalgar; have yet to try Apsley, Grafton or their limes. After I use up my Castle Forbes Lime I may try their Limes.

 

[ridgerunner]

A thorough review. Sandalwood and 1805 are my favorite T&H scents.

 

[kingfisher]

I enjoy the West Indian Limes scent, but the quality of the lather itself, in my opinion, is not that great. Stone Cottage creams make a much better lather, in my opinion, and Ethos is ten times better.

 

[Frank Shaves]

Nice review!

Were you able to discern any differences in performance between the Ultimate Comfort formula and the "regular" formula?

 

[SydneyShaver]

Nice review!

Were you able to discern any differences in performance between the Ultimate Comfort formula and the "regular" formula?

Not particularly if I'm being honest. Maybe it felt a little nicer on the skin but its hard to tell if I'm just biasing due to it being scentless. For me, if it is better, its not by a significant enough margin to warrant buying it over the regular formula unless you know for a fact you react to fragrance or you quite dislike parabens.

 

[Frank Shaves]

Not particularly if I'm being honest. Maybe it felt a little nicer on the skin but its hard to tell if I'm just biasing due to it being scentless. For me, if it is better, its not by a significant enough margin to warrant buying it over the regular formula unless you know for a fact you react to fragrance or you quite dislike parabens.

Thanks for that! I have heard people describe the Ultimate Comfort as having a slight edge (pardon the pun) over the "regular" formula. But I agree about scent influencing one's reaction to a cream/soap. I am almost done with my 1805 and lucky for me that I favor lighter scents made from essential oils, including lavender.

 

[musicman1951]

Back when I was using creams I thought Ultimate Comfort was very nearly as good as Castle Forbes. Really a very nice cream.

 

[gbrougha]

I like Trafalgar and Almond best. To me they are strongest scented Of T&Hs scents (in creams), I haven’t tried Ansley or Limes. I’m using Castle Forbes lime.

I love the Almond and can't find it anywhere. Did they discontinue? Why.

 

[SydneyShaver]

I love the Almond and can't find it anywhere. Did they discontinue? Why.

I believe so, at least it isn't available to purchase directly from T&H. Plenty of retailers still seem to have stock though.

 

[graysonhenryrussell]

It is a very classic take on it and concur that it does stand alone - my fave Sandalwood.

I’m a big user of 1805 in their cream tub and Apsley & Sandalwood in soap puck. For some reason, SW in tube form regularly dried on my face during use.

I’d give another tube a go at some point soon; maybe for an upcoming trip to Tokyo

I’ve used the three Ts shave creams for 30 plus years . I stopped using Truefitt & Hill 7or 8 years ago because of the $40 price tag. Taylor was $15 & Trumper wasn$20 or so. I always thought Trumper and Truefitt were pretty equal & Taylor was the less expensive. On a whim I picked up a tube of 1805 recently and Truefitt is way ahead of the others and worth every penny. I was under impression creightons made all the creams for the 3Ts. Spend the money on Truefitt.

 

[SydneyShaver]

I’ve used the three Ts shave creams for 30 plus years . I stopped using Truefitt & Hill 7or 8 years ago because of the $40 price tag. Taylor was $15 & Trumper wasn$20 or so. I always thought Trumper and Truefitt were pretty equal & Taylor was the less expensive. On a whim I picked up a tube of 1805 recently and Truefitt is way ahead of the others and worth every penny. I was under impression creightons made all the creams for the 3Ts. Spend the money on Truefitt.

I agree, none of these options have particularly natural formulations so you may as well take the best scented and performing if you’re going to use one imo. Though GFT has some knockout scents, the cream itself disappointed me in the sample I used.

 

[graysonhenryrussell]

Hey again everyone, just finished up a sampler pack of each of Truefitt & Hills shaving cream lineup and am ready to give my review on the cream itself and the various scents they come in. My overall impressions are simply put that it is a very nice performing and scented cream. As I'll get to later, its the best performing cream I've ever used and the scents are classy, aromatic - cologne type scents that are a perfect 5/10 in scent strength. It's formulation however is not a particularly natural or clean one and even contains parabens (minus the ultracomfort cream).

Performance:
This product is a great performing cream. It is not the most product efficient cream and requires a little more cream than usual to get the lather I like but the slickness, feeling of protection, post-shave and especially residual slickness are the best I've ever gotten out of a cream. The lather is dense and silky, doesn't leave residue on the face or the razor and rinses off with a gentle splash of water. It can take a slightly above normal amount of water and as expected doesn't really dry up or degrade over the 10-20min it takes to shave and clean everything up. The post-shave is very good. My skin is smooth, clean, supple and my skin didn't react to any of the fragrances. The residual slickness in particular easily eclipses every other cream I've ever used, in fact its better than many soaps I've used too. Overall, this product is an excellent performer and if scent doesn't matter to you, I can easily recommend it on this basis alone.

The Scents:
1805: Good
This is your typical, oceaninc aquatic cologne scent but very pleasing. Not too sweet, not too cloying. Just nice and fresh. Very reminiscent of an up market mens body wash. Think Ocean/sea salt type scents but rather bright and airy with fruity notes mixed in. Not my favourite out of the line-up but a great all-round scent.

Apsley: Excellent
A bit difficult to describe scent, to me its a dry woody accord with some mild citrus, vetiver and musk notes that combine together to make something like a green tobacco accord. The darkest scent (but not really a dark scent) in the lineup. Its not particularly ashy or incense like but instead just a nice, masculine aroma that swings between tobacco-esque and woody cologne. I really liked it, its quite unique and cedarwood is one of my all time favourite notes. I'm not sure this will be a complete crowd pleaser but for me, its a nice elegant woody fragrance that doesn't have the sharpness and ash-like, burning wood quality that some other similar scents have.

Grafton: Ok
This is just a soapy, green, fougere like scent. Its basically the perfect medium of fougeres, its woody but not overly so, not particularly strong on spice or floral notes, just kind of green and cologne like. Its soapy, powdery, herbacious, light, somewhat woody, sort of spicy and thats it. If you like Drakkar Noir, Rive Gauche, Polo Green....you'll like this and find it to be a pleasant middle ground between all of the 3. I don't mind it, but its just ok to me. Not something I would buy a full tub of personally.

Sandalwood: Excellent
A brisk Sandalwood cologne scent that to me melds Creed Santal and Creed Aventus in nearly a perfect 50/50 ratio. I like both fragrances but together they make something thats right up my alley. Make no mistake, this has nothing in common with Sandalwoods from TOBS, DRH, Proraso etc. This is absolutely a fresh, sweet, effervescent cologne scent with unmistakable melon and pineapple notes and a sweet sandalwood accord thats not woody or creamy at all. The sandalwood stops the cologne from entering gourmand territory but its not a woodsy, amber type fragrance. I really enjoyed this one but would probably prefer to grab the AS or EdT more than the cream. Thats how much I like this scent, which is unusual since I don't tend to like scents like this one, but they really did a good job on this imo.

Trafalgar: Bad
Smells like musky, musty non-existence to me. Like an old book that has been abused for 20 years and then forgotten on a shelf in the library for another 20. Dusty, dry, somehow a little sweet that even takes on vanilla characteristics at times. Just can't recommend it at all. A really odd combo of scents that each work to make the other smell worse.

Ultimate Comfort: Good
Technically unscented, this cream features lavender essential oil as a skin conditioning, soothing and anti-septic agent. perhaps a 0.5/10 strength lavender scent that like most lavender scents is quite a dark, masculine floral that smells like fennel mixed with anise to me. Barely noticeable, I had to really take a second to look for it. For all intents and purposes this cream is unscented. I only really noticed a 'scent' at the very end of the shave when rinsing everything. The formulation also (apparently, though I'm not sure if this is a website error or not) omits parabens and some of the other synthetic chemicals and features real, organic lavender oil. If you need an unscented option, this is it.

West Indian Limes: Excellent
The nicest straight up citrus scent I've used so far. Its not a sweet, candy/lolly like scent that has more in common with skittles, lemon sherbert or all-purpose cleaner but rather a tart, zesty, bitter lime scent. To me, there is even a mild doughy accord that adds a subtle green-earthiness to the scent as the brightness and sharpness of the lime cuts through. I really was bracing for another yuck tier cream that I could barely stomach since it was so sweet but again was pleasantly surprised. You get the full lime scent too, lime oil, lime peel, lime juice and lime flesh. They all come together here. There are other citrus notes in the composition, but I could only pick out a very distinct lime and an earthy, doughy scent in the base. Comes off a little medicinal but in a pleasant way, kind of like bayrum (note: it doesn't smell like bayrum just comparing the pleasant medicinal esque vibe it gives.

In summary, I really liked almost all of them. The scents range from crazy good to quite bad depending on tastes but the performance is unmistakble. The ingredient formulation could be better and I hope they clean it up but that seems like wishful thinking. What have you guys thought about them?

Good morning shavers. I’m Grayson Russell and up until 8 or 9 years I used the three Ts with excellent results. Then Truefitt and Trumpers we’re giving better shaves. Then Truefitt raised their prices which I refused to pay.
Recently I found a source where Trumpers & Truefitt were in the low $30 range. I also picked up Castle Forbes Lavender and Lime which I’ve had no luck in the past. I will compare the creams together and report. I know YMMV but they are all new and it should be an interesting test. Thank you gentlemen for all the assistance in the past! Happy shaving.

 

[Steve56]

They discontinued all the basic scents, almond, rose, lavender.

 

[Shaun asleep]

Thanks for reactivating this old thread, I hadn't read it before.

Excellent scent descriptions.
I do have to say that I absolutely LOVED my Trafalgar cream. I even bought the soap bars and Aftershave balm.

The soap was great. The balm... smelled like you described. Not pleasant at all. Since the cream WAS among the best things I had ever smelled I was genuinly surprised, and still wonder if my batch hasn't just gone bad? Your description of your tub of cream is actually exactly what I get from the balm. Very strange.

 

[BGSIMETO]

No, it is not your batch, @Shaun asleep! My impressions of this Trafalgar after shave balm is exactly the same. I will never go back to it and in any way I can not recommend it, to anyone of the gents in this forum. As per the general topic – 1805 and Indian Limes are wonderful shaving creams, more in terms of aroma, rather than lathering, but this is an observation, based on my face lathering and in comparison with the TOBS Sandalwood, Cedarwood and Grapefruit. Indian Limes has some oily aroma, if I can say so, as if you can smell the essential oils. Greetings!

 

[SalS]

Just a side note, the vast majority of creams made now are either brush optional or brushless. They are not designed to be lathered up like soaps. You will ruin them if you do.