THREE tubs WOW-----send me one 
Not much talk about St. James of London
- Thread starter Glaze3
- Start date
I love mine
Here's a breakdown of the price of the British brands, plus AOS, per unit. Prices are the most affordable I can find from authorized resellers in the US, not including discounts or shipping. Brands are arranged by price per unit, in descending order. Typically, 1 gram = 1 milliliter.
D.R. Harris
150g tub: $30
20 cents per g
Castle Forbes
200 ml tub: $38
19 cents per ml
The Art of Shaving
150 ml tub: $25
16.66 cents per ml
St. James of London
150 ml jar: $25
16.66 cents per ml
Truefitt & Hill
190 g tub: $30
15.79 cents per g
Geo F. Trumper
200g tub: $23.95
11.97 cents per g
Taylor of Old Bond Street
150 g/ml tub: $14
9.33 cents per g/ml
I've worked my through the samples, plus was able to try the lavender-geranium shaving cream (not included in the sample pack). My thoughts by category:
Scents: The fragranced ranges are potently scented with distinctive, relatively modern, cologne-type scents. In doing smell tests on the back of my hand with the shaving creams, I found they all lingered long after being rinsed. Obviously, individual preferences are subjective. Personally, none of the fragrances were to my taste, although I liked some better than others. However, I will say that St. James offers scents that are different from a number of the more traditional offerings from the English houses, and will attract a number of customers for that reason.
The lavender-geranium is St. James's "unscented" line. I'm not sure I agree with this characterization, since the scent, while light, is still quite noticeable to my nose. The geranium adds an herbal quality that goes beyond straight lavender. The cream scent washed clean, and left minimal trace scent. The aftershave gel did leave a light, lingering scent for a while after application.
Shaving creams: Excellent quality. I tried samples and a tube, not any of the jars. Based on that, it seems the cream is fairly lightly textured prior to lathering, kind of like AOS or T&H Ultimate Comfort, but perhaps even lighter; it's definitely not what I would consider dense. It lathers up fully and luxuriously. The texture when lathered is slightly different from the English brands, which I would attribute to the added emollients. I consider it to be on par with the other English brands, although not necessarily superior.
Aftershave gel: I'm not much of a gel guy, since for me, most gels are a little too tacky for my liking, and not moisturizing enough. I would say the St. James gel is in line with this characterization, although, as far as gels go, this is one of the better ones I've used. It leaves a fairly clean finish (only minimally tacky), and moisturizes decently, although not as well as a moisturizing balm.
Pre-shave oil: Right now, the pre-shave oil only comes in the Mandarin Patchouli scent. It is very strongly scented, and will clash with the creams in other scents, or overwhelm more lightly scented creams. St. James indicates more oil scents are forthcoming. The oil quality itself is quite high, with very good ingredients. However, it is expensive, and considering how easy and affordable it is to make high-quality pre-shave oils at home, I think the only reason to buy this oil is if you really like the scent (or any future scent), or just can't be bothered to make your own, and want one of the better ones on the market, regardless of price.
Packaging: It's a little difficult for me to comment on packaging, since I've only dealt with the samples, and one travel tube of cream. However, based on what is shown on the website, St. James has some of the nicest packaging on the market. I'm quite pleased to see they feature glass jars for their shaving cream - something that is rarely seen any more. The tube of cream I have is also very tastefully done. The brand gets a big thumbs-up from me on presentation.
On the whole, I'd say St. James of London is on a good path, and can already join the ranks of the preferred brands we enjoy in our community. I look forward to seeing how the brand develops its product lines over time. My thanks again to Brittney of St. James of London for allowing me to try out the brand.
Scents: The fragranced ranges are potently scented with distinctive, relatively modern, cologne-type scents. In doing smell tests on the back of my hand with the shaving creams, I found they all lingered long after being rinsed. Obviously, individual preferences are subjective. Personally, none of the fragrances were to my taste, although I liked some better than others. However, I will say that St. James offers scents that are different from a number of the more traditional offerings from the English houses, and will attract a number of customers for that reason.
The lavender-geranium is St. James's "unscented" line. I'm not sure I agree with this characterization, since the scent, while light, is still quite noticeable to my nose. The geranium adds an herbal quality that goes beyond straight lavender. The cream scent washed clean, and left minimal trace scent. The aftershave gel did leave a light, lingering scent for a while after application.
Shaving creams: Excellent quality. I tried samples and a tube, not any of the jars. Based on that, it seems the cream is fairly lightly textured prior to lathering, kind of like AOS or T&H Ultimate Comfort, but perhaps even lighter; it's definitely not what I would consider dense. It lathers up fully and luxuriously. The texture when lathered is slightly different from the English brands, which I would attribute to the added emollients. I consider it to be on par with the other English brands, although not necessarily superior.
Aftershave gel: I'm not much of a gel guy, since for me, most gels are a little too tacky for my liking, and not moisturizing enough. I would say the St. James gel is in line with this characterization, although, as far as gels go, this is one of the better ones I've used. It leaves a fairly clean finish (only minimally tacky), and moisturizes decently, although not as well as a moisturizing balm.
Pre-shave oil: Right now, the pre-shave oil only comes in the Mandarin Patchouli scent. It is very strongly scented, and will clash with the creams in other scents, or overwhelm more lightly scented creams. St. James indicates more oil scents are forthcoming. The oil quality itself is quite high, with very good ingredients. However, it is expensive, and considering how easy and affordable it is to make high-quality pre-shave oils at home, I think the only reason to buy this oil is if you really like the scent (or any future scent), or just can't be bothered to make your own, and want one of the better ones on the market, regardless of price.
Packaging: It's a little difficult for me to comment on packaging, since I've only dealt with the samples, and one travel tube of cream. However, based on what is shown on the website, St. James has some of the nicest packaging on the market. I'm quite pleased to see they feature glass jars for their shaving cream - something that is rarely seen any more. The tube of cream I have is also very tastefully done. The brand gets a big thumbs-up from me on presentation.
On the whole, I'd say St. James of London is on a good path, and can already join the ranks of the preferred brands we enjoy in our community. I look forward to seeing how the brand develops its product lines over time. My thanks again to Brittney of St. James of London for allowing me to try out the brand.
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I am not in the us but in uk.
T&H UC can be bought at 0.089£ per ml here.
St james for 0.1033 £ per ml
This is a much better review than I could have done. You are correct on the packaging, there is something about having the glass jars on my shelves with those awesome labels that make these items look top shelf. Right now, the Black Pepper & Lime is a great scent for me as things heat up here in South Carolina.
These are truly my favorite creams on the market. I've been eyeballing the Mandarin & Patchouli which I need to pretty much finish the collection because I don't plan on buying the lightly scented Lavender/Geranium.
Don't you find these particularly slick as well?
I noticed the cream looks slicker in texture, which is what I was referring to when I said it has a different texture than the standard English creams. That said, I didn't notice it felt slicker when shaving, but I'll pay closer attention to that the next time I use one. On the whole, I find the St. James cream performance comparable to other English brands, despite some slight differences St. James has made to the basic English cream formulation. Considering that, for my money, the English creams are the standard bearers in wet shaving, saying St. James can stand alongside them is definitely a compliment.
I have the Black Pepper and Lime. Believe it or not I found it so luxurious the whole packaging that I didnt use it from the day I bought it.
Im afraid of mess the perfect texture it has. As I read it does take a lot of water and it is better to mixing it in a bowl than face lathering.
I know Im crazy. Maybe I ll use it and after the shave I will wear some suit and tie and go out for dinner in the most expensive restaurant I ll find!
Im afraid of mess the perfect texture it has. As I read it does take a lot of water and it is better to mixing it in a bowl than face lathering.
I know Im crazy. Maybe I ll use it and after the shave I will wear some suit and tie and go out for dinner in the most expensive restaurant I ll find!
i just tried a sample of the sandalwood bergamot...the scent was fantastic. the cream was nice too...not sure if its any nicer than truefitt and hill but its definitely nice.
I watched a video review on youtube where one of my favorite shaving freaks mentioned St James Black Pepper & Lime as one of his favorites in the Lime scented category. This guy goes the extra mile for reviews so I decided to get a jar. First off, the name is deceptive. I have no idea where black pepper or lime makes its way in to the scent. On the positive side, I love this stuff. The scent is a wonderfully understated one that while black pepper & lime doesn't do it justice, it is most enjoyable.
Some products have the knack to linger and stay around, but not be overpowering. That's what this is to me. A wonderful scent that hangs around for just you to enjoy. As for a cream, it makes mountains of lather and its right up there with my other English favorites as far as slickness and durability is concerned. It does the job standing up to a straight razor shave.
Some products have the knack to linger and stay around, but not be overpowering. That's what this is to me. A wonderful scent that hangs around for just you to enjoy. As for a cream, it makes mountains of lather and its right up there with my other English favorites as far as slickness and durability is concerned. It does the job standing up to a straight razor shave.
What is this B&B discount of which you speak? I'm always interested in shaving a few shekels...
Greg
I see that C.O. Bigelow looming in the background...
I got my first jar of St. James a few weeks ago, in Lavender and Geranium. I quite like it and would definitely try the other scents.
Without going overboard, the C.O. Bigelow stuff started my wet shaving journey several years ago. I traveled extensively for business and the hotel I was in one evening had a tube of C.O. Bigelow on the counter as part of their hotel grooming supplies. I took it home and it sat for quite a while. One day I decided to give it a go when my junk in the can ran out. I had no idea how to use it or make a proper lather. As luck would have it, that stuff is just plain impossible to screw up for a shave and I got one of the most pleasant shaves I'd had up to that point.
The rest as they say is history. C.O. Bigelow got me started in this wondrous hobby of wet shaving. I gave all my sons big tubes of it for Christmas that year and all of them are now chasing that BBS shave.
Thanks for noticing.
Good cream. I don’t use it anymore because the price has climbed way up since it first came out. I find most creams perform the same, you just need to find the right amount of product to use with each one. This has led me to use the less expensive creams like JM Fraser’s, Speick, Ingram’s etc. I get the same results.
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