Welcome fellow Shavers!
First off this is not going to be a who is better than who shaving cream battle. No, this is going to be a break down of each cream, how it works, and plays, and the differences. Sadly when I started wet shaving I really wanted a good X VS Y review not a X is great and Y is great. Just an unbiased point of view of what is the difference in the product, just so I knew what I was getting into. So here is my first of many more to come! Enjoy
SCENTS
Now this is not fair from a scent point of view as I used ToBS Lavender and AOS Unscented. So to get the scent out of the way ToBS Lavender smells absolutely wonderful. I have a very very picky nose and scents bother me bad! I'm always the guy in the room thats "Hey can you smell that?" while everyone else has a puzzled look on their face
Anyways the Lavender has a very faint smell, not heavy scented like perfume or anything like that. I could easily enjoy this scent all the time and never get sick of it. It's just enough to know it's there, but again not enough to knock on your rump. To get a second opinion I had my Wife smell it, the first thing she said is "That smells really nice, I like that a lot."
ToBS Lavender
Packaging was quite nice, small rinky dinky box and a 2.5OZ tube for $9.20 on Amazon. It's standing next to my 1961 Gillette FatBoy, and my EJ's Best Badger.
Opening the tube I was very surprised to see purple cream, I have always seen cream being white. But don't worry it doesn't mix purple, though that maybe cool
I used just an almond size dab to get started with the lather. You may notice a lot of water spots behind the cream and in the bowl, most of them were actually on the outside of the bowl not the inside. The bowl was purchased at wal-mart for like $2.99 or something.
The cream lathered very easily with in about 45 seconds it was nicely whipped and had very nice peaks.
Next I squeezed all the lather out of the brush onto my hand to get a good feel of it. If you look closely, we may have another avid shaver as my 22 month old Son was very intrested in what I was doing
MY ToBS THOUGHTS
So I rubbed the cream all over my hands like I was washing my hands. Sorry no picture unless I grow a third arm. I found the cream very soft, and moist to the touch. It rubbed right into my hands and was slowly starting to blend into my skin and disappear, I am sure if I was rubbing vigorously it would do just that, disappear. This cream is not oily at all, but some how still manages to keep the moisture in, as it felt good on my hands. Not like a lotion by any means but still felt very nice and soft. I shaved with it this morning, this cream goes on nice and thick. My Razor glided very easily with it using small stokes. I would say from a shaving perspective this is a lighter cream, not very heavy or oily based at all but lathers terrific.
So moving on....
AOS UNSCENTED
Packaging was very nice, the original box was tossed but it was very glossy and black with stripes. Also the box was well put together and had one of those circle pieces of tape closing it, so you will need a knife to break into this box or just rip it open. This is the 5 OZ tub for $22.00 on Amazon. Again it's standing next to my 1961 Gillette FatBoy, and my EJ's Best Badger.
I didn't take a picture of the tub open, forgot to do that but it's a white cream. I ran the brush into the cream to get a large almond size dab which is spread across the brush. I know it may look a lot like more, however the darn camera zoomed into my finger and blurred the dab so it does look way bigger than it was.
Again I mixed for about 45 seconds then had to add a tad more water (about 2-3 drops from my finger) as his is a thicker, oiler cream than the ToBS. I then mixed for about another 20 seconds to get a nice lather with peaks.
Again I squeezed all the lather from the brush onto my hand to get a feel of how the cream felt on my skin.
MY AOS THOUGHTS
So I rubbed the cream all over my hands like I was washing my hands. Again no picture unless I grow a third arm. I found the cream very soft, and moist to the touch like the ToBS however oily based. It rubbed right into my hands but unlike the ToBS this cream did not break down due to the oily texture of the cream, which also allows it to moisturize very well. I would almost think of it as a creamed butter. From a shaving perspective this is a heavier cream due to the oil, and sits very nice and thick on your face just like the ToBS just more dense and slightly heavier. It also shaves very nice, however the razor can have a tendency to get hung up on the cream due to the oil content, so small repetitive strokes will help when shaving.
THE FINAL VERDICT
So which one to buy AOS or ToBS? Well first off they are very different creams AOS is definitely more oily than ToBS. So for shavers that are using a shaving oil and a cream, you might be able to kill two birds with one stone by picking up some AOS. Also shavers that live in dryer climates that prefer oily lotions like say a Gold Bond, or something with Shea Butter, this maybe also a great product for you.
As for the ToBS if you are in need of a quick shave I feel this stuff would be the way to go. I was able to make quicker passes with out needing to cut through the AOS cream due to the oil. It also moisturized very well, so if your not into an oily moisturize then this stuff is for you. They are both great creams so you won't be disappointed! Just remember to ask yourself the following, whats my climate? Do I like oily or non oily? How quick of a shave do I want? Am I OK with mixing my Lather just a little longer? Based on your answer you should know which cream to purchase.
I hope this has been helpful and useful to you! I will put up more reviews as I purchase new products. However if you liked my review and want to send me some samples for feed back, please feel free to PM me as I won't ever turn down free product
Joey
First off this is not going to be a who is better than who shaving cream battle. No, this is going to be a break down of each cream, how it works, and plays, and the differences. Sadly when I started wet shaving I really wanted a good X VS Y review not a X is great and Y is great. Just an unbiased point of view of what is the difference in the product, just so I knew what I was getting into. So here is my first of many more to come! Enjoy
SCENTS
Now this is not fair from a scent point of view as I used ToBS Lavender and AOS Unscented. So to get the scent out of the way ToBS Lavender smells absolutely wonderful. I have a very very picky nose and scents bother me bad! I'm always the guy in the room thats "Hey can you smell that?" while everyone else has a puzzled look on their face
Anyways the Lavender has a very faint smell, not heavy scented like perfume or anything like that. I could easily enjoy this scent all the time and never get sick of it. It's just enough to know it's there, but again not enough to knock on your rump. To get a second opinion I had my Wife smell it, the first thing she said is "That smells really nice, I like that a lot."ToBS Lavender
Packaging was quite nice, small rinky dinky box and a 2.5OZ tube for $9.20 on Amazon. It's standing next to my 1961 Gillette FatBoy, and my EJ's Best Badger.
Opening the tube I was very surprised to see purple cream, I have always seen cream being white. But don't worry it doesn't mix purple, though that maybe cool
I used just an almond size dab to get started with the lather. You may notice a lot of water spots behind the cream and in the bowl, most of them were actually on the outside of the bowl not the inside. The bowl was purchased at wal-mart for like $2.99 or something.
The cream lathered very easily with in about 45 seconds it was nicely whipped and had very nice peaks.
Next I squeezed all the lather out of the brush onto my hand to get a good feel of it. If you look closely, we may have another avid shaver as my 22 month old Son was very intrested in what I was doing
MY ToBS THOUGHTS
So I rubbed the cream all over my hands like I was washing my hands. Sorry no picture unless I grow a third arm. I found the cream very soft, and moist to the touch. It rubbed right into my hands and was slowly starting to blend into my skin and disappear, I am sure if I was rubbing vigorously it would do just that, disappear. This cream is not oily at all, but some how still manages to keep the moisture in, as it felt good on my hands. Not like a lotion by any means but still felt very nice and soft. I shaved with it this morning, this cream goes on nice and thick. My Razor glided very easily with it using small stokes. I would say from a shaving perspective this is a lighter cream, not very heavy or oily based at all but lathers terrific.
So moving on....
AOS UNSCENTED
Packaging was very nice, the original box was tossed but it was very glossy and black with stripes. Also the box was well put together and had one of those circle pieces of tape closing it, so you will need a knife to break into this box or just rip it open. This is the 5 OZ tub for $22.00 on Amazon. Again it's standing next to my 1961 Gillette FatBoy, and my EJ's Best Badger.
I didn't take a picture of the tub open, forgot to do that but it's a white cream. I ran the brush into the cream to get a large almond size dab which is spread across the brush. I know it may look a lot like more, however the darn camera zoomed into my finger and blurred the dab so it does look way bigger than it was.
Again I mixed for about 45 seconds then had to add a tad more water (about 2-3 drops from my finger) as his is a thicker, oiler cream than the ToBS. I then mixed for about another 20 seconds to get a nice lather with peaks.
Again I squeezed all the lather from the brush onto my hand to get a feel of how the cream felt on my skin.
MY AOS THOUGHTS
So I rubbed the cream all over my hands like I was washing my hands. Again no picture unless I grow a third arm. I found the cream very soft, and moist to the touch like the ToBS however oily based. It rubbed right into my hands but unlike the ToBS this cream did not break down due to the oily texture of the cream, which also allows it to moisturize very well. I would almost think of it as a creamed butter. From a shaving perspective this is a heavier cream due to the oil, and sits very nice and thick on your face just like the ToBS just more dense and slightly heavier. It also shaves very nice, however the razor can have a tendency to get hung up on the cream due to the oil content, so small repetitive strokes will help when shaving.
THE FINAL VERDICT
So which one to buy AOS or ToBS? Well first off they are very different creams AOS is definitely more oily than ToBS. So for shavers that are using a shaving oil and a cream, you might be able to kill two birds with one stone by picking up some AOS. Also shavers that live in dryer climates that prefer oily lotions like say a Gold Bond, or something with Shea Butter, this maybe also a great product for you.
As for the ToBS if you are in need of a quick shave I feel this stuff would be the way to go. I was able to make quicker passes with out needing to cut through the AOS cream due to the oil. It also moisturized very well, so if your not into an oily moisturize then this stuff is for you. They are both great creams so you won't be disappointed! Just remember to ask yourself the following, whats my climate? Do I like oily or non oily? How quick of a shave do I want? Am I OK with mixing my Lather just a little longer? Based on your answer you should know which cream to purchase.
I hope this has been helpful and useful to you! I will put up more reviews as I purchase new products. However if you liked my review and want to send me some samples for feed back, please feel free to PM me as I won't ever turn down free product
Joey
