When I first started wet shaving I used Pears soap for quite a while. It actually works pretty well and I still use it every once and a while.
Then I went to TOBS Lemon & Lime and Proraso Green and I have kept them in my rotation ever since.
Piccadilly Lime. Had ZERO idea about the different brands, scents, etc. Just found it on Amazon. Nice looking package, good price and I thought lime would be a good scent...
My first cream would've been when I started needing to shave in the mid '90s, where my small town had just gotten a Bath and Body Works in our mall. They had a men's section, so I used a travel tube of their Woodland scent shaving cream. It looked like this:
Of course, I didn't know anything about a brush, so I just wiped this on my face with my fingers, and used terrible disposable yellow Bic razors.