FREE CREAM - The Shave Cream Challenge

I'll talk if you keep that away! Good luck with tickling. I have 3 kids that love to tickle attack. I have developed an immunity.

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I just started F, so I'm slower than you. Race to the bottom?

 

Only if you tally up who has finished and who has not.

 

Well my package finally arrived today. The inside of the plastic box was all sticky where it had been shaken around enough to cause one or more of the sample cups to leak. As far as I can tell though, there's enough cream left in each one for at least one shave. No idea if there's been any cross-contamination between them but I think not.

I will start the sample run tomorrow.

 

Finally!!

 

Well...who all has finished?

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Crossposted from 30DC thread:

My package finally arrived today containing @Vlasta's Mystery Shave Creams #A - L. So I am starting in today on the tests. I will use the same setup for each cream: Gillette Black Beauty on 4 loaded with a Topaz Platinum blade used for a maximum of two shaves, my 30DC LE brush with the Cashmere synthetic knot, sample bowl whipped in my horn quaich. I will not use postshave products to allow me to see what the creams' postshave feel is like.

Should be fun. I was planning to do some trials in December anyway with the dozen or so soap and cream samples I have lying around here, so I might just continue testing stuff through the entire month.

Tonight: mystery sample A...

Fragrance is a faint lemony smell, which I didn't particularly notice once it was on my face. It lathered quickly but took awhile to go from frothy bubbles to a smooth creamy lather. Once in that state, it hung around - the lather on my face stayed good for the entire pass, and the lather in the bowl was usable through both passes of the two I did. Slickness wasn't bad but cushion and protection didn't seem great. Postshave feel was a bit drying.

I think I will wait to try to rate this cream until tomorrow. I just took a fingerful tonight without exactly measuring it. There is a healthy amount left for a second shave and I want to be sure I didn't skimp on the cream tonight. @Vlasta included a small plastic spoon with the samples, and starting tomorrow, I will use it to measure out identical amounts of each cream so they all get assessed equally fairly (or unfairly) based on equal amounts being used.

 

I am finished and sent in my spreadsheet.

 

Used sample A again tonight. A level spoonful turns out to be about an almond-sized lump of cream, which is a bit more than I sometimes use when squeezing from a tube but is probably about right.

My conclusions are similar to yesterday, except slickness and cushion both seemed better to me.

I don’t have a great sense of smell, so I am going to mark all creams at a neutral 5 for fragrance and longevity of fragrance, unless they are unusually good or awful in these respects. Again, the cream seemed to have a mild lemon smell to me, which was fine.

A full three passes gave me a BBS with little complaint from the alum. I didn't use any postshave products but am going to go use a splash or balm now because half an hour after shaving, my face feels dried out.

It's a decent cream. Not one I would go out of my way to find, but if it was all I had, I wouldn't feel too hard done by.

 

Starting my run through the creams tomorrow I don’t have the spreadsheet though.


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Looks like I won’t really be alone either with @Screwtape also just starting his


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Post #57 on this thread has the link to the spreadsheet.

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So far I think I like J the best.

 

Sheet is here https://drive.google.com/file/d/1OXqIqCGvyPDfJtua-pDKuvuq0-cX7-ht/view?usp=sharing

 

Great! We can share notes and chat as we go, which seems to be half the fun.

 

Friday, December 1 - B

I used cream B today. The sample had been shaken around but I managed to get a good spoonful out of it, which was more than enough. This cream is softer than cream A and also smelled of lemon, but much stronger and the scent persisted in the lather and throughout my shave. Lemon in food gives me violent headaches, which leaves me somewhat ambivalent towards it as a scent, but if you like lemon, I think this is a good one.

It whipped up quickly into a bowl of creamy lather that persisted throughout my shave. After three passes, I had enough lather left for another complete shave. I also noticed that, like sample A, sample B left my skin slick enough between passes to do touchups without relathering if I wanted.

Three passes brought me to a BBS. However, the alum was somewhat warm on my jawline and under my chin today; I think two three-pass BBS shaves in a row was one too many. I may have to drop back to my usual two-pass shave for the rest of this test.

Postshave feel is somewhat drying although not quite as much as A. After waiting to see what the postshave feel was like, I am going to go now and use a Jeeves splash on my face.

Overall, both A and B are decent creams and quite similar in quality as far as I can tell.

 

I’ve got A-D left, but J is also my favorite up to this point.

 

2nd shave with sample F today. Hate the scent, but it does make lather and is pretty slick.

 

First shave with A 3 pass BBS no sting from the alum. This cream lathers fairly easily, it's definitely slick even enough to do a touch up swipe safely. It has a very weak soap smell to it similar to ivory soap. Post shave a little dry but I would probably purchase this cream if the price was right.

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December 2 - C
Sample C today. Just enough for my spoonful and no more, so only one shave possible.

No scent to speak of other than a vaguely soapy scent in the tub. Lathered up easily and persisted through the shave with no problems. Noticed residual slickness on my face when rinsing between passes but seemed a bit less than with A or B. Postshave feel was drying - enough so I didn't bother waiting before applying a postshave balm.

So far, I would say A to C are all good workaday shave creams. Any will give you a good shave. I would rank either A or B first depending on how you feel about lemon scents, with C a close third. I don’t know that I would rush out to add any of them to my den now, however.