Hi, I want to purchase a high end shaving cream. the ones I'm looking at are the new Coates, Dr. Harris, and Geo F Trumper. I have tried and like TOBS, Erasmic, Arko, JM Frasers, Palmolive Euro Version, Speick, and Proraso do any of you guys own any of these higher end creams along with some of the lower end ones I have mentioned? How do they compare? is there a real difference between these creams, or am I just gonna pay for the brand name. Thanks!
My 2 cents Of the higher end creams you mention, I've tried the GF Trumpers creams and they are my absolute favorites - I love the Limes, GFT, and Almond creams. Of the ones you've tried, I've tried TOBS, Erasmic and JM Frasers. I'd actually include TOBS as a higher end cream. One aspect where higher end creams really shine is the scents. They're more refined than the drugstore type scents like Erasmic, etc. JM Frasers creams are just top-notch in terms of performance, but they're scents are a little one-dimensional. They're great creams though. I have to add that I don't like TOBS creams in terms of performance. I find they don't give me enough slickness or cushion. That's just my experience and prefer the GFT creams over them.
Interesting, JM Frasers is one of my favorites. so what you are saying is that the trumpers cream advantage is the scent.
Give Queen Charlotte creams a try. I have the sandalwood and rose creams and they are great! They both lather well and moisturize but the rose smells better of the two.
I'd definitely get the Trumpers sampler from Trumpers, it costs all of $6. The shaving cream samples are good for 2 shaves and they give you 3 samples if I remember correctly plus a lot of other great smelling products.
T&H makes probably the best creams currently, Trumpers soaps are better then the creams. The new owner of Coate's is releasing the original formula creams, lavender is probably the next scent to be released. If you haven't tried Cyril Salters creams, I would also give them a look, price wise they're about the same as TOBS, and perform better. The Sublime Citrus is probably the cheapest non synthetic citrus type cream you can find, and yet I don't see much mention of it.
While opinions certainly differ, I agree with Aaron on T&H being the best of the three T's. Never tried Coate's or DR Harris. That coming from discovering that I tend to prefer soaps.
Yes, T&H. Go to their website. You can get a sampler set for around $10. It has the main scents in cream, aftershave balm, and pre-shave. PM me for a discount idea
I've always found T&H to be the best in terms of performance, and Trumpers and Coates as very, very close seconds. These three also have more refined scents as others have stated. I've never been impressed with TOBS, but found Cyril Salter to be good, but a step below Trumpers, T&H and Coates; but Salter's scent leave a lot to be desired, IMO....
I loved the scent of GFT Coconut, but was not impressed with the shave. No matter how I formulated it the lather was never very slick nor did it provide great shaves. Passable but not great. I only ever tried samplers of T&H, and I was a newbie at the time but never had great success with them either. Take that with a grain of salt however...I may like them better now that I know what I'm doing. I actually prefer the creams you mentioned in your lower cost list.
Hmm Interesting. No mention of Castle Forbes. I know it was not part of the original post but I always thought that as far as high-end creams go it was near the top. Just expensive.
I've tried all three T's and the New Coates, and they all perform really well for me. If I were to pick my favorites, it would probavbly be TOBS and Coates. Although I loved the GFT Sandalwood....
i have tried several scents from each of the t&h, trumper's, tobs, cyril slater, floris, penhaligons', aos, the old coates lines. have also tried the new coates, in addition to jm fraser's and several others (haven't tried castle forbes yet). i haven't used tobs in a while, so unless it's been reformulated in recent years, my opinions are based upon that experience. i've found them all to be very good with only subtle differences between them in terms of performance; scents, however, vary greatly so, for ex., one line of lime scent can be quite different from another. for me, scent is 50% of the wet shaving ritual. that being said, i think, jm fraser's and tobs are great all around values in terms of performance, altho jmf scent (original) is on the weak side. the new coates also right up at the top in performance, scent is ok for me. i'm not sure, for me, if the extra cost for the others is worth it.
For creams, I say T&H or Castle Forbes. For soaps, I say Penhaligon's, Yardley, and I really like the AOS soap line.
I will also say TOBS creams are good. Some people like the gelatin-based soaps like Mama Bears which I cannot stand. Another cream I enjoy is Floris 89. I know I ventured away from creams but I made it back.
I have a problem with Castle Forbes being a little too hard for a cream. In comparison a soft cream like AoS is much quicker to get a nice lather. Did I get an old batch? Has anyone else had this problem? Len
