A little while ago, I reviewed some of the samples I’d received in July, with a promise that I’d be back to review more of that collection. So here goes, the review of the rest of the samples:
Edwin Jagger pre-shave, shaving cream, and aftershave lotion. The pre-shave got a review in part one of this series, and I’ll stick with that review, even after my third use of the product. The menthol is a nice touch, but the format is unexpected.
The aloe vera shaving cream is awesome. It lathers exceptionally well, smells pleasant without being overpowering, and, coupled with the pre-shave, provides great slickness, lubrication, and cushioning.
The moisturizing aftershave lotion is one I’ll happily leave behind when I’m done with it. It moisturizes, yes, but it’s a lotion in a classic sense of the word, to the point where even after considerable massaging of it into the skin still sits on the skin in a white film for a while. I mean, it works, but I really don’t want to leave the bathroom with that on my face.
Another problem with the set is a lack of cohesive fragrance. Edwin Jagger’s lathers, pre-shaves and aftershaves come in 3 fragrance or formulation profiles: sandalwood, limes & pomegranate, and aloe vera. I would expect that all three products across the sandalwood and limes & pomegranate lines all smell relatively similar. But nothing in the aloe vera line smells alike. Menthol is the only smell and feel I get off of the pre-shave, soap and aloe is what I get off of the shaving cream, and the lotion smells like, well, an old hand lotion you’d find in your grandmother’s bathroom. I don’t know if they are meant to be complimentary or what, but getting to the last step and having the aftershave smell nothing like the first two products is kind of distracting.
Zingari Man Artisan Shaving Soap Unscented & Artisan Aftershave Serum. This line (no pre-shave, it should be noted) is fine. Just okay. It works, but it doesn’t work terribly well for me.
The soap lathers well, but didn’t provide the slickness or comfort I look for while shaving. Wiping it back on my face for extra passes didn’t lubricate the passes as I wished they would, and the result was some extra irritation.
The aftershave serum is thin–very thin, in fact. More pourable than the Nivea or Proraso products, and pourable enough where I need to be careful about how I open the sample container to make sure a blob doesn’t go flying out and into the sink. It goes on thin, and does soak in to the skin easily, but all I can say is it isn’t as satisfying and doesn’t provide a longer-lasting moisturized feel on my skin than the Proraso or Nivea balms. If given a choice, I would use the Zingari sego balm over the serum every time.
Barrister & Mann 42 Shaving Soap. Barrister & Mann is an American maker of shaving and bar soaps, balms, and other shaving products, as well as being a retailer of other shaving products like razors and blades. They seem to have a pretty large following online, but I’d never used any of their products until I saw that there were samples of their 42 shaving soap available in the sale from Maggard Razors.
42, for those in the know, comes from the Douglas Adams book The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, in which 42 is the answer to the meaning of life, as it was determined by the great supercomputer, Deep Thought.
B&M produced a whole line of 42 shaving products (soap, aftershave, etc.) as part of the recent anniversary of the release of the book, and I just thought it was a cute, if somewhat goofy idea.
The soap lathers and works well, protects well, and gives nice lubrication to the shave. The scent to me is kind of like barbershop meets citrus, but it’s not a strong scent, so doesn’t overpower anything else I use. It’s a good product, but I’ve got my favorites, and I don’t see myself ordering any other B&M products after I’m done with the sample.
Taylor of Old Bond Street Organic shaving cream. Taylor of Old Bond Street (TOBS) is an old English brand that’s been around, according to their website, since the 19th century. It’s one that shows up frequently in the shaves of the day online and gets lots of mention as a favorite.
I can see why. This is a cream that is normally packed in a tub, and using just a pea-sized blob, it blooms into a huge amount of thick, rich lather remarkably easily. I’m also surprised that to lather, it needs very little water, but as I’ve said elsewhere, I do like to have my lather a little more watery than thick. And it’s a slick, cushioning lather that performs very well.
As a result of using the sample, this is one product that I will come back to in the future and eventually purchase a full-sized tub of.
