So, I've got plenty of soaps and creams already, but part of the fun of this hobby is trying new products, especially super, super cheap products. Normally I don't review creams/soaps, but considering there's almost no reviews for this cream, I figure I probably should. Last time I was in DM Markt (for those of you who are unfamiliar, DM is Germany's largest drug store, and has pretty sound business practices and good employee work conditions, in case you're interested in that side of things), I picked up a tube of Balea Sensitive Shaving Cream with aloe vera. Balea is the store brand for DM, and the quality of their products is generally pretty good to very good, and the price is dirt cheap. This particular tube of shaving cream was 0.65€ for 100mL. That's about as cheap as you'll be able to find any shaving product around here.
The scent of the cream is pleasant enough, nothing special, just a clean yet artificial scent. The lather came very quickly, and with almost no effort, quite a decent volume. In terms of cushion, it was acceptable to good, not fantastic. Where this cream really fell down for me was in terms of slickness, which was nearly nonexistent. With the lather on my face, the blade was able to glide, but you certainly wouldn't call it slick. As soon as the lather was off however, it was so un-slick that it would be like you had just rinsed hand soap off of your face. In other words, you definitely could shave with it, but don't even attempt pickups or another pass over an area you just shaved, because the cream leaves no slickness behind at all. In regards to post-shave feel, I know a lot of you care a lot about this, but frankly I'm an awful judge of it, as I always follow up my cold water rinse with an alum block and then an alcohol based splash, so my face is always as dry as the Sahara even when I use a very "moisturising" soap (which is why I use Nivea cream after the aftershave dries). That being said, from the period between my rinse to the alum block, I would say that this soap is pretty drying, but not quite as drying as Arko, which despite being one of the standard bearing soaps to measure other soaps against, really dries your face out as soon as you rinse it off.
So, to conclude, you can't really compare this cream to anything else. The only two sub-1€ soaps/creams I would really recommend are Arko and Palmolive, and it's hardly fair to compare a 0.65€ store brand cream against these two tried and true budget performers. However, you certainly can get a close shave with this cream, and it (along with Florena, which I think is 0.70-0.75€) probably the best you will find at this price (if you don't want to spend the extra 0.25€ on Palmolive cream or ~0.35€ for an Arko stick).
Who would this cream be for? 1.) you're in Germany for only a couple nights, and either forgot to bring a shaving cream, or only came with a carry-on and didn't put a shave stick or chunk of soap in it, 2.) you already have/have tried Palmolive cream and want to try something different, 3.) you either already have several of the better (read, more expensive) German soaps (Tabac, Speick, etc) and don't want to buy more of them, or don't want to use the ones you just bought while on the trip, 4.) you want a cream you won't feel bad about leaving behind when you go back home, and/or 5.) like me, you're always looking to try new products.
I will try this cream again in the near future to see if I can remedy the complete lack of slickness by changing the amount of water I use when making the lather, and I'll report back. Even if the slickness still ends up being nonexistent, I will still use the cream since I can get a decent shave out of it, and I waste absolutely nothing.
Have any of you tried it? What's your thoughts on it?
The scent of the cream is pleasant enough, nothing special, just a clean yet artificial scent. The lather came very quickly, and with almost no effort, quite a decent volume. In terms of cushion, it was acceptable to good, not fantastic. Where this cream really fell down for me was in terms of slickness, which was nearly nonexistent. With the lather on my face, the blade was able to glide, but you certainly wouldn't call it slick. As soon as the lather was off however, it was so un-slick that it would be like you had just rinsed hand soap off of your face. In other words, you definitely could shave with it, but don't even attempt pickups or another pass over an area you just shaved, because the cream leaves no slickness behind at all. In regards to post-shave feel, I know a lot of you care a lot about this, but frankly I'm an awful judge of it, as I always follow up my cold water rinse with an alum block and then an alcohol based splash, so my face is always as dry as the Sahara even when I use a very "moisturising" soap (which is why I use Nivea cream after the aftershave dries). That being said, from the period between my rinse to the alum block, I would say that this soap is pretty drying, but not quite as drying as Arko, which despite being one of the standard bearing soaps to measure other soaps against, really dries your face out as soon as you rinse it off.
So, to conclude, you can't really compare this cream to anything else. The only two sub-1€ soaps/creams I would really recommend are Arko and Palmolive, and it's hardly fair to compare a 0.65€ store brand cream against these two tried and true budget performers. However, you certainly can get a close shave with this cream, and it (along with Florena, which I think is 0.70-0.75€) probably the best you will find at this price (if you don't want to spend the extra 0.25€ on Palmolive cream or ~0.35€ for an Arko stick).
Who would this cream be for? 1.) you're in Germany for only a couple nights, and either forgot to bring a shaving cream, or only came with a carry-on and didn't put a shave stick or chunk of soap in it, 2.) you already have/have tried Palmolive cream and want to try something different, 3.) you either already have several of the better (read, more expensive) German soaps (Tabac, Speick, etc) and don't want to buy more of them, or don't want to use the ones you just bought while on the trip, 4.) you want a cream you won't feel bad about leaving behind when you go back home, and/or 5.) like me, you're always looking to try new products.
I will try this cream again in the near future to see if I can remedy the complete lack of slickness by changing the amount of water I use when making the lather, and I'll report back. Even if the slickness still ends up being nonexistent, I will still use the cream since I can get a decent shave out of it, and I waste absolutely nothing.
Have any of you tried it? What's your thoughts on it?
