To those who have tried Art of Shaving. Is there anything better?

[SRLNY]

D. R. Harris, Truefitt and Hill are as good or better, and of course Santa Maria Novella and Acqua di Parma are better, but if you think AoS is overpriced, don’t even look at those last two, even though either will last close to a year.

Agree. DRH certainly has been better for me than AOS. I actually sold my AOS creams about a year ago. And while I've not used SMN in a long time, my Acqua di Parma cream is the best cream I've found, period. Pricey, but it is simply stellar. One cream that hasn't been mentioned that I would rank above AOS and probably even above DRH would be the Fitjar creams. Worth finding and nicely scented, too. (I admittedly have not tried, but would like to try, the Ethos cream since Frank Lipani makes good stuff.)

 

[Borderboss]

You can save a couple of bucks on AOS creams ordering from Amazon, but they're still in the same price range as Castle Forbes. If you're going to spend that kind of dough on a big name cream, Castle Forbes would run circles around AOS.

 

[Borderboss]

Having heard that AOS had a Sandalwood scented cream, I decided to give it a try. I bought a tube of it from Amazon because it was less than half the price of the crazy $33 for a tub.

I've used it the past two mornings and I have to say that I'm pretty underwhelmed by it. The scent is very muted, practically non-existent. The performance isn't good either, with little slickness and certainly zero residual slickness. So far, no bueno.

 

[Raven Koenes]

I had a AOS store 15 miles from my house before it closed . Yes I used their over priced products. Try Cyril Salter lineup of shave creams. Wonderful

I second Cyril R. Salter. Excellent Brit cream.

 

[Quaznoid]

That Gillette is a ridiculous razor, but so are the crazy, high end DE’s discussed on B&B.

 

[texasdw]

AOS cream works well, however, I do NOT like using them because they leave a 'soap scum' sort of residue on my razor. I can clean my razor and I'm not particularly worried about that - but if it leaves that residue on my razor, I can just imagine what sort of residue it's leaving on my boar or badger bristles.

I don't have the same residue accumulation after any other - e.g., TOBS, Proroso or Castle Forbes.

 

[SamplingNature]

Yeah, and the carts are only $6.25 each.

Well, it's art...

 

[SamplingNature]

Oof—$35 for a P&G product seems like too much for me when ToBS and Captains Choice creams are half that. But if you love it then it’s worth it!

I hadn’t heard of ‘Art Of Shaving’ for years but I just found their website so it appears they are still going. Wow, they’re selling GilletteLabs cartridge razors for $150 with 2 (two) cartridges included. It has a charger and it heats the cartridges to give “a hot towel feel, like a barbershop shave”. There’s a $200 version with an additional razor stand.

Glad to hear their shaving cream is good.

We added more blades AND it heats up!

 

[murkr]

Their unscented cream and aftershave are amongst the best. And I have tried many. I also previously used their pre-shave oil for many years, but now I just make my own that is a mimic of the AoS oil. I found someone post on here the recipe and it works great.

Can you share that recipe? Next time I'll try to make my own.

 

[Sherlock40]

To make 30 ml, I mix the following:

Castor oil: 22.5 ml
Jojoba oil: 2.5 ml
Grape seed oil: 2.5 ml
Olive oil: 2.5 ml
Lavender essential oil: 1.5 drops
Clove essential oil: 1.5 drops
Vitamin E essential oil: 1.5 drops
Black pepper essential oil: 1 drop

 

[Dools]

Is there anything better?​

I recently won an award at my place of work. They use a catalogue company for gifts for anniversaries, awards, etc. Well, in the catalogue was a tub of AOS Sandal Wood, and, it was a no-brainer! Anyway, Loved that tub!....burned through it quickly

I checked on-line for the price of AOS Shave Cream, and, well it was a Deal-Breaker.

I Love Taylor Of Old Bond Street and I think that they are Very comparable to AOS, but, at a better price.

(This is my second post about TOOBS tonight, I LOVE their products for the price)

 

[musicman1951]

I haven't used creams in quite a while, but I remember AOS being quite nice, but nowhere near Castle Forbes. Ultimate Comfort was another one I preferred to AOS. Both of those creams had great longevity.

 

[ak395341]

AOS creams are great; not sure who made them.
Just as good as, or better than, the best Brit creams, IMHO.

View attachment 1717744

I’ll second this. Really liked their creams. Not so much the other stuff but the shaving creams were quite good.

 

[SamplingNature]

Bacon and fishing. Both are better than just about anything.

 

[sarimento1]

I’ll second this. Really liked their creams. Not so much the other stuff but the shaving creams were quite good.

AOS soaps, it's generally agreed, originally came from Valobra, all tallow, outstanding.
AOS brushes were marked "Germany"; I think came from Muehle, but perhaps Shavemac, whatever, also excellent.
AOS straights were marked and came from Thiers-Issard, again, excellent.
Not sure source of AOS colognes/balms, but those were also outstanding, IMHO.

Once acquired, P&G made some changes to AOS sources; my (unconfirmed) impression is that these changes were more for cost reasons. Also, just my impression, P&G oversaw large expansion of AOS footprint, precipitating it's ultimate demise.

Sad.

 

[ak395341]

Really great info. Thanks so much Sarimento. Admittedly my collection is a bit older as I got gifted them and bought a ton at once. They kept well and still do great to this day.

 

[Borderboss]

I've been using the AOS Sandalwood in a tube all week because I was traveling and the tub is easier to pack than a tub. I can attest that my experience was mediocre at best. The scent is pretty light. The performance was really sub-par. The big three British creams (TOBS, T&H, Trumpers) are miles ahead in performance.

 

[GR5233]

The only AoS cream I’ve tried is the sandalwood. Wasn’t impressed with it. I find that TOBS tobacco leaf, Proraso (blue, green and wood and spice single blade), the Italian Palmolive (classic and menthol), Lea and La Toja are better than the AoS

 

[Mustard Seed]

I have the AoS Lavender cream. To me, it very comparable to my Trumper, D R Harris, TOBS and T&H creams.

 

[cvac]

I don't know who makes AOS products these days.

Many years ago I had a puck of the old formula Valobra made soap. It lathered up a storm of course but I never liked the scent. It was nothing like real sandalwood BTW, maybe more of a patchouli/cypress/weird thing going on.

I think at one point the creams were made by Creightons. If that was true that would mean the creams would be very similar to any cream made with the same base.

I can also tell you that I had a sample of their AS "gel" at one point and distinctly remember it burning my face. No alcohol but it had some kind of weird extract in it. I'd rather use a basic alc-based AS than most of the gels, balms, etc. from almost any company.

And yeah the stores were always overpriced. There was one near me at one point in a huge train station and all the Merkur products there were marked up substantially from online prices.