Price



This cream costs $8.95 for a 3 ounce jar direct from Pacific Shaving. That's more expensive per ounce than TOBS, but less than Truefitt and Trumper. It's not cheap, but about what you'd expect to pay for a high quality product. Overall the price seems pretty fair.



Quality



Excellent. Going over the ingredients, it doesn't look like they were trying to cut corners in any way. It also appears to be the same cream that Classic Shaving and Vintage Blades are marketing under their own respective names. I have no idea who makes the base.



Ingredients are as follows:



Ingredients:

Certified organic aloe barbadensis leaf juice, potassium myristate, potassium stearate, sodium myristate, sodium stearate, glycerin, certified organic helianthus annuus (sunflower) seed oil, certified organic shea butter fruit, certified organic white tea, green tea, calendula officinalis flower, chamomilla recutita (matricaria), lavender, sweet almond fruit, comfrey and clover extracts, vitamins E, A & D, marshmallow root, oat kernel, corn oil, hydroxyethylcellulose, sorbic acid, organic orange essential oil



Pacific also seems to be pretty confident in their product as they have published this guarantee on their website.



Customer Service Guarantee:

Our policy is simple: 100% satisfaction. If you are not satisfied for any reason, you can return the unused portion of your products within 60 days for a full refund.





Scent



Very nice, refreshing and citrusy. It reminds me of lemon sorbet. It is not artificial, overpowering, or cheap smelling. I like this scent a lot actually. Unlike Classic Shaving or Vintage Blades, Pacific only offers one scent.



Latherability



Since it's a new school cream, it lathers, but doesn't explode into voluminous lather like the old school English style creams. I found it very easy to lather up in my shaving mug and create lather that was good for shaving. You do have to watch the water ratio with this one though. If you add too much water, the lather will look okay but will be too fluffy and airy and not provide enough cushion. I would suggest experimenting with the water ratio for a few shaves until you hit the sweet spot.



I found it to take a just a little less water and a little more cream than most creams for optimal performance. Also, if you take out the cream with a finger/spoon or stick to place it in the center of your brush knot, you might want to pump the bristles a little more when lathering to make sure the cream doesn't get stuck in the knot.



Pacific markets this as a brushless cream to be lathered with fingers but it obviously works either with a brush or without. I have not tried it brushless because I prefer to use my brush. I imagine it would work quite well for face lathering, but I didn't test it for that either as I prefer to bowl/mug lather my creams and soaps.





Efficacy



One you get the water ratio down, this cream gives and excellent shave. It does seem to cut a bit closer than most creams - more like a shave soap. It does provide adequate protection from the blade and very nice razor glide. It's very slick. In fact, the first time I used it, on one stroke my razor just slipped over the cream instead of cutting through it. I probably had it mixed a little too thick that time.



Between passes, it rinses off easily and doesn't leave a residue. While shaving, it seems like it has a conditioning effect on my skin and my skin seems to soak up some of the moisture from the cream. That might be due to the fact that it is aloe based, but I'm not sure. Also, the lather seemed to break down a little between passes while sitting in my mug in sink of warm water. No big deal because it just takes about 5-10 seconds of stirring with my brush to revive the lather and then I can apply the cream on my face for the next pass with no problems.



After shaving with this, I don't get any irritation at all. My face feels nice and my AS doesn't sting.



I was initially hesitant to try this cream because it contains a number of EOs and extracts. Sometimes my skin is sensitive to certain EOs and fragrances in creams and I can get a burning reaction from certain creams or soaps. That did not happen with this cream so far. However, those who are sensitive to EOs may want to approach this cream with caution just to be safe.



Also, Pacific says that a jar could last up to 40 shaves. I don't see that happening for a multi-pass DE shave, but that might be true for a one pass shave with a Mach3 or other cartridge razor.



Moisturizing Properties



Very good. Up there with Taylor's Avocado.





Packaging



It comes in a 3oz plastic jar with a screw top. The jar seems pretty tough, like it wouldn't break easily. I like the fact that the top has ridged edges to make it easy to unscrew. If you like to dip your brush into your cream jar to load it up you may find the jar less than ideal, particularly with a bigger brush. Also, given that the jar is smaller, it seems like a waste of packaging since it's a little more than half the size of a standard shaving cream jar. On the other hand, the smaller jar probably allows the cream to stay fresher as you use it and the jar is recyclable and could also be reused.



Overall this is a very nice cream that is well worth trying.



A link to Pacific's website for the cream is below:



http://pacificshaving.com/cream.php