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Some interesting things about the GR

If you dont know GR is THE GENTLEMENS REFINERY, it was started by Perry Gastis who used to be some big wig at T&H, and started his own business with the help of a natural chemist this cream is a harder cream scooping off the top pulls it up a little like proraso pre/post, it lathers great and stable and provides great cushion (lol yall seen that post huh) but my face does feel wonderful after use, this is one of the few products i almost never have to use an a/s with a shame since the balm smells great but i noticed a few things whilst peeking at the box
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the first of which was its badger instructions

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which say this,... "dip finger into tub, deposit nickel size amount of cream into center core of brush, be sure cream remains at base of the brush, between badger hair, allow brush to absorb hot water by placing it in receptacle, or under hot running water, shake out excess water, begin to massage in"

ive never loaded a brush this way with cream, is this common ?

the other thing i noticed was at the bottom of the ingredients list
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"product of canada", this is an american company out of LV, but i didnt even know we had a cream manufacturer here in canada, does anyone else know who might be making this cream for GR, i would be very interested to know if i have a larger selection of cream to choose from, i only keep one or two around as i typically reach for my soaps now but would love to see what was out there

btw since kevan may swing by and ask ;) heres a token lather pic or two
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Great review. I knew it was made in Canada but I wasn't able to find it at local brick and mortar shops. Maybe it's made by JM Frasers since they do make creams of their own? Anyways, it seems like an interesting product.
 
Bought it on a win but it does work so well for me, its one of the few creams that will stick aroundd the den for sure
 
Lather looks great.

have you tried making the lather using the method suggested? if you do, let us know how it works for you.
 
I finally tried the lather, as per instructions on the box,.. it worked well, i think it is made to be a bit dummy proof i got what i normally get from the product but I didnt have to work at it.

I have used it enough now i get great results in no time, but i think per the instructions you would get a good result right off the bat, but a bit tough to control what end result is as the soap being in middle of brush makes it hard to tell whether all the soap has blended or there is a chunk in there that will break down, messing with your water ratio if your after something really specific.

The soap is dense much the way CF is so i dont mind just swirling the brush right on top of the soap
 
So i revisited this stuff, after seeing some oddities with some other members who have this i contacted GR on it and they sent me out a new tub of cream, and sure enough it was very different then the one i already had, the lavender scent on the new one was a little more mild compared to my first tub, and it was a regular cream texture instead of the harder stuff i first have,but it does have little hard bits within it, they lather up just fine though
they had no answers as to why the two different types,... the second creamy tub loads much easier as a regular cream would but is just as good a quality lather, feels a bit slicker to me, but post shave feels much better,...

so now im curious which one is the normal, i would imagine the later of the two is the cream one, but has anyone else who has got this got the hard version in the tub ?
 
I have a Unscented tub that I would consider hard. Now I scoop out almond or so sized amount and I mix in a bowl. Thick and dense lather. It had been awhile since I had last used this but it remains one of my favorites and I just need to quit all my experimenting and stick with it...hard to give up the AOS Sandalwood scent though :). AOS lathers up quicker than this but I find this stuff produces a denser lather. It is really a great product in my opinion and the after shave balm is just the best ASB on the planet IMHO. All the products top to bottom are top shelf. My post shave face condition is always great after using the GR.

I have lathered up as instructed on the box as well. It works and for some might work better but I typically prefer to mix mine in a bowl as I kind of like to visually see the lather before putting it on my face. Either method works, it just depends which you prefer. However if you have a the lather correct with this stuff you will get a quality shave. I find this stuff uses a little more water than AOS, but I also find it more forgiving if you happen to add a tad too much water.
 
I bowl lather, but I'm not sure I do it all that much differently. I put it on the side of the brush as opposed to the middle of it. But I would expect either way when I start lathering in the bowl, the brush should whip it up into sight...
 
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