Taylor's Herbal Pre-shave gel

Well a real mixed bag of a review. Whilst the gel itself works wonders for me, I even like the strong scent, the price and packaging are quite poor, as is the amount of gel you actually get for your hard earned cash.

Performance wise, less is more. I find I use this particular pre-shave with Tabac as the scent compliments the soap well.

Packaging is shoddy to say the least. A plain, cheap plastic tub with a screw lid that, ok it does what its supposed to, leaves a 'cheap' impression. Shame.
And you don't get an awful lot of the gel neither, which really makes me think would I buy it again? Probably not based on that fact alone.

My experience was a bit different. I found that it worked well.

The tub was fairly small and plain. The amount may technically be the equivalent of two tablespoons, but it has been lasting better than I expected.

I find the scent very nice, and it doesn't leave a sticky feeling. However, it performs on par with Proraso in terms of preshave. Over time, I've found myself reaching for Proraso over Taylors consistently. (Although I think this is mainly a function of my realizing how much I paid for it.)

My opinion is that it does not perform any better than Proraso. This, coupled with the fact that it is more than 3x the price of Proraso, means that I don't see myself restocking.

I know I've submitted my opinions on pre-shave oils in the past (don't think they help), and have been eying TOBS herbal preshave gel for some time now. Recently when I gave in to a late night AD, I included a tub of this gel.

I haven't seen a review on any of the shaving boards, and it only has a very few mentions anywhere. I couldn't find an ingredient list anywhere, and the 6-point type on the underside doesn't list any ingredients.

First of all is the packaging. The tub is even plainer than the big PVC tubs of the 3T shave creams, with a rather poorly printed gold sticker on the lid. More of a shock, however, is just how TINY this tub is. 30ml is roughly 1 oz is about 2 tablespoons. At USD $20 for the tub, it comes to around $10 per tablespoon! Good thing I didn't realize that before I ordered it, or in all likelihood this review wouldn't exist.

Inside, the gel is a semi-opaque, amber colored gel. It has a wonderful,slightly sharp botanical smell I can't quite identify with my end of winter cold, but my wife also agreed that it had a "nice" herbal smell that isn't medicine-y or overpowering.

Did my usual splash hot water on my face prep, then dabbed a TINY amount of gel onto my fingertips, which was more than enough to spread across my wet beard. It feels slick but not weird like you'd think. I left it on my face for two minutes as instructed, then lathered over it with GFT Almond.

I'm not sure it did anything. True, my first pass was a bit less rough than usual, but that's par for the course for me when using GFT creams. When wetting my face between latherings, I could definitely tell my face was slicker than normal, but on the second and third passes I just don't think the gel made a difference in the shave.

Just like the T&H pre-shave oil, I love the idea AND the scent. But c'mon -- at 20 bucks an ounce, the whiskers should fall off my face without me even lifting the razor. Yes, I'll keep this and I'll try it again, but I don't think this is worth the money.