This rather fine shaving cream has been on my list of things to review / write about / go off on a tangent about for a good few months now. As, indeed, have a lot of shave-related things. But life, as they** say, managed to get in the way over November, December and January (I'm writing this in very early February 2020) and unfortunately writing about shaving had to take a back seat. Well, I say 'unfortunately' but in fact apart from having a nightmare of a time with builders***, the other stuff that got in the way was all good. I've now got a book out **** and if you want to know more about that then follow the link at the bottom of this page in the footnotes.
Now onto the job at hand, which is writing about this sandalwood-scented shaving cream from Mr. Hobbs Barbershop***** in Vancouver. Mr. Hobbs - I don't know if it was Mr. Hobbs himself or a representative of Mr. Hobbs, but let's just make things easy and call them Mr. Hobbs anyway - contacted me via my Instagram page and arranged to send me a pot of the shaving cream as pictured here. When it arrived from Canada a week or so later I was delighted, as you can no doubt imagine, to find that my pot was number 16 issued out of 100. If you don't believe me I can prove it by way of the Certificate of Authenticity that arrived alongside the cream******.
However, I didn't bother reading any of the marketing stuff or, indeed, the instructions on the pot itself, which quite clearly state Apply onto wet beard area******* and massage into a soft lather to soften the beard. In other words, you don't need to add extra water and work this cream into a lather before hand. In fact, when you look in the pot, it's pretty much a lather already. But, like I say, I wasn't concentrating enough and just assumed that the normal lathering procedure would apply. But no. It's a direct-to-face product. It took me a couple of rather unsatisfactory shaves, spent with me cursing the cream, before I realised my error. And once I applied it as the instructions had been suggesting all along, I became a fan.
Plus points:
Great slickness. Great scent without being overpowering. I love sandalwood anyway and this is right up there, for me, with the Proraso and Taylor Of Old Bond Street shaving creams and soaps. I'm talking specifically about my own personal preference for the scent here. Others will no doubt disagree********.
Other plus points:
Easy and quick application. A great cream, in fact, for those sorts of shaves that, between November 2019 and January 2020 I found myself having to submit to, quite against my will. The sorts of shaves that dictate you have to be quick about it. The sorts of shaves that don't let you luxuriate in a bubble in your shave den for half an hour or so. The sorts of shaves that happen at gone midnight when you're bleary-eyed with drunkenness, stressed out and tired from ranting about builders not turning up to finish your bathroom. Yes - those kinds of shaves. You just want to go to bed and pull the duvet over your head and forget about what's happening in the world. So, you wet your face, apply the cream with your fingers (although I did use a brush and it worked just as well) and away you go with the blade of your choice.
Would I use it again?
Yes, I would. Absolutely definitely.
BUT ...
As far as I know Mr. Hobbs' shaving cream is only available from Mr. Hobbs himself in Canada and the postage and the customs charges I got stung with here in the UK make it a bit of a no-go cream for me. Which is a shame because it really is a fantastic cream both for its scent, its slickness and for when you're in a rush and you just need to get your shave done. It'd also be a great cream for travelling / going away for the weekend / going on the run.
But don't let that stop you. Visit the Mr. Hobbs Barbershop website and have a browse. Although it's looking a bit bare in the shop at the moment as the shave cream is the only thing available. But I like the way the comnpany does business and I think it deserves support and to go onwards and upwards.
10/10
* Or creme de rasage de bois de santal if we're going to go down the bi-lingual route.
** Do they? Do they actually say that? Who are 'they' anyway? What am I talking about here?
*** Don't get me started on that. Seriously. Just don't.
**** Follow this link here and all will be explained. It's got nothing to do with shaving, though.
***** I've stared long at hard at the name MR HOBBS BARBERSHOP and I have to say this out loud. Shouldn't it be MR HOBBS' BARBERSHOP, with an apostrophe after the S in HOBBS? I mean, I might be wrong and I don't want to sound like a pedant. I used to teach English to foreign students before I fell foul of a megalomaniac Director of Studies who, it would appear, hated my guts and got rid of me under the pretext of there not being enough students in the school to justify keeping me on. A rotter, scoundrel and cad. I hope he gets really bad diarrhoea. Anyway, the point is that I tend to notice these things and as this is my blog I feel it's a space where I can voice them. Sorry - I'm rambling again.
****** As opposed to arriving INSIDE the cream, which would have been messy.
******* That's your wet beard area, of course. Not someone else's. Not unless they've given you full permission.
******** The filthy swines.