SMF

Was in AOS the other day and noticed a new product:
http://www.theartofshaving.com/taos6/pr ... duct=83000

While it is being marketed strictly to women, I thought the rose scent beat the pants (skirt?) off of every other rose cream I've encountered. So, I purchased some in the pump form, and will be giving it a whirl today. If I end up not liking it, I'll give it to one of my women friends.

What I like about it right off the bat is that it only uses rose eo. It also is free from colours or parabens. It is designed to be used either with brush or brushless.

I think the scent may work very well with my Trumper skin food and my Creed EDT's.

And raised the price to the women!!

And the verdict is...
Only comparable to my Castle Forbes Limes. Otherwise the best shaving cream I've ever used. This and the lime is all I could really ever need. Don't really see a reason to own anything else. Maybe I'll keep some Nancy Boy in the small jar around for my gym locker ad travel bag. Seriously, expect me to be selling a bunch of creams pronto. As for the price, a little goes a long way. And I don't mind paying a bit more for rose essential oil (eo). The price is in line with Castle Forbes, and the quality is just as high. It should be noted that this cream is made in the USA, and has slightly different ingredients from the other AOS creams. I also think it is a cut above the English stuff they sell. It should be mentioned that the smell does linger with this rose cream. Not so much as to conflict with the Creed scent I'm wearing, and it layers very nicely with my skin food, but it is subtly lingering 20 minutes later. I'm sold.

Ok, now I know what the next cream I get for my girlfriend will be.

But I wonder about the price. This one is measured in volume, as opposed to the usual weight measure. So I am wondering how much there is relative to a normal AOS tub.

-Mo

Just figured out, it is just over five liquid ounces. But that is not really an apples to apples comparison, still, as I think most shaving creams in tubs are probably a fair bit lighter than water. (Thus, if measured by volume, they would come out to somewhat more than they do measured by weight).

Regardless, I'd say it is expensive. But not totally outrageous. Especially given the exclusive use of pure Rose Absolute, which I understand to be quite expensive.

Note, by the way, that Rose Absolute and Rose EO are not exactly the same. They are both a natural rose oil. But essential oils are steam distilled, whereas Absolute is chemically extracted. Which is more efficient (at least for roses, not sure if that is generally true), making it about half the price. Although still expensive.

-Mo

Rose Absolute is used almost exclusively in perfumery whereas Rose EO is used in skincare primarily. and yes, the extraction process for one vs the other makes the absolute less expensive per ml.

Chris

Well I have been waiting for a good rose cream.

Peter I've taken your review on faith and ordered a jar. Like you, I'm really narrowing my cream collection.

I just don't care for GFT rose (primarily due to the coloration) and haven't seen anyone raving about other rose creams. I was getting ready to order more AOS unscented as I seem to go through this cream faster than my others. I'm also giving their sandlewood cream a try.

I also use CF Limes regularly (and their Lime ASB almost daily). Now if they would just come out with their Cedarwood cream I would be in shaving cream nirvana.

In less than a year of wetshaving I notice that I'm not using any english creams.

Good review.

Scott

My favorite rose cream is the eShave floral, but this sounds very promising.
Thanks for the heads up.

Here are the ingredients:
Aqua (Water), Stearic Acid, Myristic Acid, Glycerin, Potassium Hydroxide, Coconut Acid, Natural Aroma, Sodium Hydroxide, Methylisothiazolinone, Rosa Damascena Flower Oil (Rose Absolute), Rosa Damascena (Rose) Oil.

It would appear that two kinds of rose essential oils are used, both absolute and steam distilled.

I would like to note that the cream is much more runny than I'm used to. This may be off putting for people using the tub, but was perfect for the pump. I will say that a pump worth of cream added to my brush burst into a great lather in my bowl and on my face. Not the thickest lather ever, but very slick and smells incredible. The density is hard to explain as it is unique to me, somewhere between Nancy Boy and Castle Forbes. But remeber, this was only my first shave, and I used very little product. I used about half what I's have used with Castle Forbes or Trumper and about a third of what I'd have used with Nancy Boy. I'll report back more tomorrow on my second shave.

dinder1 wrote:My favorite rose cream is the eShave floral, but this sounds very promising.
Thanks for the heads up.

eShave is owned by Danielle Malka. AOS is co-owned by Eric Malka. They are siblings and I think use the same compounders in England. That being said, I was not very impressed with the eShave creams. I thought they were too lightly scented. This new AOS Rose cream is being made here in the States by a different compounder.

This seems to come in a jaras well. I may have to give it a try as I am fond of the rose scent.

Chris

This is a timely thread for me. I'm in Boston on business and today I happened to be in the Copely Place and Prudential malls (connected to each other by a skywalk), wandering around. Copely has an AOS store (across the hall from C&E and just down the hall from a CO Bigelow BTW) and I popped in to make a pest of myself . They had a display of the new rose cream there: yep, not as "thick" as the other creams (slightly looser), pleasant rose scent. I took some pics with my Treo which I'll post when I get home (if someone else doesn't beat me to it).

Seems to me this is Erik giving Daniella a little "poke in the side."

BTW, this AOS has a Master Barber who gives shaves on Fridays and Saturdays, free with a $50 (IIRC) purchase. I spoke with him tonight; seems like a nice guy. I'm going to try to get a video of a shave for my YouTube channel.

Tomorrow I hope to make a pilgramage to Colonial Drug!

--Mark

I CAN'T BELIEVE IT !!!

TRUE STORY : 3 DAYS AGO, I WAS THINKING : " I'M WONDERING IF AOS IS GOING TO OFFER A ROSE SHAVING CREAM ; I'M GONNA CHECK THEIR WEBSITE SOMEDAY..."

AND APPARENTLY, MIRACLE !!!

YOU'VE GOT TO THANK ME GUYS !!!

Well, if you’re going to use ladies shaving cream, you might as well use the AOS Ladies badger brush too! It's only $60.00. Go-for-it!

cigar-&-Shave wrote:
Well, if you’re going to use ladies shaving cream, you might as well use the AOS Ladies badger brush too! It's only $60.00. Go-for-it!

Ya know that brush might force you to not bend your wrist when making lather

cigar-&-Shave wrote:
Well, if you’re going to use ladies shaving cream, you might as well use the AOS Ladies badger brush too! It's only $60.00. Go-for-it!

Or you can save yourself a few dollars...........




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Even the sales woman at AOS didn't seem to be a big fan of this brush. The head is substandard for the price even by AOS standards.

I picked some of this up yesterday and gave it a try this AM. First off the Rose Absolute and Rose EO are the last two ingredients in the list so the amount is minute. Also, the listing of "natural aroma" mid deck suggests "other" oils used to create the fragrance. After experiencing the aroma this AM my nose reinforces this. The smell is not at all what you'd expect from either Rose Absolute or Rose Oil. I use both of these as standalone ingredients in making some of my own EO blends. The smell of the AOS cream is very good, however. It is a very "earthy" rose so I suspect that some amounts of Patchouli have been added to create the "rose" scent. Also, I can detect rosewood EO which is a much lower cost substitute for a "rose" fragrance.

All in all it is a very nice product and it shaves quite well. But, don't be misled in to thinking you are getting a true rose absolute/EO fragranced cream. Again, these ingredients are so minute that they contribute little to the aroma or to the efficacy of the product.

Also, just because parabens are not used does not mean this is a "natural" product. Methylisothiazolinone is a chemical preservative that is as "suspect" as any of the parabens.

Chris

Thank you Chris.

Chris, Also, thank you, that is what I thought, as well ( but I have not used it, which you have ). I would suggest that anyone who chooses this shave cream/lotion do so on it's own merits as a shaving product, not because they think they are somehow getting a 'superior' quality of scent ingrediants, or that is more 'natural' then other high end rose shave creams.
Regards,
Gordon