Vintage Coates Almond Shave Cream

[bernards66]

Craig, I agree and basically that is what I have been posting for some time, albeit until now, it was from memory on the Coate's end. I dunno, the last couple of pots I've had of Harris's have been very similiar to the old Coate's in the pots; the same very dense texture and rich lather. But that may have been partially because the Harris's pots were slightly dehydrated when I got them. But overall, and especially if we are talking about cream in tubes the current T&H cream is very similiar although I too think that the Coate's is even a trifle better. I tried the Rose this morning and once again I experianced the scent as somewhat faded but still noticeable. Also the color was rather light, closer to the T&H or the current Taylors My memory of the potted Coate's Rose cream is one with a pronounced color and a lush scent, more like the current Trumpers or DRH's Rose. Whatever....these creams are very, very good, superb rich lather and plenty of it.

Sam, Because these are the tubed creams one has to use a little more than if they were the potted version. I try to err on the generous side although I haven't been using quite as much as in Craig's photo above. Also, as with English creams in general I find that a bit softer more 'floppy' brush works even better than a stiffer model. The Kent BK4 I used yesterday was perfect for example.
Regards,
Gordon

[Craig_From_Cincy]

I was playing with some of the tubes tonight and I noticed that by mashing the tubes up a bit and then vigorously shaking them the scents became more pronounced. Perhaps doing this more evenly distributes the oils that contain the scents throughout the tubes. Or maybe its just my mind playing tricks on me. We'll see when I use the Rose cream in the morning.

[Craig_From_Cincy]

I used the sandalwood cream this morning. The scent was rather faded, however the performance was superlative. I put a drop of TOBS Sandalwood Cologne in the cream as I was whipping it into lather and the scent blossomed into a wonderful sandalwood scent that was somewhat different than the TOBS scent . A first class BBS shave all around.

[bernards66]

Craig, Well, okay, I'll try mashing and shaking the tubes a bit and see what happens. Regardless, this offer of Andy's is indeed a boon to me and any other lover of the old Coate's creams, or anyone who didn't get to them back when but would like to check them out now.
Regards,
Gordon

[Craig_From_Cincy]

Craig, Well, okay, I'll try mashing and shaking the tubes a bit and see what happens. Regardless, this offer of Andy's is indeed a boon to me and any other lover of the old Coate's creams, or anyone who didn't get to them back when but would like to check them out now.
Regards,
Gordon

+100 to what Gordon wrote. These are some of the best quality creams that I've ever used. They leave my face feeling fantastic and I get a BBS shave with not a trace of irritation.

[Squire]

So here's to hoping the new guys get it right.

[churchilllafemme]

I used the Almond cream this morning. It lathered well and had good skin care, but the scent was nearly nonexistent, despite my having squeezed the tube a number of times beforehand to mix up the cream.

[gsgo]

John, both of my almond tubes had a faint floral scent and were somewhat of a dull grey/cream color, after mixing the scent didn't really improve much but the color definitely turned a bit more buttery yellow.

[btafan]

Craig, I'm glad you enjoy them so much and you've been documenting how you've used them because I haven't gotten that kind of feedback from anyone yet!

The almond has always had me curious because I knew they weren't as strong as the others but didn't have knowledge of any other almond cream or soap to which to compare. I guess we'll see if this next batch I get is the same. Does anyone know of a reason why almond would fade? I noticed that the other scents use oils or parfum in the ingredients, but almond uses benzaldehyde at the end of the list on ingredients. Some googling and long forgotten chemistry yielded the Cannizzaro Reaction: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannizzaro_reaction.
It says sodium and potassium hydroxide is used to react with the benzaldehyde, but I don't know if this even applies.

[Whistler]

I have several pots of almond which are dehydrated, most recommend re-hydrating by mixing water into the pot a little at a time, what I do, and find works very well for me is, I add water to the dried pot until it is 1/4" or so from the rim then microwave the pot until the cream turns to liquid, then I mix it all together and let set on the counter till the morning shave. first twist of the lid and the wonderful almond sent is there and the cream is in perfect shape... YMMV and all that.

One warning, don't set the microwave and walk away, the pot will over flow, you have to microwave a bit then stir, then microwave then stir... You get the picture. When it is done the consistency will be like a heavy dish detergent.

I have never had a pot of almond, sandalwood or lime that could not be resurrected in this fashion.

[bernards66]

Marty, Sigh....where were you when I needed you?....that is to say when I still had several pots of the old and dehydrated Coate's. That is one technique that I never tried. Ah well.

John et. al., regarding the Coate's Almond, it never had that strong a scent anyway, less so than some of the other top shelf English almond scented creams. It was quite subtle, but it gave a fantastic shave. So, since the other scents that I have are somewhat faded I would expect the Almond to have little discernable scent by now. I haven't checked my tubes of it out yet but that's what I expect given that the others are not as potent as when these creams were newer.
Regards,
Gordon

[BullGoose]

I used the Coates Lavender for today's shave with excellent results. I do not know how potent the scent was when new but, there was still plenty of scent remaining. Great stuff!

[bernards66]

Phil, Yeah, it was really really good, and the cream in the pots was even better. You can see why some of us ( like me ) were pretty attached to this stuff and quite upset when we found out that, after several years of blatter and smoke & mirrors, the creams weren't being made anymore. This was one product, amongst a plethora of others, that disappeared or were 'reformulated' within the space of a couple or three years. It was like every time I checked on to the forum I found out that something else that I preferred was disappearing; the Coate's creams, the old DRH Aftershaving Milk, Gillette 'Swedes', various high quality tallow based bath soaps, the traditional T&H colognes...these downers just seemed to keep on coming. I've adjusted as best i can but in truth I'm still a little bitter about this whole thing.
Regards,
Gordon

[Craig_From_Cincy]

I used the Rose cream today and it's really great. There's plenty of scent left in this cream, it's a straight ahead classic English Rose scent. The lather is superb, the post shave face feel was particularly wonderful. I got a BBS shave without a trace of irritation, and my face felt super for hours after shaving. I need to hoard these creams while they are available.

[Gareth]

Really excited to see that someone has managed to find these vintage creams, and from what I've read, in really good condition.

The tubes are perfect for me as I travel loads, and I actually just finished off my last Sandalwood tube that lived in my travel wet pack.The 50g weight and size is much easier to carry round than, say, Trumper's 75g tubes.

Sandalwood, Almond and Limes were always possible to get hold of you searched hard enough, but it's great that Andy has managed to procure the other three, more difficult to find scents. Can't wait to get mine!

Gareth

[Squire]

Nice to read such comments on this bright Saturday morning.

[Esoteric83]

Got my stash today and my med cabinet has its own Coates row now. I'm glad I got some lavender as it was surely at the top of "my one that got away list for good..." I thought. Scent wise, it is very, very close to T&H which has always been my benchmark for how a shave product should smell. And, I'm almost done with my T&H pot so I don't need to re-up on that one any time soon either with this influx. Creams seem very workable too based on little bit I squeezed out to test scents.

The Sandalwood was a scent I never appreciated when I first started this thing of ours, but I grew to regret that as they became harder to find.

Tea Tree and Almond were also on that list, but nowhere near as high up as their lavender. Almond was a fairly faint dry/nutty scent. Tea Tree was just that, a muted Tea Tree. Unsure if this was due to age, but I had had got any one of these tubes back in 2005, I would not have questioned anything as they seem fine. I got these two more out of curiosity and probably won't use them with the same regular frequency as Sandalwood or Lavender.

So SMF, how do we go about nominating this guy for sainthood?

[brothers]

He's already got a crown, according to his portrait. King of Coates!

[bernards66]

Indeed. I tried the Sandalwood the other day and that one didn't seem as faded, scent wise, as the Lime and the Rose. Perhaps the individual tubes vary even in the same scent, I don't know. This tube of Sandalwood was almost as potent as I remember the cream being years back. Very nice!
Regards,
Gordon

[Craig_From_Cincy]

The tubes must vary, my sandalwood has been the most faded of all the creams that I purchased. I added a squirt if TOBS sandalwood cologne as i was whipping up the lather and it helped liven things up a bit.