Trumpers creams

[Mr.Max]

Many of us have been disapponted about Trumpers recently manufactured hard shaving soaps. I have a recent cake of
Coconut oil that won't lather worth a damn. It's nowhere near the quality of the other older cakes of trumper soaps that I have. Trumpers rose used to be one of my favorite shave soaps. I don't have much left of the cake that I do have of it and I'm not confident that if I get a new one that it will be of the same quality.
Dispite the disappointment with the soaps, the creams have been absolutely superb lately. I know there were issues with the creams in the past, but whatever it was, they seemed to have gotten their act together with the creams. I have a tub of the rose and of the violet right now and in both pots, the consistency is perfect, scent is bright, and the lather is fantastic. These are as good as I ever remember them being in the last 8 years or so that I have been buying them. I shaved with the rose yesterday and I thought to myself that these creams are really top notch lately and that it would be worth posting about with all the bad stuff going on with the soaps.
I remember a few years back when the creams got reformulated and didn't seem to be as good as they used to be, and the general feeling was "hey, at least we got the soaps" but now it seems that the pendulum had swung the other way. Right now, the creams are pretty darn good.

[brothers]

I'm not a vendor, I'm just the customer, but if I was a vendor, I'd stock the GFT creams and let my stock of Trumper's soaps run out. On the other hand, if I was in the sales dept at GFT, I'd make sure to initiate a policy that my vendors couldn't buy creams unless they order an equal amount of soap, that way I'd make sure this useless soap was still selling and wouldn't give a crap about the vendors who were being forced to buy the soap that doesn't sell because it doesn't work.

[95%]

I'll second Matt's remarks with respect to Trumper's Violet cream. I have a recent pot and I can't get enough of it. Best shaves ever, with excellent skincare qualities and a scent that can't be beat. Yes, I've heard about the reformulation years ago that supposedly ruined the fragrance, but I wasn't around for the old-style product and am grateful for the current one.

[jaguar]

While I prefer soaps, for the reasons stated by many others, I avoid GFT shaving soaps simply because thet are not very good. For Summer months, I occasionally use GFT Coconut Oil Shaving Cream and have been pleased with its performance. Based on that experience, I recently ordered two additional Geo. F. Trumper creams for cooler weather shaving, Spanish Leather and GFT. I wanted to experience some of their more fragranced creams, and since I am particularly fond of their Spanish Leather fragrance, I thought they would be worth a try.

Are the Trumper Spanish Leather and GFT shaving creams similar in performance to their Coconut Oil cream?

[changabang]

I prefer my creams in tubes, but you're right: GFT creams are some of the best out there. Still a little on the high side, $$ wise, but you expect that from
english creams. The Spanish Leather and GFT creams are both fine performers, but I like the violet best.

[Craig_From_Cincy]

Thank the gods that Soapworks doesn't make shave creams, or it might be the end for the British shave creams. Creighton makes excellent shave creams, for Trumpers and others as well..

[bernards66]

Matt, I agree. There was a period back around maybe '06 or '07 when some bum pots of Trumper creams appeared. I initially sounded the alarum in a thread called 'The Crack of Doom' which, presumably is still in our archives somewhere. That turned out to be a long thread. Quite a few other members also had sub par pots of Trumpers during this period although there were some members who never got a bad one. Not long after, some of the Harris's creams also turned up bad. We learned that just prior to all this Creightons had moved their whole operation to another facility AND the gent who had overseen their production line had retired so, perhaps, these things coming together explained the seeming break in their usual quality. But all the Trumper creams I've received for the last several years, whether in pots or tubes, have been excellent; just as good as they were before whatever the problem was that Creighton's had. And I'm damn glad because they offer some of my favourite shave creams scents. Their Limes cream is the only one I'll buy these days, and their Sandalwood is my favourite in that scent as well. For Rose I go with T&H and, of course, Trumper does not offer a lavender scented cream. But they are the only old school firm that still provides a violet scented one, and although the scent is not quite as nice as it was a number of years ago, I still like it and appreciate that they still offer one. When it comes to cream in tubes Trumper is always my first choice today as I remain convinced that metal tubes are superior to the plastic ones that all the other Jermyn Street purveyors have gone to. But to 'jaguar' I must add that although their Spanish Leather cream is regrettably packaged in a plastic tube the one I have has a good consistancy and is an excellent shave cream. They did a really nice job at maintaining the integrity of their SL scent in the shave cream medium, which I understand is not all that easy to do.
Regards,
Gordon

[drmoss_ca]

And it is in the archives! Gordon was evidently going through a bad spot to write such depressing stuff. Fact is, you can't trust these brands who will change anything and everything to improve their profits. Make your own soaps and creams and be free.

Chris
Unite! You have nothing to lose but your chains....blah, blah, blah
I couldn't find a smiley for Marx, so Lenin had to do. Hope you capitalists feel really soiled!

[rsp1202]

. . .Unite! You have nothing to lose but your chains....

I misread that the first time as "chins." So much for protective lather. Chains it is.

[bernards66]

Okay, so it was '07....I nailed it! And that was a VERY long thread, wasn't it? As we've seen, the problem, apparently, was mainly with Creighton's and not Trumper although Trumper DID permanently alter the scent of their Violet cream and some long time fans like Michael and Sam were not able to get with the newer scent as they were quite bitter about losing one of their favourites ( which I can certainly understand ). Personally, I was just relieved as hell when word started to come in a year or two later that the Trumper creams again appeared to be fine. Taylors also, eventually, did something about their situation as well ( which might also have been an issue at Creightons in retrospect although Taylors themselves did admit, at the time, that they had made some changes in some of their creams ). Anyway, things in this area appear a lot less bleak now than they did in '07. BTW, I shaved with the Trumper Limes cream this very morning.
Regards,
Gordon

[Squire]

Ok, ok, being the staunch individualist I am I have decided to take a stand firmly in the middle. I will make my soap and buy my cream and think only cheerful thoughts for the rest of the day.

[harper]

I am one of those members Gordon referred to as not getting any bad pots of Trumper creams. I have been a devoted user of Trumper creams for more than 40 years and have never had a bad shaving soap or cream. I have had scents that I didn't like but the products were always fine. Now, my experience leads me to believe that either I am lucky in not getting any bad Trumper creams or I am too dumb to know a good cream from a bad one. I'm not sure which but I am sure that some days I'm the pigeon, some days I am the statue.

[fallingwickets]

I've never had a bad trumpers product either......still the best as far as I can tell

[EL Alamein]

I can't recall that I ever had a bad pot of Trumpers but I still do have a pot of their rose, from a short time after the issues, whose scent is not as strong as it was previously. I recall that for a short while after their issues some Tumper's creams had a muted scent like the pot I have but still shaved excellently. Glad that it's all in the past now for the cream users.

As a mainly soap user it would seem that for some brands the crack of doom may be upon us but thankfully there's still some excellent alternatives which I hope will spur enough competition and market movement to correct the problem with the errant brands.

Chris

[bernards66]

Yes, Bob and Chris were two, Ken was another. As you can tell from that linked thread from '07 Ken initially was inclined to think that I was being a tad paranoid, or at best, had simply gotten the odd 'off' pot. But as the thread continued ( and we exchanged a few PMs ) he had to conclude that something untoward had, indeed, happened even though he himself had not gotten any bad creams. I too am extremely glad that it turned out to be a short term problem. And it is true, and a bit ironic, that at the time it was assumed that the hard soaps would remain 'safe' and throughout the tread I kept saying that I would switch to them if the creams ( from Trumpers and others ) continued to be second rate. Now it's the soaps that we're concerned about and unfortunately this problem does not seem to be a production glitch at Soapworks. They seem to be either unable or unwilling to produce a better hard shave soap and so long as Trumper and those other firms continue to accept this drek and source from them there seems to be little hope that the situation will improve.
Regards,
Gordon

[brothers]

. . . so long as Trumper and those other firms continue to accept this drek and source from them there seems to be little hope that the situation will improve. Regards, Gordon

That's the mystery, isn't it?

[harper]

Gordon, it will continue as long as people buy the soaps. If the soaps are as bad as reported (I have not used soaps for decades) then they will deservedly die in the marketplace as all inferior products do or else the companies marketing them will improve the soaps and they will survive, perhaps even thrive. Nothing -- no amount of advertising or marketing clout ... will convince people to continue to buy a product they don't like. The history of marketing is replete with examples of successful companies changing some aspect of their products and then seeing the products fail. Perhaps the best example is Schlitz which was the number two selling beer in the US at the time it changed its product in order to save money. The public quickly found they didn't like the new Schlitz and within a fairly short time Schlitz disappeared as a viable brand.

[Craig_From_Cincy]

. . . so long as Trumper and those other firms continue to accept this drek and source from them there seems to be little hope that the situation will improve. Regards, Gordon

That's the mystery, isn't it?

This is the $64 question. In Soapworks January, 2012 pess release they stated that they purchased all of the specialty manufacturing equipment, molds etc that Standard used to produce shaving soaps. I wonder if Trumper et al may have signed a contract with Soapworks, if they feel that the start up costs of reproducing the custom mold used to make their soaps is cost prohibitive, or if perhaps they feel that there's simply no other company in the UK that can produce shave soaps for them? The only other commercial makers of shaving soaps in the UK that I'm aware of are Scottish Fine Soaps of Falkirk and Broad Oak Toiletries of Tiverton. Broad Oak is owned by the parent company of Floris and make all of that companies soaps, perhaps they might not have been interested in making soaps for their competitors. Scottish Fine Soaps have their own brand of shave soaps which they are trying to market. I do know that Czech & Speake ended up going outside the UK in order to produce their shave soaps, which are now made by Valobra (and they are excellent BTW). DR Harris are apparently still producing their own soaps, as is Mitchell's Wool Fat. I really can't explain why Trumper etc allow Soapworks to ruin their names with these lousy soaps, and of course nobody from these companies will address the issue (or acknowledge that an issue even exists).

[bernards66]

Craig, Yes, it is indeed difficult to understand. I can see that Trumpers et. al. might have simply gone along with where they had been getting soaps from; they got them from Standard and when Standard was absorbed by Soapworks well, they just kept doing business with what essentially seemed to be the 'same' company, so to speak. And since Soapworks took over all of Standard's equipment and records, what would be the problem? I can see it going down something like that. But surely, by now, some of these firms MUST realize that the soap they are getting is NOT at all like what they were getting from Standard before 2012...right? So, I suppose that they are determined to at least sell the stock they already have even IF they might be contemplating finding another source. Either that or they really believe that they can continue to sell this stuff regardless of it's inferiority. I certainly hope that the former is the case and not the latter. Bob's cautionary story about what happened to Schlitz ( I'd wondered ) should be heeded. FWIW, I'm pretty sure that Floris ( or Broad Oak ) used to produce the Penhaligon's shave and bath soaps so I don't think a set-up like that is necessarily out of the question for Trumper or some of the others.
Regards,
Gordon

[brothers]

I had a dream, either that or I was ill and having a feverish nightmare. A representative of GFT joins SMF or some shaving forum and apologizes, says everything that needs to be said, acknowledges the company's reputation is at stake, how the recipe has currently been changed for the better, what to expect from the product, and challenges former customers to send an email for a complimentary cake of shaving soap of their choice of fragrances. No excuses, no exceptions.