It's still not obvious why I made this choice, but I honestly could not think of another scent that I was more curious about, and let's face it - shavegeekery is all about trying and curiosity. Having said all that though I must admit that Corey Greenburgs positive writings on this SC did influence me to select it rather than the others. But who am I kidding? I'll probably end up trying the entire range in the fullness of time, or maybe not...
So I received the package and while more excited about the PL8 that was packed in the same box I opened up the Trumper's Violet first. The cream was so full its top surface covered half the inner lid. I took it off and took a whiff... yes the aroma of violets and old soaps came rushing into my head. The smell of Palmolive soaps of yesteryear... nice... it was only when I tried using it that I realised that this smell was pretty strong compared to other creams I've tried. It was seriously violetty.
I took it to the bathroom and gave it a whirl... using about as much as I would of Proraso by eyeballing it... a purple coloured froth started and dissipated to a light pink... but I wasn't getting the usual good lather I would with face lathering... in fact it was so bad I wondered whether I might have lost some of the cream when I wet the brush... no... wow what a disappointment it was. I realised maybe using the stuff on the inner lid which I had might have been unfair since it may have 'dried out' or changed etc.
Thinking it might also have something to do with unfamiliarity with the PL8 I decided to try again with my trusty Vulfix #2190 and some fresh cream from the tub... nice for one pass but the second application left a pale amount of lather. I'd been 'false shaving' - using a bladeless Rocket to scrape off the lather so my face was the same and was as receptive to the lather as it had just been.
I decided that maybe it was because there just wasn't enough stubble to get a decent lather. Tried again the next morning with the PL8... again barely enough lather for 2 passes using an almond size dollop of cream...
I resigned myself to the fact that people's impressions of Trumpers was right. That I had missed the boat... their creams had indeed become worthless and certainly not worth 11 pounds sterling. For some reason that's when I thought to try the new brush in a bowl again and used a bit more than an almond's worth of cream (almost 1.75 almonds worth) ... finally I had enough lather... but only just.
In the end I'm disappointed with this cream's price to performance ratio. I have come to love the smell though... it really grows on you... but I guess I'll just have to use extra big helpings which is probably exactly as Trumpers wants it... to get a decent shave. I can live with that since it will help empty this nice tub which I'll press into service with other soaps. The tub actually matches the handle colour of the Simpson brush exactly a warm beige.
Would I buy it again? I don't know right now... I'll have to finish this tub to know for sure but it's definitely a creeper... it kind of grows on you all of a sudden and then all you want to smell is violets and more violet... my PL8 reeks of it now and I love it
![Smile :)](./images/smilies/icon_smile.gif)