The bits have just arrived - an unbox/'smelling' first impressions.
Taylor of Old Bond Street - Cedarwood
Pot Smell: Hmm this smells of soap more than it does cedarwood. The L'oreal cedarwood is far heavier/intensely bombastic smell that eases off after the shave.
Finger: Broke through the upper crust, on the finger is smells of soap, the cream feels relatively thick. Soft slightly soapy smells lasts.
Shaving experience #1: fast lathering with little product, long lasting lather that slightly thinner under the blade than the Extro. Leaves face feeling clean and a little dry immediately and throughout the day. The smell doesn't change from the soapiness and you can smell that throughout the day. A decent shave, with a clean after feeling.
Taylor of Old Bond Street - Jermyn St
Pot Smell: This has a really clean fresh smell, I can't place it but it smells like you'd expect a double shirt cuffs shop to smell (citrus smell). Nice, clean and not imposing.
Finger: Soft whipped cream, clean smell linger.
Taylor of Old Bond Street - Lime Zest
Pot Smell: In th pot is smells of lime curd, zesty.
Finger: soft but thick cream, has a longer but lighter and smoother zesty smell close in. This changes smell between the pot and once on the skin.
Shaving experience #3: slower lather but once lathered it's thick and lasts the entire shave, the smell of lime zest is great, no smell of soap after the shave. On the face after the shave the skin feels soft, clean and not oily. There’s a little very weak zest smell. The shaving is close under the blade.
This is after the degis del yesterday, and thes shaving brush smelt nice from the previous shave. It definitely took more product (which seemed thinner both in the pot and the lather took longer than the cedarwood) to get a full lather.
Overall I feel this is a lighter shave than perhaps the TOBS cedarwood and Extro 1927. It's less noticeable after smell too, it's there but very subtle my deodorant smell overrides it.
Extro - Terra degis del 1927
Pot Smell: Wow, imagine an old Middle Eastern shop with an overpowering cacophony of intense smells.. warm, close in, not subtle.
Finger: stiffer paste, thicker between the fingers, and the smell subtle out with complex smells with an under tone of Middle Eastern soap. This eases off in the long term leaving a amber smell.
Shaving experience #2: Next day after the cedar wood TOBS, the product lathers slower and needs more agitation, the resulting lather is immediately as thick as the TOBS but after one side of the face the other side had started to thin. The lather feels slick and thin under the blade (new feather), and after the shave remained with a film lubricated feel. Smell eases off a bit compared to the pot but the lather smell is an experience, the remaining film smells like a softer version of the pot - warm. Even after a hot shower that smell has eased off but when I move I can smell the long term Amber/eastern warm smell, but without the slick feeling that now is dry but not as dry as the TOBS after.
Extro - Pesca
Pot Smell: this smells like my grandma's bathroom, a mixture of clean soap smell and a very very soft something else.. it doesn't smell of peach. Almond perhaps?
Finger: stiffer thicker paste, again thicker between the fingers, the smell of soap lingers, soft and clean but a little too much like soap.
Extro - Legno di Sandalo
Pot Smell - clean smell of subtle sandalwood soap.
Finger: again thicker, stiffer paste, and the smell evens out into a soft subtle sandalwood soap smell.
So overall I'm a little surprised they all smell a little soapy. I know my old Wilkinson swords soap used to smell like this, but the l'oreal was so bombastic in cedar that you didn't smell of soap. That's what I was expecting from a cream.
After a longer period they all have a base soap with a subtle difference scent smell, the outliers are the 1927 leaving a smell of amber soap, the Sandalo and the Cedarwood that have longer smelling soap+scent. The feeling of the fingers being rubbed - the TOBS all seem to be smooth then it feels quite dry but slightly tacky whilst the Extro feel smoother with perhaps a little residue and more natural. There also seems to be a family smell in their bases - the TOBS smells more flatter soapy, the Extro smells more acidic soapy.
Update, an hour later after washing hands the soapy smell has gone and it's left just the gentle scent. So, fingers crossed, that the full shave is better.
I'll have a shave and try the cedar wood.
Edit: Updated above with the shaving experience. Will add more over the coming days. What really is apparent is that the little 10ml pots have quite a few shaves worth in.
As a general feel of (what I assume is a common base to their ranges) - it feels that the TOBS leaves the skin drier where's the Extro leaves the shave feeling more slippery so far.
or so I thought!
Bit of a personal question which I hope is ok on here as it's Shaving related!! I want to trim/shave the manhood area but don't know whats a good option to use, I've heard creams can burn, I usually give it a neaten up but afraid of ripping the sack