Razor: Gillette Fatboy on 4
Blade: Wilkinson Sword
Brush: Wild West Brushworks Bobcat Synthetic
Soap: Hoxton Shave Co. Cannon Street Road Cream
Other: Thirsty Badger lather bowl
Vacation over, first day back at the grind, figured I should head into work smelling like a boss. Today I’m using one of my vacation acquisitions. I picked up this shaving cream from Kent of Inglewood in Calgary, AB. This is a very cool little store that has shaving, beard, hair supplies and other manly items (axes for example) For shaving supplies they carry a few different artisans. This Hoxton Shave Co. product line caught my eye.
Hoxton Shave Co. is an English company that creates several shaving products. Kent of Inglewood is the exclusive importer in Canada that carries them. The shaving cream tubs all smelled quite nice but this one really caught my attention. Something about it smells really familiar. Scent notes are Classic Bay Rum, updated with notes of Vanilla and baking spice. The vanilla and baking spice really change the dimension as it doesn’t read bay rum to my nose. It also isn’t a gourmand scent that you might expect from vanilla/baking spice. It is very masculine but I wouldn’t describe it as cologne. I can’t quite put my finger on it but it smells fantastic. Scent strength is quite strong which I also really liked, but it doesn’t stick around too long after the shave. Perfect for office days.
Performance wise, this lathers quite easily, very similar to a Taylor of Old Bond Street. It doesn’t take much water and if you push it, it would break quite easily. Slickness was good, as was residual slickness. The big surprise for me was post shave, which I found quite nice. I used this previously while travelling and didn’t have a post shave that fit so I went without and had no issues. Skin wasn’t dry at all. That can be a problem with creams so I didn’t expect the nice post shave.
My only knock on the soap is that they didn’t have a matching aftershave. I really liked this scent and would pick up a matching post shave in a heart beat. A really nice shave to start the week. I’d suggest picking on up to try, especially if you like shaving creams. I can see adding another in the future….. possibly the Earl Grey which also smelled fantastic.
