Thread: Castle Forbes "Lavender" shaving cream

Bought this cream at The Different Scent in Berlin as a recommendation. Excellent shop. If you ever make it to Berlin, pay the guys a visit - you will not regret it.

Bit of background: I bought the Castle Forbes's (CF) Lime and Cedar Sandalwood cremes before this one. But I was able to try it during a shaving class at The Different Scent. Bought it shortly afterwards, along with CF's Lavender aftershave. These two, plus AOS's Lavender preshave oil, are my favourite combination.

Packaging: Wonderful cardboard box. Too bad that it contains a rather tacky plastic jar. On the other hand, I have dropped the jar two times already, and it never broke.

Texture: The one I own is rather dry, but the one I used previously had the typical CF texture, rich and creamy.

Scent: Strong. Very natural, but strong. A bit too strong for my liking, really, but that is mainly because I prefer citrus notes. The Lavender scent is probably as close to real Lavender as it gets. If you like Lavender, you will probably love this cream.

Latherability: It only needs little water. Refer to Illustrated Guide to making Überlather - Straight Razor Place Wiki for details. It does not dry up quickly, which I also like, because I can lather my face, and do a full pass without any need for re-application.

Cushion: Rather perfect, especially in combination with AOS's preshave oil. Alternatively, CF's unscented preshave balm is a good alternative.

Moisturising: Lots. Additionally, this cream is the best I have tried yet when it comes to treating stressed skin. According to CF, this cream has been specially developed for sensitive skin, and it shows.

Price: As all CF products, this cream is on the expensive side. But a jar will go a very long way.

Overall impression: If it had AOS Lavender's scent, or simply a bit less of its own, I would rate this cream 10. As it is, I will give it 9.5. It is, however, still my favourite cream, along with CF's Lime.

I do love the Lime and wanted to try the Lavender. The scent is out of this world. The Lavender is supposed to be for sensitive skin which I have. Unfortunately the CF Lavender would not agree with my face. I felt like a burning sensation on my face and it made my skin feel dry.

I tried several times but could never get a satisfying result for my type of skin.

The lather and scent was superb. Not as good as the lime but close. I was truly disappointed as I wanted to love the CF lavender. Unfortunately I had to let it go. It just shows that although a product might be advertised for a certain skin type this doesn't mean it's fool proof.

I really have nothing to complain about the product itself, just that it was not meant for my face.

Castle Forbes are up there at the top of everything I have tried regarding soaps and creams. I have one better cream, and that is Castle Forbes Lime. The scent is that of natural Lavender, and it performs almost perfect in every way. Price is reasonable, you need very little of this cream to make huge amounts of the finest lather, I use much more cream when lathering up with let us say TOBS creams. So in the end this is a cream with a high price when you first see it, but in the end it gives you a lot of shavings and 200 ml instead of the usual 150 ml. I will always have Castle Forbes in my home, I never thought I would get better and more pleasing shaves when I discovered TOBS Avocado, but I was wrong:)

If you love Lavender, try this cream, if you want one CF cream to try, buy the Lime.