Thread: Mühle Rasiercreme "Sanddorn" ("sea buckthorn" shaving cream)

Let me begin by saying that I love the German Baltic Sea coast, and the Island of Hiddensee in particular. The island is famous for its sea buckthorn, which has also become an integral part of Germany's musical culture through Nina Hagen's song "Du hast den Farbfilm vergessen". The natives turn sea buckthorn into all sorts of things, including, but not limited to, liquors, drops, and mustards. You either love it, or hate it.

Now then, during my latest shopping spree at The Different Scent in Berlin, I came across another instalment of sea buckthorn made useful: Mühle's sea buckthorn line. So I bought the soap and a matching teakwood bowl for my father-in-law. And Jens kindly gave me a jar of the cream for reviewing purposes. Thank you!

So without further ado, let us have a look at this fine piece of German shaving craftsmanship (according to unsubstantiated rumours, the cream is manufactured by Klar Seifen GmbH, founded in 1840).

Packaging: Nice. I like the colours (medium grey with subtle orange), and the cardboard box is also well done. The jar itself has the same grey/orange colour, and feels every bit as flimsy as, say, a GFT jar.

Texture: Interesting. Rather fluffy, and soft. I initially had difficulty getting my brush loaded. Dipping the tip into the cream with a tiny bit of force helps. Overloading obviously being a potential problem here, but after the 3rd attempt it worked nicely.

Scent: Mühle themselves advertise their product as follows:

Sea Buckthorn – fruity & fresh. With fine fragrance notes of lime and orange: sea buckthorn cream. Minerals and trace elements nourish and refresh the skin and the senses. Treat your skin with this premium shaving cream. A fragrance of lime and orange emerges along with the rich, creamy lather, helping to make your shave a pleasure for all your senses.

There is a lot of truth to this. If you do not know what sea buckthorn smells like, you might want to order a sample first. As I like the smell of sea buckthorn a lot, I also like this cream. It has a fresh, fruity scent indeed, which will not linger for too long, though.

And here is my main gripe: There is only the cream, but no pre or aftershave available. Given the unique scent of sea buckthorn, that is a bit of an olfactory problem. I found a workaround, though (see below under Moisturising).

Latherability: I start with very little water and gradually add more (standard practice, I know, but I start with even less with this cream). It does not lather as well as Castle Forbes's products, but is a match for AOS, or any of the English creams I have tried so far. Nothing to complain about, but also not a new benchmark.

Cushion: Excellent, if you get the lather right. I used the cream without a preshave for testing purposes, and the cushion it provided still worked well enough.

Moisturising: Outstanding, but little wonder given the cream's ingredients. I skipped the aftershave in favour of Dr. Hauschka facial tonic and skin oil, and yet my face still felt great some hours later.

Price: Less than AOS, or Castle Forbes, but not quite inexpensive. Still, you will get good value for your money.

Overall impression: I like this cream a lot, based mainly on scent and moisturising. The lather is good, as is the cushion it provides. In any event, Mühle's Sea Buckthorn shaving cream is an interesting alternative to more traditional products, and the jar will look good in a modern bathroom.

Man, now I want to get some of that.

Great BeBerlin

Finally it was time to try out the sea buckthorn cream from EJ.

As a side note: MÜHLE and Edwin Jagger are in partnership so the soaps, creams, lotions... are exactly the same, only a different packaging.

I used my beloved 2 band Polo 10 with a nice 28/58 knot/loft size. Perfect for creams.

Packaging: I got myself the tube and I'm happy EJ didn't follow that crappy Dr Harris plastic tube route they started using. Instead you get a nice simple but stylish card box with a sturdy and elegant looking aluminum tube.

Texture: Mine wasn't fluffy but more creamy and slick looking. Not as full and thick as my GFT creams which I love.

Scent: I personally found the cream to be very mildly scented. I wished it was stronger like the after shave lotion. But whatever you smell is delicious. I had some whiff of pomegranate, mango and passion fruit greet me at times. Lovely and just divine.

Lather ability: It took me more whirls with my brush then I'm used to. I started off with an almond size which gave me enough produced lather for 3 passes. At first I thought I didn't use enough cream but I continued stirring in my bowl. After a while and some persistence I started to notice my brush nicely loading but nowhere to a satisfactory lather. So I added some water and bingo, lather started to erupt from the brush. Like any cream or soap it always takes some tinkering and tweaking, I do have extremely hard water but didn't notice any performance loss.

Cushion: Perfect and very slick. Protected my face during the whole shaving ritual.

Moisturizing: Two thumbs up. My face felt so refreshed and healthy looking. Now the icing on the cake was the sea buckthorn after shave lotion sample I used after my shave. One word. Pure ecstasy. The smell divine and the properties and feel of the cream, wonderful. Papaya, mango, Orange, Passion fruit...that's everything I could smell. And the scent stays for a short while too. This is on my Christmas list.

Price: At $14.50 a tube it's pretty much targeted around the competing English creams (tube). Quality products always come with a price.

Overall impression: The cream performed like a champ. My only caveat was the mild scent. In combination with the same scented after shave lotion it's hard to beat if you love the fruity tropical scents. The sea buckthorn really sets it apart from other scented creams. Moisturizing properties are top notch.

Are Muhle and EJ the same people? I've tried both and they do seem identical to me except for the label. The package, the shape, the product, all seem identical. I've done the soap and the cream, I love them both, love the fruity scent, also wish that it was a little stronger. Definitely one of my favorites.

The Mühle creams in general are excellent!

Jeff

Nice review, looked for the review AFTER i had ordered some.