Cream Face Off: TOBS vs Col Conk's new Naturals shaving cream

Today I did a face off with Taylor of Old Bond St and Col Conk’s new Naturals shaving cream - half my face with each. As the Col Conk folks say, they are expanding from their no frills shaving soap.

Both are creams and are priced similarly. I try to keep everything as even as possible, using a vintage Kobar for both sides and whipping up foam with two similar horse hair brushes.

Making lather: The edge here went to TOBS. I’m not sure if TOBS is easier or if I’ve been using it for a while and this was my second time w/ Col Conk. I can tell you that Col Conk doesn’t need much water.

I don’t have hard water, though would expect Col Conk to perform well with hard water as the second ingredient is a surfactant. A primary use of surfactants is getting good results with soap in hard water.

Shaving Performance: The edge here goes to Col Conk. My beard grows quickly and it had been three days. I expected some pulling, though was very pleased that the razor cut through that stubble like a hot knife through butter with both products. Once I had the correct mix of water to Col Conk, it started pulling ahead of TOBS from a comfort perspective.

TOBS seemed to have slightly thicker foam. The level of glide was good with both, TOBS may have a slight advantage, though not by enough to be sure. Cushion was better with Col Conk, again, not by that much.

I’ve been shaving with a straight since the first of the year and still get minor weepers with many shaves. With this shave I had two weepers, both on the TOBS side and none on Col Conk’s side. The stubble in my trouble spots came off better on the Col Conk side.

I had equal burn on both sides, which wasn’t bad, with my post shave alcohol after shave. I achieved a close comfortable shave on my whole face.

Scent: I don’t like to grade scent as we all have different preferences. Both products have quality scent with TOBS being stronger and The Col less pronounced. I had The Colonel’s citrus blend, Southwestern Sun and it is toward the tart citrus spectrum.

Col Conk is made in the USA and TOBS is made in England.

In closing, I would score Col Conk slightly higher due to its performance. If you like TOBS then you’ll probably like Col Conk. Conversely, if you wouldn’t use TOBS cream then you’ll probably feel the same way about Col Conk.

Note: Being transparent, I have a business relationship with Col Conk, though it has nothing to do with their shaving soap, having no financial interest in their soap sales. I’ll also say that I value my integrity greatly. If the soap hadn’t performed well I would have said nothing rather than whitewashing a poor performer.

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