OK....I don't know if this should go in "Reviews" or here, so I'll put it here.
Got my dense variation of the bomb in bay rum yesterday.
First impression, nice, fresh bayrum scent, and not quite as dense as I was expecting to be honest. Seemed less dense than Castle Forbes
Laterhering: Al is NOT kidding when he says it's a challenge to get a nice lather. When he says it is hydrophobic at the beginning, he MEANS IT. I tried a few different small practice runs (ruined one or two with water up front), and decided that this is the way to go for me: Scuttle with hot water, medium firm brush, loaded directly from the jar. (I loaded WAY WAY WAY too much, more on this later). I loaded about the same as I would if loading other hard creams, such as CF or Aqua Di Parma.
I started swirling/whipping until I had a nice rim of dense DENSE protolather (I don't know what else to call it), I whipped and swirled for about a minute, fast and active. I then added a few drops (perhaps five?) of water. Back to whipping/lathering, and it perhaps doubled in volume. Had I not so excessively loaded the brush, this might have been all that was neccesary. A half minute or so of this, and I added another 5-7 drops of water, and I am telling you, the lather EXPLODED. The bowl of my scuttle was FULL of lather so dense my brush would almost stand up in it. BUT, it was creamy and SLICK SLICK SLICK.
I spread it on my face like somewhere between whipped cream and cake frosting, then let it sit while I stropped a 8/8 Joe Chandler Damascus (freshly honed). I went to wash it off and I realized that the peaks in the lather were still perfectly formed. When I rinsed, my skin felt soft and lubricated. I re-lathered, still not really having made a dent in the volume of lather in the scuttle, and started shaving.
I AM NOT KIDDING WHEN I SAY THAT THE LUBRICATION AND CUSHIONING PROVIDED WERE THE BEST I HAVE EVER FELT FROM A CREAM, AND RIGHT UP NEAR THE TOP OF WHAT IVE EVER FELT FROM A SOAP.
When I was done shaving, I should point out, there was ZERO sign that the lather was ready to dry out or break down, and I took my time with this shave.
I finished a three pass shave, and I have a nice BBS shave that needs a great lather and a great razor to do its job. I rinsed, and just to see JUST how much I had over-loaded by, I relathered, rinsed, relathered, rinsed, relathered, rinsed, and then squeezed out EASILY another two passes worth of lather. So....uh, yeah, I could have shaved three times (more if I have been conserviative with lather) on the amount I used.
So, in jar-loading, one must be very careful to not waste this cream.
Scent: 9+ (it would be a 10, but it is just of a SLIGHTLY different "style" of bayrum than my absolute favorites like Ogallala)
Lathering EASE: 2/6 (this is not an easy lather to build. I could see it being VERY frustrating for the new user or the latehr-challneged who doesn't like to experiment. BUT...now that I tried a few ways, and think I know the best for me, it is not too terribly hard, just time consuming. Hence the split rating.) Al has never made any claims otherwise, in fact, he is the first to tell you this is not an easy cream to lather. He even gave tips on lathering with my order.
Lather quality: 10 (only because I can not give a 42)
Cushion: 10
Lubrication: 10
Skin conditioning: 10
The short story is this: If you are willing to learn what might be a slightly new technique for lather, and work for it a tad....you can not be displeased with this fantastic prodcut. Al...look for a new order from me...this time in that wonderful lime!!! And thank you for bringing this wonderful product to the market.