Castle Forbes Lavender

Hello gents, and ladies if any are reading, I have been lurking around here and posting here and there, as of today I am using a parker shavette. I actually purchased a dovo silver steel off ebay last week which should be here tomorrow and even though I will be sending it off to be honed before giving it a try, I realized "Dope, you don't have a strop." So over the weekend I realized I had a gift card from Christmas that I haven't even activated, it got activated today and I purchased a 3in red latigo strop from SRD and while poking around, I figured I will also throw in a nice new shave cream to try.

I have not really seen or heard anything bad about CF products, so I decided to order the Lavender cream as well with the strop. I am extremely excited to try it out as it seems to be a benchmark, next to lets say Martin De Candre or some say XPEC (for those that havent tried MDC myself included.) I did do some searching of the forum here and I see the most talked about is the CF lime and cedarwood and sandalwood. I do like my mama bears vanilla sandalwood soap, and that is the prime reason I didn't get the CF version. I want to experience new things, different scents can make this quite the adventure. However I do have a question in this post. Those of you who use the Lavender, how is the scent? Is it potent and sticks with you, is it too "feminine" or will my lady appreciate it on me and not make fun of me for getting lavender shave cream :rofl2:. I suppose this could be a YMMV type of thing, but just trying to see what you good people think is all.

I noticed there are a lot of different methods for loading up a brush with this stuff and getting the superior lather it is famous for in this forum, so I suppose depending on when I try my first round with it we will find out if I need to repost asking about how to get this to its ultimate performance. As always, I appreciate all responses and thanks for stopping by!

The stuff has a moderately strong fragrance however after you wash it off it does not linger at all. Unlike Xpec which stays with you forever.

It's very easy to lather up. I imagine even a chimp could do it.

Hi! I used this very cream today for my morning shave. This is maybe my 5th or 6th shave with the cream and the scent has already gone down a bit. During the shave, as big spendur says, the scent is definitely noticeable but after you rinse the lather off, the scent is totally gone. Applying an after shave splash or balm afterwards almost secures that the scent goes. I applied cologne today and that's all I can smell on my, barely 2 hours after.

Hope this helps. You've made a great choice - Castle Forbes Lavender is my only cream (I am exclusively a soap guy) as it lathers superbly and leaves a really good feeling after you rinse. I also have the CF balm and am dying to try it out.

Hollywood, Castle Forbes is a stellar shave cream. It is slightly on the hard side, and I use it as I would soap. Mine is the lavender version. The fragrance is soft and quite pleasing. Xpec has a robust fragrance that awakens the senses. It's a superb cream in every way. Martin de Candre is a celestial soap. With these three, you soar in shave heaven.

Well the cream arrived today and to be quite honest, I cannot wait to try it. I had a very busy week and haven't had time to be looking around on here but I will certainly keep up to date with how it goes now. The busy week was nice so I wasn't sitting around in anticipation waiting for my order. I will let you folks know how it goes after I use it in a little while!!

Well I tried it earlier and I have to say, the scent is quite pleasing yet strong when you first smell it. As far as lathering quality. I have to experiment a little bit as I am quite sure I used too much water. I have read that it likes water but I definitely shouldn't have put so much in. What I did was smear some on the bottom of my bowl and added some water, enough to cover the bottom (which is where I should've stopped). Then after letting it sit for a bit I started to build, and man did it build quick. The lather was huge in the beginning and I should have left it there (the prep phase). But I thought "well lets add a bit more water and see what happens". What happened was it was too much. On my second pass lather was flying everywhere but it was not staying on my face, a very light if any coating. That will take a bit of experimentation as I said earlier so I will try again monday night and see what happens then. I should also note that I didn't do a test lather either. I was so excited that I just dove right in haha.

All the CF creams are pretty concentrated and much less product is required compared with others to provide lather. The majority(myself included) tend to treat it as a soap and load the brush directly from the container. A damp brush with a light covering is ample for 3 passes.

Funny this thread popped, I was just talking to one of our members on the phone Fri night about honing problems he was having, but as usual after we talked Stone and Steel the conversation shifted :)
I recommended the CF creams as the Gold Standard of creams, I find them to be "the cream" I compare every other shave cream too and honestly I have found very few to be better... The scent is a personal thing you either Like it, Love it, or Hate it :) but OMG the conditioning that the CF leaves behind IMHO is even better then the thick luxurious shaving lather itself :p

Anyway enjoy the CF, I am quite sure you will figure out the water issue quickly and easily, it is pretty lenient to the mix ratio...

Yup, Like the other's said, You made a good choice. CF is the benchmark. Xpec is a good cream also. CF is very dense, while Xpec is a very soft cream. Both produce tons of lather. If your using a scuttle, or bowl, smear a small amount of CF in the bottom. 1/2 an almond usually does it. A little goes a long way. I add about a teaspoon of hot water, if you wait a minute, it will disolve, and aid in lather building. Only add small amounts of water at a time, like a teaspoon or so. CF should give you loads of rich, whipped cream lather. You already know about the scent.

Definitely lather like a soap. I also had trouble getting it right and have sold on this cream (limes) before. But third time lucky and I am now a proud owner of the Lavender. Works a treat on my sensitive/dry skin.

I also recently got the balm in the Lavender and it goes on really nicely. I will probably try it tomorrow with the cream in the same shave. We'll see...

If you're using CF in a bowl to lather, be careful to work the lather well before giving up on it. Because its so soap-like, you may find that a little bit of the unlathered cream is still stuck to the bottom of the bowl when you're done with your shave. Where you think you may have added too much water, you may not be working all of the cream into the mix. Its happened to me with CF. I'll assume that the only difference between them is strictly their scents. With that assumption, I can say that you can't go wrong with CF. When I think of some of the poor performing soaps/creams, I can't justify them with the available option of CF. Its expensive but the best I've used thus far.

Thanks for all of the replies folks, I will definitely take that advice to heart later on when I shave again. I know its strange to do it at night but I thoroughly enjoy the relaxation of it at night. Looks like I will go ahead and try round two as a soap. I will be sure to inform how it goes!