Billy Jealousy Sucker Punch Face Scrub

A face scrub is a very important addition to any counter top or dopp kit of the classic wet shaver.  A scrub exfoliates the skin, prevents ingrown hairs, and prepares your skin for a closer shave – and a closer shave is a better shave.  I will, generally, use a face scrub three times a week to prepare myself for a good shave.  Being a dandy, I actually have two scrubs on the go at any time.  One is my “everyday scrub,” and the other is a “heavy duty scrub,” which I’ll only use once a week.  The Sucker Punch falls into the latter.

Let’s take a moment to discuss exfoliation agents.  A lot of scrubs have some sort of sciency beads in them, some use volcanic sand, and another favourite is crushed almond or walnut shells.  While I don’t really have a preference, I thought it would be useful to mention this up front – if you, or somebody who you live with, has a nut allergy, you should really read the ingredients list carefully to avoid the nutty scrubs.  The exfoliation agent for the Sucker Punch is “Tahitian Volcanic Black Sand” and crushed walnut shell.

I only used this scrub once a week, and I honestly doubt I would use it more frequently than that.  It is a pretty powerful scrub.  The consistency is very liquidy, more than I would have expected for a scrub.  This means it can be a little sloppy to apply, but it is easily controllable.  It gets on to your face easily, and you can feel it scrubbing away almost immediately.  You don’t need to put a lot – or any – pressure on with your hands to feel the grit working away on your face.  Within a few moments of applying, you’ll feel a tingling sensation on your face as well, which is quite pleasant.  It really leaves your face with a very clean feeling, and makes you feel awake and refreshed first thing in the morning.  Oh, it also does its job of helping out with ingrown hairs, and it makes my face ready for a shave a soon as I hop out of the shower.

So, now that my bottle is empty, will I replace it?  I’m not sure.  The thing is, as my skin is dry-ish and sensitive-ish, it sometimes, but not always, feels a bit too abrasive on my face.  I do like a good once a week heavy duty scrub, but I worry that in the depths of a Canadian winter, when my face is going to take a beating anyway, that this might not be the best.  There are also a few other “heavy duty” scrubs that are on my to try list before I make a final call.  I don’t dislike this scrub in any way, but I’m not yet sold on it being the one for me.

Billy Jealousy Sucker Punch

Billy Jealousy Sucker Punch face scrub: 3.5 / 5

tl;dr: good heavy duty scrub, leaves you ready to shave, has nuts in it, good for once a week.

 

J. R. Watkins Divine Day Cream

Canadian winters – amirite?!?!  Winter in general is just bad for the skin.  If you’re a dandy like I am, you probably like to moisturize. If you have been outside in the winter for more than five minutes, total, you probably want to moisturize, as this weather is just awful for the skin. I’ve searched high and low for a good face moisturizer – finding one that is vegan and doesn’t suck is much harder than you’d believe.

So, first, a word of disclaimer as I start this review – it appears as if this cream no longer exists. As in, I can’t find any reference to it on their website.  So, who knows if this review is just going to vanish into the AEther.

The Divine Day Cream is a pretty good face and neck moisturizer.  It claims to be a “lightweight” moisturizer, and I would tend to agree. It’s not as thick and creamy as some moisturizer creams, but certainly isn’t all thin and watery.  It spreads evenly over the face, and is absorbed with very minimal effort.  As far as moisturizing goes, yep, it does that.  My skin is very dry to begin with, and extra dry during the winter.  The cream immediately soothes my skin, and it’ll last a whole 24 hours – I never feel the need to re-apply during the day.  More importantly, I never have dry flakes of skin on my face during the day.  It does the job there.

The cream contains “Burdock Root Extract,” and I have no idea what that is.  It also has rosemary and spearmint leaves in it, but it doesn’t at all smell like rosemary or spearmint.  Regular readers of this blog (ha. As if I update regularly, right?) will note that I rail against scents in products.  I don’t like a lot of scent.  So, let’s discuss that.  This cream smells like….. something.  I just don’t know what.  There’s this light smell to it.  Honestly, it reminds me, rather vaguely of elementary school paste.  Like, the arts and crafts stuff you used in grade three to affix macaroni to construction paper.  Now, I’m not saying it feels like paste, or that things glue to your face, but it has a paste-like scent to it.  Now, to be fair, this scent is really light, and dissipates quickly.

J. R. Watkins products, I’ve found, are reasonably priced products.  I wish I knew what this cost, but it’s not on the site anymore, so I don’t know. They’re good value for what you get.  Are they top-of-the-line hoity-toity toiletries products? No.  But they are more than serviceable and they are affordable.  If this cream still existed, it would probably make semi regular appearances in my daily routine.

J. R. Watkins Divine Day Cream

 

J. R. Watkins Divine Day Cream: 4 / 5

tl;dr: very good moisturizing lotion that keeps your skin hydrated through the day, easy to apply, but with somewhat of a funky scent to it.  Also it is unclear as if this product is still on the market.

Until next time, be kind to animals.

(Two weekends in a row? Amazing!)

Geo. F. Trumper Violet Shave Cream

Let’s get back to basics and talk about some good old fashioned shave cream.  When I first started traditional wet shaving, I was using (and still am using) rose scented cream – it’s really good for sensitive skin.  So, when I needed to re-up my shave creams, I thought I’d branch out – violets are flowers, right? They must have similar properties to roses.  Anyway, I got myself a tube of the GFT violet cream.

It’s a real pleasure to lather up.  It smells nicely of violets as you do so, and it is not at all overwhelming when you lather up.  It’s a pleasant way to start your day.  It lathers up quickly and nicely – although not as quickly and nicely as other brands I’ve used – but still, not a lot of work to get a good lather going.

Talking about the lather….. ennnh.  It’s not great.  You don’t get the wonderful peaks and thick consistency that I’ve gotten with other brands – specifically Taylor of Old Bond Street, in this case.  It does provide a nice effortless cover to my face once I apply it, and it’s a good cushion – I have yet to cut myself with this cream, and nicks are at an absolute minimum.  So, it gets the job done.  Again, though, the cover isn’t as great as other brands.

What I’m saying is that I like it, and I’ll finish the tube I have (which, considering I shave only my neck and cheekbones, will last me a looooong time), but I don’t see myself restocking this afterwards.  That said, it is one of the only violet scented creams I’ve seen on the market, so if you’re absolutely bonkers for violets, this won’t do you wrong.

Geo. F. Trumper Violet shave cream

 

Geo. F. Trumper Violet Shave Cream: 3.5 / 5

tl;dr: smells nice, makes an okay lather, but there are better creams on the market. If you love the smell of violets, get this one.

Until next time, be kind to animals.

Geo. F. Trumer Moisturising Lotion

Oh, hello.

It turns out blogging regularly is really hard, and takes a lot of effort to keep up. Which leads to one thinking “meh, I’ll put it off until next Saturday” And suddenly that means you take a three month break from something you thought you’d do regularly.  I’m going to try to do this more regularly, as I really enjoy doing it, and I do want to talk about vegan dandy things.

Which brings us to the review!

I’d been looking for a good body lotion since I discovered that The Body Shop isn’t vegan.  I stumbled up on the Geo. F. Trumper Lotion, and got a bottle.  First impressions: the lotion is fragrance free, and they actually mean that.  There’s almost no scent to it at all.  I mean, there’s a little of ‘this is a substance that isn’t water’ but it is really fragrance free.  This alone may make it worthwhile for some folks – if you’re hyper sensitive to smells, this may be the lotion for you, or if you like to wear a cologne, you can rest assured that this scent won’t mess with you.

It is a really thin lotion – it is more on the liquidy watery side of lotions, not really like a gel at all.  It applies smoothly and evenly on the skin, and is absorbed pretty quickly.  When I saw how thin it was, I was concerned it might not be a good lotion, but it was.  A few fair sized gloops on the skin kept my skin soft and itch free all day long, which is a good thing.

You get fairly good mileage for your use.  The 200 ml bottle lasted me two months of daily use.  But, here’s the kicker – the 200 ml bottle retails at $44, which is fairly pricey, even if you’re getting two months out of it.  At that price…. I don’t know.  It’s a very good moisturiser, but I’ve got to think there are some ones out there that may be cheaper.  But hey! totally scentless.  That’s a real thing.

Geo. F. Trumper Moisturising Lotion

 

Geo. F. Trumer Moisturising Lotion: 4.5 / 5.

tl;dr: great totally fragrance free lotion. Keeps skin feeling great. Bottle goes a long way but is expensive.

Until next time, be kind to animals.