Onwards to Bulgaria for the next shaving cream review! Ikar Tornado, produced by Lavena, which is apparently one of the country’s leading cosmetics manufacturers. Kinda weird I got to this one today, as the girlfriend picked Getaway for tonight’s movie, which is set in Bulgaria. But hey, I guess that’s the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon at work.

To start with, the scent is not really all that pleasant. It’s mostly a citrus scent, but that harsh chemically fake lemon scent that’s far too ubiquitous. It’s also got some tinge of what I’d say is a herbal scent. All in all, it’s not something I enjoyed.

Fortunately, it’s a fairly weak not-all-that-pleasant scent.

The lather turned out to be pretty good. It lathered up easily, with just a small dash of water needed to produce a nice thick cream with good lubrication. However, rather that being useful for skin moisturization, I found this caused more of a drying effect.

Also, while looking for what might have prompted this drying effect, one of the ingredients was unfamiliar to me, so I looked up this “Cocamide DEA“, which turns out to have been identified as a possible carcinogen in humans, which led to it being banned for sale in California. So… yeah, take from that what you will.

5/10 Scent Pleasantness

6/10 Scent Strength

7/10 Lather Quality

Overall, I can’t really justify giving this any more than a 5/10. The smell alone would drive me away from using it, even without the whole “not sure if it’s safe to put on my face” thing.

Cost: But, at least it is dirt cheap. I got it for $3.90 for a 125 mL tube.

Gear used:

Ingredients: Aqua, Myristic Acid, Stearic Acid, Glycerin, Potassium Hydroxide, Boric Acid, Cocamide DEA, Sodium Borate, Parfum, Limonene.