Ratings:

Price: 10

Cushion: 10

Slickness: 9

Scent: 8

Moisturising: 8

My country hopping shave cream train continues with German made Tabac Shave Cream (my previous two stops being American made Cremo, and the Spainsh La Toja). After reading many positive experiences with the Tabac Shaving Cream I finally got around to picking up a tube for myself, and after three or four shaves I can see why Tabac has a faithful following. The scent didn’t really work for me, but the lather was fantastic.

Scent

I didn’t expect the colour of the Tabac Shave Cream to have a yellowish-green tinge to; I always expect white, I never expect yellow. I also didn’t expect the Tabac to smell the way it did. For some reason I was expecting something…I don’t know rustic – outdoors-ish. Maybe it was due to the name – Tabac – makes me think of tobacco – cigar type not cigarette, probably due to my time in Italy walking by Tabacchi shops which are often shortened to Tabac. What I did smell reminded me of the cologne section of large department stores. To me it was rather “perfumy”, not necessarily a bad thing just not what I expected or was in the mood for. In no way did it smell bad or repulsive, it just leaned more towards the cologne side.

Lather

The lather on the other hand was very impressive. Very easy to build, without too much fuss over the ‘ideal’ amount of water to use. The Tabac Shave Cream produced more of a silky, full lather, rather than a fluffy one, which resulted in a very slick surface that offered an excellent amount of cushion. The lather didn’t dry out while shaving, or in my shave bowl with the lather I initially produced providing enough lather for all my passes.

If it wasn’t for the scent I think that the Tabac Shaving Cream would have easily rocketed to the top of one of my ‘go to’ creams. I just prefer scents that are either more ‘manly’ or ones that lean towards creams like Taylor of Old Bond Street Avocado or Grapefruit . If you are on the fence, the price makes it at least worth a try, if it doesn’t work for you I would imagine you would have little trouble passing it along to a friend or trading it to another wet shaving enthusiast.