Happy new year folks. Here’s to hoping that 2014 treats you all well. As mentioned previously, I’ll be starting off the first bit new year with new soaps and creams. Although I’ll admit, this one isn’t exactly completely new.

It’s a new brand, but it was developed in conjunction with Al over at Al’s Shaving Products. Ralph over at Knockout Shave is using, and I quote, “Al’s cream base with different essential oils to create a different scent experience.” So at the least, we’ve got a darn fine idea of how we can expect the lather to work.

So, first up I’ve got a sample of their Citrus of Paradise. Were I to have judged this one blind, I would have said that I thought I smelled predominately a sweet lemon-y scent (or maybe lemongrass-y) with some wood as a base. Their website outlines how they crafted this one from essential oils of grapefruit, Virginian cedar wood, and ylang ylang. So, my nose wasn’t all that far off I guess. No calibration required.

Both myself and the girlfriend really liked this scent, her a bit more than I. The strength was pretty much spot on; it started off quite strong, and only experienced minor fading throughout the shave. All in all, I’d say Ralph did a great job of crafting the scent for this cream.

As for the lather, well, like I said, it uses Al’s as a base, so a lot of you should know what to expect. A very darned fine shave, great thickness and lather slickness, as long as you’re sure to use enough water (and elbow grease)! Good moisturization, good lather stability; great shave.

9/10 Scent Pleasantness

10/10 Scent Strength

9/10 Lather Quality

This is clearly a strong 9/10. I like it a lot. So much so in fact, I think it may have earned a spot on the top 10 list… it doesn’t quite beat out TOBS’s Avocado, but I think it’ll bump Tabula Rasa’s Herb off the list.

Gear used:

Ingredients: sodium and potassium salts of fatty acids (stearic, oleic, linoleum, palmitic, myristic and lauric), water, glycerin, essential oils (for fragrance).