So, I’ve finally gotten around to trying a sample of Castle Forbes, provided to me in a trade by a kind fellow redditor.

First-off, the cream itself is quite thick, honestly only a bit less thick than a few of the softer “croaps” on the market, such as RazoRock Cacao. It didn’t need all that much in the way of water to work it up, and did so with great vigour, producing a veritable mount of lather. What it did produce gave a really good glide, with a fairly decent level of thickness. After a bit of fiddling around with it, it seems to have a reasonably wide “sweet spot”, although it will start thinning out a fair bit as you add water past that.

The scent was a very nice heady lime scent. Which shouldn’t be all that surprising. It started off very strong, but did experience a fair bit of fading during the shave.

9/10 Scent Pleasantness

8/10 Scent Strength

8/10 Quality of Lather

Overall, I’d say it’s a 8/10. It was good, I’d dare-say the best lime cream I’ve tried yet, although it doesn’t beat Mike’s Natural Lime if we’re including soaps in the equation.

Cost: A 200 mL tub will set you back $38. Some places also carry a 50 mL travel-sized container, that goes for $16, although the couple places I checked seem to be out of stock. Joe over at Italian Barber had mentioned when asked on his facebook page that the production of Castle Forbes often seems inconsistent, which seems to often lead to shortages by retailers.

Gear used:

INGREDIENTS: Water, Stearic Acid, Aloe Vera, Myristic Acid, Potassium Hydroxide, Glycerin, Coconut Acid, Dipropylene Glycol, Lime Essential Oil, Citric Acid, Triethanolamine, Phenoxyethanol, Sodium Hydroxide, Methylisothliazolinone, Potassium Sorbate, Limonene, Citral, Geraniol, Linalool