Diskussionsnachricht 000000
27.05.2005, 12:41 Uhr
dailysoap
registriertes Mitglied
|
Face Time
Morning becomes nonelectric with the world's best shaving creams.
Bruce Schoenfeld, Sept. 1998
(…)
“My ideal shaving cream had to pass a variety of tests. The Earth Science for Men Moisturizing Cream gave a clean and close shave but smelled like a hospital waiting room, so I rejected it. Geo. Trumper's Coconut Oil cream from Curzon Street, London, had a wonderfully glossy consistency and the fragrance of coconut cream pie but clogged up my razor, no matter how little I used. I loved everything about Crabtree & Evelyn's Sandalwood Shaving Cream--especially the prancing elephant on the box and the claim that "gentlemen from the time of Charles Dickens have used lather shave cream made to this formula"--except for the red blotches that soon started to develop on my face. And so I moved on.
After three months, four products had separated themselves out from the pack as my favorites. These were Kiehl's "Close Shavers" Squadron Ultimate Brushless Shave Cream; L'Occitane Pour Homme Crème à Raser from Manosque-en-Provence, France; Caswell-massey's 1752 Almond Lather Shave Cream; and Claus & Schweder's Musgo Real of Portugal. (The Clinique Cream Shave stayed alive until the end, but didn't make the final cut.)
I then devised a competition of best-four-of-seven semifinals, along the order of the NBA play-offs. On one side of the bracket, Caswell-massey's luxurious lather defeated L'Occitane, despite the style points L'Occitane earned for its squat tube of gleaming silver that I could easily imagine Alain Delon pulling from his bag.
In the other semifinal, played out mostly during a vacation in Spain, the finesse of Kiehl's cold-cream consistency was no match for Musgo Real's powerful softening agents. This set up an intriguing final.
I had Musgo Real's sleek tube of green-gray ointment facing a tub of white Caswell-massey cream with the look and consistency of dessert topping: the little-known Portuguese underdog against one of the storied names in American grooming history. (George Washington wore Caswell-massey No. 6 cologne, for example.)
It was, I must say, an epic struggle. Some mornings the almond-scented richness of the Caswell-massey would beckon...but soon I'd recall the menthol tang and caress of the lanolin protectants (obtained from shorn wool without cruelty to the sheep, I came to learn), and I'd revert to the Musgo.
Several weeks of tenacious shaving passed without my being able to make a decision, until finally, with a deadline for this story looming, I gave up and named them cochampions.
I find myself using the Musgo Real on most days, but relying on the Caswell-massey before a special occasion or when I've gone several days between shaves. They are specialists, my shaving creams, and they work together to serve me well”.
(...)
©2002 Bloomberg L.P. All rights reserved. |
