Geo F. Trumper Limes

the price may be misleading as it lasts a REALLY long time. good combination of value / quality / performance.

When I first bought this soap I was disappointed. I couldn't work it into a great lather. I use a bowl and each time I produced this liquidly foamy suds on my face. I had resolved to just using creams and I shoved it into my drawer. Then one night I came across a You Tube video about applying certain hard soaps. In a nutshell, using an extra wet brush, you whisk the brush around the soap while the soap is upside down, over your shaving bowl. From this motion the excess suds drips into the bowl. Then stop swirling and squeeze your brush suds into the bowl. Then reload your brush with a couple swirls and now you are ready to make your lather. You will not believe the incredible lather this makes. Even with my first lame attempts, the "lather" was still slick and protected my skin well. But when I used the above method and produced this incredible lather, OMG, there were times I couldn't feel the razor. It just slid across my face effortlessly. I had to check it to see if the razor was actually working because it was so smooth! Needless to say, that first epiphany was the best shave I had ever had! And so much better than my shaves with cream. 7/9/13 Addendum: Since writing this review I have taken to using the above technique and adding in some TOBS Jermyn cream to the mix for an "uber lather." This is such a great comination! It gives one the benefits of both cream and soap. The slickness of the soap, and the lather ability, cushioning, scent, and moisturizing properties of the cream. And the scents absolutely work great together to produce an amazing scent and shaving experience. Taylor of Old Bond Street Jermyn Street Luxury Shaving Cream for Sensitive Skin, 5.3-Ounce

I purchased this product in anticipation of summer and warmer weather, and I'm glad I did. This cream comes in a 200 g (~7 oz) screw-top tub. Upon opening the tub, there is a protective, clear-plastic cover underneath the lid. I assume this is used to better seal and protect the product from leaks. Mine arrived in good condition, with no leaks. When I opened the tub for the first time, I was greeted with a very light, clean soap smell, with a faint lime undertone. For me this is perfect, but if you like a strongly scented shaving cream, you may want to look elsewhere. Also, I should add that this shaving cream doesn't have the same true, freshly-cut lime smell that the rest of the Trumper West Indian Lime products do. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, as I find the scent of the shaving cream complements the other Trumper West Indian Lime products very well. The shaving cream itself is light green and slightly shiny. I find it very easy to create a voluminous, dense, luxurious lather with this cream using my Simpsons Commodore X3 best badger shaving brush. The lather itself is slick, very cushioning, and doesn't dry out on my face. My skin feels good post-shave, not overly moisturized or dry. To clarify, my skin is fairly oily and some shaving creams I've used seem to provide too much moisture, leaving my skin feeling oilier than I'd like right after a shave. In my opinion, this is a perfect warmer weather shaving cream that could certainly be used all year. I highly recommend this shaving cream to anyone wanting a lightly-scented, high-quality shave cream.

I took my time before writing this review, testing different methods to make this soap work, but it just doesn’t. The only positive is its pleasant lime scent; everything else is disappointing. No matter how long you swirl or what technique you use, it fails to produce a good lather. You get a thin, poor-quality lather that vanishes within a minute of application or, sometimes, a bubbly mess, even when using minimal water or just a damp brush. I tried soaking the soap for 2, 5, and even 60 minutes, but the results were always the same: a terrible lather. Additionally, this soap is very irritating to the skin. For the price, there are far better soaps and creams available. Don’t waste your money on this. I own Captain Fawcett’s soaps that are amazing, with fantastic scents and abundant creamy lather. I also use creams from TOBS, Truefitt & Hill, Proraso, Nivea, and others that are outstanding in comparison. The only way to make this soap somewhat usable is by mixing it with a bit of Nivea shaving cream (which is nearly scentless), but there’s no point in bothering. I researched what might have gone wrong, as Geo F. Trumper is a well-known brand. The general consensus is that their creams are good, but their soaps, like this one, are crap. I might try their Eucris cream in the future (I read it has a really nice scent), but for now, my experience with Geo F. Trumper has been very disappointing.

First off, this soap smells great. No shave soap ever even was noticed for fragrance by my spouse before this one. It's milled to be hard as a rock, and takes some doing to get a good long lasting lather. I can get a good lather in the bowl, but find that it doesn't last on my face as long so end up reapplying the lather during the shave. It is very slick, even if the foam dissipates somewhat, so I can get a good shave out of it no matter what. I put water in the bowl while I shower, and use a scuttle to develop the lather. This is a very long lasting soap, but presents some challenges. I like it.

I've been using Geo. Trumpers shaving creams and shaving soaps for about 20 years, and when I travel, I take a smaller tube of it with me. Other folks can keep their brand name pressure cans of foaming gels, etc., containing a bunch of unpronounceable chemicals. I don't want that stuff on my face. Trumpers is a high-end barber shop and perfumer that has been in business in London since the late 1800s and continues to do it right. This stuff sets up an amazing lather that really softens and protects and the natural lime oils also give it an amazing, refreshing scent, not some phony, artificial one. While it's not inexpensive, you need to use very little on your shaving brush-a dab the size of a pea is enough- so a tub lasts me 3 to 4 months. At that rate, it's cost is not that much more than all the gel cans you'd need buy for 4 months of shaves. Aren't you worth it?

Over years of wet shaving I have tried many different shaving creams made in the USA and the UK and this is the one I keep coming back to. At $15 it's the best bang for the buck I've found. For reference I do like something like Castle Forbes as well which is nice too but also three times the price. I shave around every other day for two passes and a tub of this will last me at least three months, you don't need much and it whips up into a good lather easily.

I am new to shaving with a straight razor (and using shaving soaps) so this should be taken in the light of someone who has no extensive comparisons to make. The immediate things to love: The bowl itself. it is attractive, non-obtrusive, and designed so it makes a great place to stack one of your kit items (mug, brush etc) on top of it to save space. I also like the fact you buy refills for it of whatever scent you wish instead of constantly throwing away some disposable container. The only downside is the non-removable sticker on top. The soap itself smells good without being overpowering, and lathers up pretty well with a decent brush. As a newbie I cannot say if it is better/worse than this brand or that but I think for the money it performs exactly as it ought to and smells wonderful doing so. I wanted a good name soap that was attractive to have on my sink with the rest of my kit, be reasonably priced, and do its job properly without creating a lot of disposable waste. I think that this soap fills the bill, and for the foreseeable future will be my brand. Unless you're very poor I would recommend this product over any cheaper (and definitely over more expensive) competitors.