I bought a tube of this ages ago when it was on special offer in Boots about eighteen months ago but didn't realise it had a non-lathering formula so when I tried it with my brush it was hopeless. I put it at the back of the cupboard, reached for my trusty Palmolive stick, and forgot about it.
I came across it again a couple of days ago and waste not, want not - decided to give it another chance, as the promise of Vitamin E goodness and 'marine extracts' was so enticing. This time I gave my silvertip brush the day off and just applied the cream by hand as it was intended to be used. I slotted a Supermax Super Stainless blade into my Edwin Jagger razor, which is my usual combination, and I'm happy to report that the shave actually wasn't bad. Here are the good points first.
The cream is easy and quick to apply by hand and moisturises the skin quite nicely, giving a reasonably protective and close shave. I had to reapply the cream for each pass, but after the third pass my skin was still sufficiently moisturised that I did not need to use any more cream for the final touching up bits.
Cleaning the sink after shaving was a doddle too - no detritus around the basin once I pulled the plug, unlike the stubble I've seen clinging to the sides when I've used one of my other soaps. This really is slick stuff.
However, I really did miss the brush! Using my fingers to apply this cream was pretty messy, and I had to wash and dry my hand each time to make sure I could grip the razor properly, which is a bit of a faff. Another thing I noticed was that it's quite difficult to judge how much cream to use, and with the tube being quite big at 200ml it's easy to squeeze out too much at once. This, I suuppose, will improve with practice.
With this being a latherless cream it goes on quite thin and as a result there is not a lot of cushion, so the razor initially felt a bit tuggy on the first pass. But overall the shave was comfortable as the cream is so slick and smooth. Also the razor didn't clog up, certainly no more that I've found with my regular soap.
I agree with Richard that this product does it's job, although it's pretty functional rather than a pleasure to use. There's no real scent to speak of. I'll probably keep it for days when I'm in a bit of a hurry and don't want to spend time building a proper lather with a brush, but I'm glad I gave it another chance.