Original Shave Cream

Cremo sits in that useful category of product that nobody talks about at a dinner party but that quietly does its job better than the aspirational stuff on your shelf. This is for anyone who has ever razored their face into something resembling a relief map of the Scottish Highlands and wondered whether their shave prep was partly to blame. Spoiler: it probably was. Cremo Original is specifically the answer if you're wet shaving — cartridge or safety razor — and currently using canned foam, which is essentially whipped air with a soap chaser.

What it actually does is reduce drag. That's the whole job. The formula — built around saponified oils, slip agents, and a light emollient base — creates a dense, slick layer between blade and skin that lets the razor glide rather than scrape. There's no lather to speak of; Cremo is a lather-free cream, which throws off first-time users who've been conditioned to equate foam volume with efficacy. The foam is cope. The slip is real. Applied to damp skin, a chickpea-sized amount is genuinely sufficient for a full face and neck, which is either impressive product engineering or aggressive packaging psychology — in this case it's actually the former.

Performance-wise, Cremo compares favourably to shave creams at two to three times the price. Against Proraso White (another widely respected mid-tier option at around £10-12 for 150ml), Cremo holds its own on slip, though Proraso edges it on skin feel post-shave due to its aloe and green tea base. Against Taylor of Old Bond Street or Geo. F. Trumper — both in the £15-25 range for 150ml tubs — Cremo loses on ritual and fragrance complexity, gains on convenience and concentration value. If you're after the lathering ceremony with a badger brush and a mahogany bowl, Cremo is not your product. If you want a close shave with minimal faff, it absolutely is. Irritation reduction is noticeable for most users relative to canned foam, particularly for sensitive skin types — not because of any active ingredient doing heavy lifting, but simply because better lubrication means fewer micro-abrasions per pass.

At roughly $8-10 for 6oz in the US (or £7-9 in the UK), and with the concentration meaning a tube realistically lasts 3-4 months of daily shaving, the per-use cost is somewhere around 5-7 cents. That's difficult to argue with. The 'Original' scent is mild and inoffensive — faintly clean, fades immediately — which is either a pro or a con depending on whether you want your shave prep to smell of anything. Cremo also does a range of scented variants (Coconut Mango, Sage, Aspen) which are better as morale-boosters than functional upgrades.

Jamie's verdict: Cremo Original is the product equivalent of a reliable midfielder — never going to win the Ballon d'Or, always going to complete their passes. If you're still using Gillette Fusion canned foam because it's what was in the supermarket, switching to this is a genuinely meaningful upgrade for less money over time. If you're already using a quality shave soap or traditional cream with a brush, this doesn't move the needle enough to justify switching. For everyone else — the cartridge shaver who wants better results without the artisanal rabbit hole — this is the sensible answer. Not looksmaxxing gold, but absolutely not cope.