DOOD.CA: Guy Stuff

Crabtree & Evelyn West Indian Limes After Shave Balm
Product: Aftershave Balm
Size: 100ml
Origin: Made in UK
Price: $32.00

I’m always walking past the Crabtree & Evelyn store in the mall and eyeing the Mens section, and occasionally I walk in there and give everything a sniff. I usually try and avoid going in unless I have some time to kill because the salespeople in there drive me a bit nuts. They make good stuff and the prices are pretty decent, except on the shaving brushes and hardware that seem to be made by other companies but cost more than them.

The West Indian Limes is my favourite mens scent that Crabtree & Evelyn makes, except that it has a notorious reputation for having a weak scent with the shaving products, and the cologne has a reputation for not lasting. Its really too bad because the scent is so amazing! The aftershave balm smells fantastic, and has an earthy, citrus-y smell that’s quite nice and masculine. It smells a lot like the other companion West Indian Limes products, and matches them well. It comes in a nice, solid box with embossed lettering and logos, and an amber glass bottle with a mini-pump like many other aftershave balms out there, generally very nice packaging.

The balm itself is a thicker than most balms I’ve used, but spreads on well. 1-2 pumps is usually good for me. The balm contains a lot of silicone lubricants in it that give my face a nice smooth feeling afterwards, but silicones are known to plug up pores and could cause breakouts for some skin types. The product is free of parabens which is nice. Generally though, I find that my skin does feel smoother with this after shave balm than most others, and I personally think its because of the silicones in it, since other C&E products with similar ingredients seem to work equally well. I don’t use this in the summer however because my skin likes after shave splashes better when its hot out.

Overall this is a really great product at a very good price. Most luxury after shave balms are priced quite close to this and aren’t quite as concentrated as the C&E product is, so the value is definately there. The scent is fantastic with what Crabtree and Evelyn calls “zesty lemon, orange flower and vetiver” among other complex blends of fragrance. While I do wish that this ASB had a longer lasting, and more potent scent, it is a nice calming after shave that smells just enough to make me smile and doesn’t interfere with any fragrance that I may choose to wear on that day.

Scent: 9/10

Moisturizing: 10/10

Performance: 9/10

Packaging: 9/10

Value: 7/10

Overall: 9/10

Ingredients:
Water (Aqua)(Eau). Cetearyl Alcohol. Dimethicone. Glycine Soja (Soybean) Oil. Fragrance (Parfum). Isohexadecane. Hydroxyethyl Urea. Butyrospermum Parkii (Shea) Butter. Prunus Amygdalus Dulcis (Sweet Almond) Oil. Citrus Aurantifolia (Lime) Fruit Extract. Vetiveria Zizanoides Extract. Zingiber Officinale (Ginger) Root Extract. Avena Sativa (Oat) Kernel Extract. Jojoba Esters. Glycerin. Squalane. Hydrogenated Cottonseed Oil. Ceteth-10 Phosphate. Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride. Dicetyl Phosphate. Dimethicone Crosspolymer. Hydroxyethyl Acrylate/Sodium Acryloyldimethyl Taurate Copolymer. Dimethiconol. Polysorbate 60. Hydroxyphenyl Propamidobenzoic Acid. Pentylene Glycol. Butylene Glycol. Propanediol. Sodium Hydroxide. Citric Acid. Disodium EDTA. Pentaerythrityl Tetra-di-t-butyl Hydroxyhydrocinnamate. Ascorbyl Palmitate. Tocopherol. Benzyl Salicylate. Limonene. Linalool. Hexyl Cinnamal. Alpha-Isomethyl Ionone. Eugenol. Citral. Hydroxycitronellal. Phenoxyethanol. Methylisothiazolinone. Potassium Sorbate. Sodium Benzoate.