Apart from the Maca Cream from Body Shop, the Proraso Eucalyptus and Menthol Cream was my first foray into the wonderful world of shaving creams and soaps that don’t come in a pressurized can. I received it as part of a traditional wetshaving starting kit, and it went with me on a 12 month deployment with the UN to South Sudan.

I must say that for a newbie in traditional wetshaving the Proraso Cream is a very good choice. It lathers well with little water, lots of water, hard water, soft water… and with any brush I’ve tried it with so far. Granted, you won’t always get good lather until you learn how to make it, but it’s great for giving you plenty of play for experimenting with until you learn. It is also good for shaving with – which is nice since it is in fact a shaving cream.

I used it exclusivity for the year I was in Sudan, along with a Body Shop synthetic brush. After a month or so I was able to make consistently good lather, and started to appreciate just how good the slip, glide and cushion of the Proraso Eucalyptus and Menthol Cream was compared to anything that squirt out of a can. The mentholation of this cream is not as strong as some of my other soaps – Mama Bear’s Awakeing take the top spot in that regard – but still enough to be noticeable and appreciated on a warm day… as all the days in South Sudan was. I should probably use this cream more often, but I have so many other great soaps and cream to shave with that I cannot stay with one product for any stretch of time.

If you’re in the marked for a cream in a tube, and you like menthol, you cannot go wrong with the Proraso Eucalyptus and Menthol Cream.