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The thing with wetshaving is you slowly acquire all these different shaving creams, because each new one you try seems to lather and smell better than the last. That first leap from canned gel that smells like a urinal cake to a traditional English scented shaving cream in a tub that smells a thousand times better than any cologne you ever thought made you smell suave and de-boner is a mind-blower. Forget the shave -- you never smelled anything this good, this close to your face, in your entire life. It opens up a whole new world of pampering yourself in the morning, and goes a long way toward turning what used to be the worst part of the grooming routine into your favorite.

At this point, I've smelled all of the flavors from the "big three" of English shaving creams -- Trumper, Taylor, and Truefitt & Hill. The Truefitts are all scented with their own proprietary men's colognes, while the Trumpers hew more to the traditional lineup of shaving scents -- you got your sandalwood, your lime, your almond, and a few unique scents like coconut and violet.

Taylor of Old Bond Street goes both ways. Half of its shaving creams are cologne scented, using the firm's legendary in-house scents: Mr. Taylor's, Eton College, Shaving Shop, St. James, and their wicked-good Sandalwood cologne. Taylor's other creams are traditional florals -- lavender, rose, lemon/lime (more of a fruit, really), avocado (again with the fruit), and almond (okay, so that makes two floral, two fruits, and a nut).

Beyond issues of scent, all of these creams react markedly differently depending on your unique skin type. For instance, while I love the way Trumper's lime shaving cream smells, it dries my skin out something fierce, and doesn't lube the shave as well as the others. And I have oily skin, which is what the lime cream is meant for.

On the other hand, the two creams my skin loves best are both florals -- Trumper's violet and Taylor's rose. To my nose, the violet is the best smelling shaving cream I've ever sniffed. It's addictive. The rose, though, gives me a marginally better shave. I say marginally because both Trumper's violet and Taylor's rose are as good as shaving cream gets, and I always get a great shave with either one of them. But the rose always seems to protect and soothe my face just a weensy bit more, besides the fact that it smells so good you never want to rinse it off.

I've been shaving with Proraso for quite a few days in a row now but this morning I felt like a change. Not because I wanted a better shave -- you can't get a better shave than you do with Proraso -- but because I just wanted a new smell. So rose it was.

This pink cream lathers white once you beat it around with your brush, but the rose scent intensifies as you lather your face and neck, to the point where you find yourself lathering for far longer than you usually do because you're having such a good time smelling this stuff. It's a calming, relaxing scent, and it has uncannily the same effect on your face. If I get irritation from a new razor, blade, whatever, it's Taylor's rose I always turn to to make it all better on the next shave.

This is the kinder, gentler shaving cream every guy should have in his arsenal. Even if you don't want to use it all the time, it's great for coddling your face if you happen to beat it up with some harsh piece of crap like, oh, say, the Mach3 Power. A few shaves with your trusty DE razor and Taylor's rose cream will make it allllll better.