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I'm not big into cologne-scented shaving creams. The ones I've tried tended to irritate and burn my skin when I shaved with them -- I have much better luck with floral scented creams like Trumper's Violet, Taylor's Rose, Avocado, and Lavender, and Proraso's Eucalyptus.

But I love the smell of some of these cologne-based shaving creams, especially Taylor's. And even though I've got more than enough creams in my rotation to keep things perpetually interesting, I've been itching to find a cologne-based shaving cream that shaves great and doesn't burn my skin.

I had the idea awhile back to mix up some Trumper's Spanish Leather cologne in some unscented shaving cream, to see if that would work well. It's my favorite of Trumper's many excellent colognes, but for some reason, they only use it to scent one other product -- a bath soap, not even a shaving soap. Between Trumper, Taylor and Truefitt & Hill, there are enough cologne-based English shaving creams to choke a goat, but no Spanish Leather, which is the best cologne to my sniffer that any of these companies makes.

So I bought a tub of Taylor's unscented shaving cream and went to town. I microwaved the tub of Taylor's for about 20 seconds just to loosen it up a bit, and then I poured eight tablespoons of Spanish Leather cologne on top of the cream and mixed the hell out of it with the handle end of the tablespoon. Screwed the top back on and stuck the whole thing in the fridge for an hour, for what reason I don't know but it seemed like a good idea at the time. Hey, works for Jello, right?

I shaved with this concoction for the first time on Friday and got a fantastic shave. Smelled amazing, too, though maybe 8 tbsps. was a bit much -- you almost don't have to wear cologne after you shave with this cream. But lucky for me it didn't irritate my skin at all, and the shave was just as great as with Taylor's regular creams.

But I've learned that when it comes to creams and soaps, it takes several shaves in a row to tell whether something new is going to burn. So I shaved with the Spanish Leather shaving cream on Saturday, and then again on Sunday, and both times I got great shaves, with an Injector on Saturday and a Gillette Super Speed on Sunday. I have no idea why this stuff doesn't irritate my skin when so many other cologne-based shaving creams do, but maybe I just lucked out with a cologne that doesn't happen to react badly with my skin.

Next time I want to try making some shaving cream scented with Creed's Green Irish Tweed, another one of my favorites. Beloved wife once bought me some Creed GIT shaving soap that smelled wonderful but didn't shave all that well, so I wonder if mixing some of their cologne in with the unscented Taylor's cream will work as well as Trumper's Spanish Leather did.

I picked a hell of a time to mix up some custom shaving cream -- I just got some interesting creams and soaps in for review, and I want to get to them as soon as possible. But this Spanish Leather shaving cream is working out better than I'd even hoped for, and I'm enjoying the hell out of it. If Trumper made this stuff for real I'd buy it on a regular basis.