I’ve written extensively about Baxter shaving products here,  here, and here. Late last week, I was looking through the drawer that houses my discards and noticed that a couple of the Baxter bottles were leaking in the prone position. So I decided to resuscitate them and just finish them off rather than put them back in the drawer. Funny how a year past still hasn’t made me feel any better about this line. Trapped somewhere between retro and metro, it’s a system that I can’t quite figure out who it’s positioned for. The bottles are all identical and if I don’t have my glasses on in the shower could just as easily be shaving with the shampoo and washing my body with the shaving cream.  The teeny-weeny writing that distinguishes one product from the rest is frankly bizarre unless you are targeting exclusively young guys with perfect vision. Each product has a different scent and frankly, they are all disgusting. The shampoo is mint-chocolate chip, the body wash is peaches and cream…you get the idea. But there was one bright spot in the whole mess…the shaving cream. It is unscented and quite thick, which gives a pretty protective shield even against a 4 day-old Bolzano blade. Unfortunately, it also has a built in anesthetic, which is quite common in modern brushless creams, but that I don’t particularly care for. I’ve used the Baxter line all week now and the best I can say is that I don’t hate it as much as I used to. On the other hand, it has been around a long time and seems to have quite a devoted following, so, as in everything shaving-related, YMMV.

The Bolzano, BTW, is a really great blade and has assumed a top position in my sacred bag of great blades.