The Bluebeards Revenge guest review by Mr London

Mrs London has asked me to review 'The Bluebeards Revenge', a new shaving cream for men. As I normally blog about videogames [can you hyperlink the previous word please ;-) ] [Ed: done, cheeky bugger ;-)] this type of review is a bit of a leap for me but hopefully you, her regular readers, will enjoy  my debut beauty review.

I've used Kiehl's Blue Eagle Shaving Cream for a number of years but have been looking for a new product to use ever since that  formulation stopped being sold in the UK in tubs. I don't really like shaving cream in tubes, as  it seems quite wasteful and it is somehow more satisfying to scoop out the necessary amount from a tub with your fingertips than squeeze it out of a tube. Or that might  just  be me. Bluebeards Revenge comes in a pot, so that was a point in its favour  even before I removed the lid.

Bluebeards Revenge's USP is that it caters for those testosterone-charged blue-chinned men who never really look wholly shaved - like Desperate Dan, or Homer Simpson, I suppose - part human, part Neanderthal, all (real) man. The product claims to contain a scientifically proven ingredient that will actually reduce beard growth after a couple of months' use, making it less dense and therefore easier to shave.    What it doesn't contain, though, is any parabens. I've absolutely no idea what a 'paraben' is - Mrs London would no doubt be shocked - but it doesn't sound like something I'd want next to my skin, so their absence is clearly a 'good thing'.

The branding seems a little confused. I can see the leap from 'blue chin' to 'bluebeard, but not the pirate imagery used on the packaging. Blackbeard was a pirate; Red Beard (Barbarossa) was a pirate. Bluebeard is a character in a fairytale who murders curious wives.  Pirates (old school ones, anyway) are responsible for the world's funniest joke*, have inspired some great (and some duff) films and countless small boys' pyjamas but Bluebeard was not amongst them.

What isn't confused, though, is the donation of 50p per tub that the manufacturers will give to the Fire Fighters Charity.

The cream itself is thick, pearlescent and rich and is easy to work into thick stubble.  The packaging suggests that, for best results,  it be applied with a shaving brush. I've never owned a shaving brush - I share a bathroom with an eminent beauty blogger, I think myself lucky to still have space for a toothbrush - so I applied it by hand. Admittedly, I've no experience of brushing to compare it with but I felt that massaging  it in by hand was perfectly satisfactory. The cream has a more 'muscular' scent than what I've become used to but I've grown rather fond of it. [Ed: I've asked him what he means by 'muscular' because I didn't have a clue - apparently it's meant to indicate an old-school, masculine type of fragrance.] The richness of the cream made for a very comfortable shave and I've had no problems with it in the three weeks or so that I've been using it. Clearly, that isn't enough time to judge the 'reduction in beard growth' claim but it has been long enough to persuade me to switch brands from Kiehl's.

Disclosure: product was provided without charge for consideration for review. The website, with stockists' details, is at www.bluebeards-revenge.co.uk (as always, not an affiliate link).

*Why are pirates called pirates?**


**Because they arrrrrrrrr!