In my last men’s grooming review, I noted that I love my Clarisonic for shaving and noted how I travel with it everywhere, even though it is not really travel size (and I leave the charger at home, because it’s heavy and I could kill somebody with its heft.)

There’s something about the traditional shaving brush and cream that takes you back to childhood. It’s learning how to shave when you’re five years old with your Dad, who had his brush and used some generic shaving cream. It worked and worked well. And that’s how I learned: with my fake little kit of a plastic razor blade, using my dad’s brush and shaving cream.

And, it gets a better shave. Using a brush – or, well, now a Clarisonic – gets the hair to stand up, be softer, and avoids ingrown hairs. It’s just a better system. Plus, I hate shaving and have a terrible beard, so what’s a better way to test this all out than getting samples and finding the best solution for me?

To make this a fair test, I used each shaving cream for a day, under similar test environments: new blade, hot water, charged Clarisonic, local water source (hey, that matters for hard versus soft water). The below list is in order of preference, with one recommendation for those that don’t use a brush or Clarisonic – although, in reality, the top five are almost interchangeable. 

Jack Black: The king of the hill. I really love the Jack Black products, and this was just the best of the shaving creams that I tested. It lathered up really well, gave me a VERY close shave and kept my skin nice and tight afterwards. It fit all the criteria I had: smells good, but doesn’t bother my allergies; lathers up for full coverage, close shave and only have to use a small amount to get a great shave.

Anthony: Anthony has a reputation for being a great skin care and shaving line, and it didn’t disappoint. Good lathering up, good smelling, and gave me the close shave. Jack Black just beats it out by being smoother for my skin.

Surya Brasil Sapien: Total dark horse candidate, which I was not expecting great things from. It is not a typical cream, but has the consistency of shampoo and soap (even sorta clear like them). But, man, when I put it on my face and then used the Clarisonic, it lathered up really nicely, and gave me one of the closest shaves. The only ding is that it smells a little mediciny, but who cares as my skin looked great after the shave. This and Jack Black are my two at-home shaving products now.

The Body Shop: Like the others, it was a great shave. Did a great job lathering up, gave me a close shave … but the new scent made me sneeze. It has all the typical attributes of the Body Shop (all natural), and does a great job. It’s just those allergies, and the fear of cutting off my lip while shaving.

The Art of Shaving: The total line of shaving products, specifically made for shaving brushes. It did the good job on lathering, shaving, etc – but it just didn’t work me. I guess it was that if it’s a line that JUST does shaving, I wanted it to knock me off my feet. It gets the job done, it does a good job.

Zirh: This really disappointed me. I have used their shave gel in the past – pre Clarisonic – and can highly recommend the gel. The shaving cream was fair, and did not do a good enough job for my taste of lathering up. The cream did have a nice kick which tingled and relaxed the skin, and gave a pretty good shave, but it was up against some tough competition, and fell toward the bottom of the list due to lather issues.

Billy Jealousy: The worst of the bunch. Seriously. The marketing seems to be targeted to Ed Hardy wearing hipsters … which I’m not (I’m more the Don Draper, I’ll sleep with your wife type). As for the product and how it worked: it didn’t foam up. Literally, did not lather up and cover my face, where I just said forget it, washed it off my face and got some of my Jack Black.

If you don’t have a brush, and like just to put on the shaving cream, my stand-by is Malin & Goetz. It is my travel shaving cream when I can’t take my Clarisonic, and does a great job for the close shave that I (and my special lady friend) like.

Almost all of these are available at Sephora, and if you are nice to the sales people, they will happily make you samples of each one to test out. Except for the Surya Brasil – who sent me a sample – that is how I got all the samples to test out. Have you tried any of these shaving creams? Let me know what your experience has been.