Art of Shaving Ingrown Hair Night Cream

Seemed to work OK but got to the point where it felt like there was something left in the pump but nothing was coming out. I cut the bottom off with a junior hacksaw. There was a puck about half an inch thick that was too solid to be pumped out. I have put this into an old shaving cream jar. It will be used up but I won't be buying this product again.

I received this from a deal from another member and was quite excited to give this a try as I had some very stubborn ingrowns that would not heal/go away completely no matter what shaving technique I used. It is priced on the Art of Shaving website for $40.00; I would submit that this is too much for this product by at least half.

I'm not sure how to review this given the usual parameters seem to be set up for shaving cream/soap, but I'll just give a short summary which I hope will hit the high points.

This ingrown hair treatment seems to veer towards the more 'gentle' approach and in doing so, obviously takes more time to achieve results. While most products in this genre tend to promise, and at least partly deliver, results in the first few days, this product took at least two weeks of constant use to show any signs that it was really doing anything. In the past I've tried various Bump Stopper and Bump Patrol products that did help a little immediately, but at the cost of irritated skin and a painful feeling. This product does neither. In fact, it is most akin to applying a HEAVY HEAVY lotion on your face. The picture I took is one pump of the product in the palm of my hand. I had used that initially but later decided to use half a pump for half the product (which still may have been too much). It has a very strong scent that I liken most to the smell of some of the vanilla scents you would find in your local Bath and Body Works. It is almost overpowering, but I must concede that it is not the horrid smell of rubbing alcohol or other unpleasant smells that most other ingrown hair treatments reek of.

Even rubbing in half a pump to my entire shaven facial area, this stuff would never really 'absorb'. It seems like it just say on there which I likened to it's very heavy feel. In fact, the following morning it had absorbed some but nowhere near entirely. It seems that this products philosophy is to soften your skin to where the ingrowns can break free. I'm unsure how effective that is considering that most good night moisturizers are designed to do primarily the same. It's major competitor (Anthonys Ingrown Hair Treatment $25.00) comes in a gel form which fully absorbs and works to exfoliate the skin. This is quite different. It seems to be part of a 'do no further harm' approach that I'm not sure is entirely effective.

Overall, I'd give this product a 'so-so' grade. It will NOT damage your skin like many of the other ingrown hair treatments will (irritation, inflammation, etc), but I'm not convinced that it does a great deal of addressing the original problem (ingrown hairs) in a reasonable period of time. Theoretically, any ingrown hair should 'go away' after a long period of time if you aren't creating more. For $40.00 retail, this is about double what this should cost. I'd say it's a pretty decent product if it were in the $20.00 range where it could directly go head to head with Anthonys version and allow the consumer to pick which route they wish to go.