Men's Stock North Woods Shaving Cream

Price: $6.29 is pretty cheap, as products go. However, it takes me roughly 2-3 times the product to get through a shave as compared to conventional lathering products. I would advise to factor the price per ounce at 2x when comparing to other products, since you have to dispense a smaller than usual amount of cream from the tube for each pass. A little goes a long way with this stuff, but it still takes more than an almond size dollop to get a three pass shave done.

Quality: This stuff shines, for the most part. I really am amazed at the shaves I get when I use it. I’ll go into that more in the efficacy section. Aubrey Organics uses only healthy, safe ingredients in their products. There are no artificial ingredients, nothing synthesized in a laboratory, it’s all good stuff.

Ingredients: Aqua, alcohol denat. (38b, organic lavender), cetyl alcohol (coconut fatty alcohol), hamamelis virginiana (witch hazel) extract, sodium palmate (palm soap), sodium cocoate (coconut soap), organic eucalyptus globulus leaf oil, cinnamomum camphora (camphor) bark oil, menthol, persea gratissima (organic avocado) oil, triticum vulgare (wheat) germ oil, glycerin, pinus sylvestris (pine) leaf oil, panthenol (vitamin B-5), panax ginseng extract, rosmarinus officinalis (organic rosemary) leaf oil, salvia officinalis (organic sage) leaf oil, organic aloe barbadensis leaf, citrus grandis (grapefruit) seed extract, tocopheryl acetate (vitamin E), ascorbic acid (vitamin C ), glycine soja (soybean) oil, daucus carota sativa (carrot) root extract, beta-carotene.

Scent: This is the cream’s only real shortfall. The scent is amazing when you add a little water and whip it with a brush (I did this before I realized it was brushless). I don’t know why this is, but short of that, it has a definite musk to it. Not all bad, but not all good either. The pine scent explodes when you incorporate some air, but squeezing it right out of the tube and rubbing it on, which is the only way it works as a shave cream, it doesn’t smell too hot. I pick up the pine scent, but also a funk that overlays it. Buyer beware here.

Other than that, the eucalyptus, menthol and other “mentholating” oils in the blend give it a potent cooling sensation on the skin. This is definitely a fine summer time shave cream. Very refreshing. The first time I tried it was in winter, and that was one of the reasons it’s sat in my cabinet unused for the last 6 months. It almost burns, it’s so cooling. A shocking cold water rinse and a couple of seconds and the feeling goes away, which is nice. It comes when you want it, and goes when you’re done.

The scent doesn’t linger either. Wash it off and the smell is gone. No worries about that funk in the long run, it just affects you while you’re shaving.

Latherability: Well you could either give it a 0 or a 10. It doesn’t lather, but it’s not supposed to. Very convenient for traveling, forget the brush and take a brushless cream.

Efficacy: The shave with this cream is the most protective I’ve had yet. I’m a fan of Mama Bear’s and Mike’s Natural soaps and neither can protect the way this stuff does. I have some trouble spots along my jaw line and under my chin that ALWAYS leave me with irritation, if not weepers, no matter what I do. I either settle for SAS or I get irritation. With this stuff, I get BBS in those spots and no irritation at all. I’m absolutely sold, for that reason alone.

Another nice bonus is that the cream goes on thin and clear. If you have stylized facial hair like I do, it’s excellent for edging it up. You can see every whisker, every stubble, as you shave. Takes ALL the guess work out.

And I was leary seeing a thin line of gooey stuff on the safety bar of the razor, thinking it wouldn’t clean up easily. Not so. It rinses out very easily, doesn’t leave any residue on the razor, your face, or the sink. It’s a pet peave of mine when a soap cruds up the sink and razor, so I was pleased to see that this product rinses easily.

Moisturizing Properties: This stuff is loaded with beneficial fatty alcohol and natural oils. It leaves my skin feeling slightly taught and hydrated, not oily or greasy at all. For me, I have dry skin, and I live in a dry climate, so it doesn’t preclude a post shave lotion, but it’s light years beyond a lot of other products. If you have normal skin tone, you’ll probably not need lotion afterward when using this.

Packaging: I knocked points for the tube. I hate when I get to the bottom of a wide based tube and you leave several uses worth of product behind because you can’t get it out without cutting the tube open. I would love to see this product in a tub. Other than that, it’s sturdy, it’ll withstand normal use and travel with ease. It’s recyclable, and it doesn’t come in a box or other outer packaging. It’s about as efficient as a tube can be. And it comes in a 6 oz package, which helps to compensate for the amount you need to use for your shave.

Overall: it’s a winner. I’ll be keeping this in rotation, especially for the hot summer months. If you can deal without lather, this stuff is definitely worth your time to try out, unless you’re hung up on scent, in which case, I would warn you away. I highly recommend this as a travel product. I hate leaving brushes, brush stands, etc in hotel rooms. With this stuff, you need none of that. You don’t have to negotiate the hotel’s hard water in trying to build that perfect lather; you just wet your face, smear this stuff on, and shave. It couldn’t be easier, and it shocked me to find that it actually gives me a better more protective shave than my trusted soaps.