Aftershave Testing Tournament ?

[dgauvreau]

Hey guys,
I'd like to try to narrow down which aftershaves are my favorites, and which ones just seem to irritate my skin. I find that I need an approach that's a bit more systematic that throwing on a new aftershave each day, and subjectively judging it against my impression of how the others have performed. The first problem is that I think there's a fair amount of "epidermal inertia" (okay, I made that up) - so my perception of the aftershave's performance is affected by how yesterdays products performed. So, here's my plan:

1) Pair up my aftershaves so that I can test two similar (scent, consistency, etc.) against each other.

2) Apply each aftershave in equal amounts, one to each side of the face. Repeat the same test for X days (3-7???)

3) Keep a journal of how each side of my face seems to feel throughout the day.

4) Create a "bracket" system (like the NCAA tournament) where the winner from each pair can continue on against other winning aftershaves. (I might need some kind of "reset" period between tests.)

5) Settle on maybe 3-4 "best" products that will stay in my rotation. (if I can even eliminate a few products from my rotation, then I'd be happy.)

I was just wondering if anyone out there has tried something similar, and if they might have any tips - or results to share with us.

 

[vior]

what aftershaves are you thinking of testing?

 

[dgauvreau]

what aftershaves are you thinking of testing?

Most of the balms that I have - so far I'm looking at:

Burt's Bee's Natural vs. Zia For Men

QED vs. Em's

Anthony Logistics Vs. Men-U

Neutrogena Vs. Nivea

Baxter's Vs. Everyman Jack

Nancy Boy vs ???

 

[vior]

Jason 6-in-1 Beard & Skin Therapy would be a good aftershave to go against the nancy boy

 

[dgauvreau]

Jason 6-in-1 Beard & Skin Therapy would be a good aftershave to go against the nancy boy

Good one - I actually have a little left I think. I also have some Feather Kanwa that I'm not sure what to compare to.

 

[PedroNavaja]

I hope you have a budget big enough to test everything available.
Have you defined the requirements for your favorite AS?
Let us know

 

[dgauvreau]

I hope you have a budget big enough to test everything available.
Have you defined the requirements for your favorite AS?
Let us know

My goal was to only test products I already own, largely for the purpose of determining what to re-purchase. My plan was to eliminate any that cause me irritation outright, and eliminate any that are outperformed by similarly priced and scented products. Lastly, if I'm left with products that seem to perform on par with one-another, I will choose the product with the lowest $/oz.

 

[dgauvreau]

I guess my biggest concern was whether the "split-face" approach to comparing the products side-by-side was reasonable.

 

[htownmmm]

I guess my biggest concern was whether the "split-face" approach to comparing the products side-by-side was reasonable.

I would be concerned about the smell. plus,will you keep the other variables constant,ie,razor,blade,soap,and brush?


marty

 

[Limey]

You gotta get some Proraso in there! If your comparing balms not AS that deserves a shot.

 

[Gruder]

4) Create a "bracket" system (like the NCAA tournament) where the winner from each pair can continue on against other winning aftershaves.

I love this idea! Who's in the play-in game? (I'd select "water" and "vodka" to play in Dayton for a chance to compete in the field of 64)

 

[dgauvreau]

I would be concerned about the smell. plus,will you keep the other variables constant,ie,razor,blade,soap,and brush?


marty

Yeah, I'm largely trying to match these up fairly similar products (at least for the first rounds - And so far I've found that the scents are at least complementary, and most of my balms don't seem to have long lasting scents. My first test of Zia Vs. Burts seemed to work out fine, even though the scents aren't the same. I'm keeping everything else identical for a given "round"... So I shaved the same way every day until I'm ready to test the next pair. And the comparisons are side-by-side, so I'd have to switch soap/brush halfway through a shave (which I wouldn't do.)

 

[dgauvreau]

You gotta get some Proraso in there! If your comparing balms not AS that deserves a shot.

Yeah, I'm thinking I'm going to narrow down the balms first...then maybe try a splash tournament if it works out..

You know, I think I probably have some Proraso balm left at the bottom of the bottle. Maybe that will go up against the Feather Kanwa...I'm sure I have some Musgo balm somewhere too..that will have to go up against something unscented I think. Eventually I'd love to put it one of those against the winner of the Nivea/Neutrogena round (which are my least favorites in terms of scent.)

(Nivea and Neutrogena are my "oh crap, I'm stuck at a hotel and I need an aftershave" option - sorry to any fans out there..just don't like what I find to be their "synthetic" scents.)

 

[dgauvreau]

I love this idea! Who's in the play-in game? (I'd select "water" and "vodka" to play in Dayton for a chance to compete in the field of 64)

You joke, but I might even do a "Play-In" of water vs. Alum almost as a control group, and see how far it goes. Be pretty hilarious if the end result was not to use a balm at all. I expect that this could take me a while - given that I only have one face. And the peanut gallery can just pipe-down about shaving anything else to speed this up..

 

[mightemacs]

Feel free to utterly disregard this, but are you sure that one of the products you currently own is "the one"?

Let me play this one out a bit. I noticed that the list of AS products that you have is not exhaustive. There's no T&H on there (to name one of the "big" houses), and there's no SCS on there (to mention one of the "smaller" operations). Are you sure that they don't even merit being in the tourney? I've gotta say, ever since I tried the SCS AS Milks, I've been completely smitten with them.

So, that being said, have you considered just keeping a journal? You could still do the tourney bracket idea and pit the different AS's against each other (so to speak), but maybe instead of using it to figure out which one to re-buy, you could just use it to get your relative thoughts (i.e. you like Nivea better than Brut, you like T&H better than TOBS, you like SCS better than Nivea), but instead of having the end goal of replenishing after the first tourney, you use the tourney to deplete your stocks to make room for new "teams".

Of course, this is coming from someone who is still trying to cope with the ridiculous amount of shaving gear I purchased in the last 5 months, so take it with a grain of salt. And, of course, you may have already tried all these that I've mentioned and decided you didn't like them, who knows...

Good luck in your endeavor, though. I'm definitely interested to see how it pans out.

 

[rafikz]

Most of the balms that I have - so far I'm looking at:

Burt's Bee's Natural vs. Zia For Men

QED vs. Em's

Anthony Logistics Vs. Men-U

Neutrogena Vs. Nivea

Baxter's Vs. Everyman Jack

Nancy Boy vs ???

Nancy Boy VS Boys will be boys

 

[dgauvreau]

Feel free to utterly disregard this, but are you sure that one of the products you currently own is "the one"?

Let me play this one out a bit. I noticed that the list of AS products that you have is not exhaustive. There's no T&H on there (to name one of the "big" houses), and there's no SCS on there (to mention one of the "smaller" operations). Are you sure that they don't even merit being in the tourney? I've gotta say, ever since I tried the SCS AS Milks, I've been completely smitten with them.

So, that being said, have you considered just keeping a journal? You could still do the tourney bracket idea and pit the different AS's against each other (so to speak), but maybe instead of using it to figure out which one to re-buy, you could just use it to get your relative thoughts (i.e. you like Nivea better than Brut, you like T&H better than TOBS, you like SCS better than Nivea), but instead of having the end goal of replenishing after the first tourney, you use the tourney to deplete your stocks to make room for new "teams".

Of course, this is coming from someone who is still trying to cope with the ridiculous amount of shaving gear I purchased in the last 5 months, so take it with a grain of salt. And, of course, you may have already tried all these that I've mentioned and decided you didn't like them, who knows...

Good luck in your endeavor, though. I'm definitely interested to see how it pans out.

Yeah, it's a great point, and I think at some level I expect this to be an iterative process, whereby I can find "classes" of balms that work well for me (metholated vs not), milks vs heavier balms, gels vs balms, etc. And in addition to trimming down my stock, and identifying products that I would repurchase, I think it will give me a great way to choose products I haven't tried yet.

 

[dgauvreau]

By the way, I just completed the first day of Nivea Sensitive Extra Soothing Balm vs. Neutrogena Post Shave Lotion (which I think of as my "Supermarket Aftershave Showdown"), and Nivea just DESTROYED the neutrogena. Even within an hour, the Nivea side felt calmed and well moisturized...but the neutrogena side was tight and irritated. And the neutrogena stuff smelled like sunblock.