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Shaving cream reviews

Today I used a coupon I had kicking around for 20 percent off at bed bath and beyond. I thought it would be a good idea to pick up a bunch of different shaving creams to test out. The idea is to eventually find a product I love and buy only that until I die, with the occasional new product when I'm feeling lively.

Today I tried the Van Der Hagen shave butter. This particular product came in a matte orange plastic squeeze container and a black cap with a crinkle coat like texture. The presentation is nice and contains six ounces of cream for a cost of $7.99.

The directions recommend using a nickel sized amount applied to the face via fingertips or a brush. My experience revealed that using a shave brush did not result in a lather I was accustomed to. I was using a horse hair bristle brush and the nickel sized amount of cream quickly vanished in the soft array of bristles. Adding water didn't help. It was clear more product was needed. I double the amount of cream, applied into the brush and began face lathering. I experienced no appreciable increase in lather.

I shaved two passes, with and across the grain, with what appeared to be minimal lather. View second photo for details. I was using a Gillette Gold Tech which is very mild. I had to apply more pressure than I am accut to in order to cut hair. Due to this fact I decided to do a third pass against the grain. This decision was not made lightly as I have not attempted a three pass shave since my last terrible experience about seven years ago.

The third pass was preempted by reapplication of the shave cream however my application technique utilized the hand and not the brush. The nickel sized amount immediately became enough to cover my face in a luxurious yet suitably thin layer of shave butter. It quickly became obvious that this particular product is not ideally suited for use with brush application. I have not provided a photo but suffice to say the lather looked right to me on the final pass.

Reluctantly I began the third pass against the grain and all felt right. My face was sufficiently lubricated by the new layer of butter and the mild angle of the razor resulted in an effortless and painless ATG pass.

My final impression is that this is a good product that delivers the right lubrication for a smooth, moisturizing shave. Seven bucks for a tube of pleasantly scented shave butter that'll last a couple months seems like a decent expenditure. My only complaint is that this shave butter by its very nature robs me of the pleasure of using my favorite brush for face lathering.

Tomorrow I'll be reviewing Burt's Bees shave cream.
 

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The idea is to eventually find a product I love and buy only that until I die, with the occasional new product when I'm feeling lively.

You Sir, have lofty expectations.:001_smile

Really though, good review, though I would venture that most on this forum will have the same reaction that you arrived at...no lather, no fun.

I did notice on the shelf in one of your pics a tube of Dr. Bronner's Shave Soap. Be very careful if you are going to shave with that. I shave with the peppermint version a long time ago when I was shaving with one of those multi-blade razors. I am still feeling the razor burn about eight years later. :mad5:

Keep the reviews coming. I am sure you can teach someone something and hopefully you find your cream/soap that you can live by the rest of your life. :thumbup1:
 
Add Cremo to that list. Although I've been able to lather it with a brush, it works better with fingertips.

Just so happened to be one of the products I picked up yesterday. It's partially visible in the photo above. The container states it has special molecules that become super slick in water. I'm interested to put that to the test.

To Dangerousdon, thanks for the compliments. I seem to live my life that way. Find something I really love and only buy that until a reason tells me not to. It shouldn't be too hard to find a soap or cream that will fit the bill. As far as the Dr. Bronner's shave soap. I chose the citrus one because those are my favorite scents. I've also never really enjoyed anything that try's to "cool" or "refresh" as in my experience those tend to burn, so I steer clear from peppermint and menthol products. Turns out the caffeinated products from Pacific Shaving Co wake you up via menthol burn and not caffiene.
 
The container states it has special molecules that become super slick in water.

I love when they get all science-y. Like others use something less than molecules... And they don't just use any molecules... they use Special molecules.
Well, hope is slick and useful.
 
I love when they get all science-y. Like others use something less than molecules... And they don't just use any molecules... they use Special molecules.
Well, hope is slick and useful.

Thanks, had me dying at work with that one.
 

tankerjohn

A little poofier than I prefer
Good luck in your quest for "The One", but I hope you expand your horizons beyond what's available at BB&B.

Anything called "butter" doesn't sounds like its going to lather much, if at all, as you discovered. Big turn off for me. I suppose its still better than most canned goo-type products out there.

I'll be interested to read your review of the non-caffeinated Pacific Shaving Cream. I really like that stuff myself. Its' labeled brushless, but lathers up wonderfully with a brush for me. The clean grapefruit scent is really nice in the summer.
 
Good luck in your quest for "The One", but I hope you expand your horizons beyond what's available at BB&B.

Anything called "butter" doesn't sounds like its going to lather much, if at all, as you discovered. Big turn off for me. I suppose its still better than most canned goo-type products out there.

I'll be interested to read your review of the non-caffeinated Pacific Shaving Cream. I really like that stuff myself. Its' labeled brushless, but lathers up wonderfully with a brush for me. The clean grapefruit scent is really nice in the summer.

I've been using the Pacific Shaving Co. cream for a while now, in the green tube. I love that stuff. Lathers nice, smells great. I'll write a review after I post last nights review, which I have yet to post due to work.
 
Sorry for the late post on last night's shave cream. Life got in the way.

So I decided to try shaving with Cremo Cream. The tube this stuff comes in reminds me of something antiquated but with an updated look. Black red and white, simple colors from a product that promises to be anything but.

I read the directions on how to use this stuff as the manufacturer seems adamant about using it in a specified manner as evident by the various "STOP AND READ THIS" warnings on the tube.

So just for testing sake I did what they recommended, no brush lather just finger tip massage. It didn't get as slick as the "special molecules" claim to be. Felt like a normal cream type lubrication to me. Onto the most intruiging aspect of this cream, the scent.

This stuff smells great when I first began massaging it into my face. As some time passed I thought to myself, wow this smells so fresh and clean! Then I realized that it reminded me of urinal cake smell or toilet bowl cleaner. A fresh, clean bathroom, chemical type smell. Your results may vary. I love the smell in a bathroom, just not on my face. Other than that this cream performed as intended and resulted in a smooth, irritation free shave.
 

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Sorry for the late post on last night's shave cream. Life got in the way.

So I decided to try shaving with Cremo Cream. The tube this stuff comes in reminds me of something antiquated but with an updated look. Black red and white, simple colors from a product that promises to be anything but.

I read the directions on how to use this stuff as the manufacturer seems adamant about using it in a specified manner as evident by the various "STOP AND READ THIS" warnings on the tube.

So just for testing sake I did what they recommended, no brush lather just finger tip massage. It didn't get as slick as the "special molecules" claim to be. Felt like a normal cream type lubrication to me. Onto the most intruiging aspect of this cream, the scent.

This stuff smells great when I first began massaging it into my face. As some time passed I thought to myself, wow this smells so fresh and clean! Then I realized that it reminded me of urinal cake smell or toilet bowl cleaner. A fresh, clean bathroom, chemical type smell. Your results may vary. I love the smell in a bathroom, just not on my face. Other than that this cream performed as intended and resulted in a smooth, irritation free shave.
I like this stuff on top of RazoRock Don Marco. The combination is impeccable!
 
So this morning I shaved with Dr. Bronners Castile shave soap. This particular version was their lemongrass and lime scented offering. I love citus scents so I has to try this stuff.

Upon opening the bottle to remove the silver foil from the opening I was surprised to see how "liquidy" this soap is. It's not a cream or paste. The color was also very natural. It looks just like fresh motor oil, it has that beautiful amber color.

Since this is tauted as a soap and not a butter I decided to try face lathering with my trusty pure badger brush. I typically start with a small amount of product and see how much lather I can get. After increasing soap load a few times I found the right amount for "my" proper lather. This ended up being about a tablespoonful of soap.

Lathering with this is a pleasure. As the gentle circular motions of face lathering wafted the scent into my nostrils, I felt uplifted by the refreshing and energizing scent of lemongrass and limes.

Due to the fact that this product is natural and contains citrus, it began burning my face upon second lather/pass. Nothing strong enough to be off-putting but noticeabmost

Overall this isn't the most lubricating soap I've used and it seems like a soap designed for dishes or the body. It stripped my face of all moisture so using an aftershave balm was a must for me.

I will definitely use this stuff again, if only because it is a very pure, crisp citrus scent.
 

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This morning I decided to use the Burt's Bees shave cream. I like that this product is pH balanced which aids in maintaining my natural skin chemistry. That way I can mess it up in my post shave routine with various AS products.

The first thing I noticed as I dispensed this cream is that it looks, feels, and smells remarkably similar to lotion. I gave it a shot with my horse hair brush just to see. My gut feeling was correct, this did not lather at all with a brush. Just another brushless cream which I am not fond of.

Application was similar to using lotion, although it never really absorbed and didn't coat much either. So I shave my face with the sparse layer of product and it wasn't bad at all. I'm just completely offput by the lotion like qualities of this stuff.

The scent is light and composed of floral and wood notes. Not bad at all.

In the end, use of this product resulted in a good two pass shave with no irritation and minimal burn upon AS application.
 

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Thanks for the kind words. I just hope it's not for nothing. Maybe it'll help someone make a better decision instead of a blind one. I know I wish there we more reviews for products I was interested in.
 
Thanks for the kind words. I just hope it's not for nothing. Maybe it'll help someone make a better decision instead of a blind one. I know I wish there we more reviews for products I was interested in.

What products are you interested in? We have reviews for almost every WS product on the market.
 
imho, the womens cremo smelled better than the mens cremo. im sure its the same except scent. the females version was more citrus iirc
 
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