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Thoughts on Using Massage Oil as a Preshave Oil?

Has anyone tried a massage oil as a preshave oil? While researching preshave oils and trying to find items to create my own I checked the ingredients list of many massage oils on Amazon and noticed many of have similar ingredients as most preshave oils minus the castor oil. These seem like another cheap alternative as I got a 8.5 oz bottle for 16 bucks of the Relax massage oil by Brookethorne Naturals. Here are the ingredients: Sweet Almond Oil, Grapeseed Oil, Jojoba Oil and Essential Oils of Lavender, Peppermint & Marjoram. I also ordered their Refresh variety which contains Apricot Kernel Oil, Fractionated Coconut Oil, Grapeseed Oil, Jojoba Oil, and Essential Oils of Eucalyptus, Peppermint, Lemon & Tea Tree.
 
The old school Italian barbers used to use straight Olive Oil and you can likely find the ingredients needed to make yourself a preshave oil in your kitchen. The Art of Shaving oils were made by the original owners wife from kitchen ingredients. I made an Art of Shaving preshave oil clone a while back using Castor, Grapeseed and Olive Oils and adding some fragrance. The oils I mostly just combined in different ratios mostly to get the desired thickness. They all do pretty much the same thing for your skin. For about six bucks you can make enough to last you a decade.

That being said I've gotten away from preshave oils as I find I prefer to just use a better quality soap. To me it's just not worth the extra time it takes.

To answer your question specifically you can use any type of oil or combination of oils as a preshave, including the massage oil you're referring to. I have tried massage oils for this in the past and the results were on par with something labeled for shaving.
 
I think the Castor Oil gives it a bit thicker consistency. I just made some homemade oil using 50:50 Castor Oil and Jojoba Oil. I added some EO for scent. I find it makes a significant difference for me.
 
I think the Castor Oil gives it a bit thicker consistency. I just made some homemade oil using 50:50 Castor Oil and Jojoba Oil. I added some EO for scent. I find it makes a significant difference for me.
That is what I have heard. I have a small bottle of Badger Brand Preshave Oil on the way as well which has Castor oil in it. I’m interested to see if I prefer a thick or thin consistency since I use cartridge razors.
 
I no longer use the stuff, but I got a recipe on-line and procured the ingredients that I did not have in the home at a Nature-Tyme® store. It was cheaper and I could play around with it. Good luck.
 
I seen another pre shave oil thread and it caused some experimenting. I used some unrefined coconut oil and really enjoyed it. For me heavy oils are counter productive. Pre shave oil for me is a tool only used when the initial prep has been interrupted or it is an extra dry in the house. Loved the coconut oil. For us who have dry skin pre shave oil can be a plus in certain situations.
 
A few years ago I started getting interested in shaving oils (to be clear: I am not talking about pre-shave oils), when I wound up in Vienna, Austria on a weekend, with shops closed, and realized I had neither shaving soap, shaving cream, nor shaving stick in my toiletry bag, but only some Cade shaving oil that I had bought and forgotten about.

It worked rather well and after that I started experimenting with other oils, mainly massage oils.
I moistured my facial skin the usual way and then applied a few drops of the oil on my palms and rubbed them onto my moist skin.

Massage oils like the ones used in physiotherapy (e.g. Kneipp) seemed to have the right consistency and worked best, but ultimately I went back to my preferred shaving soaps and creams, as I missed the lather too much.


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Let's go back to the original question. Substitute oils and formulas can work, but often they are not quite as good as the real thing.

Only you can be the judge for only you.
 
NOW makes a variety of massage oils. They are mixture of various oils apricot kernel, almond oil etc. and scented with essential oils. I purchased the lavender scented one. Pretty inexpensive around $11/16 ounces on Amazon? Works fine as a preshave/postshave and general moisturizer. Got me thru the winter and still have 2/3 of the bottle left. If anyone is interested search-now massage oil
 
It sounds like the massage oils are both good for skin and hair, looking at the ingredients. And as someone mentioned earlier, it you like thicker, add some castor oil.
 
Not to mention a whole less expensive than pre shave oils.

I had purchased some castor oil and forgot I had purchased it. I never found the Now massage oil to be lacking. Maybe I will try few drops of castor oil to see if its an improvement.
 
Personally, I think using any kind of oil for shaving is a terrible idea, especially if one is one a septic system.
 
Ex-Professional body-worker here with too much time on their hands...

Technically speaking there is no such thing as "massage oil", only oil used for massage. I'm a stickler for semantics, okay?

Oils are preferred for therapeutic massage because they tend not to be quickly absorbed into the skin while providing varying degrees of resistance (friction). Most professionals I worked with used jojoba almost exclusively because it provides a level of friction that's "just right" for most kinds of work. Almond was used a lot as well, mainly because jojoba oil is really expensive (comparatively speaking) when buying by the gallon. For intensive work such as deep-tissue I'd switch to something thicker, such avocado or, as a last result... Coconut (which can be drying) for increased resistance.

Relevance to shaving? If I was going to suggest an oil to use as a pre-shave, I would say, Jojoba first. Hands down. Second would be apricot, almond or olive, in that order.
 
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