What do you think of Village Barber Shave Oil & Balm ?

[QBrothers]

Village Barber Shaving Oil and Post Shave Balm


Being a manager at Merz Apothecary I've tried a lot of our shave products. I really never thought I needed a pre-shave oil until I tried Village Barber's Shaving Oil. It's marketed as a shaving oil, but it is the best pre-shave I have ever used. It's a sweet almond oil base and smells great. It's a mixture of juniper, myrrh, eucalyptus, peppermint and frankincense. I have also shaved with it and it's a very clean and a close shave. The Post Shave Balm is very soothing with shea butter, sweet almond, and vitamin E. It has a eucalyptus refreshing feel.

K

Merz Apothecary


Village Barber Shave Oil & Shave Balm

What do you think?

 

[Phog Allen]

Kirk, interesting thread. I too was a sceptic when it came to pre-shave oils. Some of this was due to a bad experience with Musgo Real shave cream years ago. Claus Porto had gone through a number of formula changes for the Musgo shave cream in a rather short time and one of them was a very distinctive aqua blue colour that had a non-offensive odour but this weird habit of 'waxing' your brush bristles. By that I mean every time you used it your brush would bead water on the bristles like a freshly waxed car. It would wash out with the next lathering or three of a different soap but it was funky to look at. I suppose if you kept using that strain of Musgo it would have possibly but not necessarily built up a gunky residue that would need to be washed out with a detergent or clarifying shampoo.

Suffice it to say that many of the pre-shave oils were looked upon in the same manner. Adding raw oils to your lather would most certainly induce some buildup in your brush. At least that was the general consensus. I cannot say because I used the samples of Musgo and did not use it again and I never tried the oils til I wound up with a sample from an AoS store. The clerk insisted I take it so I did to be polite an promptly forgot about it. Later I was in one of those; 'what in the world am I going to shave with today?' moments and figured I would give it a try with one of my more lackluster soaps. You know what? it actually helped the shave and to my chagrin, it did not destroy lather density. For one thing, the amount you use is very small. Just a pea size amount(or two) is all you need to coat your beard. Lather right over the top. What I liked about the AoS product was it had a nice aroma even though it is unscented. Something in the essential oils or vitamin E added a pleasant fragrance to it. I never really revisited it because it is close $30 per bottle and I do not want that much of the stuff laying around the house unused if I decide in the end I really do not like or need it.

BTW, I should mention that according to the Musgo fans the new shave cream is every bit as good as the old classic formula so those problems are sorted. And would Kirk mind to give his opinion as to whether these shave oils are better with an almond oil base or olive oil. Thanks.

 

[AZKB53]

Love it and use it almost exclusively now.