Preview: Pacific Shaving's All Natural Shaving Cream

 

Just received a tube of Pacific Shaving Company's All Natural Shaving Cream in the mail. With any luck, I'll have a review posted within 2 weeks.

Pacific Shaving's one of my favourite shaving-related companies. Their shaving oil is still my favourite shave oil - light, with a pleasant, mild scent, and it always gives me a great shave. If you haven't checked them out, visit them online at PacificShaving.com today!

New review: Squid Lid Head Shave bar

At the beginning of the month, I mentioned receiving a new product called Squid Lid Head Shave bar. I've been using it for much of the past few weeks, and the full Squid Lid review is now available on HeadShaver.org.

Just want the high notes? Squid Lid is a comfortable lotion-style shaving cream that provides good lubrication and great skin protection, all the while smelling good and not gunking up your razor! It's a great product, and I recommend giving it a try if you're in the market for something luxurious at a reasonable price. Also, if you're into stuff that's certified vegan and cruelty-free, this'll fit the bill.

Enjoy!

First look: Squid Lid head shave bar

Squid Lid head shave bar

Deborah from Squid Balm was kind enough to send me a sample of their Squid Lid head shave bar. It's a solid bar, which forms a thin, slick layer of lotion for shaving.

Directions are simple: after you've wet your head, rub the shave bar in your wet hands until you've got a little oil/lotion in your hand, and then rub the lotion over your scalp. Then you shave! If the lotion dries up at all, just run your moist hand over your scalp to 'refresh' it. Afterwards, a standard rinse and you're ready to go.

According to their website, Squid Balm products are certified Vegan and cruelty-free. As a little side bonus, since it's a solid, you don't have to put it in a zip-lock back if you're going through a TSA checkpoint.

I just received the sample today, but I've already used it for one shave. So far, it's very promising. Shaving with a Mach 3, it didn't provide as much lubrication as the shaving oils I normally use - in fact, the razor squeaked a bit as I shaved. It did a great job with irritation and nicks - my skin felt very comfortable throughout the shave and afterwards. The shave bar has a pleasant scent that's not overpowering, and applying the lotion to the scalp was easy and pleasant.

Overall, I'm looking forward to using Squid Lid more; it seems like a very solid product. Once I've used it for a while with a couple of different razors, I'll post a more complete review to the main HeadShaver.org reviews section.

Mailbag: Art of Shaving Lavendar Scented Shave Cream

Reader Sonny La Roma sent along this review of the "Art of Shaving" Lavendar Scented Shave Cream.

The Art of Shaving is a full service salon for men located in NYC as well as a few other cities including Las Vegas. The market their own skin and haircare products that are sold via their salons and thru Barney's as well.

I have been using their Lavendar Scented Shave Cream for the last 5 years and love it.

Major pros: High emolient content makes for a smooth and effortless shave. No drag at all on scalp. No nicks because of terrific glide factor. Lavendar scent is great.

Cons: A bit pricey. Standard tub is $22

Sounds nice.

Quick product shots

This week, I picked up some new shaving lubricants, just to give them a whirl, and figured I'd post my initial impressions.

First up is Neutrogena Razor Defense shaving gel. I've only given it one go so far; I'll try it more thoroughly later. It reminded me of Edge gel, which was, once upon a time, my shaving lubricant of choice. Since then, though, I've encountered better shaving lubricants, so I don't particularly favour this type of gel any more. Lubrication was fine, but I ended up with a fair bit of irritation, more than I'm comfortable with.

Second on the list is Kiss My Face Moisture Shave (vanilla earth). I've used this one twice now, and my initial impressions are great. It has a very pleasant scent, it applies nicely, great lubrication, and low irritation. It cleans out of the blade pretty easily too, which is always good. I look forward to using this one more.

In the same product-review theme, I got an email from Thomas, who kindly shared a product experience.

Just wanted to let you know about a new aftershave I tried that works really well. Old Spice High Endurance SOOTHING AFTER SHAVE BALM. This stuff doesnt burn, smells nice for the ladies and keep your header soft. I've been shaving my head for about 2 months and was still getting some irritation after I shaved, saw this stuff and thought I would give it a try. Works really well. Give it a trial run. They also have something that reduces 5 O'clock shadow, may try that as well in a couple of months.

Thanks for the input, Thomas.

Deals: Avid Skinglider

The Modern Gent website is running a 3-for-the-price-of-2 special on Avid Skinglider shaving lubricant for Father's Day. They normally charge £3.99 per bottle (about $7.27 USD), so this might be worth checking out. I've tried and reviewed Avid Skinglider before, and think it's a great product. I'd suggest the sensitive formula, personally.

Pre-shave oil a no-no?

The Sydney Star Observer has an article on shaving advice from Graham Fish (of men-u products). It's generally pretty good advice, though one thing caught my eye.

Shaving cream will also help soften a beard - and he doesn’t believe in using a pre-shave oil.

I imagine his opinion (which isn't backed with any additional information in the article) might be related to the lack of a shaving oil in men-u's product line. I tried their product and reviewed it a while back, but while I like it, it's not as good as shaving oil when it comes to protecting the skin from nicks and irritation (and it's significantly more expensive than most shaving oils).

Unfortunately, the article was brief and the line about shaving oil was a throw-away. It would be interesting to know why he doesn't believe in pre-shave oils (aside from a commercial interest).

Aveeno Positively Smooth Shave Gel

I've tried a lot of different shaving products over the years, but one brand I hadn't tried before was Aveeno. I've been hearing good things about their products for a long time, but just hadn't gotten around to trying one.

Earlier this year, J.B. Bryant sent me a review of Aveeno Positively Smooth Shave Gel (which is posted at my site) which was very positive. A while back, I was shopping at a nearby supermarket and decided to pick up a can and give it a try.

I've been using it for about 6 weeks now, and I'm very impressed. It's the best shaving gel I've tried, and it's quality is right there with shaving oil. It washes out of the blade very easily, provides great lubrication, and provides excellent protection against nicks and irritation.

The reviews on Epinions.com are all pretty positive as well. Aveeno products are usually pretty widely available, so finding it should be fairly easy.

I'll be posting a full review to my site soon, with any luck.

Mailbag: Shampoo as a shaving lubricant

I got this email from Todd:

I've been shaving my head for about 4 years now. The other day I took my son to the barber and after telling him I get terrible irritation if I shave more than once a week he said to use shampoo instead of shaving cream. Shaving cream has alcohol and dries out your scalp, shampoo doesn't. I just bought a Headblade and with shampoo have shaved my head twice in three days and I look great. Thanks for listening.

I hadn't thought of using shampoo as a shaving lubricant; that's quite an interesting idea, and an ironic use for the product. I agree with the barber's comments about alcohol, of course, and it's generally considered a good idea to avoid aftershaves with alcohol as well.

I recently got another email suggesting shampoo as well.

By recommendation of a friend of mine that is a hairdresser, I began using "Hairseptic" in lieu of shaving cream. She recommended it to me because she has been using this product to shave the back of her client's necks with no irritation. It is a clear liquid, highly concentrated shampoo. I pour into a spray bottle and just spray a light film over my head and start shaving. I love it! I shave much faster with absolutely no irritation. What I don't like is that if it gets in your eyes....OWWW! Burns like the devil. Other than that, a great product. The name of the company is Aristocrat Hairseptic Company from Columbus, Ohio. It can be ordered at 1-800-783-0636 and can be found in beauty supply stores as well.

Mailbag: Tom's of Maine Natural Conditioning Shave Cream

People occasionally send me reviews of shaving products that they've tried. If the review is substantial enough, I generally post it to my reviews page, but sometimes I'm sent a review that's not really long enough to get a page of it's own. Here's a review that was sent to me by J. Maxwell.

I would like to submit to fellow head shavers a review Tom's of Maine Natural Conditioning Shave Cream. It is available at natural food stores such as Whole Foods Market. I have found Tom's to be the best shave cream I have yet tried. It is slick, and the Fresh Mint (Honeysuckle is also available) soothes the scalp during the shave. It comes in a tube and a little of this product goes a long way. I shave every other day and find that a tube will last me a month or more.

I haven't tried this product myself, and haven't seen it available for sale in Canada, but perhaps this will interest someone.

Related link:
Amazon.com - with one short review

King of Shaves wins award

FHM, a men's magazine, recently gave out awards for men's grooming products. As described in this press release, King of Shaves won in the wet shaving category.

King of Shaves AlphaGel DDS Natural Unmentholated Shaving Gel was voted Winner in the hotly contested 'Best Wet Shaving Product' category.

King of Shaves beat out strong competition from Gillette, Wilkinson Sword, Nivea for Men and Clinique for Men to scoop the top awards.

I've never tried any King of Shaves products myself, but I have gotten emails about them. All of the comments I've gotten so far have been positive, so the award confirms the general impression I've been getting about their products.

Looking for a stocking stuffer?

Plumpstocking.com names Pacific Shaving Company’s All Natural Shaving Oil as the best stocking stuffer for men, according to this press release. If you've seen my review, you know I wouldn't mind getting this for Christmas. Shaving oil is that perfect small gift that any man would love.