We regularly hear from our customers that they have been suffering from shaving irritation during or after shaving for years. They have tried everything: shaving foam from a can, shaving gel, and shaving soap. After yet another terrible shaving session, one desperately buys the well-known shaving soap in the yellow plastic container at the drugstore or supermarket. You would expect that a shaving soap brand with a history of over 400 years would do its job well. Even after using this shaving product, the shaving session turns out to be disappointing. Grumbling, it ends up in the trash. In this blog, we explain what bad and good shaving soaps are.
Why are there bad shaving soaps for sale?
Because men are increasingly concerned with their appearance and shave regularly, you now see various trendy brands developing and marketing a shaving soap. Often these are so-called sustainable, environmentally and skin-friendly care and soap brands. These brands also want to get a piece of the pie and thus sell a shaving soap for shaving. Or it involves well-known large perfume and retail brands that put a popular men's fragrance into a shaving soap. With enthusiasm, you or your partner buy this product. After one shave, you come home from a cold fair.
Usually, these shaving soaps are actually just regular hand or bath soaps but in a round shape. These brands put regular soap in a tin or cardboard box and slap a mustache or beard on it.
You also have some well-known cosmetic brands or cosmetic store chains that sell a cream as a classic shaving cream. It usually involves a thick cream that you then have to apply and spread by hand. These shaving products do not produce shaving foam. Applying with water and a shaving brush does not work with these products.
How do you recognize a terrible shaving soap?
To recognize a bad shaving soap, you first need to know what a good shaving product should do. A shaving cream is creamy and comes in a tube or a jar. A classic shaving soap has a hard composition, always has a round shape, and comes in a jar. Both should be lathered and applied with warm water and a shaving brush.
Good shaving products do the following:
- hold water and do not dry out, causing the beard hairs to absorb water and become softer;
- produce a rich creamy protective shaving foam to protect the skin and allow the razor to glide comfortably over the skin;
- care for and nourish the skin during shaving, prevent irritation during and after shaving, and provide a pleasant aftershave feeling on the skin.
Soap is made by reacting vegetable or animal oils and/or fats (triglycerides) with a lye, such as sodium hydroxide or potassium hydroxide (the saponification process). These soaps have a high pH value and degrease your skin. This is of course logical because a regular hand soap is meant to clean your skin. Shaving soaps and shaving creams are superfat soaps and contain relatively more oils and fats. They also contain various nourishing oils, such as Argan oil, Shea butter, and Castor oil. Shaving products should nourish your skin and protect it from the razor.
Poor shaving products do exactly the opposite. The well-known shaving soap in the plastic container foams up very quickly but also dries out very quickly. You apply it to the skin and after just a few seconds, the foam dries up. What remains is a dry white 'cake' on your skin. During shaving, you have to apply the shaving foam again with the shaving brush 2 or 3 times. Some other drugstore brands also have shaving soaps that dry very quickly after application. Instead of a creamy shaving foam, these shaving products produce a weak thin shaving foam with large air bubbles. Soon after application, the shaving foam disappears from your face.
The fake shaving soaps usually have exactly the same composition and recipe as regular hand soap. Instead of nourishing and caring, they have a strong dehydrating effect. After shaving, you often suffer from dry, tight skin. Or a burning, raw feeling and red spots around the mouth, cheeks, and neck area. Daily, we hear complaints from customers that after shaving with the cheap shaving soap from the supermarket, they suffer from a dry skin all morning. Often people think they have sensitive skin and therefore quickly experience shaving irritation. But it has nothing to do with the skin; the problem is the aggressive and skin-unfriendly shaving soap or shaving foam.
What are good shaving soaps?
A good shaving soap and shaving cream lathers quickly with water and a shaving brush and provides a smooth, fresh, and comfortable shaving result:
- the foam stays well 'on' the face;
- holds enough water for a long time;
- softens the beard hairs;
- protects the skin;
- ensures a good slick and protection;
- and finally prevents shaving irritation after shaving.
A good shaving soap and shaving cream feels greasy and contains various oils and fats, such as coconut oil, Argan oil, and Castor oil. These ingredients hold water well, provide sufficient foam and a firm, stable, compact shaving foam, and nourish and care for the skin. The greasy film on the skin ensures that the razor blades do not sit directly on the skin but glide smoothly over the skin. After shaving, you experience little to no discomfort from a dry, tight skin. The freshly shaved skin feels pleasant.
Of course, everyone must know for themselves which shaving product they use. And if you don't have much to spend, you quickly reach for a super cheap shaving soap at the supermarket. But it doesn't help if you're smooth and then walk around all day with skin irritations. In this case, a perfect example of 'cheap is expensive'.
