Mitchum: an “accidentally vegan” antiperspirant-deodorant

Going vegan and not stinking is actually more of a challenge than you might think.  Sure, there are plenty of deodorants out there that are vegan, but virtually all of them are only available in health food stores, many of them are ineffective, and many of them seem reminiscent of what you’d expect from some hippie hoopty-doopty crap: ‘here, rub this orange crystal under your arms, you’ll smell like a delightful fae ring!”  Ugh.  Plus, I use antiperspirant.

Enter Mitchum!  Mitchum, owned by Revlon*, is ‘accidentally’ vegan, in that it does not contain animal ingredients and isn’t tested on animals, but isn’t specifically branded to vegans.  It is, as far as I can tell, the only vegan antiperspirant-deodorant available widely – I can get it in grocery and drug stores.  (I’ve heard that Ban is accidentally vegan as well, but I couldn’t find any Ban for men).

Anyway, I use(d)** the Mitchum unscented gel regularly.  It does, in fact, have no scent at all, which is quite good for those who don’t particularly like scents.  It did a good job keeping me dry and stink free, so it got the job done.  Now, when I got exceptionally anxious or nervous, which doesn’t happen as regularly to me as it does to my cat, Blossom, I found that it didn’t always hold up.  On a few occasions I left a lecture I was giving and saw that I was a little sweaty.  So, it’s not perfect, but it certainly gets the job done.  Mitchum promises to be so strong that it will last 48 hours.  I’ve never tested that, but it does certainly last the 24 hours I would regularly wear it for.

The Gel isn’t perfect, honestly.  It goes on smoothly, but some days it felt like it was a little bit of a film on me, which was unpleasant, but on the overwhelming majority of days it was perfectly fine.  The major problem I had was that I would leave my stick of the stuff in my gym bag, in my trunk, for the whole day. If it was even marginally hot outside, the gel would lose consistency, and the next day be a little goopy, which was rather unpleasant.  Now, if you don’t leave your stick lying around in hot trunks, yeah, you’ll be fine..

Mitchum Power Gel

Mitchum antiperspirant-deoderant, 4/5

tl;dr: long lasting and powerful, gets the job done, but the gel can get a little goopy

Until next time, be kind to animals.

*Alright, lets talk about Revlon for a second, here.  Apparently Revlon used to tell PETA (and whoever asked) that they didn’t test on animals, but it was uncovered that they were selling products in China that were tested on animals.  While Revlon apparently, now, does test on animals, I cannot find anything online that suggests that Mitchum does.  It’s your call – if you don’t want to support Mitchum because money would go to Revlon, that makes total sense to me.

**recently switched to Jack Black – review forthcoming!

Proraso White Pre-Shave

Missed the Saturday morning post by 24 hours.  Oh well.

Softening your beard before you shave is a really important part of the wet shave.  A lot of sites will suggest shaving oil, and I’ve used a few shaving oils, but I keep coming back to the Proraso White Pre Shave cream.  I like the cream a lot better than the oil, for some reason.  As with the other Proraso White line I’ve reviewed here, this is formulated for sensitive skin.  It has a very, very light scent, but so little that I can’t even really smell it.  It’s really nice on my skin, very soothing and softening.  It has a very nice slight tingling sensation on the skin, perhaps from the menthol in it – if this is going to bug you, don’t use it.

So, in your daily shaving ritual (or semi-daily, whatever), I wash my face, then apply the pre-shave treatment.  I let it sit there for a few minutes, usually while I’m working up my lather.  The pre-shave treatment softens your beard and lubricates your skin – it makes for a much more comfortable, close, and effective shave.  If you switch to wet shaving with a double-edged razor, you should certainly include a pre-shave treatment.

It does the job, and does it really well.  I’ve shaved with a few different pre-shave oils, and between all the pre-shave products I’ve used, this provides for the nicest, closest shave I’ve had.  It’s really great – and yes, it’s also miles better than not using a pre-shave product at all.

It’s very reasonably priced – retailing between $10 and $12 online, and in physical stores.  It is currently my go-to pre-shave product, and I use it every day.  Really worth picking up if you haven’t tried it yet.

A really nice pre-shave cream for sensitive skin

 

Proraso White Pre-Shave Cream: 5/5

tl;dr: an excellent pre-shave cream, and my go-to pre-shave product.  Pick it up.

Proraso White Soap

Proraso, which I’ve reviewed before, is all vegan – so if you’re looking for good vegan shaving products, check them out.  As I mentioned before, my pre-classic wet shave days, I was shaving with a cartridge razor and Proraso white foam, so the shift over to Proraso white soap seemed to be a pretty good, and safe, lateral move.

The Proraso white line is designed for those with sensitive skin.  The white soap is “green tea and oatmeal” which, I guess is good for sensitive skin?  I don’t know.  Well, to start, it was great on my face.  It’s quite nice, its very gentle, and has a nice smell to it.  The scent isn’t overwhelming, but it is present.  I can’t say it smells like green tea or oatmeal, but it’s quite nice.

The soap is nice and even, and didn’t create any uneven bumps or lumps, which I hear some soap does (although I don’t have experience with that).  The soap feels … soapy …. on the skin – it isn’t as thick or foamy as a shaving cream, but it does cover the face nicely.  It leaves your skin feeling clean, and doesn’t either dry out or irritate the skin, so that’s nice.

There’s one downside to the soap – it doesn’t create as much of a thick lather as a shaving cream does.  It takes more effort than I initially expected to create a good lather.  This has meant, on a few times, I have nicked or cut my face when shaving – which hasn’t happened when I’ve shaved with shaving cream.  To be fair, I could work a bit harder to make a thick lather, but who wants to put that much effort in when cream does the job better.

Now.  Proraso white soap retails for around $10 both online and in brick-and-mortar stores, and lasts a pretty long time.  It’s great value for money, and does make a decent shave.  For a few months it was my daily shave, and I now have a tub of the soap kicking around, and still shave with it from time to time.

 

Proraso White

 

Proraso White Soap: 4/5.

tl;dr: a very good and affordable shaving soap that gets the job done, even with a bit of thin lather.

Until next time, be kind to animals.

Muhle Silvertip Synthetic Brush

I was going to start with reviewing some shaving soap or shaving creams, but one of my friends asked about synthetic shaving brushes, so I’ll start with the Muhle synthetic brush I use.  Now, when I first started wet shaving, I walked to the local drug store, picked a $10 synthetic brush off the shelf, and started using it.  It was awful.  It scratched at my face, it dropped bristles all the time, and didn’t apply an even lather.  Many of my wet shaving friends suggested I track down a badger hair brush.

I tried to find an ethically sourced badger hair brush.  I figured there must be one out there.  A great deal of research found one or two companies that claimed their badger hair brushes were “ethical,” but didn’t explain what that I meant.  I was immediately suspicious.  So, a little more digging on the interwebs.  It seems that “ethical” means “Chinese peasants consider badgers a menace, so they kill them for food and sell their pelts to Europeans.”  Uhhh, by no measure is that vegan, and I would argue it’s not at all ethical.

I decided to bite the bullet and invest in a synthetic brush.  Now, I got a medium Muhle silvertip fibre brush, and it cost me $71.50 for the brush.  I can see why people would balk at that price – that’s totally understandable.  Consider this: if you were shopping for a badger hair brush, and you were getting it from one of the well-known brush companies (Muhle, Edwin Jager, etc), you’ll be spending well over $100 – probably over $200.  So, the brush is cost effective.

Wow is it a good brush.  Just wow.  Worth every dollar I spent.  Let’s start with the craftsmanship: the brush is very solidly built.  I’ve been using it for months, and it has not dropped a single bristle (do we use bristles for synthetic brushes?  Is that a thing we can do?), and the knot has stayed together. The handle feels very solid in your hand and provides a nice grasp.  It is constructed excellently, no complaints here.

The brush holds water excellently – I have no frame to compare it to a badger brush, but the brush holds enough water to create a very nice lather very quickly.  The brush holds your cream and distributes it quite nicely across your face.  It’s nice and flexible so you can really whip up those concentric circles on your face.  All in all an excellent brush.  I strongly recommend it.

An excellent vegan shaving brush

 

If you already know how to wet shave, you can stop reading here.  I’m going to give some tips on how to create a good lather below.

First, prep the brush.  The best way to do this is to fill your shaving mug (you have a shaving mug, right?) with hot water, drop the brush in the mug, and have a shower, letting it soak up water.  If you don’t have a shaving mug, you can use any mug you have kicking around (protip: empty the coffee out first).  I suppose you could just fill your sink with hot water and drop the brush into it.  Now, most days, I shave at the gym, so these options aren’t really available to me, so I run hot water over it for twenty to thirty seconds.

After it soaks up water, you want it to not be dripping.  Take the brush out, give it a few quick shakes so it’s not dropping water anymore.  Now, whip up your shaving cream or soap in your bowl / mug, and lather up.

When you’re done shaving, you want to rinse out the brush so it doesn’t have shaving products in it anymore.  If you’re shaving at home, hang it from your brush stand to dry.  You want your brush to dry so it doesn’t smell all musty – it also extends the life of the brush.  If you’re like me, and you don’t frequently shave at home, this presents a problem.  I give my brush a good squeeze and a few shakes (hur hur), and then wrap it in a paper towel and jam it in my shaving kit.  When I get home, I take it out and air dry it until the next morning.  This seems to work for me.

Last thing.  Returning to the Muhle brush – it is an excellent brush, and I have no intention of replacing it anytime soon.  But, if you’re shopping around for a brush, Edwin Jagger makes synthetics as well, and they’re very well respected.  I’ve not tried them, though, so I have nothing to say about them.

Muhle Silvertip Synthetic Shaving Brush: 5/5.  My go-to, every day shaving brush.

tl;dr: this brush is an excellent brush, very well crafted, holds water well, makes a wonderful lather. No complaints here.

Until next time, be kind to animals.

What If I Don’t Want To Wet Shave? Proraso Shaving Foam

In my last post I did the hows and whys of the traditional wet shave, because I truly do think its better.  Now, not everybody is going to switch to the traditional wet shave, and that’s fine.  If you don’t, you may wonder, “how can I shave vegan?”  Most shaving foams in a can you find aren’t vegan.  They either have animal products, and are quite likely tested on animals.  It becomes especially tricky if you’re looking for shaving foam for sensitive skin.

For the first few years that I was vegan, I used Proraso White Foam.  Proraso is an Italian shaving company that has been around since 1948, and is “accidentally vegan” – which is to say that all of their products are animal ingredient free, and they don’t test on animals. This means that if you’re looking for a vegan shaving product, you can check out any Proraso product.  I’ve seen Proraso in grocery and drug stores, so you don’t really have to go far out of your way to shop cruelty free.  It’s basically win-win.

The entire “White” Proraso line is formulated for sensitive skin – expect forthcoming review of their traditional shave products.  To start, while it is for sensitive skin, it does have something of a scent to it.  I can’t put my finger (nose?) on exactly what the scent is, but it is there.  Proraso claims its “lime and apple,” but I’m getting neither of those when I stick my nose to the can.  If you have problems with scent – even more than I do – I’m not sure this would be for you.  That said, it’s very light, dissipates quite quickly, and is actually quite pleasant.

Proraso White

 

The foam itself is really rather light.  It doesn’t have that gel-like consistency that some foams do, which I find really annoying.  It’s light and airy, but it also spreads over the face quite easily.  I can attest that it is good for sensitive skin – it doesn’t sting or burn at all, and the scent isn’t overpowering.  It does a good job of wetting the whiskers, and shaves away easily.

I’m not sure I have much more to say at this point.  It’s a very good, cruelty free, shaving foam.  I think the traditional wet shave is better, but if you don’t want to do that, try Proraso White foam.  Vegan, good, and readily available.

5/5, an excellent cruelty free foam.

tl;dr: an excellent shaving foam if you don’t want to go wet shave. If you’re ultra sensitive to scent, this has a very light scent to it.