Urban Beard Beard Oil

Oh hey, look, a blog post.  Yeah yeah, I started out great guns and now I don’t post as frequently.  I’ll try to fix that.  Maybe.

So, this review is for Urban Beard’s beard oil, but first, I wanted to give a little shout out to Urban Beard.  My first review was their beard butter, and if you recall, I like the product a lot, but wasn’t enthused about the scent.  I received an email from the folks at Urban Beard – unsolicited, they had not seen the post – to ask what I thought about the beard butter.  I let them know I liked the product, but wasn’t happy with the scent.  They let me know they had been considering changing the smell.  So, first, that’s pretty cool customer service, and they should be given props for that.  Second, if they do change or get rid of the scent, the bard butter would be way better.

Anyway, onwards!  To the review!

I’ve had a beard for about a decade, and I think beards are great.  Now, there are some issues with beards.  First, they can be really itchy and scratchy – even at the best of times.  Second, beard dandruff can be a real problem for bearded gents, and for those of us with dry skin, it can be a real problem.  I find that daily shampooing of the beard can help with these issues, but doesn’t permanently fix them.

Wow, am I glad I found the beard oil.  It’s really fantastic, and has made its way into my daily grooming routine.  The beard oil helps sooth my beard, it helps keep it really soft – avoiding itching and scratching at the beard, and really does cut down the beard dandruff a great deal.  All of these things are a real big plus.  On the days after I trim my beard it is especially nice – it soothes my skin underneath, and helps soften up the freshly trimmed tips of my beard, greatly reducing irritation.

The oil comes in a bottle with an eyedropper, so you’re able to control how much, or little, oil you want to apply.  As I have a beard trimmed close-ish to my face, I’d say I use about four drops a day, and the bottle lasted me about six weeks.  At a retail price of $25, I consider that good money for value.  The beard oil has a nice scent to it, which is hard to describe.  It kinda smells like an old-timey medicine, but in a good way.  It’s a really nice smell, and it evaporates quite quickly, so you aren’t stuck with it all day.

If you’re bearded, I strongly, strongly recommend the beard oil.  It makes your beard much more manageable and nice.  It’s a great addition to your daily grooming routine.

Urban Beard Beard Oil: 5/5.

tl;dr, excellent way to keep your beard soft and dandruff free.  If you’re bearded, invest in some.

Proraso White Aftershave Lotion

So I totally missed a whole week of reviews and updates there.  Sorry about that, I’m going to get back to being vigilant.

This morning we turn our attention to my last Proraso review for a while, the Proraso White aftershave lotion.  Again, the White line for Proraso is designed for sensitive skin, so it’s alcohol free, has minimal scent, and has lovely things for your skin like oatmeal, green tea, and thyme.

Fundamentally, when you get down to it, shaving is a process of taking a very sharp blade to your sensitive face skin, and dragging it across your face multiple times.  Thus, it may not be a total surprise if your skin get irritated with the process of shaving.  An aftershave balm is really a good idea for the wet shave – it soothes your skin, and helps prevent against razor burn – both of these things are good, and make for a more pleasant shaving experience.

The Proraso aftershave lotion is a pretty viscous fluid – it’s not as creamy as some aftershaves I’ve used.  A little bit of it goes a long way, which is good, so a jar of it will last you months and months.  The aftershave has a bit of a scent to it.  This may irritate some who are sensitive to scents – it’s not strong, but it is present.  I can certainly smell it on my skin for an hour or so after I apply it.  It has a faintly medicinal smell to it, with hints of citrus.  (The website says it also has hints of apple, but I’ve never been able to smell that).  It isn’t unpleasant, and it isn’t overpowering, but it is there – if you don’t like scents, this may not be the aftershave for you.

As far as acting as an aftershave, it does the job perfectly.  It really soothes my face – you can feel an almost instant relaxation of the skin as you apply it.  There’s a slight tingling sensation – this has never really bothered me.  It helps keep my skin calm after shaving, and helps to quickly close and heal any nicks I had made when shaving.  When I first started using my DE razor, I would cut the hell out of my neck, and I would use this aftershave on days I didn’t shave to help it heal – and it certainly did help.

This is currently my go-to aftershave, so I give it a big thumbs up.   If you’re especially sensitive to scents, or you don’t want any tingling sensation on your face at all, this may not be for you – but don’t worry, I have other products that might be.  Reviews forthcoming!

Proraso White Aftershave: 4 /5

tl;dr: A really nice aftershave that helps sooth the skin quickly.  Has a very light and pleasant scent to it – almost unnoticeable.