eShave After Shave Soother

So much attention (and rightfully so, in most cases) is spent on the aftershave when it comes to traditional wet shaving.  Besides adding a bit of scent (sometimes), aftershaves help reduce irritation, prevent razor burn, and heal nicks and cuts.  I’ve come across more lotion type and more liquid type aftershaves, and the eShave aftershave is a lotion.

This particular aftershave is scentless and designed for sensitive skin.  It doubles as a moisturizer, too, which makes it pleasant, and you could use it to moisturize your face in a pinch.  As far being scentless, that much is true – there’s no discernible scent to the lotion at all.  That’s an obvious plus if you want to avoid scents (as I do), but it would also be great if you use colognes and don’t want to mingle scents.  So, if you’re looking for a scentless aftershave, this works for you.

As far as actual aftershave qualities, yep, it works as well.  It soothes the skin – hey, you just dragged a metal blade across your face, it might need some smoothing, and moisturizes as well.  It helps deal with small nicks.  I’ve had it in my dopp kit for some time.  I should also add that a tiny bit of this aftershave goes a long way – the bottle I have has lasted me months and months.

Now, all that said, I did come across a minor gripe with the eShave aftershave.  The typical post-shave routine is cold water to close pores and wake you up, alum to close nicks and cuts, aftershave, enjoy your day.  When I started using this aftershave, that’s what I did.  I noticed that the aftershave seemed to be clumping up, making this pebble-like beads on my face and not absorbing.  I thought this might have something to do with temperature change – I shave at the gym, toss everything in my gym bag, toss the gym bag in my car.  Perhaps something was happening to the aftershave with all this temperature change?

I contacted eShave directly to ask.  Let me interject here with something – eShave has some of the best customer service I’ve encountered in the industry of dandy things.  They replied quickly, and kept in communication with me until the problem was solved.  In their guess, it wasn’t the temperature, but that I was using it after alum.  It appears that there’s something in the lotion that just doesn’t mix well with the alum – it causes it to clump up and become nonabsorbent.  The fix was to change the routine: shave, alum, rinse with cold water, aftershave.  Now, that’s no big deal at all, really, but it would be nice if they could science around this problem.

Right now, I have two primary aftershaves – the eShave, and another that’s more of a liquid than a lotion (I use the Proraso white).  Both serve me very well.

eShave After Shave Lotion

eShave After Shave Lotion: 4/5

tl;dr: Excellent for sensitive skin, no real scent to it. Just make sure you rinse off alum before you apply.

Schaf Nutritive Daily Eye Cream

Let me tell you, dear readers, of my experience with eye cream.  For a very long time, I thought that eye cream was the dividing line between dandyism and vanity.  I may be a total dandy who takes forever to get ready in the morning (and before bed), but at least I don’t use an eye cream! Those are for totally vain people!  This is the framework under which I operated for a very long time.  Then, along came one day where I needed to fill out an order online to qualify for free shipping.  An eye gel fit the bill, so I got one.

Now, the particular eye gel in question (not the one I’m reviewing), was used for months and months.  And, well, I didn’t particularly like it.  It didn’t seem to do much.  I kept using it, but I was determined to abandon the eye gel after I finished the tub I got.  Along came my Schaf sample, and I decided to test out their eye cream.

Before I get to the review proper, as this is the first time I’ve talked about eye cream, a pause.  The skin under the eyes is the most sensitive there is, and, as such, it is the first place signs of aging will appear – fine lines and wrinkles will appear under the eye before elsewhere.  So, if you’re even in your mid 20s or older, it is the time to consider an eye cream.

Schaf’s eye cream comes will all of the other things that make Schaf good – it’s vegan, paraben free, gluten free, etc. The eye cream comes in a plastic pump dispenser, and even half a pump will give you enough cream to work with.  When you dispense the cream, the first thing you may notice is its yellow colour – that vanishes quickly on the face, so no worries there.  Like all the other Schaf products I’ve reviewed, there’s no scent to it at all – and that is usually a major point for me.

The cream is easily absorbed into the skin under the eye.  Now, you always want to gently pat eye products – not rub – them into the skin.  A few easy pats and the cream absorbs into the face.  It doesn’t irritate the skin or the eye, and there’s no scent.  There’s no greasy after feeling either.  I’ve used a few eye gels, and one of the problems with gels is that they can leave a shine finish under the eye shortly after applying.  Not the case with the Schaf product – it doesn’t leave any immediate trace of it being there.

So, does it work? I’d say so.  Within a few days of using the cream, I noticed my eyes looked less puffy and there were fewer lines under them, so that’s good – it’s also a definite improvement over what I was using before.  The skin feels smoother and looks smoother, and there’s less of a difference between “face” and “area under my eyes” on my skin. So, it does the job – makes the eyes look better, and doesn’t irritate the skin.

I’d like to talk, just for a minute, about the cost of the eye cream.  The MSRP is $40 on it, making it easily the most expensive skin care product I have used.  I could see, frankly, why some people may balk at the price.  I’ve only used a small selection of eye care products, and one didn’t seem to do much, and out of the ones that work – which includes the Schaf one – the Schaf one works the best.  Now, you only need a tiny, tiny bit of the cream each day, so you’ll get a good long run out of the small bottle you get.  I would hazard a guess and say its good value for cost, given how well the product works and how long, I assume, the bottle will last.  That said, I don’t have many comparison points out there.  Will I permanently add this to my dopp kit?  I’d like to.  I really want to see how long a bottle of it lasts, though, before I commit to it.

Schaf nutritive daily eye cream

Schaf nutritive daily eye cream: 5/5

tl/dr: makes the skin on the eye look better, absorbs easily, and does what its supposed to do.

Taylor of Old Bond Street Jermyn Street Pre-Shave Gel

As I’ve mentioned on here before, I am a big fan of TOOB – they’re one of my go-to companies if I’m looking for a new product; many of my classic wet shave friends agree on this point.  So, I decided to check out the TOOB Jermyn Street Pre-Shave Gel.  The Jermyn Street Collection is for sensitive skin, so that was a selling point for me.  That said, I really didn’t enjoy this gel.

The pre-shave is a really important part of the wet shave. A lot of attention is paid to aftershaves (with good reason), but the pre-shave is really important, as it preps your face for a shave – it softens the whiskers, making them easier to remove, and provides some cushion to the face.  There are two major pre-shave treatments that I’ve encountered – oils and gels.  I honestly couldn’t tell you why you may chose one over the other.

The first thing that I noticed when I opened the gel was the scent.  The scent was overpowering.  I’m not sure what it is, but it can be described as “gentlemanly” – you’d probably recognize it as classic gentleman scent when you sniffed it.  Now, I know I rail against scent on here all the time, and I do mostly enjoy light-to-no scent.  It confuses me how something marketed to sensitive skin would contain scents.  I know the two aren’t the same, but surely those who have sensitive skin would find scents may inflame that?  I don’t know – that’s what happens for me.  Anyway, I’ve used this two or three times, and every time I do I have a massive sneezing fit after I apply it to my face.  So, there’s that.

Does it work as a shave product?  Yes.  Mostly.  The few times I’ve used it, it does provide a cushion and makes the first pass easier.  In comparison, though, I found the pre-shave oils I’ve used to be much better – the oil cushions for much longer.  In the small sample size of three uses or so, I nicked myself a few times with this gel, but I can’t say the nicks were any more frequent than if I had used the oil.

Frankly, this isn’t something I’ll be restocking.  All the pre-shave oils I’ve used are the same, or better, at a pre-shave treatment, and the scent is just overpowering.  It sticks with you for an hour or so after the shave, which is pretty annoying.  All this said, if you enjoy scents and have sensitive skin, this may be a useful addition for you.  It just isn’t for me.

Jermyn Street Pre-Shave Gel

Taylor of Old Bond Street Jermyn Street Pre-Shave Gel: 1.5 / 5.

tl;dr: The scent is overpowering and somewhat uncomfortable. The gel, as a gel, is good enough, but I’ve found oils that work better.