J. R. Watkins Divine Day Cream

Canadian winters – amirite?!?!  Winter in general is just bad for the skin.  If you’re a dandy like I am, you probably like to moisturize. If you have been outside in the winter for more than five minutes, total, you probably want to moisturize, as this weather is just awful for the skin. I’ve searched high and low for a good face moisturizer – finding one that is vegan and doesn’t suck is much harder than you’d believe.

So, first, a word of disclaimer as I start this review – it appears as if this cream no longer exists. As in, I can’t find any reference to it on their website.  So, who knows if this review is just going to vanish into the AEther.

The Divine Day Cream is a pretty good face and neck moisturizer.  It claims to be a “lightweight” moisturizer, and I would tend to agree. It’s not as thick and creamy as some moisturizer creams, but certainly isn’t all thin and watery.  It spreads evenly over the face, and is absorbed with very minimal effort.  As far as moisturizing goes, yep, it does that.  My skin is very dry to begin with, and extra dry during the winter.  The cream immediately soothes my skin, and it’ll last a whole 24 hours – I never feel the need to re-apply during the day.  More importantly, I never have dry flakes of skin on my face during the day.  It does the job there.

The cream contains “Burdock Root Extract,” and I have no idea what that is.  It also has rosemary and spearmint leaves in it, but it doesn’t at all smell like rosemary or spearmint.  Regular readers of this blog (ha. As if I update regularly, right?) will note that I rail against scents in products.  I don’t like a lot of scent.  So, let’s discuss that.  This cream smells like….. something.  I just don’t know what.  There’s this light smell to it.  Honestly, it reminds me, rather vaguely of elementary school paste.  Like, the arts and crafts stuff you used in grade three to affix macaroni to construction paper.  Now, I’m not saying it feels like paste, or that things glue to your face, but it has a paste-like scent to it.  Now, to be fair, this scent is really light, and dissipates quickly.

J. R. Watkins products, I’ve found, are reasonably priced products.  I wish I knew what this cost, but it’s not on the site anymore, so I don’t know. They’re good value for what you get.  Are they top-of-the-line hoity-toity toiletries products? No.  But they are more than serviceable and they are affordable.  If this cream still existed, it would probably make semi regular appearances in my daily routine.

J. R. Watkins Divine Day Cream

 

J. R. Watkins Divine Day Cream: 4 / 5

tl;dr: very good moisturizing lotion that keeps your skin hydrated through the day, easy to apply, but with somewhat of a funky scent to it.  Also it is unclear as if this product is still on the market.

Until next time, be kind to animals.

(Two weekends in a row? Amazing!)

Geo. F. Trumper Violet Shave Cream

Let’s get back to basics and talk about some good old fashioned shave cream.  When I first started traditional wet shaving, I was using (and still am using) rose scented cream – it’s really good for sensitive skin.  So, when I needed to re-up my shave creams, I thought I’d branch out – violets are flowers, right? They must have similar properties to roses.  Anyway, I got myself a tube of the GFT violet cream.

It’s a real pleasure to lather up.  It smells nicely of violets as you do so, and it is not at all overwhelming when you lather up.  It’s a pleasant way to start your day.  It lathers up quickly and nicely – although not as quickly and nicely as other brands I’ve used – but still, not a lot of work to get a good lather going.

Talking about the lather….. ennnh.  It’s not great.  You don’t get the wonderful peaks and thick consistency that I’ve gotten with other brands – specifically Taylor of Old Bond Street, in this case.  It does provide a nice effortless cover to my face once I apply it, and it’s a good cushion – I have yet to cut myself with this cream, and nicks are at an absolute minimum.  So, it gets the job done.  Again, though, the cover isn’t as great as other brands.

What I’m saying is that I like it, and I’ll finish the tube I have (which, considering I shave only my neck and cheekbones, will last me a looooong time), but I don’t see myself restocking this afterwards.  That said, it is one of the only violet scented creams I’ve seen on the market, so if you’re absolutely bonkers for violets, this won’t do you wrong.

Geo. F. Trumper Violet shave cream

 

Geo. F. Trumper Violet Shave Cream: 3.5 / 5

tl;dr: smells nice, makes an okay lather, but there are better creams on the market. If you love the smell of violets, get this one.

Until next time, be kind to animals.

Geo. F. Trumer Moisturising Lotion

Oh, hello.

It turns out blogging regularly is really hard, and takes a lot of effort to keep up. Which leads to one thinking “meh, I’ll put it off until next Saturday” And suddenly that means you take a three month break from something you thought you’d do regularly.  I’m going to try to do this more regularly, as I really enjoy doing it, and I do want to talk about vegan dandy things.

Which brings us to the review!

I’d been looking for a good body lotion since I discovered that The Body Shop isn’t vegan.  I stumbled up on the Geo. F. Trumper Lotion, and got a bottle.  First impressions: the lotion is fragrance free, and they actually mean that.  There’s almost no scent to it at all.  I mean, there’s a little of ‘this is a substance that isn’t water’ but it is really fragrance free.  This alone may make it worthwhile for some folks – if you’re hyper sensitive to smells, this may be the lotion for you, or if you like to wear a cologne, you can rest assured that this scent won’t mess with you.

It is a really thin lotion – it is more on the liquidy watery side of lotions, not really like a gel at all.  It applies smoothly and evenly on the skin, and is absorbed pretty quickly.  When I saw how thin it was, I was concerned it might not be a good lotion, but it was.  A few fair sized gloops on the skin kept my skin soft and itch free all day long, which is a good thing.

You get fairly good mileage for your use.  The 200 ml bottle lasted me two months of daily use.  But, here’s the kicker – the 200 ml bottle retails at $44, which is fairly pricey, even if you’re getting two months out of it.  At that price…. I don’t know.  It’s a very good moisturiser, but I’ve got to think there are some ones out there that may be cheaper.  But hey! totally scentless.  That’s a real thing.

Geo. F. Trumper Moisturising Lotion

 

Geo. F. Trumer Moisturising Lotion: 4.5 / 5.

tl;dr: great totally fragrance free lotion. Keeps skin feeling great. Bottle goes a long way but is expensive.

Until next time, be kind to animals.

eShave Fragrance Free Pre-Shave Oil

No, you don’t update your blog regularly anymore.

The pre-shave is a really important part of the whole shave process.  It softens your whiskers and smooths the skin, helping the razor glide over your skin easier, and makes for a closer and better shave.  I’ve used a few pre-shave treatments in the time I’ve been wet-shaving, and the eShave oil is near the top of my list.

The eShave oil comes in a variety of different scents, but I’ve gone with the scent free, as I don’t particularly like a lot of scent.  The 2 ounce bottle may not seem like a lot, but it goes a long way – you only need a very little oil every time you shave, so the bottle will go a long way.  At retail around $20 for the bottle, that makes it a fairly good deal.

I really like the eShave oil.  It glides on very smoothly, and applies evenly to the face without a lot of effort.  It’s oily (duh), but isn’t so viscous that its dripping all over you and hard to deal with.  It coats my stubble and skin just fine, and makes for a smooth shave.  I have had almost no nicks or cuts using the eShave oil – although, that’s not a scientific finding, as my shaving technique is improving leaps and bounds since I started this blog.

If you shave with a shaving soap, as I sometimes do (although not as much as a shaving cream), besides oiling your face, you can put a drop of the oil into the soap bowl, to help whip up a nice lather that will apply on your face.  While I have a few other pre-shave products I use, I found one of the best uses for the eShave oil was to add to my shaving soap – I strongly recommend using that.

Is the eShave oil the only pre-shave treatment I use?  No.  Buuuuuut that’s because I have a few in my possession and I flip between them on a whim.  I would say that it is my go-to pre-shave treatment, and currently my favourite.  If I reduced down to just one pre-shave, it would certainly be this.

 

eShave pre-shave oil: 5/5

tl;dr: a really excellent pre-shave treatment, suitable for all types of shaving.  A welcome addition to any wet shavers shaving kit.

Until next time (which I hope to return to regular postings), be kind to animals

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. 

 

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.