We regularly hear from our customers that they have been suffering from shaving irritations during or after shaving for years. They have tried all sorts of things: shaving foam from a can, shaving gel, and shaving soap. After yet another terrible shaving session, people desperately buy the well-known shaving soap in the yellow plastic container at the drugstore or supermarket. You would expect a shaving soap brand with a history of more than 400 years to do its job well. Even after using this shaving product, the shave turns out badly. 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 more concerned with their appearance and shave regularly, nowadays you see various trendy brands also 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 share and therefore sell a shaving soap for shaving. Or it concerns well-known large perfume and retail brands that put a popular men's fragrance in a shaving soap. With great enthusiasm, you or your partner buy this product. After one shave, you come home disappointed.
Usually, these shaving soaps are actually ordinary hand or bath soaps but in a round shape. These brands put a regular soap in a tin or cardboard box and stick 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 is usually a thick cream that you 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 lousy 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 must be lathered and applied with warm water and a shaving brush.
Good shaving products do the following:
- retain water and prevent drying out, causing the beard hairs to soak up water and become softer;
- produce a full-fat 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 irritations 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) (the saponification process) with a lye, such as sodium hydroxide or potassium hydroxide. These soaps have a high pH value and degrease your skin. That is of course logical because a regular hand soap is meant to clean your skin. Shaving soaps and shaving creams are overfat 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 must nourish your skin and protect it from the razor.
Bad shaving products do exactly the opposite. The well-known shaving soap in the plastic container foams up very quickly but also dries very quickly. You apply it to the skin, and after 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 2 or 3 more times with the shaving brush. Some other drugstore brands also have shaving soaps that dry very quickly after application. Instead of producing a creamy shaving foam, these shaving products produce a weak, thin shaving foam with large air bubbles. Shortly after application, the shaving foam disappears from your face.
Fake shaving soaps usually have exactly the same composition and formula as ordinary 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, chapped 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 have a chapped skin all morning. Often people think they have sensitive skin and therefore quickly suffer from shaving irritations. But it is not the skin at all; 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 shaving brush and ensures a smooth, fresh, and comfortable shaving result:
- the foam stays well "stuck" on the face;
- retains water for a long time and sufficiently;
- softens the beard hairs;
- protects the skin;
- provides good slickness and protection;
- and finally, it prevents shaving irritations after shaving.
A good shaving soap and shaving cream feel greasy and contain various oils and fats, such as coconut oil, argan oil, and castor oil. These ingredients retain water well, provide enough 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 it. After shaving, you have little to no trouble with dry, tight skin. The freshly shaved skin feels pleasant.
Of course, everyone has to decide 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 in the supermarket. But it doesn't help if you are smooth and then walk around all day with skin irritations. In this case, a perfect example of cheap being expensive.
