Shaving products. Our Top 5 that make choosing easy for you.

#1 Shave gel

Shave gels are one way to insulate fragile skin while shaving. Shave gels create a blade-skin barrier, allowing the razor to glide easily and protect your face from razor burns and cuts. Softening the skin and hair before you shave is necessary. This can be done with or with a cream or a pre-shave oil.

Q: Do you need it?

A: Maybe.

If you find you are having skin issues with lather or balms or butters like razor burn or rash or breakouts, a gel may be ok for you. But if you don’t have any issues, there is no need to apply additional products to your beard, face, or stubble. Some gels are designed as a pre shave (before lather or butter) and some are designed as replacements. You should always use some form of lubrication when shaving, however additional products may be unnecessary.

#2 Shave cream

Using some form of cream, lather, gel, or butter is crucial for a clean and healthy shave, free of irritation. But is shaving cream specifically better or needed? Let’s take a look.

Q: Do you need it?

A: No

To reduce the friction between your skin and the razor, shaving cream helps. Some soaps and shaving creams have similar ingredients, that’s not a good thing. If your shaving cream is similar to your soap, your skin can dry out, causing damage.

#3 shave butter

ShaveButter is another option. With any bladed razor, you can use it and the fact that it doesn’t foam up makes it easier to see your shaving lines. Shave butters tend to be made from ingredients that are more natural, and less harsh and/or reactive to the skin by nature.

You want to find a butter that contains as many natural ingredients as possible. You can do this by checking on the back of the pack, the highest content ingredient is listed first, and the lowest content ingredient last. Some common healthy ingredients for shaving butter are shea butter, cocoa butter, sweet almond oil, bentonite clay, and the highly regarded mango butter.

Q: Do you need it?

A: Maybe

Although shave butter is very moisturising for the skin, already oily skin could suffer more from over exposure to natural fats and oils. It’s important to find a good balance between natural butters and oils and balancing ingredients such as bentonite clay or even water to reduce the oil/butter content. It is also worthwhile to check it contains some natural anti-bacterial ingredients such as tee tree or peppermint to reduce breakouts if you are prone to them post shave.

#4 Beard oils

Beard oil is a type of conditioner to soften beard hair. It’s can be useful for moisturizing the skin under your beard as well. Men use beard oil to keep their beards looking fuller and with more sheen and softer.

Q: Do you need it?

A: Yes, (but not for the reason you may think.)

Not many people know that you should be using a beard oil before you shower and/or shave. Beard oil is full of nourishing vitamins and fatty acids that soften and strengthen your beard hair. Applying beard oil to stubble half an hour before shaving allows the hair to become softer to cut, and reduces dryness, preventing shaving rash or shaving burn. Applying beard oil before showering helps protect your facial hair from having its natural oils leeched away by soaps and harsh foaming agents. Black magic organic beard oil is a great all round pre shave oil, and beard oil combined check it out HERE.

#5 Balms

In the last ten years aftershave balms have become increasingly popular. So, what are the benefits, and are there any negatives. Let’s take a closer look

Q: Do you need it?

A: Yes

Using a post-shave product to help your skin heal is important. An aftershave balm should always be applied at the final stage when shaving. Its much gentler than aftershave and full of ingredients to help your skin heal and recover. After shave balms should have three main factors those are soothing, repairing, and sterilising. That means balms should be smooth, contain moisturising ingredients, and at least one natural anti-bacterial to protect the pores from infection or breakouts while they heal and close post shave. Check out Black magic Organics beard balm that contains all these elements.

We hope these tips will help you make a decision on which personal care products you are going to choose in the future, and whether you are better off saving your money. If you found this blog interesting, check out our other blogs here on our homepage.