April 10, 2007

Review of Maine Shave All-Natural Intensive Moisturizing Shaving Cream

Day two of Maine Shave review week and we're ready to shave with Maine Shave's All-Natural Intensive Moisturizing Shaving Cream.

Ingredients
Maine Shave's shaving cream is all-natural because it doesn't contain any of that poly-zantac-60 or mono-lipitors. Just oils and extracts from shea butter, sea kelp, grapefruit seed, coconut, olive, castor, jojoba, and more. Sounds delicious and nutritious as well.

Smell
I've had a hard time characterizing the smell of this shaving cream. It's manly but not Old Spice. It's soapy but definitely not floral. It verges on old-school without smelling like grandpa. I like the smell, but I can't describe it too well.

Application
It may be a little hard to tell from the picture but Maine Shave's All-Natural Intensive Moisturizing Shaving Cream comes in a short wide jar, perfect for use with a brush. The instructions on the side of the box say

Take a dime size amount and work it into a lather using a shaving brush or your hands and a small amount of water.

I found that the easiest way to shave with this shaving cream was to actually put the brush in the jar. I'd start with some warm water on my face. Then I'd get the tip of a shaving brush slightly wet, and swirl it gently around the wide jar getting a surprisingly small amount of shaving cream on the brush. After that I'd use the brush to apply the shaving cream to my face, which lathered up nicely after working it in for about 30 seconds. If you use this method you will be amazed at how little shaving cream you'll use and still get a uniform covering on your face. In my opinion this shaving cream is meant for a brush. I got a much better shave when using a brush and I used far less shaving cream. If you're not into applying shaving cream with a brush, I don't think you'll get the full benefits of this shaving cream.

Shave
The shave itself is very good. No major nicks or irritation afterwards. The lather that you've worked up subsides a little so by the time you're actually shaving you can see your underlying skin a little better. Not clear by any means, but not too obscuring either. Again, you'll get a much better shave when you apply this cream with a brush. My only complaint was that after the first pass with the brush I didn't feel like there was much cream left over on my face to protect it on a second pass. Invariably I need to take a second pass on my chin and I needed to reapply a little cream from the brush in order to make that area a little slick. Not a huge deal, but worth mentioning.

Get Some
Maine Shave's All-Natural Intensive Moisturizing Shaving Cream is $20 for a 3.75oz jar, or is available as part of the Four-product Maine Shave Four-Step Shaving Ritual for $80.

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