The Best Shaving Cream on the Market in 2022
It is estimated that a typical man with shave at least 20 thousand times in his life! So figuring out the best shaving cream and the best razor for men is really important. In fact, most shaving accidents are caused by either dull blades or by not properly preparing your skin before you shave. Before we examine your choice in razor, let’s first prepare your skin for an amazing shave.
Ingredients in the best shaving cream.
There are dozens of ingredients that go into a high quality shaving cream. Some of them are very important. Others are there to help with the whole foaming process, add a smoother glide, or help preserve the cream from separating or going bad.
In most typical shaving creams, most of the following ingredients are present: water, stearic acid, myristic acid, potassium hydroxide, coconut acid, glycerin, triethanolamine, some kind of pleasant fragrance and sodium hydroxide. The function of most of these items is to create fatty acids that provide that smooth feel when shaving. The worst thing that can happen during shaving is that “scratchy” feel that’s actually damaging your skin. So these ingredients combined provide an inorganic base that suspends the fatty acids and triglycerides to create a chemical reaction that softens your skin for shaving and helps your razor glide over the surface without tearing or slicing the skin.
There are very specific reasons for each one of these ingredients to show up in shaving cream for men, but for now, all you need to be concerned with is the purity of each product. Obviously, lower quality ingredients provide for a lower quality (and possibly dangerous) shave. If you’ve ever been in a place without shave cream and used bar soap instead, you can definitely remember feeling your face and neck burning all day as a result. Low quality shaving lotions and creams can provide the exact same painful results or allergic reactions so it is vital you get the best men’s shaving cream you can afford.
Best shaving cream for your type of skin
It is important to be aware that some shave creams and gels are made for a very specific type of skin. Before ordering any products, you should understand your skin. This is particularly important since the best shaving cream for oily skin will definitely not be the best shaving cream for sensitive skin. Men will tell you that sensitive skin men’s shaving cream will possibly make oily skin break out with acne due to the extra fat in the formulation to make the razor glide smoother. Men will also tell you shaving cream for oily skin will dry out sensitive skin pretty quickly making matters even worse.
If you have acne prone skin, some of the more luxurious shaving creams might only make your skin break out more frequently. And if you have sensitive skin, the cheap creams and gels will damage your sore skin even further. A good measure to tell if a shaving cream will hurt your sensitive skin is to ask yourself one question, “Did my grandfather use this same shave cream?” None of the “old formulation” (or old school!) shaving creams have the technology to help your sensitive skin. If you’re still rocking the Barbasol, of course your face feels like it’s been shredded by badgers. Stop it!
You might also be allergic to one or several ingredients in your current shaving cream. Think about it. You put warm water on your face to open the pores to get a closer shave. All shave creams are formulated to penetrate into your pores and soften the whiskers. If you’re allergic to any of these ingredients, you are essentially irritating your face even further. Then you shave exposing a more sensitive layer of unprotected skin. No wonder your face feels like it’s surviving a second degree burn all day long!
So if you suffer from shaving every day, the best shaving cream for sensitive skin men need most should be free of many of the following harsh chemicals and ingredients:
- Triethanolamine (foaming agent)
- Fragrance
- Palmitic Acid (an emulsifier to keep the product uniform)
- Isopentane (solvent to dry skin)
- Glycols (chemicals that allow liquids to spread evenly)
- Sulfates (corrosive products to cleanse and foaming agent)
- Polytetrafluoroethylene (a toxic and pretty useless chemical)
- BHT or butylated hydroxytoluene (possibly carcinogenic preservative)
Keep in mind, you might only experience a reaction to one or two of the agents on this list—the most obvious one being the fragrance. But when it comes down to it, why take the risk? Why expose yourself to ingredients you can’t even pronounce that might be getting soaked up into your skin?
Generally, the first 5 ingredients listed on the back of the product make up the majority of the ingredients. The best shaving cream for men won’t have any strange chemicals in their main ingredients. If anything creepy shows up at the beginning, it’s probably not good for your skin. Some manufacturers will say “sulfate-free” or “something-free” on the label. This is also a good place to start.
The Best Shaving Cream for Men
The following is a comparison of the 5 best men’s shaving creams in order from our most to least favorite. Just about any of these shave creams, cakes and gels will make your skin squeal with delight. We recommend trying the one most suitable for your skin first and when that runs out, pick another one on this list. The average man will spend 60 hours shaving each year (and about a third of the year in pain if he chooses the wrong shaving cream!). Find the perfect shaving cream for your face and you will live a happy life. And for the love of all that is holy… don’t grow a beard! How uncivilized!
Have you ever had a shave so close and so refreshing that you felt like crying?!! This stuff is like lathering liquid gold onto your face. And even if you’re not using the sharpest razor, it still glides across your skin like an ice skater.
If you are really looking for an other-worldly shaving experience, this is the best shaving cream men who are sick of acne breakouts and razor burns recommend the most. And out of all these creams, Blenheim Bouquet has the best scent. Your significant other will definitely want to get closer to your baby smooth face.
This men’s shaving cream goes against everything written previously. For one, Truefitt & Hill has been around forever. It’s likely your civilized GREAT grandfather used this shaving cake on his face (and loved it!). Plus it does have Triethanolamine so guys with sensitive faces beware. But who cares! This shaving cream is the one most people choose as their favorite brand once they have tried all the others.
Keep in mind this is a shave cake so you will need a really nice badger brush for shaving to get the most creamy foam out of this. This is that product that will literally make you say, “I will never go back to lousy shave creams again.” It really is that good. The fragrance is subtle and clean and much more understated than Blenheim Bouquet. If you plan on staying with the store bought razors, this one will be the shave cream you will use for the rest of your life. Prepare to love shaving again…
Another shave cake but so much different from the other two. This is a glycerin-based product that really moisturizes your skin deeply. If shaving dries out your face, this is the product you should look for.
The best thing about this shaving cream is that you only need a tiny amount to get rich slippery foam so you might end up loving this for a very long time. It’s also the best shaving cream for sensitive skin out of all of these.
It would be impossible to create a list of excellent shaving creams without a Burt’s Bees product. These guys rarely (possibly never?) put any toxic chemicals in their products. Plus this one has Calendula extract which works beautifully on your skin.
Does your face ache after shaving? The Calendula in this shaving cream serves as an anti-inflammatory agent that soothes any itching and pain. As with most Burt’s Bees skin care items, the scent is very mild if you can smell it at all.
OK, so the rest of these shave creams feature all the slippery goodness you need to have a luxurious shave that keeps your face feeling refreshed and clean all day long. Now we need one that really makes you smell like a civilized man! Havana by Barberry Coast Shave Company has all those voluptuous scents that will make your lover’s knees buckle! Listen to this: “an intoxicating blend of opulent tobacco leaf, and crushed cocoa beans that are reminiscent of old Havana charm and glamour.
Creamy island vanilla laced with natural oils of patchouli and Peruvian clove.” I know, some of you just read the word “patchouli” and instantly thought, “No way! I don’t want to smell like a hippy.” Let me tell you, it really works in this blend. It’s very subtle and guides you nose on a little tour of a quaint little rum bar on the coast of Cuba. You’ll love the shave you get from Havana too. This really is a fantastic product (although the packaging is a little cheap).
Thoughts on men’s shaving cream
As you can see from this list there are no great shaving creams that squirt out of a can! Besides making you look completely clueless and common, these creams require tons of chemicals so that the ingredients don’t react with the can, so that it will stay foamy for YEARS, and to squirt out the cream. Basically, if it comes out of a can, you are shaving toxic chemicals into your skin every day for the rest of your life. Beyond that, they pretty much all make you smell like your grandfather and leave your face feeling like it was melted by acid.
In order to take part in civilized skin care, you must keep one mantra in your mind always:
1. Only use the best products on your skin
2. Limit your exposure to chemicals
3. Get a really high-end razor and either switch out the razors weekly or sharpen it before every shave
4. Get a good skin conditioner to put on after you shave
Seriously, kids, a man spends 3,300 hours or 138 days of his life shaving his whiskers. If you take care of these easy items, you will stay looking young well into your 60’s and beyond. Don’t think it’s important? If you look like your 60 in you sixties, you will never be able to date 30-year-olds! Let that sink in, sir!