Thread: Home mix pre shave oil

Today while shopping I acquired the supplies to try and make my own pre shave oil. Seems easy enough so I will give it a shot and post my thoughts in the next couple days after use. Went with castor oil, virgin olive oil and eucalyptus essential oil. Has anyone made their own? What were your results? Thanks and shave on

I have made my own preshave oil and have been using it for the past few weeks.

I don't use castor oil. My mix is a bit of jajoba oil, a bit of Sweet almond oil, and mostly olive oil as a base. I also use eucalyptus essential. I find it is GREAT in the morning and clears up my sinuses for the day, which I love. I also put in some pine needle essential oil. The pine needle EO is an astringent, so it helps in the slight chance you nick yourself. (I can attest to this. I used this since I started with a SR and had a nice sized nick on my cheek. Didn't even notice it happened until I saw the scab later in the day. The Pine needle stopped the bleeding and sped up the healing time. The cut was gone in 2 days!)

Hopefully you have the same great experience I have had. Keep us posted on how it works out for you!

Originally Posted by freddi

I have made my own preshave oil and have been using it for the past few weeks.

I don't use castor oil. My mix is a bit of jajoba oil, a bit of Sweet almond oil, and mostly olive oil as a base. I also use eucalyptus essential. I find it is GREAT in the morning and clears up my sinuses for the day, which I love. I also put in some pine needle essential oil. The pine needle EO is an astringent, so it helps in the slight chance you nick yourself. (I can attest to this. I used this since I started with a SR and had a nice sized nick on my cheek. Didn't even notice it happened until I saw the scab later in the day. The Pine needle stopped the bleeding and sped up the healing time. The cut was gone in 2 days!)

Hopefully you have the same great experience I have had. Keep us posted on how it works out for you!

I have seen a recipe with jojoba oil as a base/carrier oil then I found this one and it was all items I could get locally but in the future I am going to try a couple different things. I will post my results just waiting for enough beard to shave, only takes about a day and a half. Thanks for the input : )

The nice thing about getting Jajoba oil is that you can use it in an aftershave as well. I make both pre and after shave treatments for myself. I forgot to mention I add a bit of Cedarwood EO in my preshave mix. That is just to carry the smell into my aftershave a bit more. Stuff for aftershave should be easy to find in a drugstore as well.

I made some a while back and posted a video of the recipe I copied. if I remember it was Castor oil, Olive oil, grape seed oil and Jojoba. I added also some cedar wood EO, and Orange Eo for a pleasing scent. Worked quite well for me.

Originally Posted by Razorfaust

I made some a while back and posted a video of the recipe I copied. if I remember it was Castor oil, Olive oil, grape seed oil and Jojoba. I added also some cedar wood EO, and Orange Eo for a pleasing scent. Worked quite well for me.

If this works well I am going to get some jojoba and grape seed oil as well and different EO's to mix and match. Try some beard oil as well with these products. Might as well learn a bit and save some $ my wife wont complain about me buying for my new shaving habit if I am saving money : D

Interesting thread! One does need to consider ingredients and consider 'shelf life' on this as little is needed and it could go bad before it is used? I never liked pre-shave oils, but do like to apply thin E oil the night before the shave. Esp in drier climate.
Seems it has somewhat disappeared the next morning, yet makes the hairs and skin softer so that the blade glides better and the edge snags the hairs for cutting more smoothly.

Also, with application the night before, it negates slippery fingers and oily shave. The lather works better, FME.
YMMV

Truth is im too lazy to use them these days. The batch I made about 1.5 years ago doesnt seem to have gone bad at all. Best bet with any oil is limit oxygen exposure for maximum life. I would put it in small bottles after a larger batch is made.

Originally Posted by sharptonn

Interesting thread! One does need to consider ingredients and consider 'shelf life' on this as little is needed and it could go bad before it is used? I never liked pre-shave oils, but do like to apply thin E oil the night before the shave. Esp in drier climate.
Seems it has somewhat disappeared the next morning, yet makes the hairs and skin softer so that the blade glides better and the edge snags the hairs for cutting more smoothly.

Also, with application the night before, it negates slippery fingers and oily shave. The lather works better, FME.
YMMV

Yes shelf life is something I researched a bit and if I remember right the olive oil had a shelf life of 6 months to a year. That might have been the olive oil I can not remember now that I am typing. I put it in half ounce bottles so hopefully it will get used before going bad. I also tried beard oil since I read that castor oil is good for the hair as well. With the pre shave oil I did 2 parts castor and 1 part olive then added scent to my liking. The beard oil I did straight castor oil and scent and I actually like the beard oil. The shave oil though I am going to try another with more olive oil and see if I like it better. The way it is now it does not seem like the oil sticks around there for, not really providing anything useful during the shave. Boy that was a long winded reply sorry : )

Originally Posted by Razorfaust

Truth is im too lazy to use them these days. The batch I made about 1.5 years ago doesnt seem to have gone bad at all. Best bet with any oil is limit oxygen exposure for maximum life. I would put it in small bottles after a larger batch is made.

You are right Razorfaust, I did put the two I made in small bottles and the have a seal in the lid. I did small bottles of everything I bought incase I did not like it. I still have some playing around to do because the performance is not what I prefer just yet but it gives me something to do. Thanks for the input