Face prep with noxzema cream
First things first:
The new Noxzema made by Unilever no longer has parabens listed as part of its ingredients and it does have a "best before" date (the last bottle I bought, the one made by Alberto-Culver, didn't have this date anywhere in the bottle and 4 types of parabens were listed. I stopped using it around 6 years ago)
Second things second:
I'm talking about the Noxzema Cleansing Cream (The one you saw on Cybil Shepherd comercials back in the day)
Now, when I was tarting to wetshave and I all had was my Merkur 34c, a Tweezerman badger brush, a puck of VDH soap and gallons of hard water, I struggled to archive the perfect lather. I eventually managed to build it but as I honed my skills, I kept watching more and more videos of things people do as prep.
Someone (don't know where, don't know who, don't know when) mentioned he used just a dab of a moisturizing cream and I didn't paid attention to that... or so I thought, next time I was at the local supermarket I found a bottle of Noxzema Cleansing Cream and for some WEIRD reason I thought "why not" (can't really say why I thought that)
I don't know if it was the nice smell or the consistency or that it was a stage of my wetshaving history where I was trying a bit of every product I saw, but I bought it and used it the next shave and it was awesome haha. I stopped using it because I realy didn't need it in the first place (had mastered my lathering technique and the cream had parabens) but it was awesome.
So, 4 days ago I was at the supermarket again, picked up a bottle and thought "if only..." turned it and read the ingredients and surprise! No parabens :) I immediately bought it and tried it the next day. Now, I think calling it a "face preparation" is a bit too much. In reality, I put a little dab on my chin and one on each cheek and make sure to distribute it evenly over the surface I'm going to shave. After that, I apply the lather I already built and the effect you get is what I call "lather enrichment". Depending on the amount used, your lather goes from creamy to ultra creamy and it lasts a little longer... also, since it has camphor, you get an interesting effect from the lather (kinda cooler, kinda tingling. not much but it's there. it varies depending on how much cream you used it).
The smell? well, Noxzema has an overpowering scent. It does not mean the smell is strong, it's just overpowering (like in most products with camphor) and expect some weird smells deppending on the soap. With arko sticks, it was really weird. Maybe I used too much cream but it was a weird smell.
So, how does it work?
I feel it's really nice. As I said, the lather is creamier and provides a better gliding effect. Usually I have to wait around 3-4 days in between (meaning I shave the 3th - 4th day after a shave) to use my SR, but the day I tried this I had a 2day stub (I shaved on Saturday, I shaved again on Monday and again today but today was with a Gillette superspeed). I won't deny that I went slower and gentler this time since the two shaves had variants (new lather with a straight and new lather with a new razor. The superspeed arrived last week, won at eBay for 10$ and it's in great condition, just some patina) but the shaves were both really good. I would say nicer than the ones I had the days before, the shave felt "milder" (tho the Superspeed seems to be a mild razor).
Anyways, I recommend you guys to try it, specially if you have unscented soaps or you don't mind the camphor to overpower the soap/cream scent. I believe is not worth using it if you have a 15$+ soap but if you have Williams, Arko, VDH or even (and this is pushing it) Tabac, it's worth the try. Grab a dab, pur it in your palm and then palm-lather. See if you like what you get, part of what's great about wetshaving is adapting the ritual to your tastes and to new things :D
