Making Pre-Shave Oil

Hey everyone,

I'm using a replaceable blade straight razor (bought at sally's for about $7). Been using it for about 2 months now and lately i'm starting to play around with shave oil. My normal routine is as follows:

Take shower, apply conditioner to beard while in shower
Get out, wet face, apply shaving oil
Use brush to face-lather Proraso shaving cream
Shave
Apply after-shave Balm (Nivea Sensitive Post-Shave Balm)

I watched a clip on YouTube for making a shave oil that consisted of 3/4 castor oil, 1/4 Extra Virgin Olive Oil, and Essential Oil (lavender). So far I made the same recipe except for the EO. While it works OK, I don't get the fantastic "incredible glide" feeling that so many talk about. Would the Essential Oil make that difference? and if not is there anything else you guys can recommend that would make this oil very, VERY slick? I'm tempted to try just shaving with shower conditioner as it seems to be so incredibly slick on my face. I would like to duplicate that feeling.

Also, even though I'm using an extremely light touch while shaving and holding the blade at 30 degrees WTG and my post shave balm contains no alcohol I can still feel a burning sensation when I use it after shaving. Any advice there?

Thanks

i personally noticed some improvement when i started using my proraso AS balm as a pre-shave oil. have you tried that? if you like the proraso cream, the balm pairs really well with it, and if you don't want to smell that way, the scent wears off really quickly.

i apply the AS palm as a pre-shave oil in a VERY thin layer, only using about a dime-sized drop for my entire face. and i make one light rinse with hot water after about 10 seconds of letting it sit, just lightly wiping my face with the water. then apply my proraso lather. i've found that this helped me substantially.

as for your castor/evoo combo, make sure you are applying it in a thin layer. and regarding conditioner, i always condition my beard in the shower and i only rinse it very mildly, feeling like i can still detect it on my face before my shave. this also seems to help a lot.

I'm only 5 months into this, but in my experience glide is not as important as cushion. I think for a DE shave, glide is more important. I tried a pre-shave oil and found (I think) that it interfered with the soap/cream's ability to lather. I'm unsure about correct terminologies and even the facts but is it possible that some oils actually make the bubbles in shave cream and soap 'pop'?

I DO use Proraso pre-shave cream though, always. I find it excellent as a beard softener (as I make the lather) and I love the way it makes my face feel (the menthol and Eucalyptus together are great). I lather right over the top of it. I know there's a lot of different products out there, but for me, I see no reason to change from this excellent pre-shave treatment.

The Proraso AS Balm (I think it's the Liquid Cream After Shave?) mentioned above is thinner than the pre-shave cream; the pre-shave cream is quite thick. It DOES smell a little like something you'd smear on your chest when you have a chest cold, but when you lather over top, shave, splash with water (warm or cold) apply witch hazel or a balm and/or an after shave, the smell doesn't really remain...

I'm not sure of the ingredients of Nivea, but I think a slight burning sensation is quite OK. In fact, it's expected. Remember you ARE removing some skin when you shave with a straight razor...

Carl