Thread: New Pre-shave Oil

After reading alot of stuff on here and other forums for wet shaving, I finally decided that I would get some stuff together and give it a try.

I used castor oil, grapeseed oil, extra virgin olive oil, and tea tree oil.

In a 3 oz bottle I mixed:
1.5 oz Grapeseed oil
1 oz Castor oil
.5 oz Extra Virgin olive oil
2-3 drops Tea Tree oil

I mixed it in the bottle and shook the hell out of it for a few minutes to thoroughly mix it. I've read in a couple of places to let it sit for a while to let it fully combine. Can anyone elaborate on this? This mixture is incredibly slick, and the combination of castor and grapeseed oil should allow for it hydrate and lubricate my face pretty well. I havent used it yet, but Im sure that it will help.

But Im wondering still about how long I should leave it sitting before I use it?

(BTW, that tea tree oil is incredibly strong smelling stuff! It gave me a bit of a headache.)

The only experience I can speak from here is from my years in the culinary world, but if you shake the hell out of those oils, they wont get much more combined than that. I can see giving them an evening or two, but anything more than that isn't going to do anything unless you are extracting some sort of odor into the oil (in which case you will want to give it a while).

There may be some giant magic difference that I don't know about, but in the cooking world the only reason to let oils sit a significant period is to pull odors and flavors into them from other things.

A few days sitting should do it. Castor oil is pretty stable so you could use something more pleasant smelling than tea tree. If you want antiseptic, antibacterial, and antiviral - try Eucalyptus citriodora - also known as Eucalyptus Lemon.

Well tea tree oil was cheap and readily available. Honestly thats the only reason I got it. Im gonna give it a try and see how the smell is and if it fades during the shave or interferes with my aftershave in any way. If it does I'll probably substitute the TTO for some baby oil or something that smells a bit better.

get some vitamin C in their if you can, does wonders for your skin. If the TTO is bothing you, you could use maybe 1-2 drops instead of 2-3 (add to pre-existing batch) and add some mint to over power the smell of it as mint seems to over-ride everything, never tried it but seems like it could work.

DIY oils are awsome cause you can add anything you want... just make sure you don't got over board with some oils as they can have reverse effects if used in high concentrations.

Also try to keep the bottle away from light.

Good luck

Well I used it this morning and surprisingly, in low quantities such as the 5-6 drops I put on my face, the smell of the TTO wasnt too bad at all. I used the oil and then witch hazel after my shave but before my aftershave and neither really altered the scent of the Clubman.

The only thing I did notice when using the oil is that it seemed a bit thick. Im not sure if its the castor oil or EVOO because I know the grapeseed oil seems pretty thin. But it seemed to help give me a closer smoother shave this morning with just my DE. Next shave will be with a SR to see how it performs there.