Another Pre-shave Oil thread

I received a sample of CF pre-shave oil from Uncommon Scents in Boston and a sample of Bronnley A/S balm.

I pared those with CF Lavender. The shave this morning was extravagant. This is the first time that I have used CF or Bronnley. The pre-shave I though eh can't hurt right. OMG what a difference it made in destroying hair. I have a smoother face now than I have had with any other cream or soap out there. The Bronnley was a little weird. The balm is thick like lotion so a little goes a very long way. The scent is neutral, ie no smell, no soap smell, no nothing. Talk about non-greasy, smooth and sealed face. Wonderful. A little Men's Pino Cologne (A great substitute for Pen's BB) and we are off. If you get a chance to try the CF pre-shave, do it. If you get a chance to try the Bronnley classic do it. They will not disappoint.

I am going to try the CF with other soaps and creams that I have to see how it fairs across the board.

I'm picking up a bottle of Pacific Shaving Oil later this week w/ the intent of using it as a preshave. It's supposed to be a substitute for lather (sacrilege for us str8 shavers!:nono:), so it should work. I think the main oil is sunflower, plus Aloe, menthol, etc. I'll report back when I've used it.

Well, I haven't been able to find the bloody stuff anywhere, save for online, so I decided to just make my own: 2:1 castor oil: olive oil & a few drops of lemon oil--this is more or less what AOS makes. Just for fun, I rubbed a drop into the tip of my chin (3-day beard) and as I sit here typing this, it does feel softer than before. Could be my imagination, but we'll find out tomorrow after a nice shave test!:)

I also added another :1 of grapeseed oil to thin down the mix a bit.

The shave this morning was very good. My Wapi could really use a coticule right about now, but I didn't really get any irritation. It was definitely close & easy to cut ATG (on my chin), but this was a 3+day beard--those are always easy to hydrate. I'll definitely keep playing w/ this stuff, though. Looks promising so far.

My next project is to create a copy of T&H oil & try that!

Thank you very much for the recipe! I will "brew it up" this weekend and try it out. I've never used a preshave oil. Usually, I wash my beard with goats milk soap (one of my friends supplies it for free. He has a farm and WAY too much time on his hands. :0) ), apply the warm lather of what ever shaving soap/cream I'm playing with and then go ahead and shave. The preshave oil is a great idea.
Hopefully this will help. For some reason, this week, I've been slaughtering my neck with nicks and cuts. Never had this problem before and I haven't changed anything in my routine (sharpenning, stropping, shaving creams or otherwise). I suspect I'm just having an off week. LOL!
In any case, I'll try the olive, grape seed oil and lemon extract recipe as a preshave and see what I get.
Thanks! Much appreciated!!!
-Gene

A little bit of olive oil if whiskers are thick.

Yup, no reason to buy "preshave oil" when simple olive oil will do the job. Although I've tried a few preshaves to see what I was missing, but haven't really found them to be necessary. Simple does it for me.

Don't forget the castor oil--that's supposed to be the emollient (beard softener, basically).

Another thing that helps, while in the shower is to use Dr. Bronner's soap on your beard. Just rub it in & rinse out. It really helps to remove existing oils & allow the water & later the preshave to soak in.

To those of you guys who tried olive oil, how did you keep the results from turning disastrous?

I tried EVOO once and it did several things:

1. Made me smell like a jar of olives, and sort of like a pizza
2. Left a hard to scrub ring around my sink
3. Made my face so oily I had to take a shower after shaving
4. Was so thick and heavy I had to use it AS the lather
5. Stained my blade :rant:

Granted, I may have used too much because I didn't have a proper container to get it out of, but even still.. it was horrible.

50% Extra Virgin Olive Oil, things of living in Spain.
50% Pure Jojoba Oil.
Any of you tried?
Concerns, please.