Thread: Product warning-skin burned

First off I will honor this forum by not naming the offensive product, I just wish to warn others. About a month ago I bought a set of pre-shave oil, shave cream and post -shave balm, all scented the same. After applying the pre-shave oil, my skin almost immediately began to burn. I quickly finished my shave to find I had what looked like sunburn. I tested a small dab of both the shave cream and balm. Both products burned my skin in the same manner. I relized these types of products are non-returnable but contacted the seller/manufacturer upset since his whole product line is based on his sensitive skin and made for the like. The same response I got with four emails was send me more money for a custom made sensitive skin version. I asked my brother and three friends to try the after shave balm. All four guys reported an unpleasant burning until washing off the balm. I emailed the maker again to ask what was in this. According to his list I believe the offending essential oil was cinnamon. I contacted two essential oil sellers and did a bunch of reading to conclude this. IFRA (International FRagrance Association) has a list mandating no more than 0.02% cinnamon EO used in any product due to its negative side effects in those sensitive. I guess the moral of the story is be careful buying shaving products from a guy mixing them up at home and interested more in money than customers.

Sorry to hear about the burn ..... skin wise and dollar wise. Since you had a couple of friends try it and they had the same experience perhaps the vendor will check his ingredients more carefully. FWIW, there have been guys post in the past that one or another shaving soap irritated their skin by the time they were done with the shave. Not to the extent you've described though. In that case the company was named and I for one used the same soap with no irritation. So with your experience, and your friends also, sounds like a bad batch.

Thanks for not naming the vendor. We would have pulled the thread if you did. It is against our rules to post customer/vendor grievances on the open forum. We don't know all of the facts and there are always two sides.

Products are sometimes strange I fell in love with A.O.S. lemon shaving cream I thought I would try there after shave gel in lemon, it sounded interesting and refreshing. When I used it I got the itches something terrible. I never had a problem with anything before or since. I guess everyone has something that doesnt agree with them.

You are quite possibly correct in assuming cinnamon oil may have been the culprit. It is a pretty strong oil, and one that certainly can produce the effects you mention. While I do not agree with IFRA on many things, cinnamon oil still is one to be very careful with. It does seem a somewhat strange decision to me to add it to a sensitive skin line.

That is what upset me most, Str8Fencer. The whole idea of this guys product line was everything he used gave him a problem, so he made his own products. I think he just made a bad choice putting so much cinnamon EO in a sensitive skin product. When I put the after shave balm or pre-shave oil on, the cinnamon note is overwellming.

Cinimininomon oil CAN be used on sensitive skin, it just needs to be used very very sparingly. Obviously, the products in question were simply too high of a concentration for your skin. Though I am floored at the thought a vendor of ANY kind would ignore the possibility of his product causing harm. At the very least he should have offered to pay for shipping to return the products so they could be tested for a problem. I can only imagine the kind of lawsuit that would result if somebody with an actual allergy were to use a problem product.

I had a similar problem with an aftershave lotion. It was Ogallala Bay Rum, but the amount of cinnamon and clove oil in it caused my skin to burn and get inflamed. It was so bad that even my eyes started to water and swell - I hadn't applied any even slightly close to my eyes!!

Everybody is different. I have issues with anything with more than a tiny scent, but use mostly unscented creams balms etc. Know thyself! They say. I walked into a Lush cosmetics store locally and had a sneezing fit, yet people work there all day long.

I find that most products that are what I consider overly perfumed, will irritate my skin. Although I love my T&H Trafalgar, it can leave me irritated. Great scent, nice shave but warm burn often sticks around. Not that dry, scratchy razor burn feel but a warm irritated burn. I had the same reaction to AOS Sandalwood. Just a little too much for my tolerance. Move on. There's a lot of choices out there.

I can't use most "spicy" sorts of products with cloves, Cinnamon, etc, so if they have that much in it, I'd be very uncomfortable, I expect. *shudders*.