First impression of Pacific Shaving Co. Caffeinated Shaving Cream
Being a big coffee drinker, I was quite intrigued when I first heard about a new "caffeinated" shaving cream from Pacific Shaving Co. I recently ordered a tube, and gave it a spin.
This is a tube rather than a tub cream. It is somewhat liquidy rather than thick. It smells pleasant -- kind of like menthol or even toothpaste. The manufacturer claims that the caffeine in the cream acts as both an antioxidant and vascoconstrictor -- thereby reducing redness, irritation, and bleeding.
For this morning's shave, I prepped with a hot shower, splashed some ice water pre-shave, and squirted a pea-sized amount of the cream in a mug and bowl lathered with a Vie Long horse brush. The brush lathered fairly quickly, but not very fully. I applied a thin layer of lather using circular and side-to-side brush strokes, and I got an alright, but not excellent lather.
The lather had a pleasant tingling sensation. I then brought out a Heljestrand MK 33, and did a WTG pass. I immediately noticed that the shave felt less irritating than normal. I shaved the whole right side of my face without any weepers or redness. By then, the left side lather had thinned and dried, and I had to squirt some more cream into the mug because the lather had already dried and dissipated into the brush.
The re-lather on the left was unfortunately not as thick and consistent as the initial lathering, but I got a nice, comfortable shave on the left side of my face. Once I finished the WTG I noticed that I had only one nick, and it was from poking one of the crevices on my lower neck, rather than a weeper.
I splashed some more cold water on my face, added some more cream to the mug (the previous lather had already dried), and added some water to try to get a decent constistency. I had a hard time making a good lather the second time. The resulting lather was thin and somewhat ephemeral. I resigned myself that I would probably have to re-lather several times during ATG.
Now, although my lather was not perfect, the ATG pass was really impressive. I shaved both sides of the neck and chin without any weepers or noticeable irritation. ATG on the checks was also very pleasant without any weepers. Remarkably, I did not get any weepers while doing a dummy pass (ATG/XTG )at the mustache area. This really impressed me because I nearly always get a few weepers while doing the dummy pass.
When I finished the shave, my skin felt very really good, without any throbbing irritation. I was able to skip the alum block (I normally use it religiously).
Bottom line -- the caffeine appears to work wonders in reducing irritation and weepers. The first stab at lathering left a bit to be desired. However, the lathering might go a lot better with a boar or silvertip badger.
Caveat -- This was my first shave with a recently acquired MK 33 that was in excellent shave-ready condition. The shaving cream may have been artificially enhanced by shaving with such a fine razor. I will have to see how the cream holds up with other razors as well.