Thread: 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.

I tried the regular shaving cream and I had a decent shave but I also had poor lathering issues. I emailed the company and although they were very helpful and offered to have the guy who did their video talk me through my lather issues, (I declined), I still could not resolve my poor lather issues with their product during several attempts. By the way, their package does state, low lather? Why? I thought that was the point of lathering for a shave? Sigh.


Mike

@mglindo -- that's interesting that you had lathering issues too. What brush(es) did you use? How much cream would you use (pea size, almond size, nickel size?).

I plan of giving the cream another spin tomorrow with my Semogue 2000 boar and my Ongo 15/16 Solingen.

Parker badger brush and almond sized amount of cream. Maybe a bit more. Did you watch the video on their web site? They hand lathered in their demonstration. It seemed whatever I tried did not work well. I thought they would offer a refund. Nada! Not the water, as other soaps and creams work well.


Mike

I've had good experiences with the shave cream and after shave balm. It does feel really good on the skin.

Originally Posted by lindyhop66

I've had good experiences with the shave cream and after shave balm. It does feel really good on the skin.

I'm glad it worked well for you. Only worked one pass for me and then it was thin and I had to add more cream for each pass. What type of razor are you using? DE, straight razor, SE?

So I did a second shave yesterday with an Ongo 15/16 (close cousin of a Filarmonica 14) and a Semogue 2000 boar brush.

I tried using an almond size amount of cream, but I had a hard time building up a lather. My brush may have been a little too wet, though. Eventually, I got a very thin lather that gave a really nice shave. For WTG, there was no redness, irritation, or weepers.

For ATG, I add another almond size portion of cream, and this time, the lather was much thicker. I was able to get a nice layer of my face that held up well trough shaving the first side of my face. The second size dried a little -- but this will happen with a lot of shaving creams because I live in such an arid climate -- I just relathered the second side, and was able to complete a comfortable shave.

Once again, on ATG, I had no weepers, even on the mustache area. As mentioned above, this is the first shaving cream I have found that has prevented ATG weepers. I had minimal irration after ATG and almost no razor burn on the neck.

Impression after second shave:

1. Shaving cream is superior for comfort, reducing redness, irritation, and weepers. Again, this is the only shaving cream I have every used whether I have been able to do an ATG/Dummy pass at the mustache area without weepers.
2. The manufacturer's claim that "a little goes a long way" is somewhat misleading. It seems that a fair amount of cream -- at least 2 almond size amounts -- are needed to get a good lather and to fill the brush. This seems like more than I normally need to use to get a good lather with TOBS, Cyril Salter, and Arko creams.
3. This cream might be a little pricey to use over time. I paid $9 for 3 oz. tube. That comes out to $3 per ounce, which is around what TOBS or Cyril Salter charges. However, the Caffeinated cream seems to require more product per hsave than those aforementioned creams.

I will try out a shave with badger brush on Sunday and report back.

Keep trying, you may find out the trick to this cream.


Mike

Or if you want an inexpensive cream that works well and has a long history, try Proraso.

Proraso isn't bad. I have a tub of the green. It definitely lathers well and smells good.

For me, though, Proraso tends to dry out halfway through the pass. The lubrication it gives is alright, but I've tried other creams that are far better (like TOBS or glycerine-based creams). I always get a few weepers using Proraso when I do the ATG pass.