Razor: Merkur 33C Blade: Astra Superior Stainless (2nd shave) Cream: Derby Lavender Brush: Omega S-Brush I squeezed a quarter size amount of cream into a bowl and began to build a lather with my brush. I added a few drops of water here and there to get the consistency where I wanted it. The lather took me about 2 minutes to build. The first thing I noticed was the scent. It's pretty strong but pleasant. I lathered up and began my first pass. The razor glided down my face very easily. This cream has nice slickness to it. After my first pass my face started to feel different than it normally does when I use Barbasol. It felt a tad on the raw side. Not bad, but noticeable. I lathered up again and began my second pass. Again the razor glided down and across my face easily. This cream certainly provides a close shave. But again, my face felt raw. I went back in for a few touch ups on my trouble areas like around my nostrils and under my nose. After my touch ups I washed up and inspected my face. There was a hint of irritation under my nose and my neck. I applied some cocoa butter moisturizer which did sting some. Overall this shave cream did an ok job. It did much better than the tallow soaps I have tried which ripped my face apart, but it's not nearly as good as what Barbasol does for me. It kills me to say that because I want to love creams and soaps, but it is what it is. I'm not sure if I will use this cream again. The shave is good, but I'm not a fan of the residual feeling. If anyone is interested in a trade, send me a PM !!!
I haven't tried any creams yet but I'm looking forward to doing so at some point. I'm surprised that you haven't had any luck with soaps either. For me, switching to shaving soap was the biggest change I made. Some shaving foams seem all right, but the canned gel stuff is just bottom of the barrel for me. Make sure to give the cream a few more tries before deciding that it isn't for you. I'm ashamed to admit at how long it took me to finally start getting consistently good lathers with my soaps, but it was worth it in the end. I've heard good things about the Hungarian Derby Lux cream, but that might actually be from another company altogether.
The feeling on my face this morning is tight. There is only slight irritation under the nose but I still feel the need to moisturize. I have very sensitive skin and I can usually tell right away whether a product (deodorant, skin cream, shower soap ect) is going to be alright.
You might want to do a test lathering - when your face no longer feels irritated, try lathering up with it without shaving and see how it feels. If you start getting that tight, irritated feeling again, then you have a contact allergy to some ingredient in that cream and it will never provide a good shave. The only thing you can do is avoid it, although it would be nice if you could narrow down the likely culprit on the ingredient list so you could simply avoid any shave products containing it in the future. Along the same vein, if tallow soaps "ripped your face apart", the problem may not have been the performance of soaps in general but a reaction to an ingredient in particular. If you had trouble with several soaps and they were all tallow, then maybe tallow is the culprit - or more likely lanolin if they also contained it, as many tallow soaps do. (A lot of people have a contact allergy to wool, which is actually a reaction to the lanolin in wool.) One of the many good vegan soaps might be better for you.
Pretty good advice although I'd like to mention that I have gotten the tight skin feeling from bad shaves. I woke up this morning feeling like my skin was saran wrapped across my face due to using a bad blade yesterday. I've come to realize that feeling a burning sensation after shaving is a more surefire way to really tell if you are allergic to something. It can be difficult to distinguish from razor burn at first but once you recognize the sensation, it's very obvious. If you do end up having to go the vegan route, you still have a ton of good choices fortunately. I only use veggie based soaps these days and I find that they perform just as good or better than any tallow soap that I have tried in the past.
Derbylux is from a Hungarian company named Caola-Alfa which has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with the Derby creams from Turkey.
Yes, to eliminate the "bad blade / razor / technique" possibility, the OP could also go back to the Barbasol he got a good shave with, get a good shave and then, changing nothing in the successful setup except the soap, try his new soap or cream. If he gets a tight face when using the exact same razor and blade that didn't do that on the previous shave, then he knows the problem is entirely the soap and nothing else. Failing everything else, the OP should remember that there is no law that says one must use a soap or cream. Barbasol is a perfectly respectable shave lubricant that has been used and enjoyed by millions over many decades. In fact, I think there is even a Barbasol lovers thread on this forum. (either here, Badger + Blade, or The Shave Nook, because I've seen it and those are the 3 forums I visit) I know many men do not consider their shave complete until or unless they use some powerful aftershave and/or cologne. However I often get headaches from strong fragrances, so I tend to end my own shaves with unscented witch hazel or balms and I do not consider that this makes them "less complete".
