Barbasol 1919 Classic Shaving Cream for Men, USA Made, 6 oz (Pack of 1)

This is ultimately the best "non-foaming" shaving cream on the market, compared against canned stuff and other similar shaving creams. I'm not comparing it against shave soap because it's ultimately not in the same ballpark. This is a quick and easy solution, whereas shave soap requires preparation and some practice. Comparing this to Cremo is like comparing a Crown Vic to a Kia Soul. Cremo lacks the slickness this has, as well as the texture that allows it to spread easily. This is easily the slickest shaving product I have encountered, rivaling pre shave oils by a high degree. It doesn't require a lot of the product for application, but I tend to use more than is necessary. It absolutely requires water to be effective, which seems rather obvious, but the role of water is more vital than you'd think. I recommend applying a dolop to your palm, running your hand under the tap to saturate it, and then starting on the face to build up a lather. If it doesn't spread quite right, wet your palm and continue to lather. It doesn't build up to a foam, instead it leaves a white sheen that's incredibly slick. It seems to soften my coarser hair, which I do like. This whole process is about thirty seconds or so. The smell here is unmistakable as classic barbasol. It's very nice, and seems almost upscaled here. They make an aftershave in the same line that has the same scent from what I hear. I use a Rockwell 6s razor, usually using the 3 or 4 setting. I use Bic Chrome Platinum, Russian Astra Greens, and sometimes Feather blades. This product really helps the blades to slide across the surface of the skin, and catch hairs without issue. Overall, I truly think this is a fantastic shaving cream. You're far better off using this over canned shaving cream, as well as those jars of shaving cream you'll find out there. It's fast, and it does a great job, and on days I don't have the time to use shave soap I'm happy with the results here. It's much better than Cremo, in my opinion anyway, though Cremo does also have fantastic offerings other than their shaving cream. Pretty great!

This shaving cream is perfect! My razor glides over my skin much more smoothly, giving me a noticeably closer shave without any pulling. Best of all, I’m no longer getting the little cuts I experienced before. I’m very pleased with it!

Smooth shave, classic scent.

This is a brushless shaving cream that you apply with your fingertips. If you prefer to use a brush, I suggest using one of the whipped creams like Van Der Hagen or Cremo. This cream is very slick and concentrated which makes for a smooth nick free shave whether your using a cartridge razor or a safety razor ( I alternate between a Cremo cartridge and a Wilkerson Sword DE razor). A sticky residue does stay on your hands once you apply it which means you need to rinse your hands before you start shaving otherwise the handle becomes slippery. It also clogges the razor pretty easily. Hense the 4 star rating. I usually rinse the shaver between strokes like you would normally to clear any debris. It's a fragrant smell without being to overpowering. Shea butter, lanolin etc I don't know about the 'classic barber shop smell.' When I was a kid they used to take me and my brother to the barber college for hair cuts while my father got a shave. Everything smelled like Witch-Hazel. Enjoy!

Love this shaving cream. You don’t get a thick lather, but it’s very slick for an easy close shave. Will definitely reorder this product.

PRO - Made in the USA. - Tube is recyclable and product is cruelty-free. This should appeal to the environmental types. - I needed only 2 passes over my face to achieve the baby-butt smooth shave, as opposed to the usual 3 pass method. (With the grain, from the sides and then against the grain.) That surprised me. - I needed only a nickel-sized amount to cover my face for each pass. The directions didn't lie about that one. - ZERO irritation. And I mean ZERO. It's almost as if I didn't just drag a sharp razor blade across my face removing the whiskers and at least some of my outermost epidermal layer. This was actually quite impressive. - I didn't need to go over the 'trouble spots' on my neck like I normally do with all other shaving products I've used in life. Wow! - Pleasing scent that reminds me of Lemon or some other citrus fruit. - Would be a MUCH better product to take with you on long airplane flights or camping trips than an aerosol can. The pressure inside of an airplane isn't going to affect a plastic tube that you squeeze to extract the product. CON - Using a shaving brush didn't work well FOR ME. Best to use your fingers to work it into your skin. - Tends to gunk up my safety razor to a point where simply rinsing it under the faucet in the sink doesn't work 100%. I needed to take the razor apart and rinse off each individual piece, including the blade, when I was finished. That may not be such a good idea for guys with butterfingers to be handling a DE blade while they have wet hands. (Mine were dry while doing this, BTW.) This won't be an issue if you use a straight razor. I don't even want to know how guys still using Cartridge Razors would clean up after they're done. EDIT: (5 July 2021) A quick rinse doesn't clean off the razor, but holding it under the sink for a few moments usually does. - Costs considerably more than the foam in a can does. $6.99, to be exact. The foam cans cost me $1.47 for the 10 oz. variety at Wal-Mart and $1.00 for the 5oz. at Dollar Tree. However, the price for this cream is competitive with similar products from other manufacturers. - No 'audio feedback' when shaving the whiskers off of my face. Not hearing them get shaved off was a little strange. I got used to the ASMR-like sound the razor made when cleaving/removing the whiskers with the foam. That's how I knew I was getting results after that initial pass removed most of them that were clearly visible in the mirror. Not sure if this is really bad, but it does require some adjustment on my part. FINAL JUDGMENT Barbasol has a real winner here. I think I'll use this for those trouble spots on my neck while using the foam for everything else, including the (almost) everyday shaves. I do feel like I can confidently recommend this product to other men.

Somehow, I didn’t think I’d need to zoom in on the back of the bottle in Amazon’s (finicky) image viewer and read the small print there to know this Barbasol product wouldn’t produce … well … anything resembling Barbasol. Been treated stupid by other reviewers insisting “IT’s NOT supposed to LATHER”, but given that Barbasol has historically always been a foam, I don’t feel it was a stretch to assume that the product would at least allow the development of a thicker lather via brush+bowl. In addition, while the bottle refers to Barbasol as the first “no brush, no lather, no rub-in” cream, this implies that the can’s delivery mechanism (aerosol in modern times) prevented the need to create lather with a brush, but doesn’t necessarily logically preclude the development of a foamy consistency via that method. I guess what I’d like is a hard or soft soap in the classic Barbasol scent that I can use with a brush and bowl. If that’s what you’re looking for, this product ain’t it. It’d be nice to have something like that for those of us with coarse facial hair who use a brush for extra exfoliation/softening and who appreciate quintessential American-made brands and have positive, nostalgic associations with the original scent. To break down the individual “feature” ratings, I’ll use Cremo Original as a comparison given it’s similarity in terms of the type of cream this is. I gave SCENT a 3/5 based on the above expectations, as the scent is very good and does have a classic barbershop scent, though is a bit more citrusy and less … almost “sunscreen-like”, compared to the canned stuff. The scent is also pretty subtle in my opinion. I’d give the scent strength about a 2/5 and is similar to Cremo’s scent strength. I feel the scent profile itself is a magnitude better and more “Barbershoppy” than Cremo’s original scent. I gave COMFORT (which I’ll approach as PERFORMANCE) a 1/5 because: 1. I couldn’t create a lather no matter how long I tried (either in my hand, face or bowl), 2. The consistency is more gel-like than cream-like compared to Cremo (which at least creates a lather if you try hard enough), and isn’t very dynamic. It’s so thin that it’s almost imperceptible if rubbed in for more than a couple seconds. This makes is difficult to use the cream as a guide for where you’ve made a pass. And, 3. While this is a “slick” shaving cream, as marketed, I feel the performance was worse than Cremo’s and rather than softening/adhering to whiskers, the more gel-like consistency causes it to almost just slough off completely when shaved over. Many people prefer slick creams to lather creams, but I wouldn’t recommend this to those who like the former for either straight razor or safety razor shaving. All that said, if you want to try this, I’d recommend you have generally softer/thinner whiskers, and that your face is almost completely dry when you apply it. It doesn’t mix well with moisture, and I could see myself reaching for this occasionally when I’m in a big rush and don’t intend to use alum or a moisturizer after shaving. I don’t have much to say on VALUE FOR MONEY, given this won’t be a daily cream for me, but I gave it a 3 since, if it was, it’s under $10 and does come with a fair bit of product. It’d be higher if this felt in any way like a concentrated formula that you truly only needed a nickel-sized amount of, but I felt the need to apply almost a half-dollar/almond-sized amount to feel I had any substantial face coverage (and I keep a mustache, so I’m only even shaving the neck and cheeks). I was tempted to even go down to 2.5 or 2, because given the thinness of the formula, I felt the need to reapply it a bit over halfway through a first full pass. Overall, if you’re looking for an American-made brush/lather-friendly barbershop scent reminiscent of Barbasol, I’d recommend an “indie” online soap artisan who sells a barbershop-style cream with scent notes of bergamot, oakmoss, basil and patchouli. I’ve had Zingari Man’s “The Wanderer” recommended, as well as Maggard Razors’ “London Barbershop”. If you just want something for $10 or under on Amazon, I’d get Proraso’s green cream or softsoap. It has its own way thing going as well, but is still very fresh/clean-smelling and is reminiscent of Barbasol. I gave this a 1/5 overall because it’s closer to a 2.3/10 for me, and it didn’t have anything worth rounding up for.

This product will provide a smooth shave. However, it is best for straight razors, not the modern two, three, or five blade systems most people use. It is greasy and hard to clean unless you use soap and water to thin it out and a cloth or tissue to wipe the excess off the razor.

Barbasol have really hit it out of the park with this new formulation of their brushless cream. I had used the previous tube version before on and off since the 90s, and this new reformulation is significantly better. The cream is brushless, so it is supposed to be applied by hand and will not make a big lather like a canned shaving cream, but it provides an exceptionally slick and rich cream that has eliminated any irritation for me during shaving. Just use a hot towel as prep and then apply the cream. At the moment you can't buy this in the stores in Canada, unfortunately. Hopefully that will change, but until then Amazon is a good place to source this.

Foams just enough with the use of water and rubbing. Makes my skin silky smooth and has a nice neutral scent to it. Its better than my Vichy Gel.