Grooming Dept

Well, Mickey Lee pre shave butter and SV Illipe butter removed from shopping cart. Hope will have chance to buy GD pre-shave as well as Janus soap.

Last five days have used V32 of the preshave with 1 GD tallow, 1 GD duck, 2 GD Vegan based shave soaps and a tallow based from Nobel Otter. As others have noted this preshave is slick with all the base types used so far by me and find it the slickest with the tallow and duck base, but vegan not far behind. I have 8 artisan/vendor balm or butter presshaves in my den along with 22 oil based preshaves and have to admit, GD V32 is best I have used so far. Not only does it make your shave smoother the post shave feel is terrific. YMMV but I normally do not rinse between 1 and 2nd pass just paint on the shave soap and found the 2nd pass to be smoother when I did it this way on two of my shaves versus rinsing between passes as recommended by Mohammad, and is the norm with most individuals. But have to admit the non rinse between passes were done with the tallow based soaps which I find to be smoother shave for me than vegan based soaps. A little does go a long way and all I know is that once this product becomes available, I will be placing an order and hopefully snag a couple of new soaps as well.

My only gripe with other pre shave butters is that there was always some unsaponified oils that could be comodogenic. I’ve read that some of the GD pre Shave formula has saponified oil but not sure if that is all of the components or just some. Either way so far so good with the GD pre shave.

Last five days have used V32 of the preshave with 1 GD tallow, 1 GD duck, 2 GD Vegan based shave soaps and a tallow based from Nobel Otter. As others have noted this preshave is slick with all the base types used so far by me and find it the slickest with the tallow and duck base, but vegan not far behind. I have 8 artisan/vendor balm or butter presshaves in my den along with 22 oil based preshaves and have to admit, GD V32 is best I have used so far. Not only does it make your shave smoother the post shave feel is terrific. YMMV but I normally do not rinse between 1 and 2nd pass just paint on the shave soap and found the 2nd pass to be smoother when I did it this way on two of my shaves versus rinsing between passes as recommended as is the norm  with most individuals. But have to admit the non rinse between passes were done with the tallow based soaps which I find to be smoother shave for me than vegan based soaps. A little does go a long way and all I know is that once this product becomes available, I will be placing an order and hopefully snag a couple of new soaps as well.

Fantastic update ram57!

I'm honored and grateful for how much you like Grooming Dept's soaps and the preshave. To get some parity, the Primus vegan base got one ingredients from the preshave and is made with Aloe Vera Juice in lieu of water and mango butter.

I was lucky enough to have Mohammad send me a sample of his V32 Preshave, and I have had a chance to use it on my past five shaves. I’ve used it with all of my personal Top Tier Soaps to see if I noticed any improvement in my shaves. The Soaps that I used while testing were B&M ‘Cool’ Reserve, Declaration Grooming ‘Sweet Lemon’ Icarus Base, Wholly Kaw ‘Fern Concerto’ Tallow and Donkey Milk, and Grooming Dept ‘Tacit’ Unscented Tallow Base. These Four Soaps are all Cream of the Crop for me, and I get better Shaves/Post Shave with these Soaps than with any other Soaps that I have used in the past. These four Soaps are also the only ones that remain in my Den due to their outstanding performance. I also used three of my most aggressive/efficient Razors in order to really put the Pre Shave to the test. During the testing I used my Blackland Blackbird OC, Timeless .95 OC, and my Wolfman .74 OC.

I have heard in the past that if you needed a Pre Shave in your routine, then you needed to find a better Soap. I have used numerous Pre Shave Oils and Butters in the past, and none of them have given me a noticeable improvement in my Shaves, especially with the Top Tier Soaps that I have been using. When Mohammad sent me a sample I was excited to put it to the test to see if I noticed any improvement in my Shaves. The Grooming Dept Pre Shave is a soft Butter, and I applied it per Mohammad’s directions. I applied approximately an Almond sized drop of Pre Shave to my Beard area and rubbed it into my skin for about a minute and a half. The product has a pleasant light natural smell, and after being rubbed in my skin almost had a waxy feel to it. I did my usual three pass Shaves with touch up during each shave session, and I didn’t rinse between passes per the instructions.

The results after five Shaves using the Grooming Dept V32 Pre Shave - Five Outstanding irritation free shaves. Even with using some of the best Soaps that I have found, my skin is so sensitive that I often get irritation on both sides of my Adams Apple when trying to get a very close and efficient shave. With all five shaves using Mohammad’s Pre Shave, I was able to get extremely efficient Shaves with zero irritation. None. To me, this is a testament to the performance of this product. In the past I have chased an extremely close and long lasting shave, but often at the cost of some irritation. Five consecutive shaves with my most aggressive/efficient Razors with no irritation is proof positive for me that this Pre Shave does add just that little bit of protection that I need to get my perfect Shave. My skin also felt outstanding after all five shaves, and whether that was because of the skin care benefits of the product itself or because of the fact that I had no irritation I’m not sure. What I do know is that I was very pleasantly surprised with the results, and that I will be adding Mohammad’s Pre Shave to my Shaving regimen.

Thank You GroomingDept for giving me the opportunity to test this product out. I’m looking forward to it’s release as well as trying some of your new Tallow Soap bases!

How much foaming/ whitening of the pre shave product is everyone getting? I’m getting some small bubbling and a whitish color that seems to change based on the amount of water on my face

How much foaming/ whitening of the pre shave product is everyone getting? I’m getting some small bubbling and a whitish color that seems to change based on the amount of water on my face

Thanks Marcos for your continued feedback.

I personally wouldn't call it foam, it bubbles just a tiny bit, or I'd say that it's not stable foam I suggest reducing the water. V33/Production is less waxy and has a more occlusive effect than apparent coating.

Some testers suggested not adding too much water to dilute the preshave, but increase the water for the soap lather instead.

I actually like over hydrating the preshave so it turns white then thickening the soap so it ismore stable - how experienced best results

YMMV!

I’ve found after a year of testing preshaves, slathering oils and/or butters don’t work, at all! They clog the razor, they don’t get absorbed into the skin, they don’t provide lasting or effective post-shave effect and some interfere with lather.

Exfoliants and scrub face washes are not effective as an effective preshave and/or don’t provide any skin protection. One doesn’t need to remove dead skin or remove oil from the skin. In fact they’re an irritant. One gets exfoliation from shaving, the blade and brush (face lathering) provide enough exfoliation.

I found that waiting to sooth the skin with post-shave products is not as effective as providing an ultra protective preshave that can penetrate the epidermis and prevent Transdermal Water Loss (TWL).

The bottom line is that 2 things need to happen before shaving (stressing the skin): Protect the skin as much possible and keep it hydrated.

The face-wash is a companion to the preshave and will focus more on TWL concerns (the preshave will get slicker in later generations next year). And when I get to the post-shave products I’ll explain why and how I designed them. This is all opus in profectus. Please bear with me

Thank you so much to all the people who have helped me make this preshave a better product than when I started.

YMMV!

I’ve found after a year of testing preshaves, slathering oils and/or butters don’t work, at all! They clog the razor, they don’t get absorbed into the skin, they don’t provide lasting or effective post-shave effect and some interfere with lather.

Exfoliants and scrub face washes are not effective as an effective preshave and/or don’t provide any skin protection. One doesn’t need to remove dead skin or remove oil from the skin. In fact they’re an irritant. One gets exfoliation from shaving, the blade and brush (face lathering) provide enough exfoliation.

I found that waiting to sooth the skin with post-shave products is not as effective as providing an ultra protective preshave that can penetrate the ephemeris and prevent Transdermal Water Loss (TWL).

The bottom line is that 2 things need to happen before shaving (stressing the skin): Protect the skin as much possible and keep it hydrated.

The face-wash is a companion to the preshave and will focus more on TWL concerns (the preshave will get slicker in later generations next year). And when I get to the post-shave products I’ll explain why and how I designed them. This is all opus in profectus. Please bare with me

Thank you so much too all the people who have helped me make this preshave a better product than when I started.

sounds good, when can we buy some?

I've tried pre-shave oils and creams and even soaps in the past and didn't find much use for them, if I'm being honest. oils clog the razor, as you mention.

I shave my head with a razor 2-3X/week. is your pre-shave good enough to shave with, without having to add additional soap/cream?