Pinaud-Clubman Shaving Cream

On Monday, I dropped in at OBSCO for some old-school Pinaud-Clubman products.  The Pinaud Talc and a can of Pinaud shaving cream is what I was after.  The green containers and classic presentation are unmistakable.  Simplicity and elegance from another time.

As you can see in the picture below, this a fairly large bottle at 340 g of shaving foam.  I paid $6.95 for it.

TEST STAGE:

• State: Out of the shower
• Razor: Merkur 180
• Blade: Treet Platinum Super Stainless
• Pre-Shave: None
• Shaving Cream: Pinaud-Clubman Shaving Cream
• After-Shave: Lucky tiger Vanishing After shave

The foam coming out of this can is very promising.  It is incredibly dense and light .  So light in fact that it might be hard to gauge your quantity. The density is a very nice feature as it has no air pockets and will seal in the moisture of your shower quite efficiently.    At this point you will also become aware of the slight fragrance that is present.  It is the typical Pinaud scent.  I actually have no reference point to describe it.  It is a classic-authentic barber shop fragrance.  If you have ever been in an old-school Barber shop your nose will recognize it. It is not over-powering or unpleasant.  For that it is a well balance perfume and I like it.

I normally gauge a shaving cream/foam against two criterias: moisture trapping (insulation) and lubrication.  On the moisture trapping front, it is winner.  On the lubrication, I was a little surprised that it wasn’t just another de facto win…  It performed better that the Clinique Gel I just tested, but it wasn’t as good as the Proraso foams for examples.  When rinsing out the razor between passes I did not notice much oil or fatty residue.  By comparison, when I shave with the Lucky Tiger Mollé cream, you can literally see the fat content being rinsed out.  The blade needs something to glide as smoothly as possible on your mug.   Now I need to make sure to clearly state, that this was not a bad shave.  It just wasn’t a life altering experience either.  It is an OK shaving foam.  But because of the Pinaud-Clubman brand name and how impressed I have typically been with the brand, this one was a bit of a let down.

Just to close the loop on the razor rinsing, like most foams rinsing with hot or warm water is effortless and clean.  There are no residue in the blade.

Once the shaving part was completed, I used the Lucky Tiger Vanishing cream which behaved very well.  I am almost tempted to say that it did better than usual.  The Lucky Tiger Mollé cream has an ever so slight numbing effect along with incredible lube to makes it as smooth of a shave as possible.  But even after wiping your face down after, there is still a little product left, which diminishes the refreshing and cooling effect of the vanishing after shave cream.  In this case, the Clubman foam is “entirely” wiped off when washing your face with a hot face cloth, therefore giving you the full experience of the Lucky tiger Vanishing cream.  I enjoyed a fresh and cool face for almost a full 60 minutes.

That being said, I will do a different test tomorrow morning and add my beloved Proraso Pre-Shave cream to the protocol.  The Proraso Pre-Shave offers a great deal of  foundation lube which I am sure will take this foam to new heights.

On the next morning I repeated my shave with the Pinaud foam, but as mentioned, this time it was preceded by the Proraso white pre-shave.  If you have used a pre-shave you are in the “know”, but if you haven’t you are missing that something that will transform your outlook on shaving.  I suggest you read my posts on the Proraso Pre-Shave.

So here we are.  The pre-shave being applied, I then proceeded to apply some of the shaving cream.  Because the pre-shave is fairly oily, the cream was initially a little resilient to stick, but I did manage to cover my mug without much trouble.  Upon the first razor pass it was clear that we were back in proper shaving grounds.  The blade had no trouble gliding on the skin while doing its job.  The shave was completed somewhat faster than yesterday’s shave with an overall improved comfort level.  This only reiterates something I concluded before, there are very few products that can do two things very well.

Pre-shave comes in a few a varieties; there is obviously the Proraso creams but there are a number of oils as well.  I am not a big fan of oil, but that is mostly because I don’t like the feel of it on my face.  Not because it is not a good solution.

In conclusion, this foam has impressive insulation properties but your shave will be improved if you add a pre-shave to help with lubrication.

PS – When shopping at OBSCO, don’t forget to mention or use the STYLE4MEN discount code at check out.

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