Lab Series for Men Maximum Comfort Shave Cream, 8oz $15
Among the samples I obtained from Sephore, this was the first cream I tried. Aloe and caffeine (a wake-up word!) are trumpeted as active ingredients: its smooth, pearly texture required very little to cover, but within moments I noticed a weird numbing around the edges of my lips due to benzocaine, another active ingredient. If yours are small, this might not be an issue. Mine’s are huge; the numbing felt like I’d just stepped out of a dentist’s chair. Not a happy way to start the morning.
Zirh Shave Gel, 8oz $20
Both gels in the study provided ample lubricant, and another bonus: the clear film amplified my ingrown hairs, making it easy to flick them out of the skin with a needle before the shave. Zirh’s formula caused the least drag, but the other trumpeted benefits—there’s an “anti-aging” seaweed extract to smooth fine lines—were negligible, though maybe I’m too far gone for such benefits.
Anthony Shave Gel, 8oz $14
Lots of Mad Ave. buzzwords in the ingredients: aloe beads, sea kelp and slippery elm. Also there’s peppermint oil and eucalyptus extract, which makes the blue viscous (for boys, apparently: why can’t they come up with another color?) smell suspiciously like the stuff that comes out of a can of Edge, an oddly lowbrow association for the price but in a Proustian ploy, maybe one the manufacturers were banking on.