Slippy slimy shaved and smooth (King of Shaves Shaving Gel)

Member Name: Diaz

Product:	King of Shaves Shaving Gel
Date:	06/08/01 (266 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Very Smooth close shave

Disadvantages: Expensive

With a title like that you’d think I was writing about female mud wrestling, which has occurred to me, just don’t tell the wife. But no, I’m talking about a product that really could change your life, which I suppose could be over egging the pudding but hey, I’ve written about so many personal hygiene products, which are mediocre at best, allow me to get a bit excited about something which is actually really good.

Why is it good? Because it is a cure for one of the miseries of male existence, Shaving rash. Sure women have periods but shaving rash can be really sore and itchy. OK periods definitely beat shaving rash hands down, but it is uncomfortable.

Now King of Shaves (what a terrible name for a company, only one step away from Toys’r’us (shudder)) have been making shaving products since 1993. The whole thing started from a bedroom with Will King, (hence the terrible company name) and his wife filling their first 10,000 bottles of oil by hand and convincing Harrods and Boots to take it. From that you can assume the oil is pretty classy stuff and has a price tag to go with that. Both are pretty safe assumptions, but it is extremely good stuff and quite frankly worth the extra few bob.

The strength of their product and a rather nice website (shave.com) has made them the number 2 best seller in the UK behind Gillette. It’s not surprising that they have won awards and commendation from both Maxim and FHM.

So what kind of questions can you ask about this?

So what does it look like? A clear blue gel with what I thought were bubbles in it, until I put it on my face and found they were actually little microcapsules. This apparently is part of the “dual delivery system that protects and lubricates your skin throughout the shave”, nifty eh!! At least it would be if the capsules burst. I think you have to give them a good rub into the stubble to pop them but I suppos
e it helps.

What does it smell like? Well since there is Spearmint, Eucalyptus, Camphor and Tea Tree in the mix the overall effect is something a bit minty with a herbal undercurrent, which is quite pleasant. Most of the above ingredients make the skin feel pretty fresh and cool; it’s not altogether unlike the feeling you get from the original source mint products.

What does it feel like? Slimy, this has to be one of the slimiest things I’ve ever put on my face, safe to say I’m not going to elaborate past that point, the slimy things that come into contact with my face or indeed any other part of my body are probably a little too personal to print here. Of course when you start to shave slimy is good. The reason that is I expect is the Aloe and Glycerin in the mix.

How does it shave? The difference between KoS products and your usual Gillette types. Is they are low foaming, you don’t actually need foam to shave, just lubrication. So the gel is very slimy and pretty much see through which means you can see exactly where you are shaving, not just where you have shaved, a distinct advantage if you have a crop of spots that you don’t want to go under the blade. Not that I have spots of course, honest. The shave itself is very smooth and very close (if you use a decent blade that is) and it doesn’t cause skin rash. Or at least minimizes it. The other nice thing is it leaves the blade clean, the stubble you’ve shaved off doesn’t block up the blade.

How does it feel afterwards? The gel as I’ve said is very slimy, it does tend to stick to your hand and face post shaving, but a good rinse with water is enough to get rid of it. The skin, depending on how good you are at shaving, is smooth and it gives a remarkably close shave. Jeesh I sound like an advert…. The Aloe, Vitamin E and Tea Tree Oil all serve to help moisturize the skin post shave too, which I’ve ne
ver really been into the idea of but I suppose if it stops my face from looking like a saddle bag in years to come I suppose it’s a good thing.

What is in it? Well at the risk of being accused a plagiarist I’m going to cut and paste this one in, because quite frankly I can’t be bothered to type it out. You’ll forgive me if I have no idea what some of it does, but as a whole they all mix together to form the magic that is the King of Shaves Alphagel DDS.

“Contains: Aqua (Water), Aloe Barbadensis leaf juice, Sodium laureth sulfate, Glycerin, Acrylates/C10-30 alkyl acrylate crosspolymer, Cocamidopropyl betaine, Tocopherol, Benzophenone-4, Vitis Vinifera (Grape) seed extract, Acacia Senegal extract, Eucalyptus Globulus leaf oil, Melaleuca Alternifolia (Tea Tree) oil, Mentha Viridis (Spearmint) leaf oil, Camphor, Gelatin, Mica, Titanium dioxide, Propylene glycol, Diazolidinyl urea, Methylparaben, Propylparaben, Methyldibromo glutaronitrile, Phenoxyethanol, Benzyl alcohol, Methylchloroisothiazolinone, Methylisothiazolinone, Violet 2 (CI 60725), Blue 1 (CI 42090)”

What else do you know? My Granddad always used to say, “What do you know?” to me and it always stumped me, clearly I had a long way to go. What else I can tell you about this is that the Gel was tested on animals, human animals, which is a good thing. Visions of well-groomed prisoners and students come to mind. Also the packaging is recyclable, which is also a good thing. Oh and it can be used to shave legs, (ask my wife about this one) which as long as she uses her own blade is a good thing.

They were pretty good questions….

Now if you want to get your hands on this you could do worse than to go to the website www.shave.com and get yourself a freebie. The download is limited to one every six months but it’s worth it, the pack contained a sample of the gel and a sample of the oil, both with enough in t
o keep me going for at least a couple of weeks.

If you want to part with cash for the privilege then the gel and probably a fair few other things are stocked at Asda, Boots, Co-op, Harrods, House of Fraser, Lloyds, Safeway, Sainsburys, Selfridges, Superdrugs, Tesco, and Waitrose. The price for a 170ml tube (which is probably about six months worth of shaving) is about £4.20. Not surprisingly the website sells the product too for about 40p less.

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