Clarins Men Rasage Ideal Smooth Shave

Shaving is the bane of my life, I‘m not constantly craving that lumbersexual look and to be honest shaving ranks as one of the largest thorns in my side when it comes to attempting to make my face look respectable. Sometimes I can go weeks without shaving until the resulting beard starts to itch - at that point out comes the razor, and to avoid a shaving rash out come lots of products to choose and use (look how I made that rhyme….). 

Today I will be giving my thoughts on Clarins Men Rasage Ideal Smooth Shave, something that came in my Selfridges&Co male grooming box back in June. Yes, it has been sat around that long!

To put it quite simply (as I’m a simple kind of guy), I have been using a whole host of shaving gels and creams over the years as a kind of bathroom pre-emptive strike against the botchy red rash on my neck that I used to get when shaving.  

Taylor of Old Bond Street Coconut Luxury Shaving Cream, Erasmic Lather Shave Cream and Gillette Fusion Proglide Shaving Gel are all favourites that have helped put pay to that rash in the past but fancying a change I decided to try out Clarins. 

A foaming gel, ISS as it shall now be referred to (not ISIS) has a lovely fragrance, clean and fresh as you would expect but it is highly perfumed, almost floral. I love it, its much better than the synthetic fragrances you can get with other shave products.

Even though this is supposed to be a gel when you dispense it is comes out in a combination of gel and foam form and this is where it starts to go down hill. Quite a lot of the gel is needed to cover my face - yes, it may be a large face but it felt like I had used nearly half of the 50ml can. That wasn’t a particularly pleasing development but worse was to come…. 

The lather, if you can call it that is watery and runny, not rich at all and a bloody nightmare - as soon as it was on my face the lather started to deteriorate immediately, soaking in way too much to the point that I couldn‘t tell where I had applied it to my face. You would think that this would make shavng easy and the build up on the razor less - WRONG. 

Even with short stubble the gel/lather mix (whatever you want to call it) acts like a natural barrier between the blades of the razor which meant vigorous cleaning in between strokes down my face. It took twice as long to shave and time shaving is not my idea of fun.

My skin felt hydrated in fairness to ISS, but have soft and smooth cheeks does not forgive the fact that an hour after shaving the dreaded red blotches started, and the stayed for two hours. Nothing would clam it down. 

I won’t be finishing the can…..

NOT RECOMMENDED

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Selfridges&Co Male Grooming Box

If you don’t fancy splashing the cash on an expensive gift this Fathers Day well don’t panic, a cheaper option for the dad who takes care of himself is available thanks to Selfridges&Co.

For a limited time only they have pulled together a range of male grooming products in one beauty box that is available for delivery for just £20 (excluding postage and packaging which is just £4.95). 

I’m reliably informed that beauty boxes for men are as rare as rocking horse excrement so I was really pleased when the postman unexpectedly delivered this and I got to root around inside to see what products I already had, and what new products I could test for the blog over the coming weeks.

For just £20 the box contains:

• A 50ml tube of Scaramouche and Fandango Hydrator, with anti-fatigue Chronodyn (that sounds made up to me) cell energiser and vitamin E; 
• A 50ml tube of Scaramouche and Fandango Body Wash, with re-mineralising Brazilian Papaya and vitamin E complex;
• A small 20ml tube of Scaramouche and Fandango Face Scrub with exfoliating prickly pear extract and once again that Chronodyn cell energiser. The combination of micro-beads and prickly pear extract I’m assured will remove grime and residue leaving firm and toned skin.

• A 130g bar of Triumph and Disaster Shearer's Soap. It has such a rich lavender smell, even through the wrapping that I can’t wait to see how it fairs with its claim of using poppy seeds to exfoliate the skin while remaining gentle. As a plus it contains no Parabens which again I’m reliably informed dry out your skin;
• A 57g tub of GO 24/7 Texture Paste for my hair. I can’t wait to try this and it gives off a really clean smell as soon as the lid is removed. It’s like a cross between pledge polish and shake ‘n’ vac. Weird I know but I really like the smell, I just hope it holds hair as well! 
• A 75ml bottle of Kiehl's Facial Fuel Cleanser. With menthol and caffeine this promises to remove dirt, surface oil and impurities with having a drying effect on my skin. We shall see…..

• A 100ml bottle of Molton Brown Black Pepper Body Wash. Wow, you really can feel the spice as soon as you give this a whiff. It’s strong, but that isn’t a bad thing. Personally I like my body washes to be strong and masculine and I can take a good guess that this will hit the spot;
• A 50 ml canister of Clarins Smooth Shave foaming gel. A quick squirt of this onto my hand and a pea sized amount lathers up really well. It’s rich without the thickness of most gels;
• A 9ml bottle of unisex fragrance Comme Des Garςons 2, which I confess to never of hearing of. A dash to Google and it appears to be one hell of an expensive fragrance that promises to be rich and exotic (hmmmm, where have I heard that before).  A blend of Sumi ink, incense, patchouli, cedarwood, angelic root, vetiver, labdanum, amber, magnolia, new aldehydes, cumin and cade oil I have no clue how this is going to smell until I cut it out of it‘s lovely packaging. 

Looking at the overall retail price of the contents this strikes me as a bargain and I’d give it two thumbs up. 

It contains enough of each product to give a thorough try before you buy, particularly with the really expensive stuff and would make the perfect gift in the presentation box.

If you are interested you can buy the boxes for a limited time only here.

Thank you for taking the time to read my post, please do let me know if you decide to buy a box as I'd love to know what you think.

What products would you put in a male grooming box?

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