October 27, 2009

Product: Nivea for Men Sensitive Shaving Gel

Sorry for missing last week's post. I got hit with the flu and was out for the week. Now I know what I look like with seven days growth of beard. After about four days, it actually stops feeling so prickly. It's bizarre.

As I've said before in this blog, I often wonder if it's more important to stick with what's made "for a woman's skin" when it's not really made for a woman's face. Hirsute women find themselves in a unique situation that way. There aren't really any shaving products made for a woman's face. However, women do use men's shave gels on their other sensitive areas and prefer them to those made specifically for their gender. It does happen. So what have we got to lose trying them where we need to?

Searching the web for what men found helpful with razor burn and sensitive skin when wet shaving, I found Nivea's shave gels mentioned and put it on my list of things to try.

Nivea for Men Sensitive Shaving Gel - 198 g

Ingredients
  • Water, palmitic acid, triethanolamine, oleth-20, isopentane, sorbitol, minderal oil, isobutane, gossypium herbaceum (cotton) seed oil, tocopheryl acetate, glycine soja (soybean) oil, chammomile recututa (matricaria) flower extract, bisabolol, PEG-90 glyceral isostearate, hydroxyethylcellulose, polyisobutene, hydroxypropyl methylcellulose, PEG-14 M, laureth-2, methylparaben, DMDM hydantoin propylparaben, BHT, fragrance

Things I liked:
  • The dispensing top is made of plastic, so it doesn't crud up and get rusty like metal ones.
  • This stuff foams really well. I've been using it since July 1 for my face and chest, and long after I thought the can was empty, it kept giving me more.

Things I didn't like:
  • It smelled like a guy should smell. It doesn't linger after moisturizing, but it sure mans up the morning ritual.
  • At first the dispenser was not very sensitive, and would pump out more than I could possibly need. I wasted a lot this way.
  • There was no change to the redness or dryness of my skin.

Did it do what it promised?

It claims to use vitamins and chamomile to calm irritated skin while shaving. Whatever was in there wasn't enough to improve the look or feel of my skin, but it didn't make it any worse. Ladies, I'd skip this one just because of the scent. No need to make shaving your face feel more masculine than it already does. Though if this smell was on a man, yum!

See what others thought of this product:
Reviews on ciao.co.uk
Reviews on amazon.com
Reviews on epinions.com

3 comments:

Sophie said...

oh, i started stealing shaving thingy from the ex when i stopped liking him. this one: http://www.shavereview.com/Content/2244
it's actually really good for the boobs becase they dont bleed after and you know how sensitive i am. and perfect for the armpits!
now i live on my own so i am using some women stuff - i find it is quite the same the way it works (its scent free though which is an advantage for my oversensitveness) - it's just more expensive ;)

Allerleirah said...

Interesting! I'll have to add that one to my list.

Sophie said...

disclaimer: i have not tried it on the face.
but EVERYWHERE else ;) it was fine.

the (over)sentsitive one, remember!