Festive Friday, Let's Hear it for the Boy

Today we are going with a gift for the guys. TheHub is blessed (cursed) with a very heavy beard, so his mantra throughout our married life has been "shave well and shave often".  In addition to his Fred Flintstone beard, he is also cursed with sensitive skin. (To be honest as his beard has grayed he no longer looks like F.F. in the afternoon but let's just keep that our little secret. The beard is still heavy, but gray casts a much lighter 5 o'clock shadow.  So shhhh!)

We have bought every brand of sensitive skin shaving creams known to man, be it gel, soap or cream form and all work to an extent, but still leave his face chapped and itchy. Today I thought I would whip up some oil dense shaving cream for him which would also work well as an extra handmade guy gift.

First purchase or save a foam soap dispenser.  I bought mine at The Dollar Tree and it was filled with grapefruit soap.  I thought it was a good idea since I would just pour the contents of the foaming soap into a decorative dispenser I already have in my powder room.  It was a brilliant idea if you can ignore the fact that the grapefruit bottle is very pink. I think there was a different product with a different scent  in  a clear bottle, but  no, I went for the grapefruit fragrance.  Why?  Not thinking? Or just thinking how good I think grapefruit smells? Dunno! But a dumb ass move on my part. Also if you are getting a bottle to recycle, make sure it has a label rather than the printing inked on the bottle. Rubbing alcohol might take it off, or it might not. I haven't tried yet because none of my guys would be thrilled with the pink bottle anyway.

1/4 cup olive, almond or coconut oil
3 tablespoons shea butter
1/4 cup castile soap
1/4 cup aloe vera gel or honey
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 tablespoon kaolin clay (optional)
vitamin E
3 drops Rosemary essential oil

Put the oil in a double boiler (I live dangerously and put it in a small pan on low heat.  I have better things to do than boil water just to get something to melt.)
Add the shea butter and heat it just long enough for the shea butter to melt.





                                                                                                                                                                                   






Whisk it rapidly to incorporate the oils . (Yeah right!  I keep chopsticks saved from Chinese take out and use it to stir so I won't have to clean my whisk afterwards.) Continue stirring adding all the other ingredients.
I was unsure about how much vitamin E to add so I used a sewing pin and punctured about a dozen of the capsules, squeezed out the vitamin E into the mixture and got tired of the process, so I stopped. Then I saw the rosemary essential oil sitting on the counter for another project I am doing today and thought it would be a nice, clean manly scent so I added just 3 drops.


This is before the baking soda addition.  That seems to
be what makes everything become really creamy.

Stir and stir and stir a little more until everything is smooth and creamy.  It really does become insanely creamy quickly. Put it into a bottle  and it is ready to use.

















I actually think a regular pump bottle would be just as effective as the foam pump.  This is not so much  a terribly thick lather as it is this a luxurious foamy cream.  TheHub was not around this morning when I finished this so I tried if first on my right leg.  It worked very well, and was not so soapy that it took a lot of rinsing to get it off.  It left my leg seriously smooth.  Then I put it over my face, like a guy shaving would do. I scraped it off with one of those unsolicited credit card junk mail cards, (you know, the ones with YOUR NAME and account number 00000-000-0000000 on them) then did a quick rinse so I could see how it felt on a face.  To be honest my face feels as soft as a baby's butt right now.







 I think this is going to be a winner.  Sons 1 and 2 both shave their heads on a regular basis so I am pretty sure this will be one of their "filler" Christmas presents.  Son 3 not only doesn't shave his head (yet!) but one of his "filler " presents is a beard brush.  Hope springs eternal that will change!

Update: Son2 gave it a try.  He declared it one of the bests shaves he had ever had (other than a hot towel professional one)