REVIEW: Dollar Shave Club vs The Art of Shaving

[natewood70]

Hello my fellow AG'ers!!! I hope everyone's holiday season has offered exactly what they were hoping for, and hopefully the new year will bring many great things your way.

I just tried a new shaving program from my normal one (Dollar Shave Club) to see how a more expensive product would stack up against those designed to bring value to those of us who have been plagued with the high cost of shaving gear.

I AM NOT SPAMMING YOU WITH THESE PRODUCTS: Quite frankly I have been enjoying Dollar Shave Club for over a year now, and since I had the opportunity to try something different and more expensive, I figured I would give someone a review... But where? Not facebook, not youtube, so why not on AG? So here it is!

I will be comparing the product that is used during the shaving process to help provide lubrication to your skin while the blades glide across it and shave away your stuble. Much like clay lubricant, or car wash soap, these products are supposed to aid in lifting away the sediment (your facial hair) and lubricating your tool (blade) while the process goes on.

The Art of Shaving Perfect Shave Kit:



This box is the sample box that is given to you anytime you have a service performed at one of the Art of Shaving locations. My wife treated me to The Royal Shave as one of my Holiday gifts, and let me tell you... It is the greatest hot shave experience I have ever had.

Anyway, inside the box you will have the following:

1. Pre-Shave Oil: Before shaving, rub a small amount of oil on your hands and massage into the beard. Lather up Shaving cream or soap on top of the gel and shave.

This product had a texture exactly what it sounded like... oil. Almost the consistency of a more "gluey" olive oil. No real "smell" except a mild pine.

2. Shaving Cream: Always shave during or after a hot shower. Using hot water, lather up a small amount of Shaving Cream with a brush or your fingers and shave with the grain. For a closer shave, re-lather and shave lightly across or against the grain. Rinse with cold water and apply After-Shave Balm.

This product look a lot like saltwater taffy while being stretched. It had a nice white sheen to it, but was the consistency of freshly whipped cream. I couldn't smell anything with this at all in terms of a scent.

3. After-Shave Balm: Apply to face and neck after shaving.

This product had a texture much like any other OTC moisturizer available for your face. Vasaline moisturizer, St. Ives, Neutrogena, etc... Much like the pre-shave oil, it had a slight pine scent.

MY THOUGHTS:

I was really excited to see how this product stacked up against what I've been using, and was really anxious to try it. First I lathered on the oil. It had a really nice feeling against the skin, and left a warm feeling on my face. After I rinsed my hands I applied the shaving cream. The shaving cream needed a little bit of hot water to begin the lathering process, but once it went on it was thick and spread well.

Once the first products were put on, I dipped my razor (The 4X from Dollar Shave Club) into hot water and began my shaving. Wow! The razor glided so effortlessly against my skin, and caught all the stuble I had on my face in one pass. I have NEVER experienced a razor gliding that well in my life.

Once I got to the halfway point of my shave, the parts where I ran the razor over were starting to burn. It wasn't a bad blade as it was brand new, so I figured maybe it's just slight razor burn that will go away once I apply the after shave balm, so I just carried on as normal.

I rinsed my face with cold water and prepped it for the after shave balm, because at this time my face was really starting to burn. I applied the balm, and it made the burn more intense. After a few seconds it calmed down, but I still have a slight burn on my face (30 minutes after this was applied).

My face at this time doesn't feel smooth. It feels tacky, even my wife noticed that she couldn't glide her hands on my cheeks as smoothly as she normally could. The hair is gone, but the "just shaved smoothness" was not present.

Dollar Shave Club - Dr. Carver's Easy Shave Butter



1. Dr. Carver's Easy Shave Butter Transform the dread of shaving into the joy of softly wiping whiskers off your face. it’s not shaving cream. it’s shave butter.

I applied this with a quarter sized amount and it had a very smooth, toothpaste like consistency. It smelled of pine, freshly cut grass, and an all around pleasant out-doorsy scent.

MY THOUGHTS:

What a fantastic consistency, and scent this has. It performs almost like an AIO product for our vehicles (cleans, polishes, and protects) as it provides lubrication, hair raising capabilities, and moisturizes in one shot.

Although it does not offer the same smoothness as I experienced with the pre shave oil from Art of Shaving, it is still smoother then your standard shaving cream/gel. One of the nicer things I enjoy about this over any other shaving cream is that it is transparent. The transparent design allows those of us who have facial hair to maintain a clean line around the edges of our designs.

Throughout the entire shaving process, even against the grain it offered no irritation, and I had no burning sensation on my skin. After I completed all of my passes and rinsed my face I had a slight tingling sensation similar to that of the menthol from vicks vapor rub, but not as intense.

My skin was smooth, and unlike the Art of Shaving product it was not tacky and still had no burning sensation. My hands could glide smoothly across my skin, and it felt moisturized and clean.

PRICING:

The Art of Shaving - Perfect Shave Kit $25 - $300

This price range of course depends on the size of the kit you order, and what type of brush you get with it.

Dollar Shave Club - Dr. Carver's Easy Shave Butter $8

This product only comes in one size, but even so the price is very attractive.

The longevity on each kit will clearly depend on how much product you use, but as it stands right now I have used the shave butter about 25 times and still have a few applications left in the tube.

CONCLUSION:

For me it is a no brainer. The Dollar Shave Club product is clearly in a league of it's own and with it's price point, ease of use, and AIO design to shorten the time needed to shave it makes the most sense to me.

Please keep in mind that everyone's skin is different so your experiences may be different than mine, but just as an FYI to everyone I do not have sensitive skin. That being said, I was shocked that the Art of Shaving products irritated me so bad.

You can find more information about the products at each company's website, and hopefully you found this review helpful in some way to help ease, and shorten your shaving routine!

https://www.dollarshaveclub.com/

The Art of Shaving: Your Online Source for Quality Shaving Products

[scottdevine]

Best blade hands down Gillette Fusion...be careful...they are sharp and light weight...amazing shave...I am an Art of the Shave guy, and their products with Fusion is unreal...I may have to check out the dollar club deal after this review

[natewood70]

Best blade hands down Gillette Fusion...be careful...they are sharp and light weight...amazing shave...I am an Art of the Shave guy, and their products with Fusion is unreal...I may have to check out the dollar club deal after this review

I used to use the Mach 5 blades, and never really had a problem with them except for the expense.

I joined Dollar Shave Club because I got 4 new blades every month delivered right to my home for $6 a month. That INCLUDES the shipping.

The blades are amazing, and it's WAY cheaper than buying the Gillette products. I'm not taking away from the quality of Gillette, but it didn't make sense for me to spend a lot more money when I could get blades that were just as good, if not better.

[jwollam]

I use a safety razor and regular shaving razor blades. Everything from Amazon was about $50 or so. I've had everything for over a year now, still working on my first pack of blades (100 per pack). Gives a nice close shave, and really saves alot of money. I splurge and get gilette shave gel lol. Really beats spending $30 a month on razors.

[Father87]

Thanks for review I've been meaning to sign up!

[VISITOR]

merkur safety razor with wilkinson sword double edge razor blades here...

Wilkinson Sword Double Edge Razor Blades (25 Blades)

Merkur 34C Heavy Duty Safety Razor

I don't use any type of shaving foam anymore and use cremo shave cream. use this once and you'll never use foam again...

Cremo Cream Shaving Cream

[aim4squirrels]

merkur safety razor with wilkinson sword double edge razor blades here...

Wilkinson Sword Double Edge Razor Blades (25 Blades)

Merkur 34C Heavy Duty Safety Razor

I don't use any type of shaving foam anymore and use cremo shave cream. use this once and you'll never use foam again...

Cremo Cream Shaving Cream

I'm with this man on the safety razor. My biggest problem with Mach 3, 4, 5, etc. was heavy razor burn on the neck when I tried to shave everyday.

Safety razor has cured that.

Still going thru my sample pack of blades, but it's unbelievably cheap compared to Gillette, Bic, etc cartridges.

Now the Cremo shave cream, not so much a fan. I've cut myself badly every time I've used it. Almost as if it's too slick for my style of shaving.

[Hoytman]

Nice review and interesting thread.

Over the years I've tried every single razor brand for men sold in the big box stores. One thing I am convinced of, if you can do it safely, nothing beats a straight razor...nothing. But there's a learning curve not only with shaving, but with caring for the blade and keeping it sharp. While I don't mind caring for the blade, nor keeping it sharp part, I found a more simple alternative.

I also tried just about everything under the sun as far as shave creams go including ordering fancy , high dollar soaps and such from catalogs.

That said, I always find myself going back to cheapo (in cost), buy it anywhere Barbasol shave cream...doesn't really matter which one as long as it's Barbasol. In may be cheap, but I found nothing else like it, nothing as thick, nothing that works like Barbasol. There's a reason it's been around for a long, long time.

So, in combination with Barbasol, and to keep this short, throw away all the men's razors in the big box stores and buy some of the women's Bic Soleil 4 blades and never look back. Unlike all of the men's razors that I could only get about 3-4 shaves out of, with the women's razors, combined with shaving with cold water (hot water, lather, then shave with cold water) I can shave a dozen and more times (as high as 18 shaves) with these razors.

I can't explain why, but the womens razors seem to work far better for me and I even seen a difference in using the womens razors when I started rinsing the blade in ice cold water (a tip from an elderly friend). Seems that hot water changes the molecular structure of the blade and it dulls faster (that's what he told me). I thought the guy was nuts until I tried it, and by George it flat out works.

By the way, the old man tried to give me a lather brush and soap set and when I asked him why he was getting rid of it he told me he's found nothing better than Barbasol. I wasn't surprised being that I already used it.

[kaiten408]

I'll throw another one out there for safety razors. However, personally I use Feather blades over Wilkinson or any other brands because they are the sharpest blades you can get for a safety razor. I have very thick, coarse beard hair and need something like this to give me a smooth shave.

As for shaving cream, I have so many I can really say one is the best, but try Proraso it's cheap and works well. But definitely use a nice pre shave oil, it makes a huge difference.

[Phimp27]

Thanks for the review. I've actually been looking into getting better shaving creams. I bought a 4 packs of Edge shaving gel in the cans and I'm on my 3rd can. The first one I had I used about 1/4 and the bottom sprung a leak and filled the cabinet with shaving cream. The 2nd I used about 1/4 and all the air inside is gone so nothing comes out.
With the razors I've been looking into getting something better. Like everybody else I'm tired of paying lots of money for the razors.
I'm gonna try these out when I get a chance