Skip to content

6 Cooling Menthol Lathers For Every Taste

Listen to this article

cold water
We’re in the dog days of summer.  Who wouldn’t like to cool off?  For shavers a mentholated shaving lather is the classic skin-cooling solution.  But there are different levels of menthol.  Some like a little menthol…and some like A LOT.  Here are six shaving products with different levels of cooling.  I’ve selected products with basic, straight-up scents because most who want to use menthol are in it for the cooling effect anyway and not the smell.  As always, your experience may be different than mine!

Mild Menthol

1. Arko Cool* is also very mild in terms of cooling in my experience.  But the lather is good and it performs well (and it’s inexpensive).  It is unscented as far as my poor nose can tell.

Ingredients: Aquz, Stearic Acid, Glycerine, Potassium Hydroxide, Coconut Oil Fatty Acid, Propolyne Glycol, Soldium Hydroxide, Boric Acid, Parfume, Menthone Glycerine Acetal, Cetylsteryl Alcohol, Sodium Isostearoyl  Lactylate, Sodium Lauryl Sulfate, Potassium Chloride, Sodium Silicate, Allantoin, PEG-2M, Mythyl Paraben.

2. Jack Black Beard Lube* is a good brushless product with a mild cooling effect for me.

Ingredients: Water, Cetearyl Alcohol, Macadamia Ternifolia Seed Oil, Behentrimonium Methosulfate, Simmondsia Chinensis (Jojoba) Seed Oil, Hydrogenated Lecithin, Glycerin*, Mentha Piperita (Peppermint) Oil*, Menthol, Eucalyptus Globulus Leaf Oil*, Dimethicone, Phenyl Trimethicone, Calluna Vulgaris (Heather) Extract, Lecithin, Dimethiconol, Cyclopentasiloxane, Caprylyl Glycol, Caprylhydroxamic Acid. *Certified Organic.

3. DR Harris’ Eucalyptus shaving cream* is worth a mention here too.  It’s cooling effect is somewhere between mild and moderate to me, perhaps not quite the level of Proraso mentioned below, but it does have a much milder, “cleaner” scent profile.  As you might expect from an old school brand like DR Harris, performance is outstanding (I still think their soaps perform a little better than their creams.  However this product is not available in a soap from DR Harris).

Ingredients: Aqua (Water), Stearic Acid, Myristic Acid, Potassium Hydroxide, Coconut Acid, Glycerin, Parfum (Fragrance), Eucalyptus Globulus (Eucalyptus) Oil, Menthol, Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Extract, Triethanolamine, Sodium Hydroxide, Sodium benzoate, Limonene

Moderate Menthol

4. Proraso Menthol Eucalyptus is available as either a cream* or a soap* (along with its Omega versions of cream* and soap*) and is one of the best-known traditional shaving products…a true “classic.”  Many think of it as the baseline to compare other skin-cooling lathers.

Ingredients: water, stearic acid, cocos nucifera (coconut) oil, potassium hydroxide, glycerin, lactic acid, parfum, sodium hydroxide, aloe barbadensis leaf juice, glycyrrhiza glabra (licorice) root extract, tocopheryl acetate, sodium lauroyl sarcosinate, menthol pentaerythrityl tetra-di-t-butyl hydroxyhydrocinnamate, sodium metasilicate, tetrasodium EDTA, hydroxyethylcellulose, hexyl cinnamal, linalool, butylphenyl methylpropional, sodium hydroxymethylglycinate.

5. Cremo Cream Menthol and Tea Tree* brushless shaving cream is relatively new on the market but I find it to be not only a nicely cooling brushless cream (a bit more intense than Proraso but not by much in my opinion) but an excellent over-all performer as well.

Ingredients: Water (Aqua), Sodium Cocoyl Isethionate, Stearic Acid, Glycol Distearate, Cetearyl Alcohol, Macadamia Ternifolia Seed Oil, Polyether-1, Hydroxypropyl Guar Hydroxypropyltrimonium Chloride, Allantoin, Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Juice, Calendula Officinalis Flower Extract, Xylitol, Citrus Medica Limonum (Lemon) Fruit and Carica Papaya Fruit Extract, Olea Europaea (Olive) Leaf Extract, Linalool, Limonene, BHT,Perfluoromethyl-cyclopentane, Phenoxyethanol, Ethylhexylglycerin, Titanium Dioxide, Citric Acid, Fragrance (Parfum)

Mega Menthol!

6. Chiseled Face Cryogen* has been called “freezer burn in a can.” ‘Nuff said….

Ingredients: Stearic Acid, Aloe Vera Juice, Beef Tallow, Coconut Oil, Menthol, Castor Oil, Glycerin, Mango Butter, Avocado  Oil, Silk Powder

* Denotes an affiliate link where Sharpologist may receive a small fee if the product is purchased through the link.  Use your favorite search engine to find other sources if you wish.

What is your favorite mentholated shave cream or soap?  What else should I try?  Leave a comment below!

Author

Shave tutor and co-founder of sharpologist. I have been advocating old-school shaving for over 20 years and have been featured in major media outlets including The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and Lifehacker. Also check out my content on Youtube, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest!View Author posts

14 thoughts on “6 Cooling Menthol Lathers For Every Taste”

  1. Great article! My favorite is C.O. Bigelow (Proraso) Menthol Eucalyptus. I use it every summer. Not just great cooling, but it’s got great slickness and cushion, too. My next favorite, not mentioned in this article is Cold River Soap Works Limenthol. Nice scent along with the cooling effect.

  2. You forgot to mention one of the most ubiquitous menthol aftershaves Krampert’s Frostbite. I love that one.
    PAA also has a mentholated pre-shave jelly that’s pretty cold. So you can mentholate any of your shaves.

  3. Ravi Roshan Jaiswal

    Hi there!
    Fantastic post indeed.. Love to know here the top 10 cool menthol. Knowing about these was such a great interesting moment for me. So nice of you for making aware about this through these wonderful post. I like your way of presenting it in front of us.
    I’m a huge fan of Jack Black beard Lube. It is really amazing. Glad to know about Chiseled Face Cryogen. I trust in every things which is made up of Aloe Vera. I really got impressed looking such an informative post. Introducing Menthols along with ingredients is quite interesting to know for me.
    Thanks for sharing.
    – Ravi.

  4. I like to load the brush up with Mama Bears “Awakenings” and then I use the Shave Den Lanolin Shaving Soap in peppermint with double menthol. The effect is quite chilling.
    The first pass is good.
    The second pass is cool and refreshing.

  5. The Palmolive al mentolo shaving cream has a very intense cooling effect. I see it significantly above the Proraso cream or soap.

  6. Love Vostok as a high end menthol. I have the cream and soap. Just the right amount of Brrrr with great skin care. It made me see the advantage of tallow soaps.

  7. So wait, Proraso Green is “moderate”, not “mild”? Hmm… I’ve always considered myself to have a fairly low tolerance for menthol’s cooling effect, but that stuff’s always hit the spot for me — I think the eucalyptus scent is what seals it for me, though. In any case, I’ll have to try some of these others. (I tried PAA’s FrostByte soap, back when it was branded as HTGAM, and the experience scared me off of trying other mentholated products. Haha!)

    1. I picked Margaritas in the Arctic last month and it’s been pretty much my every other day soap for this hot weather. It combines my two favorite things for hot weather: lime and menthol. Great stuff!

  8. I like the Glacial line from Stirling Soap. If you like a strong menthol, you’d be hard-pressed to find a better choice. And it lathers like a champ!

  9. I’m a fan of Yeti Snot, and use it to make Proraso Green cream an even frostier shave as a superlather. (Refrigerate a full scuttle overnight to maximize the effect.)

Comments are closed.