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After The Shave – Morral Brothers Bedford Blend Beard Oil

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Yes, yes, don’t worry – you are still reading Sharpologist. And yes, I’m back with another beard oil review. Just bear in mind, well, not everyone who busts out a DE razor daily hits every inch of their face (oh, you know, like me). Whether or not you’re clean-shaven, there are all manner of grooming products to help keep your face looking healthy and well-kempt. The latest of these to cross my desk is the Morral Brothers Bedford Blend Beard Oil.

Dual Action

As I covered in my last writeup, beard oils really are a twofer when it comes to what they do – they moisturize your beard (and the skin under it), which in turn creates a somewhat softer (and less scraggly) beard. Given that, we can skip past all the questions on why you might want to try a beard oil, and talk about what the Morral Brothers have on tap. And yes, they are really brothers, and the company seems to be a bit of a family affair (their great-great grandfather’s image shows up in the product pages).
Given their familial roots, and their ties to the Appalachian area, it makes sense that they’re creating products that are targeted to the everyday consumer, making an affordable product with high-quality ingredients. And those ingredients? Definitely all things that you can pronounce, and you’d likely find on the shelf in your local health foods / vitamin emporium: Sweet Almond oil, Jojoba oil and pure essential oils including Sage, Cedarwood and Rosemary.
These all combine to make for a rather unique scent. When I first opened the bottle, I couldn’t make my mind up if I was smelling a traditional “outdoors” scent, or something more akin to Vicks (of course, everyone’s nose has it’s own catalog to refer to, so your experience might be different than mine). And as I used the product, the scent (which does fade after awhile, so don’t worry about that) vacillated between those two major areas. More recently, I’ve picked up something approaching a faint onion-y smell (only when I first apply it).

How Does It Work?

The main question (since scents do fade away) is “how does it perform?” It worked just as I expected it too. For awhile, I used it solely, and my beard and skin stayed healthy (ie, no beard dandruff) and maintained the same bit of manageability I saw from starting to use a beard oil. That first test done, I then moved on to using the Morral Brothers oil on one half, and the Badger oil on the other half, for sort of an A-B comparison.
Long and short of it, they performed as identically as I could tell. Scent is a fairly subjective thing, so let’s turn to the objective to decide between the two. For starters, the Morral Brothers bottle addresses one of the shortcomings I noted in the Badger review – it has a much smaller neck, which makes getting the appropriate small amount onto your fingertips much easier. It’s also a narrower (though taller) bottle, which makes travelling with it easier in my way of packing.
Next up would be the ingredients – for those who may have sensitivities to certain products, this merits a closer look at the ingredients list. Last, and certainly not least, you’ve got the price. The Morral Brothers Bedford Blend Beard Oil comes in at a price of $13 for one ounce, which is the same as the Badger blend.
In the end, I’m glad I’ve made this foray into the world of beard oils. While the Bedford Blend may not be my absolute favorite scent, it gets the job done, and it is nice to mix things up now and again as well (which is why we’ve got all manner of shaving soaps and creams, right?). Application is easy-peasy with the smallmouth bottle, and it doesn’t leave your skin or beard feeling overly greasy or oily. Oh, and if you find yourself really liking the scent, but want more control over those chin follicles, they’ve got a mustache wax (hint: it works on beards as well) in the same scent – you can pick up a 2 oz bottle of the beard oil plus a tin of the wax for just $29. morralbrothers.com
 

Patrick Kansa

Patrick Kansa