A while back I reviewed the Bevel shave kit. The review generated a lot of interest and one of the trends in the comments was that people wanted to try parts of the kit without having to get the whole thing. Those folks may get their wish, because Bevel recently reached out to me to announce that their products are coming to Target stores and target.com.
Elements Of The Bevel Shave Kit
The Bevel razor is a heavy three piece razor with a long handle and an interesting razor head design: it is engineered so that it is almost impossible to get an uneven exposure off each side of the blade. The balance of the kit includes a bottle of “priming oil,” a tube of shave cream, a bottle of aftershave, a pure-grade badger shaving brush, and a pack of blades.
Bevel calls their pre-shave oil a “priming oil.” I admit I am not a big fan of pre-shave oils generally but the Bevel “Priming Oil” seems to do its job without fuss. It has a barely noticable scent (lavender?) to my nose.
The Bevel shave cream is a solid, if not luxurious, product which gets the job done. It works acceptably well by itself and performs a bit better in tandem with the Priming Oil. The shave cream does not have a scent that I can detect with my admittedly poor sense of smell.
The aftershave is pretty good–moisturizing without being greasy. Again, I detected no significant scent in the profile.
The shaving brush is well-made. It may not have the highest grade of badger hair but the performance entirely acceptable–it’s fairly stiff but without the “scratchiness” that some pure hair brushes can have. Someone on the manufacturing team was on the ball here: no badger “funk” smell!
The double-edge (DE) blades are unbranded though I am told they are “German engineered.” They work fine for me although my standard recommendation about trying a variety of blade brands still applies here. Blades seem to work different for everyone.
Bevel At Target
Bevel products are now available “a la carte” at select Target stores and at Target.com (affiliate link). If they’re not available at your local Target yet don’t fret, they will be soon.
Shaving With Bevel Products
Preparation is a hallmark for a good shave and the Bevel priming oil will help but pre-shave oils are no substitute for properly cleaning and rinsing the area so the stubble and skin are ready for shaving.
Next saturate the brush with water then shake out the excess. Add a dollop of shave cream–the exact amount will depend on how soft your water is and how close you want to shave, you may have to experiment a bit.
Start building the lather. You can build it directly on the face as I’m doing here or you can build it in a bowl or even the palm of your hand. If the lather is looking a little thin or like school glue, add a bit more water to the brush and continue lathering. This might take a couple minutes to show results. You’ll know you’re on the right track when the lather gets thicker, creamier and leaves soft peaks. After the lather has built sufficiently, smooth it over with a painting motion for an even coverage.
Now it’s time to shave. If you have never shaved with a single blade razor before this might feel a little weird at first. The key is to use just enough pressure on the razor to keep it on the skin–don’t press down.
And unlike a cartridge razor you will have to be mindful of the angle of the blade edge against the skin. It helps if you divide your skin into flat parts, like a diamond’s facets, and shave one part at a time. It might help to gently pull the skin taut when needed, just be sure not to over-stretch.
You may have been taught that you need to follow the grain of the stubble, and that’s a good idea here too. But using a single blade may let you cheat a bit by just following one dominant direction rather than every twist and turn. In fact, as long as your stubble growth is only a day or so old you may be able to just shave downward initially to help learn the pressure and angle concepts.
After you’ve finished with those initial strokes, take a look to see if your stubble has been reduced sufficiently. If it has, you’re finished with the shave! If you want to get a closer shave, relather and shave again from the opposite direction.
To get that smooth-as-glass look you may need to lather again and shave against the grain. However some people–particularly those with very sensitive skin or men of color with very curly hair–just can’t pull that off so proceed with caution.
After you’re finished shaving, rinse thoroughly and leave the skin moist. Then apply a small amount of after shave balm to moistened palms and massage into the skin.
This is great news. I’d love to try some Bevel products, but have no interested in a complete kit, nor a subscription.
Since software is something that regularly needs to be replenished, I will probably start by trying the pre-shave oil–and maybe the shaving cream. And while I don’t need another razor, if the price is right, I’m grabbing one of those, too. It really is quite attractive (if a bit slippery looking).
Thanks for the news.
Since I tended to suffer from razor burn and ingrown hairs I did decide to try the complete kit from Bevel. The razor is better than I expected and the shave is superior to electrics and twin/triple/skyscraper razors.
I’ll try a few other products but the system just works.
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