- Oct 7, 2019
- #1
L.A. Jones
I was looking at some extra soaps/creams I had when I stumbled upon this old tube of Palmolive brushless shave cream I picked up in a lot purchase some months ago. It smells ok and produced a slick, if not robust, product when I lathered it up in my hands. I will give it a go this weekend.
Anyone have an idea of what year this was produced?
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- Oct 7, 2019
- #2
Shaver Nath
L.A. Jones said:
I was looking at some extra soaps/creams I had when I stumbled upon this old tube of Palmolive brushless shave cream I picked up in a lot purchase some months ago. It smells ok and produced a slick, if not robust, product when I lathered it up in my hands. I will give it a go this weekend.
Anyone have an idea of what year this was produced?
Wow. Do they still make a brushless shave cream? Would be great for work days when I'm in a hurry. According to The National Museum Of American History it was made in the 1950s.
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- Oct 8, 2019
- #3
ajkel64
Check Out Chick
Staff member
Nice @L.A. Jones, looking forward to your review.
- Oct 8, 2019
- #4
BigJ
WOW! Look forward to your report on how it performs.
- Oct 8, 2019
- #5
M
mars
Does brushless not mean nonlathering?
- Oct 8, 2019
- #6
A little help as to the era it is from: I believe pre-1953, the company was "Colgate-Palmolive-Peet". After 1953, "Peet" was dropped.
- Oct 8, 2019
- Thread starter
- #7
L.A. Jones
For grins I just put a bit into a Timeless Bowl and attacked with a wet brush... no lather. Then I tried the same with Cremo and got the same results. I suspect, much like Cremo, it will serve me as a pre-shave which I lather on top of.
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- Oct 8, 2019
- #8
Chandu
I Waxed The Badger.
mars said:
Does brushless not mean nonlathering?
Sometimes, but not always. Nancy Boy can be either. Some do more or less lather on the face and some are more like a lotion (Dr Carvers Shave Butter, Van Der Hagen Shave Butter, Billy Jealousy Hydroplane) others are more like a thicker paste / cold cream (Cremo, Schick Hydrosense Shaving Cream).
I don't particularly care if they lather or not. If I'm using a brushless, to me, that's a big hint that I don't want or need to use a brush with it. Most of them work excellently but many people expect them to lather up and write them off when they don't. Foolish in my opinion. I've had some great shaves from brushless creams that did not lather. Usually they have excellent slickness, especially if you don't over apply them. Use a light coat and rub some water on as well as most of them require a bit of water for slickness.
I think some of the brushless or variations came about during WWII when many types of oils and fats were in very short supply as they were commandeered by the gov't to make explosives. But the companies found out some of these new formulas worked well and consumers liked them as well.
BTW, if you like Lavender, this is a nice brushless. And I did successfully make a nice lather with it with my Cremo horsehair brush. This seems to lather better than the normal stuff with the red cap. No reason it should that I know of but it did. If you in Target, you won't find it amongst the mens shaving stuff, you have to go to the women's aisle. French Lavender Shave Cream - https://cremocompany.com/shave-cream-french-lavender
Beware of the skin game
And soon after the brushless came the foam
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- Oct 8, 2019
- #9
freebird0064
Brushless creams are not intended to lather. Just squeeze a bit on your fingers and work into whiskers, then shave.
- Oct 8, 2019
- #10
malocchio
mars said:
Does brushless not mean nonlathering?
no...it means you apply the cream without a brush. Rub a dab between palms then massage into whiskers. Brushless creams were very big decades ago, especially with travelors . Palmolive is a high quality brushless.
- Oct 9, 2019
- #11
FireDragon76
Latherless shaving is quite old. In Rome... and also in Asia, they used various kinds of vegetable oils.
I've experimented a few times with Barbaso's brushless cream. It's hard to keep my wihskers as wet as what I get with lather. However, it makes excellent pre-shave. Then you get the best of both worlds.
- Oct 9, 2019
- #12
M
mars
malocchio said:
no...it means you apply the cream without a brush. Rub a dab between palms then massage into whiskers. Brushless creams were very big decades ago, especially with travelors . Palmolive is a high quality brushless.
I don't believe that's true. You can use any cream without a brush to create lather by just applying by hand. The brushless types are different and hardly, if ever, lather up. If they do, it takes a whole lot of work.
- Oct 9, 2019
- #13
Chandu
I Waxed The Badger.
You can use any cream any way you want, but typically brushless doesn't lather. Molle is another. It's still made today by Lucky Tiger. It has the consistency of Noxema cold cream.
M-O-L-L-E - http://www.old-time.com/commercials/1940's/Molle.htm This web page states it and if you look at the period ads for shaving creams, there were two primary types of creams, they called them brushless and lather shaving creams.
Most here want yogurt or santa beard lather, but some of the brushless will give a shave as good as any soap.
- Oct 9, 2019
- #14
Squirrel
Isn’t Cremo a brushless shave cream?
I remember Palmolive brushless was my fathers go to. Remembering that smell like it was yesterday. Good stuff I bet.
- Oct 9, 2019
- #15
Chandu
I Waxed The Badger.
Squirrel said:
Isn’t Cremo a brushless shave cream?
Yes. The regular Cremo that comes in the squeeze tube is brushless and for the most part latherless, though as I mentioned, the Lavender did lather for me better than the original with the red cap. It's very slick if you rub it on thin and with plenty of water. It's not that slick by itself, but with water super slick.
Cremo makes a lathering cream in a tub, but I haven't heard anyone saying they though it was any better than anything else.
Funny when you look at the ads, they are targeting the folks (mainstream shavers) who would be the cart users today. People that don't enjoy the shave as a meditative practice, but just want it out of the way. A quick one pass with no cuts/nicks is what the targeted audience would want.
- Oct 10, 2019
- #16
malocchio
mars said:
I don't believe that's true. You can use any cream without a brush to create lather by just applying by hand. The brushless types are different and hardly, if ever, lather up. If they do, it takes a whole lot of work.
You're right...it does not "lather", however it does "coat" the beard with a soapy lubricant that enables a shave as good as lather , and these are still referred to as " creams "... There are several brushless creams on the market today , Stephan's Smooth Shave, made in the USA , is one of the best.
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- Oct 10, 2019
- #17
Chandu
I Waxed The Badger.
I like many of these, but there are a few I won't try as many contain parabens, and oddly enough parabens were a preservative of choice because they work excellently and such a very small part of the population is allergic to them. I'm a part of that very small population.
I checked out the Stephan and it has parabens, so I won't be trying it. Molle Brushless has parabens too.
- Nov 4, 2019
- #18
FireDragon76
Chandu said:
I like many of these, but there are a few I won't try as many contain parabens, and oddly enough parabens were a preservative of choice because they work excellently and such a very small part of the population is allergic to them. I'm a part of that very small population.
I checked out the Stephan and it has parabens, so I won't be trying it. Molle Brushless has parabens too.
Have you tried Kiss My Face? It has no preservatives. It also can be used with or without a brush.
The shelf life is decent despite not having chemical preservatives.
- Nov 4, 2019
- #19
Chandu
I Waxed The Badger.
I have not. I thought it went off the market. Is it available again?
- Nov 4, 2019
- #20
FireDragon76
Chandu said:
I have not. I thought it went off the market. Is it available again?
It's undergoing a relaunch after it was acquired by Aliph Brands recently.
It's still available through Amazon. Some people have reported it still being on store shelves in certain parts of the country, such as New York state.
Even though it can be lathered, it is more thin than the typical cream, and was really designed to be used without a brush. I usually use a larger ratio of product to water, as a result, and it was extremely easy to work with. It used to be my "go-to" cream years ago when it was more widely stocked in stores, just because the post-shave feeling was so good, and unlike Proraso (another common mass-market cream back then), it did not irritate my skin.
The Lavender and Shea is probably the best of the KMF creams.
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