Proper Skin Care by Shaving

Shaving. It is something most people do on a weekly basis (sometimes daily).  But is there more to shaving then just looking great and having smooth skin?

Most people do not realize that shaving has a lot of benefits to the skin and body. Women and men alike shave to look professional and obtain, soft smooth skin. Men typically shave facial hair as to have a clean look, obtain soft smooth skin, and impress women. Women shave their legs to have that pretty women look and also to have clean, smooth, soft skin. But shaving does more then just making men and women look professional.  It proves to benefit the skin in many ways.

First off, shaving helps to keep the skin clean and free from dirt and debris. Every time you shave you are actually removing dead skin cells off the surface of the skin. This helps to create that baby smooth feeling one gets after shaving. Not only does it give you that silky smooth feeling, it also helps to keep skin looking younger and fresh. By constantly removing dead skin and dirt, shaving opens the pores and allows the skin to stay wrinkle free longer.

Shaving can, however, have many side effects if done improperly. Improper shaving can lead to minor cuts, itchiness, and razor burn. It is import to use proper shaving products when shaving (oil, soap or cream). These shaving oil, creams and soaps are designed to keep the side effects down to a minimum. They do this by slightly numbing the skin and allowing it to stay moist the entire time you shave.  But even the most experienced person using proper oil, soaps and creams can encounter a minor cut if they are not paying full attention while shaving.

It is also important to remember that shaving is not just limited to facial and leg hair. Shaving can be done to any part of the body that has hair. Sometimes shaving can be a religious statement or even a fashion trend. No matter where you shave, the benefits can be seen. Great, smooth silky skin is not only a great feeling for you, but for your body and the people around you as well.

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The PLEASURE of Shaving (4)

The pleasure of using a soap 

Sorry for all my very numerous readers who were  expecting the next issue of the Pleasure of Shaving Series.

Today, we will discuss about how to obtain a good lather using shaving soap. If you remember well, in my last blog post, I clearly said that canned foams and gels should be banned from you bathroom. The more important issue whit canned foams and gels (on top of their very high ecological costs) is the fact that they dessicate the hair...And hair need to be kept (very) wet for being properly cut by the razor. Also, the lather is needed for allowing the razor to "glide" on your face, which will be more easily obtained with a shaving soap and/or shaving cream.

Personally, I am more an adapt of using shaving soaps, but I reckon that Shaving Creams, that I will also discuss in a next blog post, are excellent products too.  

There are plenty of Shaving Soaps available on the market. I could easily say that Raz*War Shaving Soaps are superiors to the others (:-)) but, you wont believe me so easily and, hence, you would also notice that we are selling not one but two different soaps. Why this? This illustrates the somewhat complexity of the questions. 

Some science for starting: Soaps are the results of the a chemical reaction known as "saponification" (To see more on Saponification, see Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saponification). During Saponification, fatty acids derivatives (To be found in vegetable oils or from animal fat, like tallow) are transformed under very alkaline conditions (Contrary of acidic conditions) to obtain a "salt" and an "alcohol" derivative. Hence, Soap is basically a "salt" of a fatty acids. The molecules obtained have "soaps" properties, enabling, through the high polarity of the molecules, to extract dirt (If you want to know more, click here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soap). 

Do you get me? Hu? Or, you just are wondering why the hell I am giving you a lesson of Science?  Bear with me.. If you follow me, you will understand why you should choose a soap properly:

• A last piece of Science: The alkanine conditions is often obtained by lye, or Sodium Hydroxyde or NaOh: a very dangerous product. Some soaps have a very very ligh excess of NaOh; they are "hard soaps", alkaline and should be prohibited for shaving. Some soaps, have a very light excess in fatty acids; they are call "free fatty acids" soaps. These are perfect soaps for shaving (because excess of oils) but are difficult to manipulate (somewhat soft) and not stable.
  ->Prefer soaps with light excess of fatty acids (In most case, the choice will be made for you, on that topic)
• Soaps, by nature, dessicate the hair...and the skin. In fact, they really extract water from the skin. You certainly have noticed that. Hence, a humectant need to be added to Soap. Glycerin or Sorbitol are example of humectants.
  ->Prefer soap with lot of humectant (too much humectant renders your soap soft). I have a preference for sorbitol, that leaves a better post shaving experience.
• Not all fatty acids are the same! There is a dozen of very common fatty acids like: Palmitic Acid, Lauric Acid, Myristic acid, etc... In a specific (vegetable) oil, you will see a different proportion of all these fatty acids. In Palm Oil and Kernel Palm Oil you will, for example, find more...Palmitic acid. Palmitic acid and Oleic acid have foaming properties. Others are less foamy, but more appropriate for a dry skin (Linoleic Acid for example). Other are more appropriate if you have an allergy.
  -> Hence, you can choose your (shaving) soap based on the fatty acid used for saponification.
• On top of the fatty acid, and, hence, the oil used for the saponification reaction, very often, other oils are added in the soap AFTER the saponification. These are, often, essential oils like cedar wood oil, lavender oil, etc... Also other oils, can be added like olive oil, of other source of grease (Like Donkey's milk).
  ->Chose your soap based on the properties of the essential oil that your are looking for.
• Some soaps - basically the cheaper products - have unnecessary ingredients in them. Or surfactants and detergents might be added.
  ->Avoid them. Prefer a higher quality product.

Hence, let's now go back to the two soaps proposed by Raz*War. Based on these example, you will understand why and how to choose your shaving soap.  

• Our "modern shaving soap" is made with palm oil which contains a very high concentration of Oleic Acid (38-40%) and Palmitic Acid (43%-45%). This provides a nurturing soap with a stable foam. There is a light excess of fatty acid making the soap more nurturing. Sorbitol is added in high proportion (7%) giving to our soap strong humectant qualities. But this humectant leaves also a a very agreable post shave feeling. Aloe Vera extract have different properties, including skin care properties. An essential oil, Bergamotte, is also added: Bergamotte is fresh and revitalizing and adapted to majority of skins.
• The "classical shaving soap" is also mainly composed of palm oil. But, for this soap, Glycerin is used as humectant instead of Sorbitol, at a lower concentration. This more classical formulae is the formulae choosen by barbers. The ingredients will provide you with a more abundant foam. 

Personally, I prefer our "Modern Shaving Soap". My secret formulae is to combine it with our truly magic shaving oil. The foam obtained is creamy and I very much like the perfume and the post shaving impression. 

Please follow my advise for using the shaving soap. And after having obtained a creamy and rich lather, massage your face with the brush. Then after, after the "massage" motion, switch to a "painter" motion with your brush.  

Next time, we will discuss the shaving creams... 

 

Posted via email from Raz*War Social Echo

The PLEASURE of shaving (3)

The "lather-up" phase: Why you should avoid gels and foams? 

At first, let me tell you what are the thing to consider when choosing a products:

• The product need to leave the skin wet and to allow the wetness to stay
• The product should not content menthol or benzocaine. These ingredients desensitize the skin (Hence, you are less able to choose the right amount of pressure to guide your razor) and closes the pores. 
• Avoid unneeded ingredients: alcohol, preservatives, dyes, toxic gases (Isobutane and propane): Gels and Foams are full of these.
• The product should be easy to use.
• The product should not stay on your face after cleansing and should leave a positive feeling after shave.

Ok, now that you get it right: Why should you avoid gels and foams?

Foams were introduced in the early forties and get immediately an immense success. It became suddenly extremely easy to obtain foam and lather up the skin. Gels were developed as a new generation product, to answer to the need of consumers to get at least some pampering.  But, consider the following:

• By essence, foam desiccates the hair: indeed, foam “attract” the wetness of the hair (see pre-shave products), especially the foams made without usage of water: the foam coming from cans.  If the hair is dry, it will be more difficult for the blades to enter in it. 
• Of course, foam desiccates the skin also: As an impact, the razor head will glide not so easily
• Consequence of the above: your blades will wear out more rapidly! I will try to find electronic microscope photograph for you. Difficult to find (I lost them) but amazing! 
• Gels and Foams contain preservatives, dyes. Some contains Menthol and/or Benzocaine (Yes: the famous Italian brand do offers a shaving cream with menthol. Avoid it).
• The propellants of foams and gels are unhealthy and even, sometimes, toxic gases! Realize that the BUBBLES of the foams are made of isobutane or propane, instead of AIR (A foam obtained by yourself with soap is made of air). Hence, you put toxic gases in contact with your skin…
• Last but not least, due to the fact that they are conserved in cans, gels and foams are polluting products… 

Did I forget one reason why you should avoid gels and foams?  Maybe. Maybe not. What is sure is that you know enough to quit shaving with foams or gels r to stay away from these products.

Next time, I will discuss shaving soaps and shaving creams. 

Keep on shaving and enjoy “The Pleasure of Shaving”

Pierre,

 

Posted via email from Raz*War Social Echo

The MATHS of shaving (5)

Why you should absolutely use pre-shave oil!

Time is coming up now to end up with “The MATHS of shaving” series:  this is the 5th and last issue. Next week, I will start with “The PLEASURE of shaving” series. Today, I would like to prove that if you use the correct shaving accessories, you can further reduce your annual shaving bill.  There is one key accessory that I strongly advise for the amateur of wetshaving, who is in quest of the perfect shave: Shaving Oil. I will be honest with you: when founding Raz*War to answer to the (shocking) shaving market oligopoly situation, I didn’t know that shaving oils were so efficient and useful. I know, now, everything about them! And I am completely amazed!

Why do the “shaving giants”, “BigRazCo” and the other, do not promote them?  I think that part of the answer lies… in the proof of today (But let’s be honest, BigRazCo is not so malicious. Oils are also perceived –unjustly- as old generation product, and that’s the second part of the answer). If you would like to dive a little deeper into the subject, I suggest you search on the web and look for some electronic microscope photographs of razor edges affected by foams and gels… You will quickly understand that these products really do not help extend the life of your razor blades.

Instead, I strongly advise to use shaving oil (as pre-shave product, in combination with a semi-synthetic shaving brush and a mild shaving soap). Since I started using shaving oil, I have no more issue of ingrown hairs.  The shaving oil allows me to get the “Baby Butt Shave” level (…as we, as “shaving specialists” use to say).  Another interesting collateral effect: my spouse never complaint anymore about my “itchy beard”. Also, due to the lathering and moisturizer effect, the typical “burning skin” effect disappears. These, already, are arguments that are powerful enough to motivate you to buy shaving oil (Hence: do so, before finishing reading this blog-post, and click on the following hyperlink ;-)).

But, today, as I am in our weekly MATHS of shaving exercise, I will no longer examine these “comfort” arguments further (I will do that my next series of blogs post: “The PLEASURE of shaving”). Here, I just would like to assess the impact of using shaving oil on your annual shaving bill.  It will be quite easy to do, though.

What happen is that shaving oil, due to its lubricating characteristics, will strongly enhance the extent of usage of your blades. This due to the fact that oil will help the blade to enter in the hair to be cut, as lubricating mineral oil would help a “chainsaw” to enter in wood. A good shaving oil could double the lifetime of your razor blades. That’s enough to take your calculator and start yourself the calculation.  Consider now the graph I prepared for you:

The graph shows the impact on your wallet of using shaving oil. For making the graph, I made the comparison of our “EL Fidel” 5blades per razor head   (premium razor) with a premium razor of BigRazCo. For the stake of simplicity, I considered that you change your blades a little less than every week (what you should normally do if you are not using shaving oil, even with highly qualitative 5blades/razor: our own model and the one from BigRazCo). The first column correspond to the price of buying 48 BigRazCo razor heads per year (With average unit price: 4,2 Euros). The second column corresponds to the price of a 48 razors heads/year “El Fidel” subscription plan (Raz*War premium razor). The third column features the annual cost of your blades by using a highly qualitative oil (I included the price of the oil (3 bottles). 3 to 4 bottles of Raz*War shaving oil, used as pre-shave oil, should be enough). Finally, the fourth column features the annual cost of your blades using a 24 razors heads per year subscription plan (With, also, the price of the oil included).  Of course, you need to add the price of the other accessories (Gels, Foams, soaps, after-shave balm): I did not include them here for facilitating the calculations (which would have been very favorable to Raz*War).

One day, after completing my “PLEASURE of shaving” and my “SCIENCE of shaving” series, I will return back to a new “MATHS of shaving” series. Then, I will calculate the TOTAL COST of your annual shaving bill. You will be amazed. And I will prove that the “perfect shave” is not necessarily costly. The thing is that you need to do clever and well informed choices. And that is what I will help you to do.  At this time, I would like to really deeply insist on something: A pre-shave oil clearly impacts the quality of your shave! Hence, do not hesitate and buy it now.

But to conclude today’s shaving math’s exercise, I wanted to prove that shaving oil can strongly reduce your annual shaving bill.  It appeared quite clearly from the graphs featured today.

CQFD. Next week, I will start with the “PLEASURE of shaving” series.

Pierre

PS: do not forget our Raz*War Xmas giftboxes. There are some with our amazing shaving oil…

Posted via email from Raz*War Social Echo

The MATHS of shaving (4)

Looking at the production costs…

As I explained in my last blog post, the too high margins that BigRazCo takes on its premium razors impacts the operational profit of BigRazCo itself and is the rationale behind the incredibly high price that BigShark paid for acquiring BigRazCo in 2005.

In today’s blog post, I would like to dive with you in the production costs of a Razor Blade and prove, from there, that profit margins are too high. Not anyone can produce qualitative razor blades. In total we have identified 5 major players. Three of them produce razor blades for “private labels” and two produces their razors and razors blades under the very well known shaving brands. One of these two is: BigRazCo.

Many years before it has been acquired, BigRazCo was convinced of infringing competition law in EU, by creating, tough buying shares of its main competitor in Europe, a real razor and razor blades monopoly. In the explanation of the judgment, some hints about production costs were revealed: at that time, the minimum investment to produce a de novo model was estimated to 150 million Euros, creating a huge barrier to entry. (Judgment said that given to the high barriers to entry, BigRazCo would have gained an inexpugnable monopoly position if investment in competitor was accepted under EU law).

It is indeed quite difficult to produce razor blades. You need special steel, for example. The “razor edge” is difficult to obtain (The razor egde reaches 300 angstrom in thickness, making it just 30 times larger than atoms size only…) and you need a special quality of steel (with more carbon in it), that, apparently, only one steel producer produces (see on on my next blog post). But, is it so expensive that it explains the price?

Certainly not. The barrier to entry explains the prices. The recent very good news issued by BigShark (A news that I will –honestly-celebrate in a next blog post), the owner of BigRazCo, to launch a razor at 11 cents (45 times lower price than the price of a premium razor in Europe) as retail price in India provides you also with some hints.

But let’s dive into the maths. Imagine a new razor blades producing plant aimed at serving Europe and that costs 150 million Euros (With share of production costs included). Consider now that this factory produces 1 billion razor heads per year. This would not be enough to cover market needs for BigRazCo blades in Europe; as a “Back of the envelope” calculation suggests: Based on EU population, and considering the market share of BigRazCo in Europe and the frequency cardrige refills, a least 1,3 billion blades are needed. But, let’s keep my figures: by using them, we get to an investment cost per blade of 15 cents, just for the first year after opening the plant.  Keep now this figure in mind: you could use to check if we can believe the figures I am presenting now:

Last year, the Dailymail online issued an article where the production costs of blades were revealed. Thanks to this article, I was able to produce the graph here-below:

This graph is adapted from an analysis published by Sean Poulter. (No hyperlink is provided as the true name of BigRazCo is mentioned in the original article. But, you can still search Google if you want: “Sharp practice”? The razor heads that cost just 5p to make”).  Here is how I established the graph: The retail price in UK of the premium razor I have in mind is 2,43 GBP, which, converted in Euros, makes 2,91 EUR. But, in continental Europe, razor heads are costlier (less competitive market). It can reach up to 4,50 EUR per razor head (The new model coming soon is even more expensive). I took the average price in Belgium - 4.05 EUR per razor head- based on our store checks, and applied the UK cost structure. Hence, the figures featured in the graph should be considered as approximate figures only as, for example, VAT differs from one country to the other. 

What to learn from this graph? At first, you should ask yourself: Should I believe these figures? That’s what I asked myself: Is Sean Poulter not exaggerating? I am afraid not…but I am not sure. Hence, I will continue my quest for the truth… (I promise you!). But, and that’s what you have to learn from such kind of “Maths of shaving” exercise: Even if Sean Poulter or I was wrong by a factor of 2, profit margins would still be extremely high!

And now, let’s calculate the margins in percentages. The figures on the graph means that BigRazCo takes a 65% profit margin (with which you still need to pay the marketing costs, part of the salaries of football, tennis and golf stars, etc…). Even half of this sum would already be a large number! Let’s now make the reasoning in “mark up”: divide the profit margin by the sum of “production costs” and “packaging costs”. What do you get? A mark-up of 2245%! Good business to be in, no?  

Margins on razor blades are much too high. That’s what I wanted to show.

CQFD.

More shaving maths later (Don’t miss the last “Maths of shaving” episode…).

Posted via email from Raz*War Social Echo

The MATHS of Shaving (3)

Where does the money go?

In my last blog-posts, I showed that our very big (and respectful) competitor, “BigRazCo” clearly was making a fool of you by claiming extremely high margins for their Razor and Razor blades.  

But, in these time of social protest and implementation of austerity measures, where too high profits taken on the back of the consumers puts the culprit company in the spot light, it might be useful to tell you where the money, taken out of YOUR pocket, goes. No surprise: in the pocket of the shareholders. 

Let’s be clear: I have no problem with that, as I am also myself a shareholder and as all employees and my partners at Raz*War are shareholders too. But, you would certainly agree that, sometimes, company profits could be too large and, in some case, even indecent. On my side, instead, I feel being a “social” shareholder (This is very “Raz*War” :-)) and... I have my doubt about "BigRazCo” being it too...

You, dear readers, are the sole judge of how we could qualify BigRazCo profits. The Shaving MATHS exercise of today will help you.

BigRazCo was swallowed by a well known (and well respected. FYI, I am an alumni of this company) bigger fish that we will call “BigShark” for the stake of facility (we have the policy to not name our competitors). This deal was made for 57 billion USD, in 2005, placing this deal in the top 10 among biggest ever mega purchasing deal at this time. Looking at BigRazCo, in 2004 (the year before the acquisition), the company Razor and Razor Blades division made 4,43  billion USD in sales, with an unbelievably high 1,63 billion USD in operating profit (A 38% profit margin:by itself, already  a message).  BigRazCo had (and still have) two other division; one for cell batteries and one for electrical toothbrushes. But, in 2004 and 2005, the two others divisions were operating moderately well: Hence, The Razor and Razor blades division made 68% of the operating profit. It was notorious, also, that BigShark was interested by BigRazCo for the Razor & Razor blades business, and not by the other divisions (that they intended to sell).

Let’s start the math:

We could assume (despite I just said it is somewhat false) that 68% of the purchase price concerned the Razor and Razor blade business, as this division accounted for 68% of the operating profits (Hence, I undervalue the Razor and Razor blade business). This would mean that the Razor and Razor blade business was worth 37 billion USD. At this time, BigRazCo had 415 million razor and razor blades consumer.This means that BigShark paid 93 USD per consumer. You can now compare that to other deals. Take, for example, the purchase of “Alberto Culver” by Unilever, just finalized last week, on Sept 27. Unilever paid 3,5 billion USD for a company active in hair & skin care (hence: comparable to BigRazCo). And the company had an estimate 200 million consumers (Just for information: the stock-exchange analyst Morningstar said Unilever overpaid Alberto Culver..). This means that Unilever paid an estimate 17 USD per consumer.

It is clear that Big Shark paid an incredibly high sum for BigRazCo, just because BigRazCo captures incredibly high margins on their razors and razors blades. Now imagine what BigRazCo is worth in the hands of BigShark: since the retail prices of the blades further increased, by at least 35% (vs 2005), and since the brand claims (in its advertising leaflets) having now 600 million consumers… Probably, with the same valuation metrics, BigRazCo would be valued in the 100 billion dollars range...

It is quite clear, when you buy a BigRazCo razor or razor blades, that a large part of the price is, simply, profit. Hence, if you buy a razor of, say, 20 USD, be aware that 8 USD will go into the wallet of the shareholder (before taxes). One advise, if you would like to keep buying BigRazCo blades: buy “Big Shark” stock shares too, at least you would have the feeling to recuperate some of the money taken out from your consumer wallet. Another, better, advise: switch to Raz*War…And do it now, by clicking on this link http://www.razwar.com

CQFD. More shaving maths later. 

 

Posted via email from Raz*War Social Echo

The MATHS of Shaving (2)

Are the well known two Razor and Razor Blades industry players making a fool of you? Are they making fun of you?  Of course, they do! And I will prove it now in this new "MATH of shaving" episode. 

The well-acquainted with the Razor and Razor Blades industry is probably aware of the major new product launch currently organized by the most renowned worldwide leader (we never quote the name of our competitors) for its brand-new, even more expensive, “system razor” (i.e. razor with refill cartridges). For the stake of facility, let's name "BigRazCo" the dominant player we have in mind. The new target market envisioned by "BigRazCo" is UK, where the launch is foreseen...in end of September; hence now or in a few days.  As the UK market is a very competitive market (“white labels” brands have more power, for example) and as the major competitor of the worldwide leader is also planning to launch a new model, “BigRazCo” recently announced "The biggest FMCG launch in UK ever".  Something that might be key also in their decision to prepare a “big launch”:  in UK, there is a small company that produces Razor and Razor blades which also wants to fight against giants. This prominent colleague -and we greet him here- clearly announced that "The War of Razors will soon happen in UK”. It might be in the plan of “BigRazCo”, and the other company, to crush him… Whatever, in his blog, the founder of this small UK Company also quoted some figures, which I will use for my MATH shaving exercise of today (I cross checked the figure, and they seems to be true).

Apparently, the #1 player, "BigRazCo", plans to spend 100 million GBP in marketing for this new launch. The #2 player will be happy with a modest 20 million GBP marketing budget for its own new model. Translated in Euros, this will mean approx 120 million Euros (September exchange rate). Let's now start our calculations: According to World Bank, there are approx. 62 million people in UK. Per capita, the marketing budget of the new razor model is, thus, close to 2 Euros.  Let's now assume that 50% of the population are males: thus, per male, “BigRazCo” expects to invest 4 Euros.  According to thorough market surveys, 23.4 millions UK males use razor blades and electric shavers, with electric shavers used by 25% of this population. Hence, 17.5 millions UK males are adept of "wetshaving" (Shaving with razor blades).  According to another study, disposable razors accounts for 19% of the value of razors& razor blades sold (Good news, as disposable razors are extremely polluting). Considering that shaving with disposable razors is at least twice cheaper, we get to the point that 60% of male "wetshavers" use system razors. Hence, this means that “BigRazCo” wants to spend 12 Euros per “system razors” user:  a quite high figure already (as would any Fast Moving Consumer Goods expert notice). But, the reasoning is not finished… Let’s now turn to the graph I prepared for you:

 

 

Did you get the graph correctly?

Ok, so let’s continue the calculations. For doing so, I need to dive into my market surveys figures. According to them, “BigRazCo” has a 70% market share in UK and its latest product has got a 25% market share. As you saw on the graph here above, dividing the 120 million Euros expected to be spent by the number of “BigRazCo” clients will mean 17 Euros per customer. Let's now consider, based on these market survey figures, that “BigRazCo” would like to reach a 20% overall market share: The total budget per maximum number of customers would reach an astounding 58 Euros per customer (=expected maximum number of customers for “BigRazCo” new model).  And, now, to conclude, let’s consider that “BigRazCo” would only succeed to get one third of its maximum objective - which is a realistic objective, at least in the medium term-  then, it would have paid …175 Euros per customer (See graph: “id.” means “idem”. “Id.1.” refers to column 1 and means “same as column 1 but male only”. “Id.5.” refers to the 5th column. Etc.).   

Let's be honest, even If I was wrong by a factor of 10, this would have been a huge budget. Why can such huge advertising budgets been spent? Because the two worldwide giants takes, on the back of the customer, extremely high profit margins (These high margins will be the subject of a one my next blog posts). Hence, it is clear that the razor and razor blades players are making a fool of you.

CQFD. More shavings news later...

P,

Posted via email from Raz*War Social Echo

Things you may want to know rabout razor blades (by Pierre De Nayer)

More and more articles are published on the net about "quality shaving", further developing the context in which Raz*War is growing and further nurturing our s(h)aving revolution... Among them, I came across an interesting article published by gizmodo, about the edge of razor blades when analyzed under a microscope : http://gizmodo.com/5472426/razors-under-a-microscope. Amazing pictures that illustrate how thin are the edge of our razor blades. But, as I am, with Raz*War team, more and more acquainted with "shaving science", I wanted to add that Razor efficacy is not only about the edge itself. 

The kind of "head" used is also key: some people prefer more technical razors, that offers a very high quality of shaving provided they are operated carefully. Take, for example, the traditional "safety razors" or, even, the "straight razor"; these could offer very strong shaving experience, but it needs some expertise in manipulation, as, for example, the angle of the blade on the leather is key. Our "Ché" handle is a somewhat technical razor, providing a very good cut (excellent razor egde), but need to be operated in such way the angle of the razor is always optimal. Other razors, lilke our soon-to-come 5 blades, operates with another kind of head, more flexible, adapting itself to the face curvatures. The gain of efficacity is in the flexibility of the head; the difference is not about "razor edges". But, some of our consumers prefers a less flexible razor head, offering a more "straight razor" experience. That's why we have two "shaving tribes at Raz*War": the "Ché" tribe only adores the "Ché" razor while others only adores the "Fidel" razor; there is one world for each...

But did you know that even the distances between the blades is important? I guess not. It is indeed, what have shown another brand of razors, as I saw it on a patent, on "free patents on-line".  A good distance between blades improve the "comfort of shaving" and reduce the risk of cuts. Good news, our two razors are very well manufactured on that topic... 

Also something important: The blades got oxidated quite rapidly, which is the main reason why you should replace them; the other reason being that they get used of course. Oxidation of blades is easy to observe on electron microscopy (interested to see? Interact with me).  Oxidation drastically and quite rapidly reduce the "razor edge". A lot of tips are given on the net to avoid that blade oxidation; i will discuss them in a next blog post. But, one things is clearly obvious: using shaving oil greatly reduce that blade oxidation (same principle as when you are using a drill, the oil is protecting the blades)... and this, again, can easily be shown with electron microscopy.

Hence, my advise is: Use shaving oil (there are already so many reasons why using shaving oil...) to protect your blades and to enhance their lifetime. (Lifetime can be expanded by a factor of 1,5 to 3). And... Guess what? We have a very good shaving oil in stock..

The next time (next blog post), I will explain you how to assess your razor quality, by helping you figure out what are the key elements to consider... 

Posted via web from Raz*War Social Echo

6 good reasons for shaving with Raz*War

The most important things to know about Raz*War could be summarized in this simple yet useful article.

Here are 6 great reasons why Raz*War is really handy and useful for you when considering “shaving”.

• Reason #1 – Fair Price
  We are committed to deliver you with the best price on the market for that level of quality. We are clearly engaging a fight against the giant in the shaving industry that are spoiling their consumers since a long time. However they do have qualitative product we are aiming at reaching them thanks to you. We want to keep our prices low but fair. Everybody deserves a decent revenue for the work he/she produces.
  
  
• Reason #2 – Delivered at your door
  One of the major advantage of our service is that you only have to do a few clicks and a few days later you receive your order and you are ready to shave; you won’t have to put your blades between the milk and the vegetables during your Saturday afternoon shopping moment.
  
  
• Reason #3 – Peace of mind
  With our subscription plan principle you will never have to worry anymore; you will never be without blades just before a very important meeting or date with the nicest girl. Every 4 months we will ship you the appropriate amount of blades you need for your personal consumption.
  
  
• Reason #4 – Quality
  We are not selling low quality and “made in exotic places” products. Our handles are produced in China under the supervision of a Belgian company dealing with China for over 20 years. Nothing is forgotten. We also have controlled the production company in China to make sure it was respecting human dignity. Regarding the blades there are produced in the USA by a company having more than 125 years in the business.
  
  
• Reason #5 – Support
  Raz*War stands for support. You don’t discuss your problem or positive feedback with a help desk far far away in another galaxy. You speak with the Raz*War brand activists as we call ourselves; it is David (me ;-)) and Marina. You can connect anytime through various channels : Phone (Belgian number), Email (wecare (at) razwar.com, Facebook , Twitter
  
  
• Reason #6 – Community
  We know that in our subscription plans there is the 90 blades / year plan that seems to be “a bit too much”; as a matter of fact it is known to be bought by small groups of people seeing in that plan a very cost efficient solution to buy larger quantities to make the unitary price go down. Smart Guys ;-)!

We might come up with more than the “Top 6 reasons” for shaving with Raz*War in a near future. It’s only the beginning ;-)!

So enjoy your shaving experience.
Great shaving at a fair price. That’s Raz*War!

Even HE shaved.

found on TheGiant.org

Hardcore Shaving.

The Raz*War® Shop is open since 30 June @ 8 pm GMT+1.

First Razors were sold @ 9.30 PM.

So as promised I did shave myself.

Here is a preview.

Before.

After.

A cool hard core movie of the session will follow.
Now it's your turn.
Buy your blades and razor on Raz*War® > www.razwar.com