Eden Days Body - Zero Waste Unisex Shave Set

Eden Days*

Zero Waste Unisex Shave Set £20

*PR Sample - gifted. This product was sent to me free of charge to be featured in my Christmas Gift Guide, but it's so great, it deserves an honest review of its own!

What's included

* Shave Shed Shaving Soap
* Wooden Shave Brush with synthetic bristles
* Aluminium Soap Tin
* Stainless Steel Butterfly Safety Razor
* Box of 5 replacement razor blades

Packaging

Not a single scrap of plastic to be found!

Comes in a sturdy kraft card box. The Shave Shed Soap is packed in a similar smaller box and even the razor blades are in a cardboard box.

Shave Soap

Infused with organic Redbush, scented with Cedarwood, Bergamot and Sandalwood and with Bentonite Clay, the Shave Soap gives a lovely creamy lather.

The essential oils chosen have astringent and antibacterial properties and also give the soap a traditionally 'masculine' scent.

Bentonite clay can bind to bacteria and toxins living on the surface of the skin and within the pores and can extract it. This helps to reduce outbreaks of blemishes, alleviates redness, clears blackheads and purify your skin from environmental pollution, excess sebum, daily grime, dead skin cells and germs.

Stainless Steel Butterfly Safety Razor

This is a gorgeous design with it's retro styling. Actually, not retro-styled at all, my husband tells me that these types of razors were universal wartime issue and the style hasn't changed much since those days! But nevertheless, this looks so much better on your bathroom shelf than the awful 'jazzy' coloured plastic disposables I previously bought. I'll admit to being quite nervous when fitting the blade into place the first time, but it was actually incredibly easy, even without written instructions.

Replacement Razor Blades

The blades come in a cardboard box and each blade is separately wrapped in waxy paper. They're actually much more flexible than I imagined, and although you need to take care and not handle the extremely sharp edges, the blades were super easy to deposit into the razor. The blades are fully recyclable.

Shave Brush

An ergonomically designed traditional wooden shaving brush with synthetic bristles. 

The bristles are stiff enough to whip up a good lather but also soft enough to be gentle on the skin. The synthetic bristles dry much quicker too.

Aluminium Soap Tin

The aluminium soap tin is the perfect fit for storing your shave soap in. It makes a brilliant travel-friendly storage too. I've also been using it as shave bowl, to whip up my soap using the shaving brush into a lovely creamy shaving foam.

Eden Days also sell a beautiful stylish oak wooden soap bowl too if you want to experience a real old school shaving set up.

Thoughts

This was one bathroom swap which was long overdue for me!

I previously bought plastic disposable razors for myself and the men in my family used reusable razors but with disposable, non-recyclable heads.

I'll be honest - the idea of using a stainless steel butterfly safety razor was both appealing but terrifying at the same time!

If you're nervous about handling a naked razor blade, let me put your mind at rest! It's actually deceptively safe and easy. I'm a bit (a lot!) of a jelly, and the first time I put the blade into the razor I accompanied the action with a lot of dramatic 'oo-er-ahh' sounds. Needless to say, this background soundtrack was completely unnecessary - popping in the blade was super quick, super easy and totally pain free!

An essential bit of advice when using the razor against your skin is NOT to apply any extra pressure (as you would with your regular disposable razors). Let the blade lightly glide over your skin and it does the work for your, simply and quickly and without irritation.

This does take a bit of getting used to. I've been so used to using those plastic disposable razors with lubricating strips and safety guards that I'd gotten a bit slap-dash and quick when shaving my legs. Rushing the job in this way has previously lead to a lot of shin cuts, which take an absolute age to heal and are also really sore! 

So I do need to learn to slow down and go lightly and carefully - at least till I'm more used to handling the butterfly razor.

I also find the razor so much easier to clean. I'm sure that my previous disposable razors would have had a lot more life left in their blades if they had been easier to unclog! Instead, they wouldn't have a particularly long life span because they got so jammed up with stubble between those safety blades.

The Shave soap was a really pleasant surprise! To be honest, I wasn't expecting the amount of lather that this soap could whip up! Essential though for a smoother shave and Eden Days have formulated the perfect shaving soap.

I love the ritual of using the shave soap and the shaving brush. It's a lot of fun whipping up your soap into a creamy lather and then applying it with the shaving brush. Using the brush also keeps the lather levels up as you go.

After using this set for the first time I felt a mixture of surprise and relief! 

Relief because the whole experience was no way as dramatic and terrifying as I had imagined! And surprised because of the ease, and also because after using disposables for so long, I thought it would take me quite a while to get used to shaving in this way. I think it's often the case when you make what you think is quite a significant change in habits, you end up thinking 'Why didn't I do this sooner?!'

This is a fantastic introduction set to plastic free shaving and amazing value too. I love how Eden Days have an extensive range of shaving accessories in their shop, all at really great prices.