Shortly after I announced my traditional wet shaving workshop, I was contacted by John Carinci, the president and founder of Elvado shaving products. Based in Newmarket, Ontario, John wanted to offer his support by sponsoring the workshop and providing free samples of his products. He also offered me a full range – for free – so I could test them out before accepting his offer.

I was so impressed by his stuff I not only gladly accepted his sponsorship, I also wanted to let Hogtown Rake readers know about my conversion to local, vegan shaving products.

Yes, vegan. When I first met John I was expecting a scruffy hippy. But John is, in fact, a down to earth, well-dressed, middle aged man with a background in chemistry. He doesn’t see why he should fill the world with more animal products than it needs, not to mention all the potentially dodgy ingredients in most shaving products (parfum, I’m looking at you.) So he created Elvado to appeal to men who want the traditional shaving experience without the chemicals or animal ingredients. Even the horsehair brushes he sells are ethically sourced: the hair is “humanly gathered during regular daily grooming.” Let’s not go into how badger hair is gathered for traditional brushes, you may have just eaten.

Let me go back a bit. When I started traditional wet shaving about 8 years ago, I went full traditional: badger hair brush, Taylor of Old Bond Street shaving soap and Pinaud Clubman aftershave. I loved the scents, those old-timey, barbershop smells. And the shaves were excellent. However, from day one, my wife hated the smells. She’s not over-sensitive to scents, but she could smell that they were fake. And indeed, like most beauty products, they contain parfum, a complex and under-reported mix of chemicals and fragrance oils. I can honestly say the smells never bothered me, and the products never bothered my skin, but after shaving I had to stay away from my wife until the smell wore off. She was very, very happy to hear about Elvado.

Beyond the ethics and health issues, however, I also had to make sure the products actually worked. John supplied me with the full range of soaps, balms, the brush and a few things he’s still cooking up like soft soaps and shaving oils. I kept it pretty simple for the first week, shaving with the West Indies Bay Rum soap and using the balm afterwards. The soap formed good, thick suds, the brush massaged my skin well, while the balm was very soothing. Most importantly, I had the best shaves I’d experienced in a long time. What I wasn’t so hot on was the scent. I love the old-timey barbershop smells and have usually avoided the herbal/food ones. The Bay Rum smells a bit too much like Christmas cake for me, so I switched over to the Wild Mint Lime. It has a lovely, fresh, summery smell that reminds me of mojitos, and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. Plus, there’s the fragrance free, should I not want any smell at all. Not only does my wife not mind any of the scents, she actually really likes them.

I should point out that on the products, the scents are listed as “fragrance.” They are, in fact, natural essential oils, but complicated legal and labelling restrictions means they are listed as generic.

The horse hair brush, however, didn’t work for me as well. Perhaps because the hair is a bit firmer, or because of the construction, it’s a bit too dense for me. It does a great job of ex-foliating, but doesn’t lather as well as my badger brush. Right now, I’m cycling between the two.

That said, I am thankful to John at Elvado not only for his show of support, but for opening my eyes to a more natural and humane way to shave.

Elvado products are available at Men Essentials.