For the most part I prefer to sport anything from a bit of stubble to a small forest on my face, partly because I prefer it but mainly because I am lazy and work doesn’t require me to be clean shaven. However, once a year there is a glorious month when time goes back to better age….the age when the moustache was king.

During Movember I tend to let myself get taken away and have progressively become bolder and downright ridiculous with what adorns my face. This does mean that I do need to be at least partly clean shaven, which is where the Eau Thermale Avene Men range has come in rather handy.

Shaving Foam

On the very rare occasion when I do fully shave I much prefer a foam to a gel. So I began my Avene aided Moustache adventure with the Eau Thermale Avene Men Shaving Foam. The first thing to note about the foam is how thick it is and even when applied to a wet face it maintains its consistency throughout the shave, allowing for a very gentle and pleasant experience.

The foam is fairly sticky and this coupled with its texture and thickness pulls the hairs up and enables them to be shorn away easily. The smell of a shaving product isn’t necessarily something you would put high on the list of attributes you would look for, but Avene have thrown a very pleasant aroma in as the free prize for using their excellent range.

Shaving Gel

The Eau Thermale Avene Men Shaving Gel start out clear but lathers up into a white paste which shares much with its foam based cousin. It is a little less thick but is more adhesive in nature so allows for the same hair raising quality and ease of shaving you would get from the foam.

The gel maintains consistency throughout the shave and does not become a little more watery after lathering, an issue I have had with other gels I have used in my admittedly fairly limited gel experience. Both gel and foam are quite soothing and very pleasant to use.

Thermal Spring Water

I will admit that while I have worked here at Escentual for a while now – and despite the Eau Thermale Avene Thermal Spring Water being one of our more popular products – I have not totally understood what it is exactly meant to do. I read up on it and it seems to be a veritable multi tool of a product; make-up removal, easing sunburn and bites and, more importantly for our shaving experience, razor burn. I decided that I would use the Thermal water after the application of the after shave balm. avene0002

The water sprays out in a light mist that is not invasive and is very cooling. With prolonged use my skin did feel much better in general (although that may also have something to do with the fact that it saw some sunlight and wasn’t covered in hair) and combined with the aftershave balm razor burn was not even a small concern.

After-Shave Balm

It will probably come as no surprise given my propensity for facial hair that I have rarely had cause to use an after shave balm, so I was actually quite curious as to exactly what it had to offer the shaving experience. The Eau Thermale Avene Men Aftershave Balm starts out life as a fairly non-descript toothpaste like cream. It shares the very pleasant aroma of both the Avene shaving Gel and Foam so there is no danger of conflicting smells and obviously is not unwelcome.

It disappears into the skin quickly and the effect is an instant cooling of the skin that is extremely soothing after the rigours of a close shave. I was so surprised at how nice my skin felt after using the balm that, after my admiration for the ridiculous moustache I had carved into my face had faded, I found myself stroking my face like some mildly comedic bond villain.

Overall the Avene Men’s range is truly excellent. Inexpensive, quality products that are perfect for what they are meant to do and all have the same unifying scent. I shall definitely be using them again when Movember rolls around again as they were a pleasure to use. Now if I can only get my girlfriend to look at me without cringing at my dodgy facial hair style, life will be good.

Competition Time!

This competition is now closed, thanks for entering everyone! Our winners are Susan, Louise, Sandhya, Paul and Karlyn. Congratulations!