It was such a short sentence at the end of the article I was reading that I almost missed it. The author had been describing a face cleansing method using oils and in the very last paragraph added a final thought along the lines of “oh by the way, I love to shave my legs with olive oil – it’s excellent”.

Huh ??   What now ??   Use your olive oil as a shaving cream?

Well.   I decided I would certainly have to give that Make Your Own version of shaving cream a try.  Maybe this could be a simple way to always have a homemade alternative to shaving cream on hand that would be great for your skin too.

Are we cooking or shaving?

 

Can You Shave Your Legs With Olive Oil?

After giving the olive oil shaving method a test, here’s my answer to the question “Can You Shave Your Legs with Olive Oil?”

Yes – and – No

Yes . . . because it was oily.

And No . . . . because it was oily.

Indeed, it was all very oily.  And rather disappointing.

I opted to use my Misto Olive Oil Sprayer thinking that would give me a nice easy way to get the olive oil on my legs.  But the olive oil didn’t seem to be making the razor glide very smoothly.  And that’s important!  In fact that’s the whole point, in my opinion, to using some kind of shaving cream.  So I kept spraying on a little more and a little more wondering how much oil it would take to make the razor glide about smoothly, until finally, well, things got rather oily and disappointing. It took more oil than I thought to get it spread around evenly and thickly enough to do any good.  The razor seemed kind of gunky with oil by then too.

The upside to this method was that when I was done, my legs did feel quite soft and moisturized { and oily },  BUT – I didn’t feel like I got a very close shave.   I’ve gotten smoother, closer shaves just using plain old soap and water.

Once I was done shaving I sort of stood there thinking, now what?  My legs were still oily.  Should I wash them with soap and water?    If I was going to wash them with soap and water I could have just used that method to shave my legs in the first place.  I was worried about getting oily stains on my bath towels too. Maybe dry them with a paper towel?  No, that meant having to wander over to the kitchen.   I ended up just grabbing a few tissues and wiping off the excess oil.

I thought about giving this a second try without using the Misto sprayer thinking that some other method that gave a heavier layer of oil might work better.  But then I decided if I was not enjoying  the oiliness the first time around, a heavier layer of oil was not going to make it any more enjoyable.

Thanks, But No Thanks

When it’s all said and done, I just didn’t find this method to be worth it.  I didn’t get a close enough shave and was worried about getting oily stains on my bath towels from trying to clean my razor and to somehow dry my legs off.  I missed the nice lather of a soap or cream, and I don’t think this would work well in the shower at all.  The oil does leave your skin soft, but if that’s what you’re going for, I would just use the olive oil as a moisturizer and skip trying to shave with it.

I noticed the label on my olive oil bottle says “Best for grilling, sauteing, and marinades”.

OK.  Probably true.  My olive olive oil usually stays in the kitchen too.   I do like to use my olive oil in my homemade furniture dusting spray but I haven’t used olive oil yet as a personal care or beauty item.

Have you?

 

 

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