Trying out Forestbare

So, yet again, one of my favorite men’s style web­sites, Well Spent, clued me in to a com­pa­ny sell­ing exact­ly what I’ve been look­ing for. It might seem banal to you, but, as part of my quest to buy more Amer­i­can-made stuff & focus more on nat­ur­al foods, clean­ing sup­plies & groom­ing sup­plies, I was real­ly excit­ed to learn about this all-nat­ur­al, Amer­i­can-made men’s groom­ing shop: Forest­bare.

So far I’ve been real­ly impressed with the qual­i­ty and price of the things I got from them. And I espe­cial­ly like that the ingre­di­ents and man­u­fac­tur­ing loca­tion is list­ed on every page. I guess I’m kind of becom­ing that guy.

So here’s a quick run-down:

Abraham’s Face & Beard Wash

This was rea­son­ably priced enough that I basi­cal­ly bought it because Abra­ham is my son. I’ve been using it for a week now, and due to the sal­i­cylic acid/jojoba oil com­bo, I have had no beard/shaving relat­ed pim­ples. It bare­ly has a scent, but match­es up nice­ly with the awe­some Duke Can­non hair wash I’ve been using. (I found that via Lodge Goods, anoth­er one of my new favorite online retail­ers of Amer­i­can-made stuff.)

Craftsman Soap Company Activated Charcoal Soap

I’d stopped using soap because that shit dried out my skin and moved on to body wash. It’s actu­al­ly nice to be using soap again, and this stuff does­n’t dry out my skin or leave a notice­able residue. I’m down.

Puur Beard Face Beard Balm

Despite all my beard oil tom­fool­ery, I had­n’t bought any­thing, uh, gooier to put on it, but this stuff looked promis­ing. As it says, it’s not a mous­tache wax, but I’ve been using it as such. My beard is so wiry, that I’ve been tam­ing the bits around my face with this. I like it, and might upgrade to a mous­tache wax even­tu­al­ly.

Puur Fireman Fresh Scent Beard Oil

So of course I bought the beard oil. I was stoked to see that, where most beard oils start out at $10/oz, this one was $7 for 2oz. That’s because the oils used are pret­ty com­mon, but the scent is just the right blend of smoke & cit­rus, and it’s work­ing just as well to keep my beard shiny & hap­py. I’m def­i­nite­ly using this as my dai­ly beard oil, unless I’m feel­ing fan­cy.

KOTFW Hair & Beard Pomade

I’m not real sure about this one. It’s basi­cal­ly an odor­less wax. I have to use the edge of my comb to get any of it out, and then rub my hands togeth­er Mr. Miya­gi-style to melt it enough to get in my hair. Once in there though, it does a great job hold­ing my hair­style with­out a wet look. I wish it came with a lit­tle scraper tool to get it out & smelled a bit more like the Iron Soci­ety pomade I won from Cloak & Dap­per.

Live Beautifully Fresh Mountain Timber Deodorant

This is the stuff I was most eager to try. I’ve been stuck using a salt block as a deodor­ant because my armpit flesh is extra-sen­si­tive due to all the chem­i­cal burns oth­er deodor­ants have giv­en me. Even Tom’s of Maine irri­tat­ed me. And the salt block killed the stink (unless it is real­ly hot out) but did noth­ing to stop me from pit­ting out. I’m hap­py to say that this stuff is amaz­ing. Smells a bit like an all-nat­ur­al Old Spice, no burn­ing, no full-on pit sweat, and it only needs to be applied very very spar­ing­ly to get the job done. Def­i­nite­ly buy­ing this again and again.

So if you’re a dude who’s into any of the stuff I just wrote about, give this shop a try. They also have great cus­tomer ser­vice and ship quick­ly.