SMF

A "most refreshing" shaving experience

Noxzema in the big blue tub
- aaaahhh --- brushlesssssss!
Muhle R4 Grande '13
Personna hu blade
444 ASB
COBigelow Witch Hazel Skin Tonic

Almost midnight, I was busy putting an edge on my latest straight razor acquisition, and knew I wouldn't have time to shave Friday am, so I grabbed the huge $5 tub of Noxzema and applied it liberally with my fingers. I got a nice cool and refreshing face feel and fragrance. The Muhle/Personna showed up ready to do the job, and they did. this was a full 3 pass shave with reapplication of cream in between. At the end, Noxzema is a cleansing cream, actually, so I splashed water on my whole face and applied the cleanser to the whole face, then rinsed it off with a hot washcloth. My, oh, my, what a nice clean and cool sensation. Then the 444 and COBigelow were applied for an additional jolt of soothing and cooling.

Tell us more about this Noxzema, Gary. Is it readily available? I used to love the Noxzema in the white can. It's passing was the single most reason I got out of cartridges and back into traditional shaving.

changabang wrote:Tell us more about this Noxzema, Gary. Is it readily available? I used to love the Noxzema in the white can. It's passing was the single most reason I got out of cartridges and back into traditional shaving.

Pretty much the same with me. Googling fragrance reviews and looking for anywhere selling Noxzema and I stumbled across shaving forums.

I used to use the one in the light blue tin (Mentholated / Medicated) rather than the white though.

Brilliant stuff.

Isn't this the former Florena stuff? It used to be at least and it was phenomenal ...... really phenomenal.

Wow, great memories! When I was a mere yut, Noxema was the go to miracle product for everything from
sunburn to acne to whatever. Of course, we're talking 50+ years ago!
The brushless shave cream, however, never quite caught my fancy to the same extent, but the mention
of it has stirred my interest....
Yes, is it still available??/ From where??
Thanks for the memories!
jr/John

I just checked on ebay and they have many jars of Noxzema listed. Unfortunately, all are listed as Original with Eucalyptus oil. My memories of Noxzema are of menthol and not ewcalyptus. When did that start? Or am I forgetting something.

Ah, Noxema, my father's cure-all for whatever ailed your skin. He liked it so much that he called it his "miracle cream". If he were still alive, my father would turn 100 this year, so you know the era he came from. I can remember him applying it to his face before and after every shaving and slathering it on my shoulders/back/arms wherever and whenever we had sunburn and on mosquito bites, bee stings, etc. In his opinion Noxema could be used for just about anything. To this day I keep a large jar in the bathroom and even take a tiny jar of it when I travel. Although I'm not fanatical about it as my father was, I still like to have it around to soothe infrequent razor burn, sunburn, etc. This thread brings back fond memories of my father.

Gary, Just to clarify for some of the other posters in this thread - you're referring to the regular old Noxzema Cleansing cream available at pretty much every drug store and department store across the nation - right? If so, I have fond memories of using this stuff too. It's what I used for years before getting into soaps like Conk and then high end products like Taylor's and Trumper's etc. If everything went to pot and I could no longer use the high End items I'd go back to Noxzema in a heartbeat. It's only drawback, I thought was that it provided too much cushion and could sometimes prevent a closer shave. Those were the days though when I only did the traditional one pass shave (with my straight razor) so technique probably could deal with that problem these days as it does with the high end stuff.

One of the things I would do to improve the shave and it's comfort when I used Noxzema was to wash my face with soap and water before my shave because Noxzema didn't soften the whiskers. I also would shave before my shower, as showering after would more effectively remove the residual cream from my face. That stuff is thick and can stick around if not rinsed thoroughly. I recall one time I was at work and a young lady whispered to me that I still had a little shaving cream under my ear. When I checked it out in the Men's room it was a faint but still noticeable tiny spot of Noxzema - and this was after I thought I had rinsed thoroughly in the shower!

Your post is timely because I have had the notion for the past few weeks to use Noxzema once or twice just for nostalgia. Been working on the last remnants of my Taylor's Lavender cake though and it's almost time to replace it. Maybe one of these weekends coming up after I've polished off the rest of that Taylor's, we'll see.

Chris

I'm glad a few old timers are still reading this thread. I would like to know if anyone recalls that it contained eucalyptus oil because I don't recall that. If it did, I will buy the stuff currently on ebay.

Noxzema, Noxzema, Noxzema, Noxzema - my one-time most favorite lathering cream which was first made in North America and then in Italy. I love it so much. I horded a big stash of it which I'm hanging on to. Why on earth did they discontinue this jewel?

Here's a photo of the product I'm talking about. Noxzema Original

The ingredients on my jar are listed as follows: water, stearic acid, linseed oil, soybean oil, fragrance, ammonium hydroxide, camphor, menthol, eucalyptus globulus leaf oil, propylene glycol, gelatin and calcium hydroxide. Sounds almost toxic , but it smells good and feels really good on my face.

brothers wrote:Here's a photo of the product I'm talking about. Noxzema Original

Yep, that's the original stuff I am talking about, it's been around forever. It's not a shaving product per se but it's the deep cleansing cream that's available everywhere. They will probably never discontinue it.

In the days when I was a teenager the label used to mention the many uses for this and among them was as a non-lathering shaving cream. That's how I used it - took my Conk pure badger brush and just painted it on after washing my face. Great stuff.

Chris

Ouchmychin wrote:I'm glad a few old timers are still reading this thread. I would like to know if anyone recalls that it contained eucalyptus oil because I don't recall that. If it did, I will buy the stuff currently on ebay.

Pete, it has always contained eucalyptus oil in it as far back as I can remember (which is at least the early 1970's).

Hope that helps.

Chris

It contains eucalyptus and menthol, among other things.

On the beach with my wife, enjoying a swim in the Gulf and looking forward to another week off. Enjoyed a brisk shower and saw my scruffy salt and pepper 3 day old beard, and knew it was time to shave. My travel kit of choice is the big blue tub of Noxzema ODCC and the Noxzema/Kai twin cartridge. Fast, smooth and close. Nice way to celebrate Independence Day 2014.

Wow...Noxzema nostalgia, love it...used it for years every day til it disappeared (thanks P&G). Like Jeff I have a very large stash of the Italian product. Tomorrow the Trac II, hand lathered Noxzema and Aqua Velva from a glass bottle. :-}

I used it as an aftershave balm for, oh, twenty or thirty years during the middle period of my life. My skin never looked better.

Have you tried Prep soap or cream? the scent is similar, IMO.

I used up two tubs of the Prep pre/post a few years ago, and I did like it. I had the soap, and didn't enjoy it as much. One big advantage of using the Noxzema OCDD is that it's available on the shelves in almost all retail stores that sell this type of skin care products, and it's rarely more than $4.95 for the huge pot.

The pot I'm using right now probably has less than one more week's supply remaining.