Shave Products that contain no alcohol, preservatives, are paraben free and without phthalates. Many contain no more than three ingredients.

So how can there be so few ingredients in the Foster and Lake products?

Let's start with Shave Answers Shave Oil.

When you look at the ingredients of Shaving creams, foams and soaps, you see a vast array of ingredients. Some are synthetic, some are natural. Most products include several (as many as 40) ingredients. The Foster and Lake goal was to simplify shaving, make shaving safe and comfortable, inexpensive and fast.

We simply broke down the basics of shaving by identifying what is really needed.

#1. Soften the whiskers or hair. This can be accomplished with warm water and a Face Wash. It’s the least expensive and includes the most common liquid on the planet. Almost everyone has water available. We make it clear in our instructions. Wash your hairs with warm water and Face Wash for 2 to 3 minutes prior to using Shave Answers. This accomplishes three important preparations before the shave.

A. it softens the hairs.

B. it moisturizes the skin.

C. it cleans away dirt and dead skin.

#2. Provide a slick surface that protects the skin from excessive razor drag. This was the hard part! We attempted this by trial, error, common sense and many nicks and cuts!

We first attempted to use common olive oil but it gummed up the blade, wasn't slick enough and it spoiled fast. Then we found the same with common vegetable oils, sunflower oil, grape seed oil and the list goes on and on. This exercise definitely told us what we didn't want! We didn't want razor drag, difficulty when rinsing the razor blade, a short expiration date, skin irritation, artificially scented ingredients, reaction to sensitive skin, chemical ingredients, products that were unfamiliar with the general public or a long list of products that have little or no effect on the best shaving results.

We started educating ourselves on the effects of common plant oils and natural ingredients used by people for thousands of years. No joke. We found success in various base ingredients but one that stood out was Coconut Oil. If you look at the benefits of Coconut Oil in our ingredients section, you'll see why. It works great as a base ingredient.

Next we had to fine tune the formula while staying in touch with our original goals. We started with mixtures of various ingredients using four or five mixed together with different levels in each. We did this for a period of about two years until we read about a new crop of Meadow Foam Seed Oil and how it performed as a cosmetic. We mixed it with various other ingredients, only to find that the more Meadow Foam Seed Oil we used in the base of Coconut Oil, the better our shaving experience became. So we simplified the shave oil formula by dumping out all of the other ingredients except for the Coconut Oil. Zing Bang! It was like Edison and the light bulb. After hundreds of trials we finally gave birth to the formula that is now Shave Answers Shave Oil.