Shaving Cream - Pressurized Creams

Pressurized Creams

The first can of pressurized shaving cream was Rise shaving cream, which was introduced by Carter-Wallace in 1949. By the following decade this format attained two-thirds of the American market for shaving preparations. The gas in shaving cream canisters originally contained chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), but this substance was increasingly believed to be detrimental to the Earth's ozone layer. This led to restrictions or reductions in CFC use, such as the United States Environmental Protection Agency ban in the late 1970s. Gaseous hydrocarbon propellants such as mixtures of pentane, propane, butane and isobutane could be used instead of the CFCs. Because of the large proportion of water in pressurized shaving cream, the risk from the normally flammable hydrocarbons was reduced. The logic behind a canned shaving cream is this: by canning the lather rather than the cream or soap the shaver can save time by not having to build the lather. While this is true, it is often argued that this method removes a lot of the original purpose behind the cream and/or soap in the process. By canning the cream, it can no longer protect the face because it doesn't lather, or so it is argued. Canned cream's sole purpose, is to lubricate the face so that the blades can cut the hairs since they no longer provide any protection from cuts.

In the 1970s, shaving gel was developed that is dispensed from a pressurized can. In 1993, The Procter & Gamble Company patented a post-foaming gel composition, which turns the gel into a foam after application to the skin, combining properties of both foams and gels.