Review – Cornerstone – The King of Shaves? Plus Exclusive Reader Offer!

For those who read the blog regularly, or know me will be aware that I have a bit of funny relationship with my facial hair. For the last 8 years or so – I’ve normally had some. Mostly through laziness, partly because I thought it looked better, and largely because shaving was a massive ball ache. Not really because of the effort involved, but the aftermath, I have two problems with my face (well with regards to shaving)

My skin is sensitive and my facial hair is like wire.

Even with a decent razor and all the right kind of products, the day after my shave my skin would feel like it was on fire and I’d want to itch to make it stop. I’d end up as a red-faced scratchy mess.

Not good!

Also, razor blades are ridiculously expensive, especially if you need a good one, which I do, anything too cheap just can’t touch my facial fuzz and is like dragging sandpaper down my cheeks. So generally shaving has been a massive pain, physically, mentally and financially.

I’d heard about Cornerstone from my mate Dan Lane – he’d been singing their praises on Facebook for a while – I looked at the site and was intrigued. They offer a ‘subscription’ service for their razors and shaving products, you can tell them how often you shave, and they tailor your subscription for you. In your first set you receive a stylish handle (that they can engrave with two initials free of charge), and then in next box you’ll receive the razor cartridges and whatever products you’ve ordered.

There’s no obligation either, you can get your first set and cancel it straight away, or if you’ve not used all your products or cartridges you can delay your next delivery or remove products from it. You also get a warning 5 days before your card will be charged too, so there aren’t any nasty shocks or surprises.

I received my first box from Cornerstone to review, it’s presented really nicely, swish, simple and stylish – similar to their website.

My box contained.

Aluminium Handle
6 x Razor Cartridges
Pre Shave Face Scrub
Sensitive Shave Gel
Post Shave Balm

So you start with the Pre Shave Scrub – I’ve used this everyday when I shower. It’s a black coloured scrub with Cedarwood and Volcanic Sand which apparently unblock pores and lift dead skin cells. Once I’m done in the shower without drying my face I chuck on the Shave Gel – I love the smell of this – it’s Ginger and Eucalyptus – delicious! The gel doesn’t foam at all so you can see exactly where you’re shaving.- as shown below.

So onto the shaving itself – the razor has five German engineered blades with a Vitamin E & Aloe Vera moisturising strip and a flexible head. Shaving with it is effortless, it glides across your face beautifully for a very close shave. There’s no drag or resistance, just quick, easy and painless shaving. The open back design of the head means when you rinse it out the stray whiskers don’t clog it up. For those times when I’ve wanted a really close shave I’ve got my face wet again, and reapplied the Shave Gel and gone against the grain. The closeness of the shave going with the grain is pretty good, and doesn’t leave you with a ‘Homer Simpson’ stubble – the image below gives you some idea of how that looks.

Once you’ve shaved, Cornerstone recommend you rinse you face with cold water (to close your pores) and then gently dry and apply the Mint and Honey ‘Post-Shave Balm’. I’ve found this to be fantastic, and I usually apply some the following day too as the wirey stubble starting to poke through my skin can REALLY sting otherwise.

I’ve had about six shaves with my razor, and I’d say my razor could probably do with replacing after my next shave as it hasn’t glided as smoothly as before, but to me that seems about right – this is over a period of two weeks so the five remaining heads will last me a while! It’s hard to say how long the product will last – it will be interesting to see as time progresses.

I really do love Cornerstone, their products feel premium but don’t come with a ridiculous price tag attached. I like the fact they will send you the products without you needing to think about it, and you get a good amount of warning if you want to amend / cancel your next delivery. I look forward to continue using them, and receiving my next box!

Cornerstone have been rather lovely and have offered readers of KipHakes.com a discount code for their products – just use the discount code ‘CLOSESHAVE’ for £10 off your order.