barbasol vs. foamy

I've used both and no, they're not the same. Not at all.

You can, at least in America, find Barbasol and Foamy shaving cream in many places. Grocery stores, department stores, pharmacies, and so on.

At first glance, Foamy's on-the-shelf price is about 50 cents more for a can compared to Barbasol, so it appears to cost more. However, a regular size can of Foamy is 11oz and a regular size can of Barbasol is 10oz. Is it worth paying the extra 50 cents for 1 ounce more? That's for you to decide.

Is Barbasol the cheapest shaving foam? No. There is Equate brand from Walmart, which is 50 cents less per 10oz can compared to Barbasol. No, I have not tried it.

Is Foamy the most expensive shaving foam? Actually, yes - for a foam. There are shaving gels that are way more expensive. But where a can o' foam is concerned, Foamy has the highest price. That doesn't mean it's expensive, but, yeah, highest cost.

These are the differences between Barbasol and Foamy:

Barbasol has 1 fewer ingredients compared to Foamy. The 1 ingredient Foamy has that Barbasol doesn't is palmitic acid. But it should also be noted that both Barbasol and Foamy contain stearic acid. From what I understand, a fatty acid must be present because it's a basic building block of shaving foam.

Foamy is thicker than Barbasol, but that also makes is slightly more difficult to spread across the face.

Foamy has a very pronounced scent. Barbasol is lightly scented.

Side note on that: There is no such thing as a fragrance-free a.k.a. unscented shave foam in a can, and I know exactly why. The propellant used naturally stinks, so a scent has to be added to mitigate that. No way around it. I can absolutely assure you that you don't want a fragrance-free shaving foam. You would hate it. Barbasol with its light scent is the closest you will get to unscented. If you absolutely must have a 100% truly fragrance-free shave lubricant, see Aveeno Therapeutic Shave Gel. It's a gel and not a foam. You have to give up shave foams if you want to go fragrance-free.

The directions on the Barbasol can specifically state to shake the can first, then dispense. The Foamy can has no directions printed on it at all. I would assume that yes, you're always supposed to shake the can before dispensing (probably so the foam comes out evenly every time).

Which can lasts longer? You'd think it would be Foamy because of the extra 1oz in a regular-sized can, but I think both Barbasol's 10oz and Foamy's 11oz last about the same amount of time.

On both cans, the button on top is the same size and requires about the same amount of finger pressure to dispense the foam.

Both cans, thankfully, do not rust. Look at the bottom ring of both cans and it's white and not steel. For many years, shave cans over time would start rusting at that bottom ring. Barbasol to the best of my memory was the first to advertise rustproofed cans, so much so that they printed that feature directly on the can itself for a good long while.

Barbasol in my experience seems to stick to the face slightly better and has slightly more cushion for DE shaving.

Foamy requires more effort to make it stick, but lasts longer during the shave, but also takes more effort to wash off.

The stronger scent of Foamy "stays" with a hand towel. When I finish a shave, I wash my face clean, then dry with a hand towel. After time passes and the towel dries, when I smell that towel later, the Foamy scent is still there. This doesn't happen with Barbasol.

My face can use either Barbasol or Foamy. I go back and forth between the two.

Published 2025 May 8