How Long Does Shaving Cream Last?

There are two ways of answering this question.

1. Does Shaving Cream Expire?

Shaving cream from a can — A can of shaving cream like this lasts me many months. In terms of its shelf life, there isn’t necessarily an expiry date like a food product.

Most men use canned shaving creams that you can buy from the grocery store or pharmacy. What if you start using a shaving cream product and don’t use it say 1 year or 3 years after buying it? Is the product still “good” or has it lost some of its effectiveness?

Maybe you don’t shave frequently or rotate between different shaving creams, soaps or gels and it takes longer to finish each one.

Since we don’t normally think of shaving creams having a shelf life, I decided to specifically ask the manufacturers themselves the following question:

How long does your shaving cream/gel last?

Here is the text of the email I sent to each company asking them about the expiry date of their respective shaving product:

Does shaving cream expire? I’m asking more out of interest as I’m just curious to know. Does a can of your shaving cream decrease in effectiveness over say 1 year or 5 years?

Here are the responses I received:

Edge Shaving Gel

In response to your email, our shave gel has a three year shelf life.
Edgewell Consumer Affairs

Barbasol Shaving Cream in a Can

While Barbasol, like many personal care items, does not have an explicit expiration date, we do suggest replacing cans every 1-2 years to ensure best results.
Barbasol Consumer Response Team

West Coast Shaving Soaps

While the majority of shaving soaps don’t have an expiration date, as you mentioned,* the scent of the products dissipates over time. However, the performance isn’t usually affected over time in bar or shaving soaps.
West Coast Shaving

*NOTE: I additionally asked West Coast Shaving about the scent of their products as they have some funky ones like Sandalwood, Eucalyptus, Bay Rum, etc. Check them out here.

Palmolive

Since 1979, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has required pharmaceutical manufacturers to provide expiration dates on all their products. Expiration dates are general guidelines for safe and effective use. Your medications may expire before the expiration date if improperly stored. Colgate-Palmolive gives a 2-3 year shelf life for our products. While most drugs do not become dangerous when expired, please discard product and do not use after the expiration date printed on the container.
Palmolive, North America Consumer Affairs

2. How Long Does Shaving Cream Last Before It Runs Out?

This won’t last as long as a can of shaving cream but I like this Palmolive shaving cream in a tube very much. And at 85 cents, I’m not going to worry about the cost.

The second question is more an issue of usage and how long one might expect to shave using one container of product.

AKA: How many shaves will I get from one can of shaving cream? This is clearly a harder question to answer.

How big is the can/jar/tube of shaving cream? How much do you use? How frequently do you shave? Do you shave your face and your head?

I did some searching online for other people’s experience. In general terms a regular sized 7 ounce/200ml can of shaving cream may last 40-60 shaves, anecdotally. It’s difficult to find definitive information online because of all the variables.

For me, I shave both my face (every day) and head (generally once every two days) and find that I only buy a can of shaving cream several times per year.

A regular sized can of shaving cream lasts me around 3 months if not longer. And with me shaving something (my face and/or head) daily, that would amount to around 90 shaves.

I’ve been using my Palmolive tube of shaving cream for around 4 weeks as I’m typing this and it’s already half empty although I’m not using it everyday (I alternate with the shaving cream can I also have) and the Palmolive tube is quite small. And at 85 cents, I’m not worried too much about the cost.

And I have been known to accidentally (numerous times) squirt too much shaving cream in my hand, certainly more than what I actually needed. So whatever the actual number of shaves per can is, it could easily be higher.

All in all, unless you are buying more expensive shaving cream from a container, the cost of shaving cream is relatively inexpensive in the big picture.

Conclusion

How long does shaving cream last? Expiry date: 1-3 years depending on the product most likely.
Does shaving cream expire? Shaving cream isn’t like dairy. It’s generally not going to suddenly expire if you keep using it beyond that date.

How many shaves will you get from your shaving cream? That’s a harder question to answer given your shaving style, frequency, how much you shave and how much you use each time.
Also, are we talking about a can of shaving cream, a tube, soap, gel or other form?
A can of shaving cream may last 40-60 shaves but in my experience, it lasts longer than that and I shave daily.

What type of shaving cream, gel, soap or other product do you utilize for shaving? Let us know in the comments below.