Bulldog Sensitive Shave Gel Eco Product Review

We have previously reviewed Bulldog Shave Gel and I expected the new Sensitive version to be pretty similar. However I was surprised!

Bulldog Sensitive Shave Gel contains aloe vera (helps cool , soothe and soften), jojoba (natural moisturizer), sunflower oil (for “excellent slip”), and shea butter (again for moisturizing). As usual it does NOT contain parabens, sodium laureth sulfate, artificial colors or any synthetic fragrances.

The reason I was surprised is that it was white, and not a clear or semi-transparent gel. In fact it is more like a shave cream than a shave gel, though I doubt it’s technically a cream, it just seems like one. It had that wonderfully natural scent that I love in a lot of the eco products we test, probably the aloe vera.

As I usually use sensitive shave gel anyway (my wife says I’m a delicate little flower….) this worked as well as any other products as I’ve tried and the razor moves smoothly through it, not getting too “gummed” up with gel, like some other products I’ve tried that are too thick. It’s always great to use products that are free of things like parabens and others listed above, especially when using directly on your face.

Go to www.meetthebulldog.com to buy online or find stockists (including Sainsbury). A 175ml bottle costs around £3.49.

Interview With Simon Duffy From Bulldog Natural Grooming

We’re a fan of Bulldog’s cosmetics here at Life Goggles, such as its Post Shave Balm and Shower Gel (you can find all the reviews here), so we thought we’d have a chat to its co-founder, Simon Duffy.

Tell us a bit about your background and how Bulldog started off?
We started Bulldog to take on the big brands in the men’s skincare world and create an entirely new category – natural grooming – where ethics, purity and efficacy are the core focus. The range includes shaving, cleansing and skincare products. You will never find parabens, sodium laureth sulfate, artificial colours or synthetic fragrances in our products.

This is our first proper business venture if you discount countless failed teenage money-making schemes. We started working on Bulldog part time in November 2005, founded the business in February 2006, resigned from our jobs in May 2006 and launched nationwide in Sainsbury’s in July 2007. Bulldog is now available nationwide in Sainsbury’s, Waitrose, Tesco, Superdrug, Ocado, Debenhams, Whole Foods, and Planet Organic.

Prior to founding Bulldog, Simon was an innovation and branding expert who helped the likes of Coca-Cola, Starbucks, and Samsung to create new products and Rhodri Ferrier worked in finance, and was involved in organising corporate mergers and acquisitions.

Why focus just on men?
When we used to visit the male grooming aisles of the UK supermarkets, we actually found it a very boring category. What we saw were: “for men” versions of women’s products; boring functional products that were all the same colours, styles and had the same chemical heavy formulations, and very little character. All these brands take themselves way too seriously. Unlike other categories, there are no toiletries brands that men really love. Instead it’s just stuff we have to buy.

From a consumer point of view, Bulldog was nowhere and then suddenly available in lots of high street shops, I presume that’s not the case?
I’d love to say it was an overnight success, but we have been working hard for three years to get this far. What’s more, we have only just begun our journey and we know there is a long way for us to go to achieve our mission of pioneering natural grooming for men in the UK

What’s the male ‘beauty’ market like at the moment? And how do environmentally friendly products fit into that?
Overall the “male beauty market” is really boring. Mainly this because of the unisex compromise that both dominates and commoditizes the current options available for men. Next time you try shopping for male skincare products count how many options are actually “for men” versions of female products and brands.

Environmentally friendly products have a key role to play in expanding the options for men. Lots of men are keen to avoid controversial ingredients that have been linked with everything from skin irritation to male infertility. Lots of men care about the environment and the are concerned about the chemicals they are washing down their plug holes. At the moment the overall size of the environmental products niche is small, but it is growing year on year.

Do men really care about what goes into their products?
Our research shows that an increasing number of men do care and I think the larger companies will find it increasingly harder to fool most men with their “green-washing” tactics.

We get great feedback from men on our website. For instance, lots of men tell us that they find the Bulldog’s approach of using alternative natural ingredients gives them a shave that they don’t get from shave gels that include sodium laureth sulfate and other known skin irritants.

You’re very open about your ingredients, why?
It’s a key part of what we believe, and it’s how we think all companies should operate in this market. Many food and drink companies now list out ingredients like saturated fats, salt and calories on the front of pack so that people can make informed decisions about their health. We think this should also take place in the toiletries market so that consumers can make informed decisions about whether to purchase or avoid products containing ingredients like parabens and sodium laureth sulfate.

How do you source your ingredients?
Ethically, sustainably, and from natural sources whenever possible.

Competitors like Dr Bronner for example have very few ingredients, you seem to have a lot with chemical-sounding names, why is that?
We fully disclose all our ingredients and explain why we use them and where they are from on our website www.meetthebulldog.com. Often the long Latin names are for one of the twenty two essential oils we use across our entire range. We have to write them in this way due to government regulation. For example – Dipterocarpus Turbinatus is actually Balsam Oil. We use ten essential oils in our Lemon & Bergamot shower gel so this takes up a major part of the overall ingredient list for this product. Most of our products contain between seven to ten essential oils.

We only use non-natural ingredients in the exceptional cases where there are no viable natural alternatives, and only then when we are sure they are safe and mild. We are continually working to push the naturalness of our products and hope to introduce a new preservative system and increase the percentage of natural ingredients in our products later this year. This is an area of emerging science and we stay on top of any breakthroughs.

Who do you view as your competitors? Everyone, just the other organic ranges or just the non-organic ranges?
The aim that we have set ourselves is “To Pioneer Natural Grooming For Men”. Over the next five years our goal is to inform and educate men about the benefits of natural ingredients and reduce the number of man-made chemicals in Britain’s bathrooms. We see ourselves competing across UK retail with major players like L’Oreal, Nivea and Gillette.

Environmentally friendly products are seen as more expensive than traditional ones, but yours isn’t, why is that the case?
Our whole range is priced between £2.99 and £5.99. That’s because we don’t want to limit the appeal of Bulldog by making it too expensive for regular men who shop in places like Sainsbury’s, Waitrose, Tesco or Superdrug. Our mission is to pioneer natural grooming for men. To do this we need to provide viable alternatives to the likes of Nivea, L’Oreal and Lynx. Price is an important factor for our shoppers, and especially so in the difficult financial times we currently find ourselves in.

How does bottling, packaging and delivery fit in with your philosophy?
Our primary green credentials stem from the way in which we formulate our products. We are trying to remove as many man-made chemicals as possible from the everyday grooming products that men use. As far as our carbon footprint is concerned, we aren’t that innovative yet, but we are different. Unlike the vast majority of our competitors, we manufacture all of our products and its packaging here in the UK. It would certainly be cheaper for us to import packaging from China and have the packs filled in Eastern Europe, but it certainly wouldn’t help the environment. One criticism we have of ourselves is that we probably don’t communicate this fact as clearly to consumers as we could.

All of our products are packaged in 100% recyclable packaging, and we are working closely with our packaging partner to explore the inclusion of post-consumer-recycled plastic in our bottles and tubes. This is more of a challenge than you would expect, particularly if you want to manufacture in the UK.

You seem to be growing and growing, what difficulties have you faced and what barriers are there to further expansion?
The major challenge for Bulldog is getting the name out there and convincing people to give the products a try. This is really tough because all our competitors are large multi-national corporations who have massive marketing budgets, huge advertising campaigns, and the deep pockets required to fund price promotions in-store.

We compete by being different. First of all we knew we had to create amazing natural products. We are relentless in making sure that all our products have a great performance. All the feedback we’ve had has been very positive.

Secondly we launched as Bulldog. The Bulldog represents all of the positive attributes of men. He may not have a rippling six-pack, in fact he’s a little overweight and quite wrinkly, but he’s also tenacious, loyal, honest, hard working and protective. He is “Man’s Best Friend” and we probably all like to think that we have a bit of the bulldog spirit.

If men want to buy affordable natural grooming products with brilliant performance, that are also free from controversial ingredients, then we are the only brand available. We have a real point of difference.

What’s next for Bulldog?
Innovation is the lifeblood of brands and we are constantly searching out and testing new natural ingredients. We set very tough standards on both efficacy and naturalness which allows us to be very focused when reviewing possible new directions.

In terms of building our distribution we are taking it one step at a time, but we are looking to substantially build our distribution and hope that in the next three to four years you’ll be able to buy Bulldog anywhere you might pick up a shave gel or shower gel.

How about doing a deodorant? It’s hard to find good, environmentally friendly ones!
We have a further 10 products in our pipeline for the next 12 months and this includes a brilliant natural deodorant that will open up an entirely new market for us in male grooming. Innovation is key to the development of Bulldog and we will be pushing hard to deliver amazing new products for UK consumers.

Thanks to Simon and Patrick Hobbs for sorting the interview out.

Bulldog Sensitive Moisturiser Eco Product Review

I’ve reviewed Bulldog’s moisturiser before, the ‘hydrate’ version back in January 2008. This new version is from the ’sensitive’ range and promises to be kind to my skin.

As I mentioned in my previous review I tend to shy away from thick moisturisers as I find they get stuck in my beard, a bit like in the picture below, although that’s actually suntan lotion that wouldn’t rub in. I mean, I have a few grey/gray hairs but that makes me look ridiculous. And the sun’s in my eyes as well but I was told to take my sunglasses off for the photo.

Anyway, despite this moisturiser being quite thick, it rubs in as well as my usual brand and I’ve no complaints on that score. Although it does have quite a strong smell to it. Well certainly stronger than the other version and at first I found it slightly off-putting, especially when I learnt that one ingredient is green algae.

But to be honest I’ve used stuff with worse sounding ingredients and after a while you get used to the smell and a drop of aftershave soon sees to it anyway. So generally I’m very happy with it and it has certainly been kind to my skin so far. I’m about to test another moisturiser too so will let you know if I need to reappraise that opinion.

Bulldog products contain no parabens, no sodium laureth sulfate, no artificial colours or synthetic fragrances. Go to www.meetthebulldog.com to find stockists. A 100ml tub/bottle costs around £6.00.

Bulldog Natural Grooming Moisturiser Product Review

In doing a thorough product review of Bulldog Natural Grooming Moisturiser involves a lot of washing of my face. I’m not one to moisturise all the time for no reason but after washing my face I always need to so twice a day I’d come to squeeze the tub onto my hand and rub it in. And what a joy it was.

It took me a little while over the testing period to work out why it was a joy and I realised it was down to two things. Firstly, the smell. Now the list of ingredients is quite long (I’ll come to that) but I think it’ll be down to the eight essential oils, green tea extract (which is an anti-oxidant) and mabe the green algae (which I’m told is to help with skin hydration). It really does smell nice, almost medicinal.

The packaging says:

“No parabens, no sodium laureth sulfate, no artificial colours and not synthetic fragrances.”

But as I said the list of the ingredients is huge. And confusing – do you know what ethylhexyl palmitate is? Well actually I sort of do, it’s an emulsifier and I know this because at www.meetthebulldog.com it tells me what that is and all the other ingredients which is very handy. There a downloadable pdf which also tells me it’s derived form vegetable/palm and that: “Emulsifiers modify the interface between water and oils, allowing tiny blobs of oils and waxes (micelles) to float freely in water (or vice versa) without merging together and separating out.” It’s also not tested on animals and no ingredients come from animal sources.

But how does it actually work as a moisturiser? Traditionally I tend to use a cheap moisturiser, not actually because I’m cheap but because I fine more expensive products too thick and as I have a slight beard, I found it wouldn’t rub into my skin/beard properly and I’d end up looking like Santa Claus. So I approached the thick, white substance out of this bottle with some trepidation.

I shouldn’t have worried really, although the consistency seems the same as other brands I’ve used I found it was absorbed into the skin very nicely both on areas with hair and without. There was no white or oily residue. I enjoyed using it as much as one can.

Bulldog are a small company based in London. Currently it’s just available in the UK through Sainsbury’s stores, and online through the Life Goggles Reviews and Shop page. Read Joel’s review of Bulldog’s shave gel here.

Bulldog Natural Grooming Shave Gel Product Review

I try to shave as little as possible, but as I don’t want a beard (unlike Adam), and my wife complains, it means “as little as possible” is almost every day. I tend to think shave gels and creams are pretty much alike, some are cheap and some expensive but they all do the same job. Then we were sent some Bulldog Natural Grooming Shave Gel.

It didn’t change my world massively, but I was impressed. For example, as I was testing it for the first time, this is the conversation I had with my wife:

“Something smells good!?”
Me: “It’s me!”
“No, seriously, something smells new and different.”
Me: “I know, it’s ME!”

She was right to a degree, it wasn’t really me but the shave gel. Made with seven essential oils, paraban free with Aloe Vera (apparently for cooling and softening), Jojoba (a natural moisturiser) and Konjac Mannan (for, er, “slip”), there are a full list of ingredients plus a downloadable explanation to what each ingredient is, on the Bulldog website. The gel had an almost menthol flavour and tingled on my lips, and as I had a cold at the time, actually helped me .

Besides the product itself, I like the humour on the packaging, for example the back states “Unless you’re a geography teacher or a communist revolutionary [or Adam] you’ll have to shave sometime”. Besides that, there’s not much left to say. it’s nice to use a decent shave gel that has been naturally sourced. My face was fine afterwards, no more ugly than usual so I guess it works well.

Bulldog are a small company based in London. Currently their products are just available in the UK and through our new Life Goggles Reviews and Shop page.

Bulldog Sensitive Post Shave Balm Green Product Review

As the bottle says there comes a time in a man’s life when he has to take a long hard look in the mirror and say, “Yes I need some Sensitive Post Shave Balm.” That man is you and that time is now.

Bulldog’s new sensitive range also contains a post shave balm. We have previously given a great review of the normal Bulldog shave balm, so I expected similar good things. It is a white balm, and was easily absorbed helping cool the little razor burn that I had. It contains rosehip oil to help nourish and soothe skin and also vitamin E as an antioxidant.

The only downside is that the bottle came in seemingly an unnecessary box that wasn’t even made out of recycled post-consumer material. In fairness the bottle is pretty small and perhaps wouldn’t fit the ingredients or barcode on, but a recycled box would have been nice.

Bulldog products contain no parabens, no sodium laureth sulfate, no artificial colors or synthetic fragrances. Go to www.meetthebulldog.com to buy online or find stockists. A 100ml tub/bottle costs around £4.99.