Narroway Homestead Beard Oil Review – Down Home Style
Narroway Homestead Beard Oil
Narroway Homestead beard oil is a nice and earthy blend of essential oils that work well with most beard types. The ingredients are top-notch, and the price is just right.
Pros
The coffee scent is delicious
The texture is smooth and even
Helping a small business
Easy to Use and apply
Simple and Easy to Read ingredients
Cons
Texture can be somewhat thick
Dries slowly; be prepared to smell it for many hours
Minimal Hold for styling purposes
Now and then, when I am just doom-scrolling on my favorite apps, I will run into something that crosses into my professional sphere of influence. That sphere of influence being beards and shaving in this instance.
Recently, I came across a guy who owns a small online store based on his homesteading life in West Virginia. His name is Nate, and he possesses a truly epic beard himself. So obviously, he decided to parley that epic beard into an additional revenue stream, which led to him making a line of beard oils and beard butter.
Narroway Oil joined our beard oils recommendations you can check out here — 10 Best Beard Oils.
Today, we are looking at some of his beard oil to see how it stacks up to some of the big names out there.
Description & Features
Naturally, as is the style at the time (insert Simpsons reference here), we have a small amber bottle with an eyedropper design.
The eyedropper makes it easy to gauge just how much you want to use. Unlike other droppers, it is rounded off at the end. For me, it seems that it doesn’t pick up as much of the oil as some other droppers.
This is a good thing, as I am certainly not going to run out any time soon or overdo it. Also, there is much less of a chance you are going to break off the tip of the dropper and have glass all over the inside of your oil bottle.
Scent
For this review, I elected to get myself the Fresh Coffee aroma. Let me tell you, readers, I almost felt like I was rubbing coffee beans on my face every morning.
This is a good thing!
The aroma is so rich and earthy and made me crave a cup of coffee all day.
It wakes me up every time I smell it and I am not unconvinced there isn’t caffeine vapor in the scent already.
That aroma comes from the essential oil of coffee plus vanilla and leather to get a downhome and earthy scent.
I would not recommend this one to non-coffee lovers. However, if you are up for it, there are other aromas for sale.
- Essence of Sawdust – Comes with essential oils of Pine, Cedar, Bergamot, and Sandalwood. This one is all about that deep woods aroma.
- Minion’s Secret Formula – Minion is Nate’s trusty canine companion. Judging by the added Sandalwood, Cedar, and Frankincense, this has a rich and musky aroma.
- OffGrid Evening – Essence of Tobacco and Cherry is supposed to bring off the feeling of the last bit of sunset on an outdoor evening on the porch.
- Unscented – Beard Oil with no bells or whistles in it. Has no natural scent, which is probably the best option for someone with sensitive skin
To me, these aroma combinations show a great deal of creativity on the part of Nate, and honestly having an unscented option means he knows the market. There are plenty of companies that don’t even have the option of unscented.
Ingredients
The two big ingredients Nate uses in his oils are Sunflower Oil and Sweet Almond Oil
We’ve touched on these two oils in their use in beard care in the past. They nourish skin and protect it throughout the day.
Sweet Almond Oil also has vitamins and anti-oxidants to keep your skin feeling fresh and hydrated. It is often used in hair care to condition hair naturally and maintain a shine.
Sunflower Oil helps hair by treating the skin for dandruff and inflammation, as well as helping to encourage hair growth where it has thinned over time.
And that is it, there are no other ingredients other than the essential oils mixed in for scent. There is nothing to worry about when it comes to harsh chemicals or preservatives.
User Experience
For this review, I did my normal SOP of using this beard oil every other day for about a week.
The process is to make sure the face/beard is nice and clean, then run a brush through it, then apply a small amount of oil. To apply it, just a few drops in the hand, and then gently rub it into the bristle and skin.
Follow it up with a gentle brush and you are good to go.
Overall, I would go out of my way to find any excuse to put this stuff on. I loved the smell and the feel of it on my skin, and I’m not even a huge coffee guy.
How is the Texture?
The oil is very smooth and very rich. It is very spreadable and easily coats your face and your beard.
If you have a longer beard, you’ll need more, but I found that just a few drops was all I needed to ensure that I was fully protected all day.
I love the gentle feeling it has that doesn’t make me feel like my face is coated in oil all day. It’s just thick enough to make it feel good without making it feel icky or sticky.
How Easy is it to Use?
Using an eyedropper is pretty much the standard for most beard oils, and I find it works fine.
Though honestly, using a pump feels so much easier to manipulate, especially if you want to move quickly through your daily routine.
It might be splitting hairs because, obviously, the eyedropper will give you better control over how much oil you use.
This may come down to personal taste for you, the consumer.
Value for Money
Each of the beard oils on the Narroway Homestead storefront is about 15 USD minus any shipping and handling you will need to add to the price.
Overall, I would say that is a decent price. It’s about what I would expect from most beard oils.
The quality of the oil though is out of sight, so you are getting a decent amount of high-quality beard oil for about the same price you would be paying for some much lower-quality stuff from a big name.
You can find them on Amazon as well, but the price is closer to 20 USD a bottle, so I would recommend getting them straight from the website.
Nate is also really quick about getting your order in the mail. When I ordered this, I was expecting it not to ship for 3 or 4 days, but Nate had it in the mail to me within 24 hours. That’s so much better than most online stores.
Common Consumer Complaints, Issues, and Positive Reviews
As Narroway Homestead is more niche than most other brands and companies, finding a bevy of user reviews for the product is more difficult than just pulling up the Amazon list and hitting the high points of what other consumers think.
However, people have let their voices be heard when it comes to Nate’s products.
Overall Narroway Homestead reviews very well with their consumers. A great majority just love the scents, which to be fair is 90 percent of the reason people buy cosmetics like beard oil. The other 10 percent use them for their medicinal purposes.
I can find very few negative reviews overall. The only Negative Nelly was a person commenting on how the actual manufacturer of the product is located in Missouri rather than directly in West Virginia. I suppose if that is very important to you, that could be a negative.
To me, this means we have a real hidden gem here that needs much more attention.
Final Thoughts – Who is Narroway Homestead Beard Oil really for?
Overall, I greatly enjoyed using the product and going through the process of reviewing it.
Narroway Homestead Beard Oil is going up there on my everyday use shelf right next to Every Man Jack Beard Oil and Cremo Cedar Forest Beard Oil. Heck, I may just alternate between all three to give myself a sense of variety.
I do recommend this product to most guys who are looking to find a no-frills everyday oil that can keep up with you whether you are working outdoors or in the office. It will keep your skin healthy and your beard shiny no matter what you are doing.
This could also be a good starter oil if you are looking just to get into beard oil in general. If you want to take the extra step to make your beard look nice, Narroway Homestead is a great place to start.
