Scotch Porter Conditioning Beard Balm Review – Refreshing and Revitalizing
Scotch Porter Conditioning Beard Balm
Scotch Porter’s beard balm strengthens and softens the beard and provides a revitalizing and refreshing aroma. Its only downside is a slight learning curve regarding how much to use and how often to use it.
Pros
Scent is both soothing and refreshing
Very easy to apply
The texture is very soft and pleasing
Strengthens and softens beard hair
Cons
Easy to overdo and use too much
Takes work to get it fully absorbed into the beard
Leaves an oily or greasy texture on the skin
Coming back with another Scotch Porter beard product for y’all. Today, we are reviewing the Scotch Porter Conditioning Beard Balm.
Now, when I first got this product, I thought it was a conditioner and not a balm. That will teach me to read. I did, however, quickly correct my error.
I have not had the best record with beard balms. They have a tendency to make me feel like I need to wash my face all the time. They leave a greasy or oil residue that I find beard oils lack.
However, Scotch Porter makes my favorite beard wash (so far), so that means I owe them a look at this beard balm even if I don’t like using balms that much.
So how does this stack up? Let’s take a look.
Description and Features
Scotch Porter Conditioning Beard Balm comes in a jar holding about 3 ozs of balm. At first, it looks like a pomade, but when you open it, it looks less like a balm and more like a cream. In fact, with its sweet smell, it could be a dessert.
It has the same “no-frills” approach as the Scotch Porter Beard Wash, with a simple gold, navy, and black color scheme. The label shows the ingredients and directions for use, as well as the company website for reordering or any tutorials on how to use the product.
More companies should provide tutorials.
Scent
Scotch Porter Conditioning Beard Balm is available in three different aromas: Warm Spice and powdery Musk, Fresh Greens and amber Woods, and Sandalwood and tobacco Musk.
I got the Warm Spice & Powdery Musk. While I can definitely smell the spice, the musk is somewhat overpowered.
Honest thoughts: I get the warm spice and sweet honey scent that I got from the Scotch Porter Beard Wash, but then I get a heavy hit of a fresh and almost minty aroma. It is refreshing and helps to wake you up if you are feeling snoozy.
I enjoy it, but it is certainly an acquired taste.
It also lingers for quite a while. I hope you like it because you will smell it all day.
Partner Reaction
My husband took one whiff of this and wrinkled his nose. He doesn’t like the sharp contrast of Warm Spice and sudden Musk. He would prefer a scent that was more mellow overall and less sweet.
Ingredients
The Scotch Porter Conditioning Beard Balm’s ingredient list is extensive and full of big words with scientific-sounding names. Reading it is enough to make one’s eyes glaze over and slide across like a runaway hockey puck.
However, that isn’t to say there is nothing good in the Beard Balm, and it has some pretty unique ingredients to note:
—Biotin Liposomes: This is a concentrated version of Vitamin B, wrapped in a fatty acid for easy delivery into this skin. This works to get Vitamin B into your hair follicles which lets them strengthen your hair and add shine to the beard.
—Nettle Leaves: Chock full of vitamins, Stinging Nettle leaves add color and shine to hair as well as stimulating hair growth.
—White Willow Bark: The extract of White Willow Bark is both an anti-inflammatory and an antimicrobial. That makes it great for fighting acne, ingrown hairs, and flakey skin.
User Experience
For this review, I used this beard balm every other day for about a week and a half.
I always applied it onto a clean and dry beard, typically after a warm shower. It should go without saying that any trimming needs to happen before putting on the beard balm, or you will get your beard trimmer all covered with gunk.
Obviously, you aren’t going to see results overnight, but it does quickly start to take effect. You can feel your beard getting healthier after using this product for about a week.
How is the Texture?
On the surface, it is a smooth cream that is much like a pre-shave cream or hair cream. The closest analogue would be something like toothpaste.
It is very heavy, and can be overdone really easily. The texture feels very greasy on the fingers, and if you add too much to the face it leaves an oily or greasy feeling there too.
Which leads into…
How Easy is it to Use?
You’d think that it would be incredibly easy. Just get some of the balm on your fingers and massage it into your beard. Right?
Wrong!
It takes a bit more finesse than that. You are going to have to practice.
If you use too much Beard Balm, it will leave your face feeling greasy. If you use too little, you aren’t going to be able to get it into your beard deep enough.
Practice a bit and you will eventually get it, but you might find yourself wasting some product to reach that point.
Value for Money
If you are going to get Scotch Porter Conditioning Beard Balm, then I would highly recommend going through Amazon rather than the Scotch Porter official website.
On the Scotch Porter website, you are looking at spending $18 USD before shipping, but on Amazon you can find it for $14 USD.
Is it worth $14 USD? I think so. It does great on my beard, and there is enough product in the jar to last you more than a month.
Can you find something cheaper? Yes you can, but it is also about quality, and this is a high quality product for less than you would spend on most shaving soaps.
Common Consumer Complaints, Issues, and Positive Reviews
Consumers are pretty vocal when it comes to this product. The spread of positive to negative isn’t has overloaded as with many other Beard Products I have seen.
Positive Reviews
One of the overwhelmingly positive points that comes up with user reviews is how much this beard balm softens the beard. It is designed with thick and dense beards in mind, so it makes sense that this is one of its leading positives. It smoothes curly hair and straightens out the kinked clumps.
The second point many consumers bring up is the scent. Granted it is sold in three different scents, and most reviews do not say which scent they ordered. However, I would agree that the scent is very warm and soothing, and definitely one of the high points.
Others mention that it does an amazing job of keeping the beard and skin moist and supple. When you have a long beard, you are always going to be fighting against flaky skin and irritation. This product is perfect for combatting that, and the consumers have noticed that and spoken.
Consumer Complaints
On the negative side, you can certainly see the people who didn’t like the aroma. There are many points that the scent just didn’t do it for them. Even then, there are those who say it wasn’t a bad aroma, but it was just so heavy and long-lasting they couldn’t take it. That is fair, considering I put this on in the morning, and I am still smelling it 8-10 hours later.
Secondly, people do bring up the waxy or greasy feeling you get when you use too much of the product. There is a fine line between too much and not enough, and it takes some time to find the right amount. Some people may not have the patience for that, and that is totally valid for them.
I also see many people complaining about the amount they receive. The jar does not arrive full. This happened to me as well. It is about 2/3rds of the way full when you first open it, which I understand they may leave empty because of shipping. However, it is hard to tell if the product has been tampered with beforehand.
Final Thoughts – Who is Scotch Porter Conditioning Beard Balm really for?
It would be very easy for me to use my stock standard reply to this question. The one I have had to use a great deal recently: “If you already have something else, then you don’t need this one.”
However, I honestly think this is a great product, and I think people should give it an honest shot. Don’t pay full price. See if you can get it on sale on Amazon. If you can, then I would definitely recommend this product.
If it would sway you in any way, I would also note that a portion of the proceeds go to Scotch Porter’s own charity as well. So you are also doing your daily good deed when you buy a jar.
