Next time you’re in need of shaving cream, first-year chemistry student Nick May would encourage you to check out his recently launched water-activated shaving formula for women.
May said he’s been selling his product at Algonquin College since Dec. 5 and at Abstentions, Carleton’s residence convenience store, since Jan. 4. He came up with the idea when he was 14, he said.
One day, he said he was experimenting with chemicals he bought and took home from school to try.
“The way it started was [with] me in the kitchen . . . there was a big accident and I dropped something into some hot oil and it activated it; I didn’t know that was good,” he said.
In the last year, he found a company to package the product and then he marketed it all on his own.
The women-centred shaving cream is unique among typical commercial shaving products, May said, partly because it’s shaving cream in solid form (similar to deodorant).
“It’s like a massive moisturizing strip; it makes shaving in the shower way easier,” he said. “What’s good too, is you can travel [with it] since it’s a solid.”
Robert Burk, a chemistry professor at Carleton, said his student has really gone above and beyond.
“[He] made [the product] out of reasonably natural ingredients and he’s gotten away from the nasty ingredients put into commercial products . . . he put a lot of time and thought into this,” Burk said. “It really doesn’t compare to anything [other] students have attempted to do.”
May said he has first-hand knowledge of the negative effects certain chemicals have in other shaving products, so he avoided putting any into his product.
“It won’t bleach your skin the way other razors do . . . it has tea-tree oil so it cleans your cut, and it moisturizes.”
Although May’s product just recently appeared in Abstentions, he said it’s been selling “extremely” well at Algonquin College.
“In the first two weeks I sold 300 . . . in their bookstore. They sell really well there,” he said. “After the first week, half [of] the display was sold.”
Although the university plays no role in the development of the product, Rideau River Residence Association (RRRA) president Kaisha Thompson said Abstentions is happy to sell it.
“We’re supporting a fellow Raven in his business endeavour, and it benefits us as well . . . he’s catered to a market that we wanted to reach,” Thompson said, adding that Abstentions did not previously carry women’s razors.
May said he has several other chemistry-related products he hopes to create, but his current focus is on expanding the shaving cream.
“It’s going to be marketed to tanning salons and beauty salons,” he said.
