Proraso Pre-Shave Cream, since 1948

Proraso Pre-Shave Cream is a firm white cream sold in a squat, square-shouldered glass jar with Proraso moulded into its sides and a dark green screw lid. It smells strongly of eucalyptus and menthol. A fingertip is rubbed into the wet beard before lathering, where it softens the hair and cools the skin, and it can be used again after the shave. The barber's version comes in a larger jar of 300 millilitres.

Proraso Pre-Shave Cream: Filling and packing Proraso jars at the works; an undated photograph from the maker's history page. — Filling and packing Proraso jars at the works; an undated photograph from the maker's history page. *Photograph, undated.* via proraso-usa.com

The cream belongs to the Martelli family of Florence, who have made cosmetics there since 1908. According to the company, it was in 1948, in a small laboratory in the city, that its chemists produced a pre- and after-shave cream whose freshness surprised the people who tried it. It was the first product sold under the name Proraso, from pro rasatura, for shaving, and Italian barbers took it up before it reached bathroom shelves.

Proraso Pre-Shave Cream: The jar through the decades as the maker presents it, from the 1940s "aiuta chi si rade" jar on the left to the current glass jar on the right. — The jar through the decades as the maker presents it, from the 1940s "aiuta chi si rade" jar on the left to the current glass jar on the right. *Maker photograph, undated.* via proraso.com

The jar has changed more than the purpose. The maker's own record shows cream-coloured jars of the 1940s and 1950s printed 'aiuta chi si rade', it helps those who shave, a green 'crema' of the 1980s and the 'crema pre e dopo barba' label of the 1990s, before the clear embossed glass of today. A cartoon barber named Gino looked out from the packaging in the 1950s. The formula of 1948 has not been published, so how closely today's cream follows it rests on the maker's account.

The green cream was the first of what are now several Proraso lines, red for coarse beards, white for sensitive skin and others besides, and it is still the one the maker calls refreshing and toning, for every kind of beard. The company is still run by the Martelli family, now with a minority investor, and the cream is sold across Europe, America and beyond. It is a small object, used a fingertip at a time, that has kept its place in Italian barbershops since 1948, when the Republic was two years old.

Timeline

1948 First made · Claimed Proraso Pre-Shave Cream enters production in Florence, Italy.

1948 The Proraso Pre and After Shave Cream is launched, the first product of the new Proraso brand, and is taken up by Italian barbers.

2019 Ownership The Chinese fund Nuo Capital takes a 30 per cent stake in the Proraso business; the Martelli family keeps control.

Milestones as we found them, not as we've checked them.

The date

One source supports this year. Treat it as the maker's claim.

Proraso's own history says that 1948 was the year of its Pre and After Shave Cream, made in a small Florentine laboratory and taken up first by Italian barbers. English Wikipedia says the Proraso pre-shave cream has been in production since 1948, and Italian Wikipedia says the Proraso brand began in 1948 and that its first product was the pre-shave cream; both cite the maker's own pages. No independent dated source, such as a 1948 advertisement, was found, so the year rests on the maker's word and is marked claimed. 1908 is the founding year of the Ludovico Martelli company, not of this product.

Why it still counts

One product. Pre-shave cream is a type, but this is the specific green-line cream with which Proraso began, sold in a squat jar under one maker's name since 1948. This entry files the green Refreshing and Toning formula with eucalyptus oil and menthol, not the later red, blue and white variants.

The same object. It is still a cream rubbed into the beard before shaving and onto the skin afterwards; Italian retailers still sell the professional jar as 'crema pre e dopo barba', the name the maker gives the 1948 product.

No source sets out the 1948 formula, so the claim that the eucalyptus and menthol cream is the original rests on the maker's presentation of the green line as its first.

The production run. The maker shows a jar for each decade from the 1940s to the 2000s, and no source records a period when it was not made.

Proraso Pre-Shave Cream

Timeline

From the archive

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