Using oil and balm in the right order

Both boxes in the catalogue hold an oil in an amber dropper bottle and a balm in a round tin with a lid. One is a liquid that moves freely through a dropper pipette, while the other is firm at room temperature. Because they behave differently in the hand, using them in the wrong sequence usually means wasting one of them against the other.

Oil goes on first. The dropper lets you place a few drops directly into the palms before working the liquid down to the skin beneath the beard. A 30 ml bottle, also marked as 1 fl oz on the label, contains roughly six hundred drops. Using five or six drops each day means a single bottle lasts between three and four months of steady use.

Balm works differently and stays on the surface of the hair. You scrape a small amount from the tin, warm it between your palms until the heat of your hands softens it, and spread it through the length of the beard. As it cools, it sets again on the hair to help keep stray whiskers down. Putting balm on before oil blocks the liquid from reaching the skin beneath.

Differences between the two boxes come down to ingredients and tools rather than how the products function. In the three-piece Beard Growth Kit, the 30 ml bottle is labelled Beard Growth Oil and lists batana oil and biotin, alongside a tin of Beard Growth Balm and a 0.25 mm roller with a black handle. It comes without tools.

In the six-piece Beard Grooming Kit, the 30 ml bottle and the tin are both labelled fragrance free. This box includes a wooden dual sided comb, stainless steel scissors with looped handles, an oval boar bristle brush with a wooden body, and a drawstring storage bag that holds the other five items. A small printed booklet rests in the box alongside them.