Can You Clean Glass Surfaces Using Shaving Cream?

Streak-free glass has been a source of contention for professional and amateur cleaners for decades. Companies release new formulations for their products every day, promising to provide us with a perfect shine. Can shaving cream be used to remove dirt from glass? Are we doing this the wrong way since the invention of shaving cream in 1919?

How Does It Work?

There's not too much to work out here.

Spray a good-sized amount of shaving cream onto a towel that is clean. Make sure to rub the shaving cream onto a glass surface like the oven's door, microwave door, or bathroom mirror.

It's dirty, yet we're instructed it's okay and trust the process. After a certain amount of time, the shaving cream sloughs away, leaving the glass streak-free and gorgeous.

Does It Work?

We tried this trick, and yes, it works. There are two mirrors on our vanity inside the bathroom. So we washed one using shaving cream and one using Windex.

The mirrors are identically sparkling. However, shaving cream was three times longer to do. It also was a mess. While we scrubbed and cleaned the shaving cream onto the glass, tiny pieces of shaving cream threatened to fall onto the mirror. They often succeeded in the end, particularly when we reached the edge of the mirror.

Lavender cream smelled good when we were working, and it did the job exactly as it promised. Did it really worth our time? No.

What the Pro Says

Shaving cream cleanses glass due to soap, water, and alcohol constituting the majority of both items. Shaving creams also have moisturizing agents, such as Glycerine. (Fun facts: Glycerine is the secret ingredient in the bubble juice.)

Glycerine holds the water on the mirror, allowing it to stay dry for longer and aids in making the soap stick to it when you scrub and polish.

While shaving cream may cleanse glass, there's an enormous gap between if you do it and how you should try it.

• It's messy. (We have proof of this.)
• It will leave streaks when you're not working quickly.
• This is more expensive than glass cleaner or dish soap.
• Cleaning glass using shaving cream causes more work and costs more. What is the reason we are doing it again?

Better Ways to Clean Glass

If you're looking to clean windows at a low cost, expert window cleaners will inform you that all you require is just a few drops of dish soap, water, and the squeezer. One ounce of dishwashing soap is around 5 cents and creates five gallons of window cleaning fluid. Then, why do you need to make use of a $2 bottle of shaving cream?

Shaving cream residues can provide antifogging benefits due to their ability to reduce the water's surface tension. The surface tension causes water to splatter on the glass, which is the reason we aren't able to see through a fog-filled windshield.

If you wash your mirror in your bathroom using shaving cream, it will not cloud up when you're taking a shower, though. (Fun fact: Car wax can stop your mirror from getting clogged up.) An antifog item such as Rain-X lasts for weeks after each application, which is less expensive than shaving gel. For a window cleaner for commercial use that can be removed quickly and is clear, we recommend Invisible Glass.

The bottom line? Shaving cream should be only a last resort and not a first option. If you're not using Window cleaner and Rain-X, and you're really looking to defog and clean your mirror now, and you've got a bottle of Barbasol stored away, it's a good choice for the trick in a pinch.