Best Damn Beard Oil Review - Swing and a Miss (2024)

Last Updated on November 16, 2023

Here we go with our third offering from Duke Cannon: the Best Damn Beard Oil. I swear this company has a significant ego issue. However, I can say that their Product SEO is on point. If you don’t know what SEO is, I envy you seriously.

So how does this stack up to some of the other beard oils we’ve reviewed? Let’s take a deeper look…

About the Brand: As we have shown in our other reviews for Duke Cannon, the brand is very much leaning into the Alpha-Sigma Male product branding. While I am very cynical about this, it apparently works for Duke Cannon. They are a common name to come up when people are looking for Beard Products.

Best Damn Beard Oil Description

So my first thought when looking at the packaging on this bottle is that it looks like something I would buy off a snake oil salesman in the 1890s. Is that too specific a reference?

The bottle is heavy amber glass with a plastic dropper lid. It also has a label that makes it look very much like some kind of prescription medicine. I suppose Duke Cannon is going for the healthy angle on this one.

It should be noted that a portion of the sales of this product goes to United States Veterans through a series of charity organizations like the Gary Sinise Foundation and the Fisher House. So there is some good to spending money on this product.

Scent

The Scent of this beard oil is…interesting.

It has a sweet note coming from the clove essence, then it immediately mellows to a citrus- vanilla musk scent. The clash is jarring and smells very artificial. Like the other scents we’ve encountered in the Duke Cannon line, this just makes me think of the fake scents of a Doctor’s Office waiting room.

Duke Cannon calls this their Redwood scent, and I suppose I can kind of get that from the musky woody smell that the oil finishes on. I just don’t really feel impressed by it at all.

Luckily the scent doesn’t linger. After wearing this for about five minutes it just disappears almost completely.

Ingredients

This is where this Beard Oil actually excels.

The ingredients for this product are amazing for your skin and easily readable without any super dense scientific names.

To highlight just a few:

• Apricot Kernel Oil reduces inflammation and can soften stiff hair.
• Jojoba Oil moisturizes the skin to keep it healthy
• Argan Oil repairs damaged skin and hair follicles
• Orange Essential Oil Extract helps with dandruff and “beard-druff”
• Rosemary Extract will prevent graying and keep the skin from flaking
• Clove Essential Oil protects against split ends and promotes hair growth
• Calendula Extract promotes blood flow and strengthens hair

Overall, this is EXTREMELY good for your beard to make it look healthy and feel amazing.

User Experience

For the purposes of this review, I spent 2 weeks using this beard oil every other day after a shower. I applied 4-5 drops to my clean beard and let it slowly dry over the course of the day.

Because of some other events in my personal life, I needed to shave off the large beard I had before. Luckily this gave me the opportunity to see how this beard oil worked on stubble as well as a regular beard.

How is the Texture?

The texture of this beard oil is smooth, but also thin. It feels less like a facial product and more like olive oil.

While this makes it much easier to get on your skin and makes it dry faster, this also means you need to use just slightly more than you think on your beard to really massage it in.

However, it did not leave any kind of filmy residue or anything. This is always a major plus for me really. I hate the feeling of oil on my skin for long periods of time.

How Easy Is It to Use?

Now on to the bad!

I really, extremely, and exceptionally dislike the method of application on this bottle.

As you can see from the photos, it is a sort of dropper that just has a hole in the middle of it to let the oil drop out of.

So to use it you basically need to shake it into your hands like a ketchup or mustard bottle. This makes it hard to judge how much you are really going to need and has the potential to splatter the oil all over the place when you are trying to get some out to use.

Follow that up with your hands possibly being slippery from just washing or showering and you have the potential to drop the whole thing in the sink.

It may sound petty, but we already know the eyedropper cap is much better, why not just use that? Unless you are specifically going for an “old-world” type of feel. Even then though. There are easier ways to get oil out of a glass bottle.

Use on Beard

How did it feel on my beard? Pretty normal. I am glad to say it caused no issues and was very good at keeping any beard-druff and itching to a minimum. In fact, I think it even helped some of my gray hair to darken.

My beard hair feels thicker and more healthy because of this oil, and I am happy with that. I have also suffered no hair loss in the beard, which is always a plus.

Use on Stubble

If this beard oil helped on just the beard, then I would have to say it excelled when it came to helping grow my stubble.

I had zero ingrown hairs, zero pimples, and absolutely no itchiness as I was using this product. It actually helped my beard grow thicker and faster than normal.

Value for Money

Now we take another negative.

From the Duke Cannon website, one bottle of their Best Damn Beard Oil costs $30 USD. I mean…30 hard-earned dollars for this bottle is pretty steep, especially when there are cheaper options.

I mean the Cremo Palo Santo Beard Oil we reviewed a while ago smells much better and is much easier to use for only &11 USD.

Granted to might be able to find it less, because I can see that Target has the same size bottle for $21 USD. Therefore if you really want to try this, I recommend shopping around.

Common Consumer Complaints, Issues, and Reviews

A good majority of the reviews online for this beard oil mention how much it has helped them to tame some really out-of-control bristly beards. I can relate, as my beard will often change the direction of its grain halfway through.

Many customers claim their beard went from a stiff brillo pad to a soft downy fuzz after a week of using this beard oil. I do have to say, I had a similar experience as well. It did help to make my beard slightly softer and easier to maintain.

When consumers do leave negative reviews, typically they highlight 2 different issues: the scent and the price.

As far as the scent goes, many of the people who have commented on it are right there with me complaining that it clashes and smells off. Many say that they cannot even get the musky redwood scent at all because it is almost buried behind the sweet scent in the clove and orange essential oil smells. That is enough to turn most people off completely. No matter how healthy something is, no one wants to smell that for an extended period of time.

Though there was one negative reviewer who did say they liked the smell, but it disappeared too quickly. Each to their own, I suppose.

Those who talked about the price also pointed out they really thought there would be more bang for their buck as well. As I highlighted above, for beard oil $30 USD is pretty expensive.

Final Thoughts – Who is Duke Cannon’s Best Damn Beard Oil For?

I am of two minds about this product honestly. It works very well and has some amazingly healthy properties. However, it can be a pain to use and that scent just really isn’t pleasant on my nose. There were points where I was dreading even having to use it.

Overall, if you have the money to spend on it and you REALLY need a way to tame your unruly beard…then maybe give this stuff a shot. I cannot really endorse this product unless you have tried everything else to help your beard get healthy.

If you are just looking for a new beard oil, or if you are just starting out: give this one a pass and go for something less expensive.

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