Proraso and the Green Jar Every Italian Barber Knows

In 1948, in a small laboratory in Florence, a family company launched a cream meant to be rubbed into a beard before the razor and again after it. It smelled sharply of eucalyptus and menthol. According to the brand's own history, Italian barbers took it up first, and men who shaved at home followed.

That cream is still made, in a green jar that has hardly changed in spirit. Wikipedia says the pre-shave cream has been in production since 1948. The company behind it has stayed under the same family's control the whole time.

A cosmetics firm turns to shaving

The family business is older than the brand. Proraso's own account and the shaving site Sharpologist both say Ludovico Martelli founded it in 1908. Wikipedia names the owner today as Ludovico Martelli S.r.l., which carries his name.

The turn to shaving came with the second generation. Sharpologist says Ludovico's son Piero joined the company in 1948 and changed its focus from cosmetics to shaving. The brand history credits Piero with the principle the company still repeats, professional quality products for a pleasurable shave in the barbershop and at home.

Here the sources split. Proraso and Wikipedia date the pre-shave cream to 1948. Sharpologist says Piero invented it in 1950, under the name Crema Miracolosa, the miracle cream, and that it is the same Pre and Post Shave Cream sold in the green jar today. Whether it was 1948 or 1950, it came out of the same Florentine laboratory in the same few years after the war.

What the green cream does

The cream was built to do two jobs. Sharpologist describes it as a eucalyptus-based cream used before a shave to soften the beard and after to soothe irritation. Wikipedia names eucalyptus oil and menthol as its main scents. The menthol is what gives the cold rush on the skin, and it is the part people remember.

Use is simple. Rub a thin layer into a damp beard, lather over the top, and shave. Afterward, a small amount on the skin takes the heat out of a close pass. It is especially welcome with a single blade, which is why the cream sits comfortably beside the tools in our safety razor and wet shaving guide and the straight razor revival.

Gino and the third generation

Proraso has had a mascot since the 1950s. The brand history says a character named Gino became its spokesman in that decade and is still on the packaging, a drawn character who has outlasted several redesigns.

Sharpologist says Piero's son, a second Ludovico Martelli, succeeded his father in 1968 and built on the products of the first. In 1990 the company moved its headquarters to a suburb outside Florence. Under him the firm also expanded production and made products for other brands, among them Marvis.

The brand history says its stylish communication has run for 65 years, and that the family has set shaving trends for four generations. The look of the packaging is a big part of that. The jars and tubes read as Italian from across a room.

In 2012 Proraso reformulated its range. Sharpologist says the formulas stayed largely the same but became more than 95 percent natural in origin and free of parabens, mineral oil, SLS and silicones, and the packaging was redesigned.

The color code

Proraso sorts its range by color, and each color stands for a skin or beard type. Here is how the lines line up, using the descriptions on Proraso's site and Wikipedia.

Wikipedia also lists a separate professional line for barbers in three variants, which it calls Single Blade in its product section. Proraso's US site sells the barbershop side of the business to home shavers too, from the 3.6 ounce Pre-Shave Cream Refreshing to an aftershave balm for coarse beards, a beard oil and a professional shaving brush.

The colors make the range easy to shop. Find your beard on the chart, buy the matching jar, and you have most of a routine. The green is still the default, and the one to start with if you have never used the brand. If the menthol is too much, the white sensitive line is the obvious next step.

Bigger than a barbershop

The business has grown well past a single cream. Wikipedia reports turnover of 36 million euros in 2009, when Proraso ranked first in Italy in pre and aftershave creams and third in shaving cream for use with a brush. By 2017 turnover had reached 61 million euros, up 18 percent on the year before. In October 2019 the Hong Kong investment firm Nuo Capital bought a 30 percent minority stake in Ludovico Martelli, the family group behind Proraso and Marvis, Pambianco reported. BeBeez put the price at about 50 million euros.

The 2009 figures show how Proraso's strength sits in the barbershop end of the market. It ranked only sixth in Italy in quick shaving foams, and first in the pre and aftershave creams that started the company.

By our arithmetic, sales grew by about 70 percent in those eight years, from 36 to 61 million euros, on the back of a product line that still leads with a cream from the 1940s.

Where it fits

Proraso is the cheap, reliable end of traditional shaving, and that is its charm. It is the jar in the barber's cabinet in Florence and the tube in a traveler's wash bag. If you are passing through, our Florence Oltrarno and Pitti Uomo guide covers the city's craft streets. For something with an older Italian bottle, our history of Acqua di Parma's Colonia tells another family story from the same country. And if you want to see where barbers came from in the first place, read our barber pole history.

The family in Florence has now run the company for four generations, by its own count. In all that time the first product has stayed green, cold on the skin and easy to find.