While you may have previously thought that Viking warriors were carefree with their fuzz, they'd have been rather jealous of the treatment on offer here, with a coarse boar hair brush and plenty of nourishing oils and balms to soothe and control the untamed hair. Trim down the wisps with the scissors for a tidy finish.
The best beard care kit overall: Scotch Porter Ultimate Beard Collection
Ultimate Beard Collection
Scotch Porter is a premium men's grooming brand with a premium beard kit to match. This set is a particularly smart buy for anyone with dry skin or coarse facial hair, thanks to its three moisturising products (conditioner, balm, serum). And if that's not you, then good news: the kit will last even longer, because you won't need all three of those products at once.
We're overlooking that overlap because this is the rare kit that comes with both a boar bristle brush – that's the good kind – and a trustworthy pocket comb from Kent. If you opt for a different kit, we'd highly suggest you get yourself a nice beard brush separately. It's one of the most important – and underrated – beard care tools.
The best beard kit for travel: Jack Black Beard Grooming Kit
Jack Black makes one of the best beard oils in the world, though the brand's beard wash and lube are no slouches. They use natural ingredients and botanicals like Kalahari melon oil, Vitamin E, jojoba oil, aloe vera, and eucalyptus to hydrate your beard, soften the hair, and keep the skin healthy and happy. When it's time to shave, the beard lube acts as both a shaving oil and a conditioner. And it all comes in TSA-friendly travel sizes, so you can look good on the road.
If you've noticed that we haven't mentioned the beard comb included in Jack Black's kit, that's because our mothers taught us that if we can't say anything nice, not to say anything at all. The Beard Lube by itself costs £28, so ignoring the comb isn't costing you anything.
Best beard kit for most people: King C. Gillette Beard Care Kit
Beard Care Kit
The King C. Gillette line provides beard and shaving products that are a step above cheap pharmacy shaving creams and oils. This particular bundle includes the brand's exceptionally good beard balm (for keeping those hairs soft and in place), the double-duty beard-and-face wash, and beard oil. At £80 for a collection of full-size products, it's a steep ask, but the bundle leans on tried-and-true ingredients – argan oil, cocoa and shea butter, jojoba oil – to keep your beard in king-level condition.
The best beard kit gift: Murdock London Redchurch St. Collection Men's Gift Set
Redchurch St. Collection Men's Gift Set
We mentioned this, but there are a lot of beard care sets from suspect brands sitting on Amazon – don't give someone the gift of garbage grooming. The Murdock London gift set is the lone exception we found. This kit comes with four premium products for hydrating, smoothing, and washing your whiskers. Crucially, it also comes with a beard brush, an unfortunate oversight in most kits. (It's a vegan beard brush, which means it's likely not as effective or long-lasting as a boar-bristle brush – but also, didn't require a boar to sacrifice its hair.)
The best-smelling beard kit: Acqua di Parma Barbiere Essential Shaving Kit
Barbiere Essential Shaving Kit
Maintaining a decent beard takes real work and care – the more you put in, the better your beard's going to look and feel. Acqua di Parma's kit brings some real spa energy to your grooming. There's the smooth shaving cream for prepping, and an aftershave designed to minimize redness, irritation, and razor bumps – particularly handy for sensitive areas, like the neck. And since this is Acqua di Parma, you get a bottle of the brand's Colonia cologne, with notes of citrus, bergamot, lavender, vetiver, and patchouli. Because if they're close to enough to appreciate your meticulously managed beard, they're close enough to appreciate a great scent, too.
The Best Beard-Trimming Hardware Kit: Panasonic Ultimate All-In-One Kit
Multishape Ultimate All-In-One Kit
As dedicated beard trimmers go, the Panasonic Multishape Ultimate All-In-One is not first in line in our best beard trimmers review. It's hard to beat a dedicated product, and the Multishape is more of a Swiss Army Knife – though one we vouch for if you can put it to use. The kit features a handle with a rechargeable Li-Ion battery that can accept five attachments, two of which are designed for facial hair maintenance: a foil shaver to erase stubble, and a beard trimmer with four guides plus adjustable lengths (just twist the head).
Beyond beard maintenance, the Multishape also has a nose-and-ear hair trimmer and two toothbrush heads, including an adapter. Which is to say: the Panasonic Multishape can do a lot of jobs. It isn't the best at any one of those jobs, but it'll simplify your countertop and keep your Dopp kit streamlined while travelling.
How we chose these beard kits
We encountered a few common issues when searching for beard sets: Low-quality product sets that were missing necessary grooming tools or kits with too many similar products were prevalent. So, what do we look for in beard kits? High-quality products from trusted brands that add up to a solid deal. Ideally, these products come in a convenient and cost-effective package.
We started by checking the beard and shaving kits made by our favourite grooming brands: Panasonic, Manscaped, Scotch Porter, and more. We also checked the options available at our favourite retailers, including Amazon (of course), Boots and Sephora. While we didn't test the kits as sold, in the course of our always-on grooming product reviews, we have tested most of the products included in these kits. GQ editors and product reviewers have also tested a small mountain of beard care products for our various shopping guides over the past decade. As such, we're uniquely qualified to judge the contents of these kits.
