We love double-duty items here at the Practical Travel Gear blog. If something is triple-duty, that really catches our eye. So when some friendly rep from Nivea wanted to send me a sample of this combo shampoo, shower, gel, and shaving gel to try out, I couldn’t say no—even if the product did sound downright odd.

I’ve been using it off and on for two weeks though and have to say it does the job pretty well overall. This Nivea Active3 shower wash is like the goop that squirts of out the wall containers at your local gym but with one important addition: you can shave with it too. It’s mainly aimed at metrosexuals who are shaving their body hair on a regular basis (makes me itch just thinking about it), but of course as a traveler it’s a way to carry three cosmetics in one package—always a good thing.

I found it worked great as a body wash and shampoo, just so-so as shaving gel. I got a couple more nicks than usual. But then again, I was shaving my face, not chest hair. My wife tried it out on her legs when she found herself already in the shower and without shaving cream and said it worked really well for that task. So maybe they need a womens’ version.

I usually carry a trial size or squirt tube of shaving lotion anyway, sometimes even a pack of Travelon shaving sheets, so eliminating that part of my kit isn’t a big deal. I might take this product along on a weekend trip though if I wanted one less think to carry and was only going to shave once.

The regular size of this is over 16 ounces and is impractical for travel, but it comes in an 8.4-ounce size that is a bit better—for around $4. If you need to carry on a bag, you’ll need to squirt it into your own little bottles that are 3 ounces or under. You can get it at drugstores, Wal-mart, and other mass retail chains. Here’s a link to the product site, but be warned they’re going to hit you with a video with loud music whether you like it or not: Nivea Active3.