What Proraso is known for

Italian shaving-cream brand launched in Florence in 1948 by Piero Martelli, son of Ludovico Martelli, whose eponymous barber-supply company had operated since 1908. The green eucalyptus-and-menthol formula, in its metal tube, remains its signature product.

Proraso's roots go back to 1908, when Ludovico Martelli founded a barber-supply and grooming-products company in Italy. In 1948, his son Piero developed a pre- and post-shave cream he called 'Crema Miracolosa' (Miracle Cream), registering it that year as the Proraso brand — a name evoking 'pro rasoio,' for the razor. The original formula, built around eucalyptus oil and menthol and packaged in a distinctive green metal tube, launched at a moment of postwar renewal in Italy and became the foundation of the brand's identity. Over the following decade the Martelli family expanded the range into a tricolor system echoing the Italian flag — green (eucalyptus/menthol), white (a gentler formula for sensitive skin, later reformulated with green tea and oat), and red (sandalwood, for coarser beards) — while keeping the green formula as the flagship. Proraso's shaving cream remains, by multiple industry accounts, the best-selling shaving cream in Italy, and the green tub in particular has become a fixture in barbershops both domestically and internationally, exported well beyond its original grooming-supply origins.