I don't like oil-based stuff. I just use a little non-scented hypoallergenic hand cream. Cheap, washes out easily, and works great. Nothing yucky about it.
Interestingly, chamois were originally just a patch of soft leather in the biking pants to help prevent chafing. No foam, no padding at all. After much wear and washing, the leather patch would become stiff and thus 'chamois butter' or 'chamois cream' was invented as a leather softening product intended to keep the real leather chamois soft and pliable.
Now, we buy gel filled saddles, and big foam chamois made of space age anti-microbial materials and we still get raw and chafed and then buy expensive lube products to ease our raw bits!
