Hello Had a weird shave yesterday. Here's my story. The day before yesterday I shaved with my usual razor, blade and brush. I chose RazoRock P.160 for soap and got an amazing shave. I replicated the setup yesterday and just after whipping up my lather and right before applying to my face, I noticed a funny chemical smell from the lather, mixed with the usual smell. I should have stopped right there, alas, I did not. I could feel my face tingle while applying and it didn't feel good. Stopped after a 2 pass and noticed my face looking reddish. Several hours later my face looked almost normal but was sore. So, today I used the same setup. Only difference is, that I cleaned my brush yesterday after the shave with dish-wash and vinegar. The shave went great, the usual smell and no sore skin. Any idea at all what had happened?
I have heard that a lot of people cant use p160 because the fragrance oils burn the skin. This is weird how it works, a soap that burns your face one day, may not burn another day. There are a lot of variables (brush, water, fragrance oils mixing together, condition of skin on that day, etc.) I would recommend using that brush with another soap and see if it burns, if it doesn't, then its the p160.
I know it's not the FO, as I've used the P.160 many times before. It's why I mentioned that chemical smell (P.160 doesn’t smell chemical ) and the conditions. It's really weird. I have (had) other soaps and creams that my skin doesn't like, but it's nothing like this. First, the reaction is build up slowly during the shave, also there's no chemical smell with it. It burned from the second the brush touched my skin. Also, today’s shave with the exact same equipment rendered a flawless shave. If skin doesn’t like a product, it's not on/off. I can only think of some residue in the brush. I rotate two Bestshave brushes every other day, only that with this "experiment" I used the same both yesterday and today, whereas the day before yesterday was with the other Bestshave. But the previous lather this particular brush was used with, was MEM Olive SC. I can only think of that something from that cream my skin doesn't like, perhaps. (I didn't get the most perfect shave with it.. don't know why yet), some slight reddish condition. I just came to think of this when you mentioned something in product might have caused it. Maybe I need to test some more with that MEM cream. Thanks for the pointer in that direction!
This may sound dumb but do you have kids? Any chance they got hold of your brush and used it on something they shouldn't? Sounds strange. I hope you don't get that burning problem again. Sounds painful.
2,5 year old, but she's not tall enough to reach my stuff. Good call though! I don't even know why I shaved with that lather... the smell alone was no pleasure. But it should be easy to replicate my thin theory with the MEM cream residue. Make a lather with it, and then make a lather with the P.160. Maybe there's something in those two products that most definitely does not like each other? All I know is, is that after the cleaning of the brush all was back to normal. I'm not know for rinsing my brushes manically, so I'll not rule out the residue.
Personally I prefer all natural products. Though there can still sometimes be compatibility issues with ingredients, you nevertheless will get a head start in eliminating a large swath of potentially irritating variables...
