Thats where I thought I was honestly, but I will add more water next time.

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Any Crowne & Crane at Pasteur Pharmacy in Manhattan, NY?

I have never had that problem with Stirling.

I would recommend going through a quick checkist:

-did you wet your face before shaving?
-did you change out your Razor blade?
-did you use enough water with the soap?
-apply you rinsing out the hairs on the razor every stroke?


Believe me, it is your technique that is the issue, not the soap.

By skipping I mean the cap is sticking to my cheek and not allowing a smooth pass. Face was wet and warm, very little pressure if any. Only real variable is more or less water. Ill use more next time. Compared to the proraso Im already using a fair amount more.

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Typically the best soaps can take the most water (since they are cured longer).

On a 20 sec load with a damp but not dripping brush, Stirling can take a teaspoon to a tablespoon at the start and continue to ask for more!! I find it rather thirsty.

If you like it thicker, just keep whipping it. At least that is what I do.

Also, I grab some water with my lower two fingers and some lather with the middle and index to feel it with my thumb and mix in some water using my thumb to see if I even can add more water. Testing with a small sample is better than ruining a whole bowl.

Without needing to shave, do a practice bowl of lather. Keep adding water, a few drops at a time and whip each time for like 20-30 sec. It will not take too long before you see large bubbles forming that will not whip away and you'll know you just now went too far. A practice lather would help you immensely. If you continue adding water, eventually it will dissipate.

It's worth trying to overload with water once just to see how far you can take it. Stirling is among the thirstiest of my soaps and it took me a while to figure out the sweet spot.


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This morning I used more soap (a concern considering the tiny sample I took) and a lot more water and boom. To say its thirsty is an understatement I think but now at least I have a solid barometer of what a thirsty soap is. Now if I could just get xtg down.

The shave through all passes performed great and Im still loving the Ben Franklin scent. Through WTG and ATG Ibwas golden but I have some crazy growth pattens on my neck and I still struggle with XTG. Thanks for pushing me to soak it. Now I'm much more interested in Sterling moving forward.

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Sounds great!

I had the opposite happen to me. I got used to the amount of water Stirling took and when I got the pass around box I tended to over water. You'll get the hang of it. I am still working on it as well.

Great! Glad it worked better for you this time. Stirling is VERY thirsty. I work the water in slowly and enjoy the whole process of loading with Stirling.

I remember! It always wise to start with very little water and add slowly. Most get thrown off by how much Stirling can take. It's very different than other soaps. I will start pretty dry with an unknown soap and then see how much water it needs.

I'm sorry, but we don't currently have a business relationship with Pasteur Pharmacy. We would like to have one though.

I'll put in a good word!!

June 13 - Pre de Provence Cream and Post Shave Balm

I have trouble with the Gillette Silver Blue blades in that they tend to be a bit rough or lack sharpness. I have some of them and keep giving them a try. From the pass around box, I had the opportunity to grab some Pre de Provence shaving cream and post shave balm and decided to give it a go. The scent is a bit tough for me. It is a light scent that I find powdery and floral. there is a finish that reminds me of the smell of cream. Not sure if this is the shea butter or what. This scent of cream also is found in the PSB. Not knowing much about this cream, I squeezed it into the corner of a zip lock bag, cut a corner and piped it out like it was a piping bag. I recall many indicating that one should grab more soap whenever you are unfamiliar with a product and I found out that I grabbed a bit more than a good sized almond amount. As with the other creams I have tried, I started with a barely damp brush that was fully wrung out. I put a couple drops of water on the cream and proceeded to create lather. It took a couple more additions of water and I got a light and slick lather. I did whipped it like mad. What I had not known before now was that this was suppose to be a brushless cream. Well, it can be used with a brush ! It did not take a lot of water and the lather was good but did not fill the bowl. I think I got about 4.5 passes worth. With the scent ok and the quantity of lather enough, I applied it to my PSOed face. This stuff is slick!!! Some lather fell to the floor and I picked it up and my hand mashing it in my had looked like it was clear coated with automotive paint. It was super glossy. The GSB needed 3 passes and 2 runs of touch up to get a BBS. I did get alum burn but I felt the blade glided better than with most of the soaps I have used with this blade. for me, this blade is not a favorite and can be draggy and irritating. Today, It glided like a sharper blade. Also, even when the lather was removed, the face remained nice and slick. It was not greasy in the sense that it would not wash off. Instead, it rinsed easily off and left my face feels smoother than before. The PSB was similar in thickness to Nivea Sensitive PSB and other than the scent being different, it worked just as well.

Pros:
extremely slick
beautifully moisturizes skin
Post shave feel
Post Blade Pass Lather

Neither good nor bad:
Scent

Con:
Light lather
Lacks cushion

In all, I love the slickness and am not sure on the scent. It is OK/good but I do not love powdery scents so that could be my issue with it. I will say that I might look for the soap instead of the cream and see if no.63 smells better. I do enjoy the post shave qualities very much. And all of this is from a vegan soap!!!

Terrific info and feedback. Thanks!

June 14 - WSP Rustic Soap Day!!!!

Merkur 34C
Gillette Silver Blue (Day 4)
Jason's 30 DC Brush
DIY PSO
WSP Rustic Blackbeard soap
Alum/Thayers/AOS PSO

Today I decided to go back to the pass around box samples and grabbed Wet Shaving Products Rustic Soap - Blackbeard. The scent is listed as:

I did smell tobacco(which is not my favorite scent) and some warmth probably form the vanilla and spices. Not sure I can clearly identify patchouli and no matter how many times I sniff the essential oils at the store, I still do not know what it smells like. I think it has an earthy tone but the oil is so strong, I just get too much I guess. Either way, the scent wasn't bad but being I do not enjoy tobacco scents, I would probably not buy this scent. As for the soap, we shall see... The scent from my sample was on the lighter side as well.

I made it a point to get this lather perfect, for me. On WSP website, they list the soap as being a copy of Martin de Candre. My last writeup of MdC was here(http://theshaveden.com/forums/threa...us-pix-discussion.55194/page-129#post-1232450). MdC had a light roasting chicken , sage scent. Very little was needed and it could take a lot of water. Wide water ratio range. Excellent cushion, slick and created shiny thick lather. this is a tough act to aim for. While working the WSP Rustic soap, I walked the water in slowly. I wanted it to have a dense lather. I was able to get it very good and it is hard to decide if it was as dense as MdC without having them side by side. I also did not need a lot of soap for the lather. I will say that the lather was not as shiny but I feel that was only a visual that was not represented in practice. In use, the soap was wonderfully slick. It made a ton of lather. So much so that I got 3.5 passes and there was enough for my wife to shave with at least 2 more passes available!

I failed to change out the GSB so I went for another shave with it. Oddly enough, when I used the MdC, I too was running an older blade in it. The blade glided effortlessly over my skin. Because of my PSO, I had a hard time determining if a post shave lather remained. I simply felt clean like I had just put baby powder on my cheeks. In that regard, I was smooth and did not feel anything when doing buffing strokes and the inevitable dry section touch up.

Post shave was good but not as moisturized as other soaps. My wife also felt that it was smooth and leaning to the drier side. Not a lot. I did not feel like my skin had just been moisturized like a PSB has been applied like some of the other soaps felt. It wasn't dry either. I think the best way to describe it is that the soap did not negatively impact my skin and a PSB was be helpful but not absolutely necessary. Since I apply one anyway, I did and was happy with the hydration.

I will say that the Alum did burn today. That blade felt much better with this soap that what the outcome suggests. I was careful about angle and pressure. For me, GSB just are not my favorites. This particular blade did do better than other attempts with a GSB.

In all, this was an awesome soap!! Whether it is a perfect match to MdC, I will leave it up to you. Whether you feel it is or not, it is still an awesome soap. It had very good cushion, excellent slickness and glide and comes in several scents. For that reason, I grabbed a sample. I wanted to know how the base was and I find it top shelf. Will be looking to see which scent will be coming home with me ! If the Formula T is as good and has a slight bit more moisturizing nature, I would find it excellent.

June 15 - First use of Jeeves Of Husdon Street

Merkur 34C
PolSilver Super Iridium (Day 1)
23mm AOS Pure Badger brush
DIY PSO
Jeeves of Hudson St - Turkish Bath
ALum/Thayers/AOS PSB

With the trip to Pasteur's coming quickly, I wanted to try another soap that I have not yet tried and today that is Jeeves of Hudson St Turkish Bath. I am terrible at scents and as such I can be waaaaay off in what they are. Part of this is because I have limited exposure and an uneducated nose. SO to continue with my tradition of guessing scents wrong, this is how I will describe what it smelled like. TO me, thsi soap as this warm and comforting rich scent. I can only relate that kind of scent to rich amber, vanilla tones and some soft woods. No, I did not detect wood in it but the warmth I get form a good fresh wood it what I get form this. I think this warth comes from the kinds of spices they used. These are not hot spices that you would find in Mexican or Szechwan cooking. I think Middle East notes are there. I am not well versed in Middle East cooking but from how Moroccan is described, I could equate it with that, maybe. I think of a nutty oil mixed with soft pepper (maybe white pepper) , nutmeg, cardamom and things like this. This is not spicy like I equate to Indian cuisine where the spices feel like a shovel full is used instead of a pinch. All I can say is that the scent is rich and delicious without being overpowering. Very pleasant. Unfortunately, my wife did not go for it. She wasn't disliking it but it was only OK to her. (Her loss !!). I think the scent was on a medium level of intensity. Usually I like my scents to be powerful and strong. this is one case where being medium helped keep the imagery alive of a rich decadent soap. Like most decadent things, you do not need a lot to enjoy and sometimes less is more. I would say the same here. It is strong enough to be savored and enjoyed. I love my warm scents and this was very good.

In asking about thick, rich and dense lather, one commented about using more product. I intentionally kept the water low and used caution when adding more with the desire to make a thick dense lather to complement the scent. Mission accomplished! The lather was very thick and delicious. The lather was good in slickness as well. for me, I have felt slicker but that could also be because I kept it on the thicker side. Plenty of lather resulted.

I love PolSilver Super Iridium blades. Low drag, minimum noise and I find they do a great job of keeping my irritation down. 3 passes yielded a DFS+ and only a few areas needed touching up. Being a new soap and lots of lather left, I wanted to add more water to see if I could improve things. The soap was good and as it dried on my face (had to pause due to a Mom - daughter argument and play referee), it did get slightly sticky. The addition of water did remove some thickness but made for a slicker result. I ended up doing another full pass.

Alum is always the tell of how good a shave was and today with a great blade and a wonderful soap, I had no sensation bar a small spot or two that tingled. BBS achieved with 4 passes and irritation was minimal. All in all, an excellent result.

My only complaint is the website for Jeeves.

This is the scent description for Turkish Bath:

This is the scent description of Barbershop

This duplication of scent description continues to other soaps as well:
Bay Rum

Private Study

Tobacco Bay

Velvet Jacket

Conservatory

Mountain Rain

This could be because they are changing names on their scents but I do not believe this is the case. They only make 8 scents in total and if they are duplicating scents then that brings them down to 4 in reality. I hope they rectify this since all retailers also seem to copy these scent descriptions.

If this it correct and they have actually made different soaps leveraging the same sets of scents, that would be fine since changing quantities can change what they smell like. I am only disappointed in that they have a small range of scents and that some of the classics like Citrus, Bergamot, Vetiver and Sandalwood are not there. Even with this lack, I do like that they have unique scents that only begs me to try more of their line. Will definitely be looking out for them at Pasteur's, if they carry them.

In another thread, it seems that Jeeves is going through a renaming effort to better describe what the product is like so that would explain this level of duplication.

He is renaming the scents. The descriptive titles he had weren't intuitive, so this will make it easier to people not familiar with him to figure out what is what. He makes more than four scents, but doesn't have them all available right now. He also has splashes, but I haven't figured out how to order them right now. I find all of his scents subtle and complex, without having the in your face punch of some of the other soap makers. I have four of his scents, and the performance is really good once the water is dialed in. His website is not current based on his face book posts.

Sounds great! I should therefore see more stuff form him at Pasteur's. Will be looking forward to it. the hardest will be limiting my selection to something affordable and usable. I will say I did enjoy the soap and found the scent bot good and unique. It is nice to find something that isn't offered from any other vendor.

June 16 - Klar Kabinett

Today was my planned trip to Pasteur's Pharmacy and I wanted to try all I can. I wasn't sure if they carried this or not.

This soap has a mild scent I think or rose. It had a clean light scent that I liked a lot. This lather built up quick and beautifully thick and slick. In all, it is an enjoyable soap. I will have a lot to say(no shocker there) about my trip to Pasteur's in another thread. All I will say is that Klar is there but I could not find this soap. I found a Klar Seifen only.

The Klar Kabinett had all the attributes I liked in it being a thick , slick dense lather that was pretty quick to form. From what I read this soap is very affordable and is sold in 500 gr. bricks.

Thank you whomever added this soap to the box. I really enjoyed it