30 Day Rule/Focus; November 2023. All Are Welcome!

I checked out their website. Are they in any brick and mortar stores? Curious as to why they don’t do samplers. They seem to have some interesting, complex offerings, but at $14 per puck I would love to be able to sample a few scents first. This time around I am trying to avoid having a den full of stuff I don’t use…

 

Great shaves everyone! A nice mix of old standards and things I have not tried yet….

 

Grazie Joe. Cella to the rescue, always reliable.

 

Super Sunday shave Barry. I think you have the longest run of error-free shaves. Enjoy your Sunday afternoon.

 

Scott, WTF is not a brick and mortar operation. Don Youngner does it a a side business out of his home so it's strictly an online operation.

 

Sunday November 19 early morning - Neutrogena No Variant November

Prep: Hot shower with Aleppo 20% laurel bay oil soap

Razor: Supply 2.0 injector with SE comb plate / vintage US-made Schick Plus Platinum (24); and
Gillette SuperAdjustable on "4" / Red Israeli Personna ( 3)

Soap: Neutrogena Skin Clearing Shave Cream

Brush: none

Lather Bowl: none

Post: rinse, alum, rinse, Portland General Store Black Willowbark Toner

Last shave: early Wednesday - 4 days



Once again, I stuck with the Cunning Plan(TM) to send the Neutrogena shave cream tube to join the Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald. Success!! Gentlemen, a moment of silence please for the Wrecks of both the Neutrogena Skin Clearing Shave Cream AND the Portland General Store Toner With Black Willow Bark, seen here nestling in the depths of the wastebasket:



After shaving for four days in a row, I went for four days between shaves. Three passes got me back to an error-free BBS.

I did the first two passes with the injector. I then did a final pass with the Gillette SuperAdjustable. Alum was silent and no blood or razorburn anywhere either.

However, I binned both blades as well at the end of this shave and will start next shave with a fresh setup all around.

Hope everyone is has a good upcoming week.

 

I get the occasional weeper,but nothing big enough to report. Have a great Sunday.

 

Thank you Joe... Have a great Sunday.

 

I plan on showering and shaving this afternoon after getting my chores done for the day.
Here is the setup for my usual 3-pass shave.

Weishi gillette copy razor with Treet "Carbon Steel" blade 2nd use
Proraso pre-shave cream (Blue)
Captain's Choice "Venture" soap
Whipped in my ceramic bowl with a Simpson "Berkeley" #46 badger brush
Geo F Trumper "Sandalwood" after shave balm
Clubman "Whiskey Woods" After-shave

 

Excellent shave Scott. I'm sure your glad that you used up those items so you can use something else. Enjoy your day.

 

Nice setup and pic Hogie. Enjoy your day.

 

I like your Captain's Choice soap-reminds me of that fabulous instrumental group The Ventures.

 

A good shave this morning, for the most part. I had to do a post-breakfast "redo" of N.E. Porcupine(under right nostril). I declare that area to be a December focus. If I have to grow a mustache to cover the ridiculousness there, I suppose I will. Don't want to, though. Course this was with Barbasol, not a regular shave soap. Sorry, Barbasol, you're good, just not as good as shave soap. Well, that was the one problem area of an otherwise nice goo shave. I could do better from chin to jawline, though(S. Porcupine)and will tomorrow. Yardley is a nice aftershave. Very Outstanding.

 

Great shaves all and lots to see a learn from here!

 

I’m going to reach out and see if he will do samples. If his scents are half as good as the descriptions it should help him sell soaps.

 

Rating: 4.5 / 5

Prep- Hot shower with Stirling Executive Man bar soap
Razor: Gillette Slim Adjustable- Set to 5 both passes
Blade- Feather Hi Stainless. Third shave on new blade
Two Pass Shave
Brush: Semogue Owners Club Boar
Lather: Stirling Black Cherry
Aftershave: Stirling Black Cherry
Post: Stirling Bay Rum Post Shave Balm
Two Pass Shave- 1 with and 1 across grain

Another really good shave, and it appears that getting three out of the Feather is entirely doable.

Now trying to decide if I cut my losses or try to stretch to 4 shaves. I rated this one a 4.5. Still a better shave than with a GSB, but it was a bit less smooth than the previous two. I also had a little burn from the aftershave this time. To be clear, I am being really picky here for the sake of review. It was an overall great shave.

I think I’m going to toss this blade and focus on trying the Feather in some of my different razors for the rest of November.

Review of the Stirling Cherry is five stars. The usual quality lather that you would expect from Stirling, and a natural, non medicinal cherry smell. More akin to fresh baked cherry pie to my nose. The soap smell fades quickly, but the aftershave seems able to hang around in a subtle way for a few hours.

Minor Stirling rant- I wish they made the matching balm for this scent…


Enjoy the rest of your weekend gentlemen!

Scott




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

I personally go by descriptions, not samples, for purchasing soaps.

 

Hi Paul,

I hear you, but that does not work well for me.

I have a bad combination of picky about scents and sensitive skin that gets set off by the oddest things. Dropping cash on soaps that I hadn’t sampled my first time around left me sitting on or giving away a huge pile of “one and done” items.

Going forward if I can’t try I don’t buy….

That’s just me of course. Others are free to enjoy their purchases and shaves as they see fit

 

It's probably wise, I just don't go for sample sizes.

 

A lot of it is just me I’m sure. But I’m talking easily a 75% rejection rate for me on blind soap purchases. It’s just too wasteful in my case….