NOV 30 Day Rule/Focus Pic&Discussion Thread

Aristocrat Focus November 17:

Homemade PS Oil
Stirling Synthetic Brush
Mitchell's Wool Fat
Gillette Aristocrat
Stirling Unscented PSB
Stirling Bay Rum AS

Not a whole lot to report this morning. I had a nice, easy shave with no irritation. I feel great and am ready for my Tuesday. Hope everyone has a great day.

 

Just for the fun of it ... did some test lathering with my new WD 2-band and MWF soap. I never bothered with bowl lathering before, but today I grabbed a bowl from the kitchen and gave it a shot. Maybe I should think about switching - never got SUCH a great lather (and such a huge amount of it) with face lathering before

 

11/17/15

Gillette Super Speed Y3
Vulfix Super Badger (660)
Mystic Water Lime
Georgetown G12 Scuttle
Pinaud Clubman Original

My second day with Mystic Water Lime and shave #1 with the 4th Gillette Silver Blue in my Birth Quarter Super Speed.
Scooped an almond size portion from the soap container and smeared it on sides of my neck where the stubble is thickest. Then I went back to the soap and did it again. I wanted to make sure that I had enough product. I squeezed out my brush to remove as much water as possible. Then began to build the lather on my face and throat. When it became thick, I added a couple of drops of water and continued. I had seen where some folks recommended building lather using a painting / slapping motion instead of the swirling that I normally use. So as soon as the water seemed to have been absorbed a bit, I switched from swirling to painting & slapping back and forth. I did this until the soap seemed dry and added more water. I repeated this process of adding water and painting / slapping my face for a long time.
When I thought the lather was ready, I took this picture - sorry it is a bit out of focus.


But when I finished with the picture, I noticed that the lather on my face (as well as on the handle) was thinning out. So back to a little more water, painting & slapping. I wet my razor and did a sample stroke only to find that the lather was too dry. Back to adding water and face lathering. It began to feel like I was irritating my neck with just the lathering with the badger brush. All of this this took about 30 minutes and I was running low on time. So I set the brush down and began to shave.

2 full passes: Pass 1 XTG. The reduction was OK, but not as good as I usually get. Pass 2: ATG. Afterwards, added a little water to my face and did a small amount of touch where I could easily feel stubble. This gave me a near BBS. A cold water rinse followed by a moderate amount of touch up brought me close to a BBS, but my neck felt irritated, so I stopped. The Pinaud Clubman stung like never before. It felt like I had set my face and neck on fire. Afterwards, my neck was a flush red - the only time this has happened in 5 months of shaving. I don't know what caused the irritation, but I'll be putting away the Mystic Water until at least this weekend. My neck and jaw line still burn 45 minutes afterwards.

A near BBS from the Gillette Silver Blue in my Birth Quarter Super Speed. I don't know if Mystic Water is for me. It could be that I had a reaction to the fragrance oil. Certainly I did not succeed in getting a great shave from this combination. I may give it another chance this weekend, but I have a few other soaps I want to try as well and I’m afraid they will take priority. Regardless, this is one of the soaps that many folks rave about, so I may order a puck sometime in the future and give it another go.

Have a wonderful Tuesday!

 

Sorry you had such a bad shave and experience with Mystic Water. I called it Tricky Water in the beginning. Like you I only, used it on the weekend until I had it figured out. There is nothing wrong with bowl lathering it as well. I hope the rest of your day goes better.

 

+1. practice lathering in a bowl. I used a synthetic when I face lathered the mystic, because like you mentioned, the lathering process takes longer and the constant rubbing of the badger bristles would cause irritation.

30 minutes sounds long. I was spending 3-5 to get it just right.

You should try the WSO soap in there.

 

The way everyone is talking about the mystic soap you would think it was as hard to lather as Williams? I want to try it now.

 

It's in the tourbox...maybe Bill will leave you some.

 

It doesn't seem to be working well for him. @Bill_F, I hope you get it figured out and that your face forgives you after your lather marathon. Is the lime scent very good?

 

This was the answer I was hoping for...

 

Well weather is the new "shock" news item for the local guys it seems. We had a system move through about a week ago that was supposed to be incredibly violent, thunderstorms, tornadoes, death from above, all of that. The day it was predicted every weather and news guy in the Lou was out preaching doom and gloom and we ended up getting a stiff breeze and a few clouds. It took them until evening to finally shut up.

 

I think my work with the straights and pain stick has gotten me to really know my face. I can't always get a BBS with a New or Old style OC, but all four shaves with the the Tech this month have been BBS, and one of them didn't even have any prep.

 

I have a new in box CJB that is looking for a home...

 

I wish I had the funds. Best I can do is Hurt Hinge

Maybe another year.

 

Chris, this razor is sweet! I wanted one ever since @Shotwell had 3 of them.

I don't, but I do keep all of my SOTD's on a app so I could search and count I suppose. I do look and see what I used one year ago today and compare what I'm using today, shocking!! No. Really different setup with much different results. Learn it. Love it. Live it. TTT...

 

San Jose toooooooo! Love cold rainy days/nights.

 

There's a sticker on the Semogue brushes? Huh, never noticed that it was a sticker. Mine is loosing color but it isn't peeling at all I thought it was under a coating until now when I noticed the color being worn off.

 

Reading all of these posts is making my inner crazy come out. I almost want to try one in December, but my wife has me in the no buy mode.

 

SOTD
November 17, 2015
Prep: Hot Shower. Axe Energizing Face Wash Boost
Razor: Grafco-Merkur 3-Piece Open Comb
Blade: Personna Lab Blue
Lather: Vintage Yardley
Brush: Red & Black Acrylic Silvertip 22/50mm
Post: Thayers Cucumber WH. Gold Bond Ultimate
Aftershave: Myrsol F./Extra
Was I going to go TABAC Tuesday? I went back and forth.. I took a whiff of the Vintage Yardley and knew I had my soap in hand! Amazing stuff. Nice lavender scented soap, thick, creamy, mountains of lather with my custom made Silvertip. Silvertip? Yeah I used a Silvertip today, it's going to be warmer today so I think it'll dry ok. The Grafco-Merkur OC is yes a whisker slayer. Guys, since I've gone to one pass WTG my shaves have been the best they've ever been, I'm doing anywhere from 2-3 passes ATG and having no irritation at all! My neck has never looked/felt better.
Never let the things you WANT
Make you forget the things you HAVE!

 

I think we should promote that. Sounds like a good way to share joy with the group!

 

November 16

Razor – !974 Gillette SS
Blade – GSB
Brush – AOS Badger
Soap – Gada Cool Mint shave cream
Post - Cold water splash, Witch Hazel and Javon Musk

Well, decided to try some new stuff with the 74 SS to see how close to BBS we could get. Continued doing the three pass shave. This time changed it up a little as I still try to find out how to get a BBS out of this razor and blade combo. Started with a new GSB. First pass I went back to my first pass that worked so well with the Cadet and the L6, WTG on cheeks, XTG on neck and chin. Good reduction, not as good as the Cadet OC but still good reduction. No irritation at all, blade just glided through. On to second pass. Decided to do ATG all over. Again, no irritation. Smooth, but not super smooth. It was just ok. Could have stopped here and ended with a DFS- shave. Decided why not go for a full third pass. So went ATG all over again. Ended this pass again with no irritation noticed. So after a cold water splash to bring out everything that was hiding and feeling around, I definitely still had some touch up to do. Re-lathered (this cream really makes plenty of lather for 3+ passes without any problem at all!) and did my touch up. Still a little rougher on my neck (especially around the adams apple) and my chin than what I would call BBS.

Decided at this point to give some other techniques a try. On the neck, I re-lathered and tried some J-hooking. When I had finished this area was actually very smooth. Some very minor irritation, but not bad. I was quite happy with it. On my chin, I was not sure exactly what to try. So I did a little buffing on the chin. It worked well. Again some minor irritation, but this was basically a fourth pass in these areas and something my face is not used to having only needed two passes and touch up using the L6 and Cadet.

Cold water splash and the result was BBS! However, it was BBS at the cost of some irritation on the neck and chin. Both were a little red and the Javon musk aftershave definitely had some bite in these two areas. My face is still smooth almost 6 hours later. Will be interesting to see how it does 8-12 hours later. My cadet could give me 10-12 hours of smoothness and the L6 achieved 8-10 regularly. Tonight I plan to cut it back to two passes my WTG/XTG first pass and then an ATG pass. Afterwards I will use the J hook and the buffing to see how close I can get to BBS without the need for a third full pass.