February '16 - 30 Day Rule/Focus Pix & Discussion Thread

There is one on the bay right now.

 

2/15/16

Gillette Old Type
Gillette Silver Blue (1)
Vulfix Super Badger (660)
C.O. Bigelow cream
Georgetown G12 Scuttle
Aqua Velva Ice Blue



Menthol Monday and another round with a fresh Gillette Silver Blue in the Old Type.
C.O. Bigelow provided plenty of nice slick creamy lather. Typical 2 pass shave with touch up. Today's touch up was much lighter than yesterday. On the other hand, just before applying the Aqua Velva I realized I had a weeper on my neck. About 15 minutes later, I found a fresh scab on my jaw line that shows I had picked up a weeper there as well.

A nice smooth comfortable BBS from the GSB in the Old Type, even if I did end up with two weepers.

I hope everyone has a great Monday!

 

Thanks. I had awful lighting so something had to be done post process.

I need a few more as well. Great brush!

 

That's a great looking brush Bill.

 

well I don't believe it....we see in the survey that Cookies has a chance of winning.

 

Bill, thanks for the kind words. We had a great day, and I hope you and your Valentine did as well.

 

I think Doug lives in Florida and is a Photoshop master.

 

SOTD
February 15, 2016
Prep: Hot Shower. Noxzema
Razor: Blackland Blackbird
Blade: Voskhod
Lather: Chiseled Face Sherlock
Brush: Maggard Razors 24mm Synthetic Marble Handle
Post: Thayers Cucumber WH. Gold Bond Ultimate
Aftershave: Chiseled Face Sherlock
Amazing shave. The Blackland Blackbird is living up to all the hype. 3 pass smooth as silk shave. CF Sherlock is fantastic! Man this soap is slick! I really like this Maggard Marble brush, has a custom look to it.
Never let the things you WANT
Make you forget the things you HAVE!

 

My first couple of conclusions from my February focus:

1. Voskhod blades are highly variable it seems. Moving on to Polsilver. I'm hoping it's not a QC issue with all blades coming out of that particular Russian manufacturer.
2. I don't care for oversized synthetic brushes as much as I enjoy oversized boar brushes. 22-24mm seems to be my synthetic preference though I've been using one that must be 20mm or even smaller and liking it just fine.

 

Love that brush!

 

Straights Focus February 15:

Shea Moisture Shave Butter as Pre-shave
Simpsons Commodore X3 Best Badger
MDC
Ralf Aust 5/8
Stirling Unscented PSB
Stirling Glacial Lemon Chill AS

My older kids are at school today, and I am.off for President's Day, soaps late more shave. For some reason, I decided to rush a bit and gave myself two little cuts. Nothing alum and cold water couldn't take care of but the first time in a long while that I did that. In both cases, just a lapse of attention. Even with the cuts, I got a nice one pass shave that I would call socially acceptable. I wasn't aiming for perfection, so it works. Have a great Monday.

 

Thanks Doug

 

Still not sure I like the look of the Blackbird, but I'm 100% down with the rest.

 

Razor: Gillette Red Tip
Blade: Personna Blue (1)
Brush: Fendrihan Silver Tip 22/49
Soap: Route 66 Sea & Citrus
A/S: Myrsol F./Extra

What a DFS today. Warmed up the -12 today so I decided to take an outside. You must take the time to enjoy a heat wave.
The Route 66 Sea & Citrus is inspired by salty sea air, warm sun and rich earth. Sea and Citrus is an aquatic aromatic with sparking citrus notes of bergamot, neroli and green tangerine blending beautifully with rosemary, rock rose, jasmine and persimmon. Base notes of cedar with hints of patchouli and white musk soften and anchor this light, fresh, masculine fragrance.
Long lasting, slick lather protective cushion and glide soothing post shave conditioning. Great stuff.

 

SOTD February 15, 2016
Menthol Monday!

Prep: Warm shower
Blade: Personna lab blue (3)
Razor: Vintage Gillette Slim on setting 5 (on pass-around from @youngunn)
Brush: Trader Joe's synthetic
Lather: Proraso Green shaving soap
Post: Witch hazel splash, TSD SubZero splash, Soap Commander Integrity balm with menthol
WTG, touch-up

Well, I had my personal version of a @crackstar experience today! It was personal in that it's not the menthol level of some of the TSD members, but it was pretty cold for me!

First off I used the vintage Slim on generous loan from @youngunn. I will be sending this razor on to its new owner tomorrow and I've enjoyed using it the past few days. I tried a setting of 5 today and liked it. I started with 3, then advanced to 4, and chose 5 for today. The Personna blade worked well with the Slim (it works well for me in whatever razor).

I started with face lathering the Proraso Green soap after loading a ton of lather into the synthetic brush. The lather was nice and thick. The menthol effect from Proraso Green is a hair subtle to me - I just don't get a huge menthol presence. Regardless the soap is good. I did one full pass with touch-up for a CCS. The SubZero burned some and then blasted me with cold. I tried the Integrity balm for the first time from Soap Commander (I had a sample). It was really thick and didn't want to absorb too well when I put it on. I had to really massage it in for it to vanish. I'll have to try it again soon but today's application wasn't first rate. It did provide yet another layer of cold due to its menthol content.

Unfortunately an area of my neck to the right of the Adam's apple was a little irritated, most likely from my insistence yesterday of trying to get that area spotless. The TSD SubZero really burned down there. I've been getting some nice, irritation-free shaves so I was probably due a little nuisance of irritation.

Hopefully you all have had a great day so far and my wish is that it continues!

 

I was going to use random.org again to help pick my soap but I then realized that there was one in particular that I had not tried yet. Therefore my next three shaves this week are going to use Ginger's Garden 'Salty Mariner' soap. This is the vegan edition, made with coconut oil. Haven't tried it yet but looking forward to it! I've heard good things about Ginger's Garden products.

 

I continue to modify my 8 week blade challenge. I have discovered that Blue Bird Blades are very hard to find in quantity, so I have scratched this from my list and in its place I am going to add the Merkur blade in its place. Whichever blade gets crowned "King of the Castle" from this 8 week blade trial, it needs to be an easily accessible blade.

1. Gillette 7 o'clock Super Stainless (green)
2. Gillette 7 o'clock Sharp Edge (yellow)
3. Derby
4. Gillette Silver Blue
5. Merkur
6. Feather
7. Shark
8. Astra SP

 

I've had several shaves since I posted last. I didn't keep any beard long I shaved it all off in anticipation of a job interview that didn't happen. And just when it was long enough to look right.

I have only used the Semogue brush this since my last post. I used MWF, Proraso White, A French rosemary and mint cream that I wish I knew the brand of, Arko and Williams since the last post. I have used the WD 6/8, the Our Leader 5/8, and some random razors for last passes. I've been able to get to a DFS in 2 passes with the straights but I'm afraid to push it to far to reach BBS. I've used a Rolls Razor, a fat boy with GSB a SuperSpeed with an Astra SP and a G type Schick with the Chinese Schick blade. I still feel like the straights are too long to make the pass in the right direction to get BBS. I may try the shavette again since that is much shorter. It's much less forgiving and scary sharp so I don't like to try new things with it.

 

Feb 16 Focus Shave 12

Today's razor is a Feon 172, I just touched it up with CrOx and FeO2.

Very smooth edge an uneventful 4 pass shave. Alum test gave zero feedback. Wonderful shave but just missed BBS.

Irritation A+ Closeness A- Smoothness A+ Keenness A

L'Occitane Cade
Simpson Tulip 3 Super silver tip
Woodhead scuttle
Feon 172
Rasurpur bench strop
Speick AS
L'Occitane Cade ASB
Sonoma Scent Studios Winter Woods

 

Mongoose Focus
I'm a little late with my shave today. It's a beautiful day and my wife and I went on a 21 mile ride on our tandem bicycle. I just now showered again and shaved.
Back to the Mongoose. I received my new horse hair brush today and also decided on a new Route 66 sample. The sample was Barbershop Hop which smells very nice in the package. However, a brand new horse hair brush is not fair to test a new scent with. The brush whipped up a beautiful lather, as I would expect from a Route 66 soap. On my face the soap smelled like a barbershop in a horse stall.
I need to get the horse smell out of my brush, or use another brush, before reporting on the soap scent
SOTD
Route 66 Barbershop Hop
Vie-Long horse hair brush
Mongoose
Feather Pro (1)
Alum
Ogallala Bay Rum AS
Happy Monday!