March 14 - felt like Dark Chocolate
View attachment 129540
Merkur 34C HD
Voskhod teflon
Jayaruh #148 brush - Dark Chocolate
DIY PSO
Stirling Tuscany
Alum/TWH
Nivea S-PSB
Upon seeing the latest Jayaruh brushes and seeing its near twin in honey, I approached Jim to see if I could buy them both. They came so fast and as with any new item, I couldn't resist trying them out as soon as possible.
Jim does excellent work. The photos do not do the brushes justice. They are even better up close and work fantastically. The backbone is perfect, enough to know the brush is working and capable of working a puck but soft enough for a truly pleasureable experience. I think anyone can cut a handle but not everyone can make a great shaving brush. Jim does. This is my first synthetic knot and it outperforms my Silvertip in every way. Better backbone, soft tips, great scrub without any scratch and can load quickly off a puck. I did not soak this brush but just passed it under the shower head. Quickly I had the best wettest and thickest lather to date. Application was silly smooth but with enough backbone to work the skin for some mild exfoliation. The knot felt like mink. It held enough lather for 4 full passes and plenty for more than a half face touch up. All that and there was still some in the bowl.
Today I showered with the last of Scott's Pine Sheep bath soap and it left the shower smelling great. I am not sure if it was this scent before the Tuscany or what but to me Tuscany smelled great. Maybe I just wanted the smell of spring on a Nor'easter snowy day. Whatever it was, I was very happy with the scent. It could be that it has changed too. Maybe it just needed a bit of pine to me.
I did three passes, WTG, XTG, and ATG and some touch up for a DFS+. The lather was great and gave me a super smooth first pass. Unfortunately I ruined everything with a little pressure on the next 2 passes since the Voskhod just weren't cutting as close as I liked. Alum proved what I suspected - razor burn. I was really lit up.
In all, I think the 3rd day of the Voskhod is their last. They were good and smooth but seemed to irritate more easily than the Astra SP for me
In the end, if it wasn't for the skin irritation and missing a small difficult spot, this would have been BBS.
I cannot wait for the next shave with this brush and will need to think long about deeper setting the knot in the Phoenix.
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