January 1, 2021 Tatara Nodachi Gillette 7 O’clock Black Tatara Boar AOS Bourbon Shave Cream Small Batch Shave Tonic Winter Reserve Aftershave I managed to sleep in later than I can recall. I appreciated the much needed rest. Asha helped pick today's shave lineup. I was set for Fat Friday but with it being New Years Day she felt a bourbon theme was more approbate. The AOS bourbon cream was a gift from the ladies. My wife absolutely loves to give me shave cream from AOS. I am not going to argue. I think it is just a normal release of the Kingsman shave cream. I excepted a straight bourbon scent but instead was greeted with a complex scent with top notes of vanilla and bourbon over a woody base that reminds me of a bourbon barrel. In the end, I like the scent. I like the Nodachi razor but I have never really bonded with it. I seem to prefer the SB and OC Tatara Masumune. Three passes with the Nodachi this morning delivered a perfect BBS shave with no nicks, cuts or weepers. Normal I have some of the red stuff with each use of the Nodachi. The razor might yet earn a right to stay in the den. A splash of Winter Reserve and I am ready for a day of watching college football. Happy New Year Everyone.
Joe, @Trigger and I cause a scene already. I am sure we were getting strange looks when we were displaying some of our straights. Adding Jeff to the mix, look out for some high jinx.
Friday's Shave New Year's Day Merkur 37C Gillette Nacet (3) Semogue 1520 Boar Stirling Electric Sheep Shaving Soap T.N. Dickinson's Witch Hazel Epsilon Blue Mediterranean Aftershave Happy New Year! Without reaching a final decision on a "rule" for this month, I'll go with a single soap focus instead. Each shave in January will feature Stirling Electric Sheep. It is a wonderful soap with great lather qualities, skin conditioning and I enjoy the invigorating scent of eucalyptus and citronella. Although my focus for this year is to reduce my soap inventory, after finishing this tub, I will be replacing it with a fresh tub (or possibly the Glacial Electric Sheep). As for the shave today, I broke in another new brush. After spending some time on Wednesday palm lathering it with Dial antibacterial hand soap (nice lather by the way) and then a few test bowl lathers with Old Spice shaving cream, it was already starting to show some splitting hairs. It still has a long way to go though as it seemed to eat most of the lather while resting between passes 1 and 2. 2+ passes with the vintage Merkur 37C this morning provided a comfortable and efficient result with no irritation or mishaps. Another trend I began utilizing last month was disposing of DE blades after 3 uses (instead of my usual 4). Although the 4th shave on the blades get the job done, I'm just not happy with the performance/results and increased chance of irritation. Now it's time to watch some college football with the marquee game starting at 4pm as my Alabama Crimson Tide take on the ND Fighting Irish. Roll Tide!!
