Monday August 14 - Adjustable, "All Sample" August
Especially for Chris
@ChrisB -- here is a photo of my sample case.
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I have one sample of a soap - B&M Waves - the rest are all creams. 32 creams to be exact: 4 tubes of Marram Co, one sample of Taconic, 8 DR Harris, 6 Fendrihan, and 13 TOBS. All of them came from Fendrihan Canada, which is one of the bigger Canadian shaving supply dealers. The Marram Co tubes were a sampler box made by the Irish shave cream maker itself. The others are all DIY samples created by Fendrihan in small screw-top sampler bottles.
The samplers hold enough cream for 4 to 5 shaves if you're careful / frugal / stingy and 1 or 2 if you're not. From today on, I am planning to shave with the samples and see which ones I like best.
I will do two shaves with each sample, using identical equipment for all shaves, but testing each sample with two razors -- my Gillette Black Beauty DE and my Supply 2.0 / SE comb injector.
First up: the Taconic:
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Prep: hot shower
Razor: Gillette SuperAdjustable refurbished and cerakoted by Delta Echo Razors on "4"
Blade: Israeli Personna Super Platinum (1)
Brush: Simpsons Chubby 3 Synthetic
Shave Bowl: Jason
@jtspartan maple-walnut with lathering studs
Soap: Taconic Shave Eucalyptus Mint Pump Shave Cream (sample)
Post: rinse, alum, rinse, Osage Rub
About five years after I got it, the sample of the Taconic cream is still quite runny. I scooped a dollop into the shave bowl, worked it into a lather that was mostly in the brush, then finished by face lathering it. It spread easily into a good smooth layer.
The cream, between the mint and the eucalyptus has a bit of a cooling "bite" to it that was refreshing in today's hot weather. (Oh yes, I was doing a cold water shave)
I thought the two-pass shave was error-free and gave me a DFS. Alum was silent. Since it is Monday, and the cream had a cooling bite to it, I finished the shave with the Eucalyptus-Menthol sting of the Clubman Osage Rub.
About an hour later, when I looked in the mirror, I noticed the shave was NOT error-free -- I had a small smudge of blood on my neck from a tiny nick. The cooling effect of the mint and eucalyptus in the cream had probably numbed the area enough to prevent me noticing it either when shaving or when applying the alum.
Next shave, I will use the same cream but with my injector razor. I am not a big fan of this cream's slightly "medicinal" scent, but the performance is certainly good.
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