Monday September 11 - September S is for Skin-Clearing; Menthol Monday
Prep: Hot shower with Aleppo soap
Razor: Supply 2.0 injector with SE comb plate / vintage US-made Schick Plus Platinum (4)
Soap: Neutrogena Skin Clearing Shave Cream
Brush: none
Lather Bowl: none
Post: none except rinse
Last shave: Friday - 3 days
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I have been having an issue with a minor skin outbreak lately, so I decided to use mainly cleansing products today. I showered using Aleppo soap. It is traditionally made North African soap made by cooking down olive oil (with lye, I presume) and adding in different concentrations of bay laurel oil. The olive oil cleanses and also softens the skin. Meanwhile laurel oil is a traditional skin clearing remedy for treating acne and drying up oily skin. This maker's soap has a laurel oil content ranging from a very minor 4% to as high as 20% or even 30%, which is intended for treatment. My soap is 20%.
By the time I was done my shower, my skin felt clean, soft, and almost totally oil-free.
The Neutrogena Skin Clearing Shave Cream is a brushless, latherless cream that is used like a gel and simply rubbed onto the damp face. In addition to ingredients intended for glide and protection while shaving, it contains alcohol and salicylic acid for their disinfectant and astringent qualities, a bit of menthol for cooling and as a "wake-up", aloe for soothing, and glycerin to moisturize. Good stuff!
My recollection was that I have had the tube of Neutrogena shave cream sitting around since the time of Gulf War Two. (In fact, I found a date on the tube -- 2005!). I am honestly not even sure if Neutrogena still makes it. If it does, I have no idea if the formula remains the same. I hope so: for a drugstore cream, its performance, including its post-shave conditioning, is excellent!
One pass removed the thin layer of cream along with all my whiskers. It returned me from Hobo to Respectably Cleanshaven.
No post-shave treatment was necessary. I am clean and refreshed and ready to go!
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