SoS: September 12-18 2011

I shave later on Saturday after I shop and clean, but wanted to see my new arrival. I made enuf foam for one lather, heated a towel,applied cream and put the towel over it, my grandfather's preshave.

It felt unreal, menthol, but not overpowering. About 90 minutes till shave time...more to come.

 

SOTD 17092011
Muhle R41/Croma/Nivea Cool Kick ASB/L'Occitane Cade/Kent BLK4
​

 

Top Secret shaving cream
Semogue 2000 brush
Famex 32 straight razor
Old Spice after shave splash
444 aftershave balm

I just love the Semogue 2000 brush. It's big and it's floppy, so what? I like it that way. Perfect for building lather in the bowl.
The Famex 32 straight razor is just a hidden gem. The brand is practically unknown, but I have 3 Famex's and they're all top Solingen razors. This one is in the popular "14" shape, it should carry this number, instead of "32" and it's a 7/8'' too.

Great shave.

 

Saturday 17 September

Palmolive menthol SC (Italian)
Berkley 46, face later
Lord Smart (first use), w/ Lord Platinum (D1)
Alcolado Glacial-Proraso ASB.

Man, I got more sleep last night than I have in previous three days. Work is out of control. Well I wanted to have a nice relaxing calm shave this morning so I pulled out the palmolive menthol shave cream and it was very nice. The lord smart didn't do that good. My face is a little irritated, and I'm not that smooth. Bummer. I give it another shot in a week or so. Bummer, cause I wanted a great shave this morning, but it was still ok.
Hope everyone had a good week.

 

Saturday morning,

Gillette NEW Short Comb,
Yellow Feather Blade,
Rooney 1/1 Best Badger Brush,
Arko shave soap w/ hot water lather,
Finish with cold water rinse. DFS!

 

Gem OCMM
Gem Stainless PTFE
Semogue 2000
Speick Stick/SC Super lather
Alum
Superior 70 Bay Rum

Taking yesterday off and starting a fresh blade was much needed.

Not Spectacular, but a very nice shave.

 

Saturday:

Shumate 5/8
EJ BBB
La Toja Stick
Dickenson's Witch Hazel
Nivea Sensitive Balm
Polo Original

2 passes wtg and it is better than it was yesterday.

 

Happy Saturday From Florida!

Hot Shower
RAB Scuttle
Omega Boar
C&E Sienna Soap
Muhle R-41
Voskhod (1)
Cold Water Rag
Eveline Aloe ASG
Clubman Special Reserve

3 Passes = 5 Blade, Off The Hook, Bang A Gong, Inter-Galactic BBS!

The R-41 never fails to impress! Have a great weekend Ya'll!

 

Made Lather with JM Polar ice for the first time. It is a mild menthol, exactly what I was looking for right now. I lathered up, covered my face with a hot towel, and waited three minutes-was told my grandfather did this when he had time. The Fraser worked greaat as a preshave this way. I was liquefied.

The Fraser made much more cream then expected, anybody needing to come by for a shave, feel free-lol

JM Fraser Polar Ice
eBarber matching mug and badge brush-both cream

EJagger DE 89​

Hot towel start (see above), cold towel rinse​

EBC (ebarbershop) Almond Shave Balm​

Canoe AS​

Caswell Massey Jockey Club Talc​

This was my sixth DE shave after 30 months of using mug/brush/fusion. I am finding myself really listening to the shave. When it all goes right, the sound of the hair being removed from my face is beauty indeed. The Sounds of Shaving. I had to use this line again. New blade needed tomorrow, or Monday, what will it be?​

 

Gotta be getting close! Waiting is the hardest part in the shave game.......

 

Omega Boar
Cade SS
6/8 Worcester
SRD--Cotton / English Bridle
Humphrey's Witch Hazel
Jil Sander Sport EDT
Have a Great Day!

 

Saturday:

Omega Wooden Handle
Super Speed/Personna day 6
Tet-a-tet SC
Tet-a-tet AS Balsam
Monsieur Givenchy EDT

My goodness, what a shave - the menthol feeling of both the Tet-a-tet cream and aftershave balsam felt like heaven, and the scent blends very well with the Monsieur Givenchy eau de toilette. 3 passes over my tough beard stubble finished off this Personna blade, but it still gave me a very close, smooth and comfortable shave. :biggrin:

 

Personna Shavette
Voskhod (1)
Dridecker Brush
Tet-A-Tet
L'Oreal AS Balm

Not a bad shave - a little irritation, about two little spots of blood. I forewent the DE cleanup pass today as I wanted to get a better idea of what my shaves are looking like just with the Personna. And it's not bad at all as it turns out, definitely acceptable. The neck is still closer than I'd get with just a DE, even if the cheeks are not quite as BBS today. I think though that either my face is starting to get sick of the shavette (it's definitely the most aggressive thing I've ever used and it does tend to scrape), or my technique has reach a plateau of sorts - I haven't screwed myself up as bad as I was a few days ago, yet I'm not quite as smooth as I was after the first week with it. But this was and still is supposed to be a temporary fix, it's just working out to be a little less temporary that I anticipated. So until my real straight shows up I am still declining to use a safety razor (except for aforementioned cleanup passes). 3/5

 

After Wednesday's shave with the 37G, I didn't really need to shave on Thursday, so I skipped another day.

Friday's Shave:

Gillette Ranger Tech
Lord Plat.
VDH boar
TSD Pumpkin Spice SS
Pinaud Clubman Vanilla AS

Saturday's Shave:
Merkur 37G
Semogue 830
Pacific Shaving Co. SC + M-Bomb
Old Spice AS

 

Sorry no picture today.
Since I had such success with the Fat Boy I decided to repeat the success today.
Hot Shower (Mr Arthur did not budge at all from the hot shower)
Fat Boy/RapiraSweedish
Razorock Caco
Omega 48
Ogalla Bay Rum
DFS

 

35th Birthday shave:

I figured since it was my birthday I should use stuff that was gifted, given, or PIF'd to me so I ran with that. So here it is:

• ABC Floral pattern 100+ year old razor given to me for my birthday (a few months early though) by my mother in law
• Gillette 7 O'clock yellow blade given to me in a PIF from earlier this year
• I made an uber lather with Dalan D'men moisturizing SC that Dad gave me and with the mentholated Honey-Almond SS Brian made and gifted to me. I didn't uber lather because either product needed it but because uber lathers are pretty damn amazing, as this one was
• EJ 25 mm silvertip that TWGW gave to me shortly after I started traditional wet shaving
• Skin Bracer cooling blue which was PIF'd to me back during the PIF madness earlier in the year also

This was a really great shave and I'm very nearly BBS all over except for two tiny teensy little patches, maybe a quarter in size combined. I do have a fair amount of irritation though which I'm attributing to the razor; I need to spend more time with it to learn it but I don't like it as a shaver as much as I do a looker, so that probably won't happen. Bettween the Dalan SC and Brian's homemade SS the lather was slick, cushioning, smelled beautiful, and worked very nicely all around. The EJ silvertip never lets me down. I really regret that the cooling blue isn't as readily available because it is one of my favorite scents.

All in all it is easily a 4.5 out 5 blade shave. Happy Birthday to me indeed

 

The Cooling Blue Mennen smells super-nice, but I find strange enough it is not that cooling at all, if I compare with the Original Green.

Happy Birthday again to you, my brother!

 

I agree whole-heartedly Jeff. There should be a lot more cooling to use it as a description on the labeling. And again sir, thanks for the bday wish

 

Vie-Long "Bombito" boar shaving brush
'50's Super Speed with Gillette RUBY, 2
***then switched to:
Edwin Jagger DE89L with Rapira Swedish Steel, 5
Crabtree & Evelyn, Sienna shave soap
Thayer's lavender witch hazel
Ogallala bay rum & sandalwood AS

OK, so I picked up a pack of these Gillette Ruby blades from Bullgoose with my purchase of a V-L Bombito boar brush, just to give 'em a go. Well, they may be 'going' somewhere else rather quickly if you know what I mean. My first shave with the Ruby two days ago yielded a rough and sore shave. Certainly the most razor burn I've had in a long while. Chalking it up to technique and the bad mood I was in, I tried the Ruby/SS combo again. Right away I could see trouble on the horizon, so I slipped the Ruby in my EJ to see if that made a difference. It felt different, but equally as rough and dull. So, I put the Rapira "Swede" back into the EJ and I was back in business! Smooth and sharp.

Now, for the boar brush: Amazing! While I find the workmanship on the handle to be sub-par by comparison to the acrylic handled V-L offerings and Omega boars, the loft is incredible! Super soft right off the bat, and works up a lather quickly and disperses it evenly throughout the shave, the latter of which I find more challenging with Omegas perhaps because of the loft density - not sure. It took a while to get the badger dye out of the loft, but once over that hump she was ready to go! $16 well spent. Now they just need to offer this loft with the 13052 handle and I'll be in dream land.

The Ogallala bay rum and sandalwood sample was a freebie Phil threw in, and I like it a lot! Very soothing and smells great! Happy Shaving! ....service was excellent with BullGoose, by the way. My first order, but not my last!

 

Excellent! Thanks for the info on that brush. Might have to pick that up sometime soon. I'm also liking the looks and specs of the Semogue 610 in red. Recently purchased the Vie-Long Bombito, and I'm loving it! Great performer. Best!