April 7 - I feel Frozen!!!! Today was my first time with the SuperMax blade and B&M Arctique soap. I have heard good things about both. I just had enough for barely one shave in the soap sample that was sent me. Looked to be about 1 gram of soap. Pressed it into my bowl and added about a teaspoon of water. As usual, I made lots of watery bubbles but it did thicken within 20- 30 seconds and with a few tuning droplets got a light lather with some shine. I was hoping for thicker but I felt this was more similar to how Jared would prefer it. Scent reminded me of peppermint Tic Tacs or one of the mint flavors Tic Tacs. It was nice and strong upon creating lather. Maybe because the sample was so small, in the sample jar, I only just noticed the scent. B&M appeared very easy to lather but blessed with soft water it is hard to tell if this is universally true. For me, it jumped into lather. Upon application, I quickly determined whether any menthol was left. It took maybe 20-30 seconds when I suddenly felt my face quickly freeze over. This was nice!!!! If this is what strong menthol is like, I was able to handle it easily and did not have any negative reaction to it. B&M Arctique reminded me of my experience with Wheat State Soaps. Both created lighter weight, fluffy lather, almost cloud like. Both were very slick but less dense than Stirling. Very pleasurable soap. Now to see if the razor fairs as well. I will only summarize, I needed to do WTG, XTG, ATG, ATG and touch up only to get a DFS, maybe. SuperMax blades are too dull for me. To my surprise, my face was still freezing cold and sort of felt like I have spread nova-cane all over it. Applying alum was quiet. For a lousy blade that needed extra steps, my face did not bare the brunt of it. It seems the menthol and B&M quieted any razor burn. When I was done, I was rinsing out the bowl and decided to dump the first rinse and just try to create lather with what was in the bowl and brush. It was soup with bubbles and was starting to show signs of creating lather even with way too much water and too little soap. What I found was that dipping my fingers into this showed that it was still very slick. It must have a wide range to get slickness if it could be watered down this far. Scent lasted a fair while but the freeze really lasted. I think I still noticed the freeze for a good 1/2 to hour after a thorough face rinsing. With my experience with Arctique, I definitely will be buying it when it becomes available. Unfortunately, there was only enough for the single shave in the sample sent me. Having been successful with menthol, I will be looking at other vendors menthol soaps as well. I would suggest anyone looking for a good soap to try B&M and check out Arctique if you like menthol. Wishing everyone a great Friday and weekend ahead!!
I like that darn robs facbook page and he has some great looking brushes. His, johns brushes as well as wolf whiskers are on my list to get one day
First review of a sample - Dr Jons Classic. Very herby, grasslike smell. Pleasant, but not a keeper for me. Not my best lather or best shave, but that was probably not the fault of the product, as I am a cream guy, have only used soap once, and may need some practice lathering soap. There is enough sample left for at least one more shave, so if @wildcatsfan10 or anyone else is thinking of swapping leftover samples, this one is still in the hunt.
Sorry for the lack of any updates folks, been a little hectic with work,also realized I didn't post pictures of box on arrival, the Mrs. brought the box in out of the rain and moved to a temporary box until we get the new flat rate box this weekend. We've got all the samples pulled, I have a tub and two pucks I will be adding to the box and have my eyes on the west coast sweet almond, palmolive cream and the cool water from the shave den unless any of the guys behind me want me to leave some in the box for them. Will post pics this weekend.Again thanks for the patience. Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk
This mornings shave Razor- H1 slim Blade-7 o'clock sharp edge Brush- Jayaruh 118 Soap- Stirling executive man Post- witch hazel Aftershave- Floid vigoroso My first time using Stirling, awesome soap, three pass shave with slim set on 4, absolutely no irritation at all and achieved an easy dfs. I'm not sure how to describe the scent but I like it. Definitely a fan of stirling now, this is going on the buy list. Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk
Executive Man is a duplicated scent of a Creed cologne, perhaps Aventus. Fine Platinum is the same scent. I've used both and they are very similar but I think the Stirling version has a little more depth in the scent. Congrats on using Stirling for the first time - it's terrific, top notch soap.
Speaking for myself, take whatever you like @hvacguy85 . That's the point. If you leave any samples behind for us, that's a bonus, but it's totally at your discretion. I, for one, will be happy to get the box with whatever is in it when it arrives at my door.
April 8 - Reef Point Dragons Blood Merkur 34C SuperMax SS, Merkur, Wilkinson Classic, Dorco 301 AOS 23mm Pure Badger DIY PSO Reed Point Dragon Blood Alum/Thayers/Nivea SPSB Without going into details, I burned a lot of blades today and did several passes. In the end, the Dorco 301 finished the job the other could not. Let's see, WTG, XTG, WTG, XTG, ATG and another half pass of the jawline and neck basically ATG. Before I reveal the result of this never ending shave, I will say a few words about Reef Point Dragons Blood. Creating lather was easy to make but I have a tendency of doing it poorly. I pressed some into the bowl and dropped a teaspoon of water on and proceeded to work it. I think I over frothed it. Whipping it so much had me overshoot I think or undershoot. I got to a point where I thought it was getting shiny but the more I whipped it, the airier it got but never regained the shine. I ended up adding some water on each pass and whipping it in hoping it was just not enough but it never helped. When I touched the soap, I never got that super slick feeling even in the end when I really wet it down and touched it, my hand felt dry. It almost had a feeling of baby powder. Smooth but dry. During the shave I kinda liked it. Each stroke of the razor left no residue of soap. I never got nicked either. The lather was very finely bubbled to the point of invisible like good meringue. I have a little soap left and will need to give it another go. Scent was barely there. I say it was incense scented my wife says she picked up a sweet clean almost floral scent. Odd how we both smelled something different from the whipped lather. The official scent is as follows: It's a deep, warm fragrance with notes of vanilla, incense, patchouli, amber and blood orange. Not sure I noticed the Vanilla but it might have been there. In the end, I wish it was stronger. The Vanilla was suppose to darken the soap which it was. Now for the results!!! Now with several lousy blades and 5 and a half full passes with a lousy job of making lather you would expect the obvious outcome. NOT one sensation was felt from the alum!!! Completely surprising result. This application of alum should have sent me through the roof and burned like the very flames of hell! NOTHING was felt. I must see if I can do a better job with this soap and do it justice. It seems even a lousy job of lathering yielded great results. Of course technique I would suspect is largely to blame but I am sure Reef Point should get some of the credit. Normally I was expecting slick soap to leave some slickness behind but instead my face just felt clean. Different from what I have come to expect and not bad. I might need to investigate if a full sample pick is available to see this soap first hand.
Anyone use Reef Point soap? Any lather tips? Amount of water? Have you tried Dragons Blood? What did you think?
Thanks guys, I just didn't wanna grab a soap that a guy down the list was interested in but I will leave some in the box. I've gone through everything three times and the box will be going out monday or tuesday. Oh and is it just me or does summer storm smell like just cut grass? Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk
Summer Storm to me smelled a lot like wet earth. I recently got B&M Petrichor and it smells similar however the B&M is more complex. If I didn't have the B&M coming I would have grabbed the Summer Storm. It's a great scent.
Try pressing a little bit into a bowl but then starting to load with just a damp brush and no water on top. Trickle in water as needed. It's better to start more dry because you can increasingly add water.
April 9 - Castle Forbes Lime His was the second day with the Dorco 301 in the 34C. O. A whim I grabbed this soap since I like lime better than lemon and I said how bad can it be. What it turned out to be was fantastic! I now read that this is suppose to be a cream but the contents has dried out to be hard like a Stirling soap but it still retained a very fresh scent of lime. I grabbed most of what was left since there wasn't much left anyway and pressed it into my bowl. I decided today I would go slow with water and whipping. I started with an amount about a teaspoon and proceeded to only mix enough to melt the soap. Once melted, I worked faster to make lather and lather it did make! With not much effort the bowl was full and smelled like a key lime pie fresh from the oven! I dribbled only a little more water just once and I got a thick, creamy and slick lather. Three passes was all that was needed to catch the baby. I loved the shower being filled with lime scent. There was sufficient slickness to almost desire shaving with nothing else. My face retained a nice slickness after the foam was removed. I found this true even when my had got some lathe on it. It did though rinse off easily leaving a clean feeling. Alum was only bright on my neck and I feel this was only because I was rushing to my daughter's soccer game. I found this soap to have great cushion, excellent thickness and was very slick. Only wish now that I looked for them that they would make more than 3 scents. Then again maybe that is all you really need when you attain perfection. As I was about to rinse the bowl I stopped after the first huge load of water went it to examine the slickness and boy was the soupy liquid slick. In all I think this soap needs to be in my den.
Sample #2 - TOBS Sandalwood. I am a self proclaimed TOBS fanboy, so noting but positive things to say here. Sandalwood is not my favorite scent, so there are 1 or 2 shaves left in the sample that will go unused and be available for trading samples with anyone interested once I work through the samples. Having said that, if I was sandalwood guy, TOBS would be my "go to".
