I too liked TOBS Sandalwood and have a jar of the cream. I found it even better than the AOS. Stirling is less like cologne and more like being in a lumber mill - real woody scent. I like that one too. I now have TOBS Sandalwood, 2 Stirling samples of Sandalwood and Vanilla Sandalwood. From the sounds of things, you got more in your samples than I did. Most of my samples only have one shave in them and then they are done. Not sure I will have anything left to trade. Sorry.
April 10 - Catie's Bubbles Celtic Knot Highs and Lows Let me start off by saying that anything following Castle Forbes is at a disadvantage. CF is a hard act to follow. This is my first use of anything from Catie's Bubbles. The scent was stronger than the sample puck of Stirling's Sharp Dress Man. Both are renditions of Green Irish Tweed. The other difference form Stirling's was that Stirling's smells fresher and more like springtime where as CB was more earthy. Stirling's is sweeter as well. I liked the stronger scent but missed some of the sweetness. Don't get me wrong, it is good as well. Just, to me, Stirling is better. As for lather, I put the sample in the bowl and added about a teaspoon of water, maybe less. I proceeded to mix it in and get it dissolved and then added water in small amounts. Something new I discovered. If I dip my fingers in the lather, I can get the current slickness and cushion. The new thing is I can wet my fingers and then apply some lather to get a small sampling of what adding more water would be like without ruining the entire bowl of lather with too much water. Doing this, I was able to water the lather to a nice slickness. I would say this is right up there with the Wheat State, Castle Forbes and Stirling in slickness. Unfortunately, it was a little less cushiony and dense as Castle Forbes. In all it was very good and would classify it as one of the better soaps. 3 passes with a Dorco 301 on its third shave yielded BBS and the Alum was quiet again. Celtic knot smells great and for an old sample, it still was strong. I even got my wife and daughter to comment which they liked better, Stirling or CB. My daughter actually preferred CB. She doesn't usually go for sweeter things. The only downside of this shave, this one sample was only enough for one shave (as are most of the samples I received) and this scent is no longer made. Might need to try some other Catie's Bubbles because the performance was among the top.
No worries. I'm probably going a bit light on product to save at least one good shave out of any that I can since @wildcatsfan10 had asked if anyone else was up for trading leftover samples. Since I'm after him, If he has a few leftovers he can hopefully drop them in the box, and I'll send him whatever remains of my samples once I try them. Not all have more than 1 shave in them so I'm trying those first.
Don't short yourself for my sake, once the box hits I'll have more samples than I know what to do with. Any of the early samples that are left will either be added to the box to ship to you or sent in a separate envelope. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Ok folks sorry for the delay but @Fly2High, are you ready sir? Have your address, left it off for photos sake, my amazing wife managed to pack the box somehow but taped it before I could get a pic.so let's start with the gives: I have an almost full bottle of zi pepin aftershave so if anyone takes it let me know and I will gladly send it your way. My takes: My samples: Box will ship out tommorow or Wednesday am at the very latest Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk
Say it ain't so!!! Yippee !!! It is my turn!!! Insert happy dance here. So many soaps, so little time!
Was gonna add your Screenname to the address then thought maaaybe that might bring questions about the contents of the box, hahaha. Not insenuating anything, just thought of how it could be taken. Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk
LOL. Ha ha ha. The name came from my R/C glider flying. I always was afraid I was flying too high and feared of loosing the plane. I have a fear of heights. then again, flying upwards of 1500 - 2000 ft is rather high! Also, almost fell of the roof as a kid helping put on a new roof. Ooooh, l have so many questions!!! Any menthol? Any citrus? Any barbershop scents? Sandalwood ? Unique scents? What are the vendor samples? Oh, don't tell me . Let it be a surprise...
Kind of figured it was aviation inspired, and yes yes yes yes and yes, little of everything in there, I was amazed at all the soaps, I liked the summer storm and coniferous the most but alas those were outlawed from the house by the Mrs. Apparently wet grass and tree scents are frowned upon in this establishment. Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk
Hvachuy85 Ooh, lime and Zi Peppino! I will be interested in trying your entries too. Thanks ! I got a feeling I will want to shave TWICE a day!!! Luckily, us Italians could.
I've a puck of the ColConk Lime. It will lather, gives a passable shave, and smells decent, too. I don't use it often for so many better soaps, but you should give it a try. Don't be frugal when loading your brush. ( Shave notes on 02/04/2017 in the 30 Day thread. )
April 11 - Truefitt & Hill 1805 cream Today I decided to try one of the upper echelon soaps, Truefitt & Hill and see if it truly is better or what. The sample I have looks to be a bit more than I would usually use so I grabbed then almond size amount and dribbled just barely a few drops of water on it, just enough to wet the surface of the dollop. As is usual for the soft Long Island water, I quickly got lather. The scent in the sample container was strong and it maintained nicely as I created lather. The scent, to me, seemed like a rich clove like scent. Later, I discovered this is probably the combo of cardamon and nutmeg. I thought the scent was only OK. I was not thrilled with it. I like that it was strong just that it might not be my cup of tea. this first impression might have jaded the rest rest of the shave. I whipped it up and did my finger wetting thing to see if adding more water would yield a slicker lather. When I got to the consistency I liked, I noticed it did not seem all that slick. It was merely OK. Nothing to write home about. It is possible that I should have used the entire container but it was more than I have ever used in creams so I decided against it. The latehr was nice and floppy and light and lasted for 1/2 hour until I rinsed it down the drain. To me, this lather held well. I did my usual DIY PSO as usual and performed 3 passes. I was not impressed with the cushion nor the slickness. Castle Forbes, Stirling and Wheat State had so much more slickness that this almost appeared devoid of any. Granted, there was some but less than these top skaters of slickness. I think this was the most disappointing aspect of this cream. Now, it is possible that some of the glycerin or oils were gone. I say this because this cream was nearly the hardness of a soft soap. It was rather firm and I could press it into the bottom of the bowl and have it remain. This was nowhere near as hard as a triple milled soap which I believe T&H make. I believe this is part of the reason the slickness did not measure up. To further test this soap, I washed my face so as to remove any PSO oil that might have remained. I was concerned with it interfering. I did a 4th pass mostly jsut to clean up the rare spot that was missed but also to feel the slickness. It was not not slicker. If anything, it was less. I recall seeing a YouTube video on 1805 and the user added glycerin to his 1805. I wonder if this was done to replenish what was lost or just to hyper slick the soap. Alum was slightly biting indicating that the blade was done (or the soap did not perform as desired - possibly). I did get a BBS shave and I still smell the cardamon lightly several hours later. It does have lasting power. In the end, I am not sure T&H is worth the expense for me. I did not find the soap up to the performance of CF which also was old not the newer Wheat State and Stirling. If this soap has a tendency to dry out over time, it would need to be used more quickly and I rather prefer the variability of lots of soaps than having to stick to a few.
Box shipped out this morning, ETC is Friday, will send tracking number to Fly2high tonight Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk
April 11 - Catie's Bubbles Un Jour Gris Today was my second use of a Catie's Bubbles soap. I have tried Celtic Knot and now it was Un Jour Gris (UJG). This time, I walked the water in rather slowly and heavily utilized the 'wet the fingers and dip them in the lather' to see if more water could be added. I feel that I got a nice thick lather that was as slick as I could get with UJG. It was better than with Celtic Knot but I feel that it was still less than Wheat State, Castle Forbes and Stirling. I do though find it to be in the upper tier of slickness, say a 8.5 or 9 /10. The demitasse spoon amount yielded enough lather to fill my 4.5" bowl and cover my brush. It applied nice and thick. I was more pleased with this resulting lather. The scent was to me a perfect match to what one smells after a springtime rain. the floral and grassy scents awaken and there is a clean watery fresh scent. For a day that is grey and cloudy, I think it was a perfect scent to use. CB posts this as the scent: 'A fresh, clean blend of citrus, spice, vetiver and sandalwood that reminds me of the smell after a chaotic storm. A scent truly suited for a grey day.' I would agree with that statement. Unfortunately, I am not sure I would use a grey day scent regularly. I am more of an upbeat positive kind of guy. I would prefer a sunny or citrusy scent instead. It is a good scent but not sure it is a great scent. I think it matches what it is designed to be quite well. In action, I ended using a new Treet blade in the 34C and performed nearly 4 passes (WTG, XTG, ATG, ATG) since there were a few spots missed. I ended up with a DFS+. I was expecting the alum to be quiet since I had a very light touch and I thought UJG was slick enough to prevent irritation. Unfortunately, the alum did sting. I believe it was more due to all the passes. The Treet blade felt smooth and I thought it was similar to my favorites, the Astra SP. Finally, I flooded the lather with water and checked the slickness again and it was as I said earlier, very good in slickness but was still less than those mentioned before. In all, this scent was very nice and was a very good soap. The only issue I have with Catie's Bubbles is that their names do not entice me to purchase and I am not wowed into buying by their descriptions. Most of their soaps sound too complex to go on description. I would say they should have a few basic simple scents that self define their scents so that shavers can sample ion confidence. At this point, I would say that UJG might be added to my den but it is not a must have. I have enough confidence that I will buy some smaller pucks or samples if available.
