SoS: March 26th, 2012 -April 1st, 2012

Finest Chinese Steel, 6/8 Gold Dollar and Mystic Waters Lime. All kidding aside, despite what some people say, these Gold Dollars can make a damn fine shaving razor. I have 3.

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March 27th - Late night shave
Prep: Nivea Face Wash, Hair conditioner
Razor: Merkur 38M
Brush: Vulfix 660S Super
Blade: Voskhod Teflon (2)
Soap: Mystic Water - Lily of the Valley
Post: Alum, Witch Hazel
AS: The Body Shop's White Musk ASB

I was going to finish my T&H 1805 cream and ASB, but my wife recoils from the scent, so it's back to Mystic Water until this weekend when I morning shave. My first shave on this blade was not the usually excellent experience. Rather, it was a bit tuggy and gave me some burns. I wonder if it's due to my previous 4 shaves being with the Gillette Guard (press as hard as you want) and a very huggy...but effective...SuperMax Blue Diamond. I paid better attention to my technique this time and was reward with a much more comfortable shave. Here I am, 11 hours later, and am still DFS+ on 90% of my face and neck. My neck routine is really starting to shine, as long as I have the right blade for it.

This sample of Mystic Water Lot is still going strong. I count 17 shaves on it so far and expect at least 5 more. As much as I love it, I'm itching to move to something else for variety's sake. Next in line is some homemade vetiver shaving soap that Sara-s generously PIF'd to me. it has a good, strong scent, just how I like it.

 

Wednesday

Prep: Hot shower
CD: Carmen ~ The Absolute Best
Coffee: Home roasted, fresh ground Ethiopia Illubabor
Soap: Vintage Blade's House Brand
Brush: C&E Pure Badger
Razor: Gillette OLD Type
Blade: Astra SP, day 3, 3+ passes
Post: Cold water rinse, Dickenson's WH, Old Spice cologne, hand strop blade.

Another fantastic shave. Love these blades.

 

You're right! The rocket is a joy to use! (Is the '56 red tip as well? Guess so...)

 

I Love Slanty

I selected my RazoRock Caprician Lemon, loving it, and got ready to pair it with Slanty.

EBC Pre-shave
RazoRock Caprician Lemon
Omega 10005
Merkur 37 C
Gillette Black Ninja
Witch Hazel/ISZ Milk
Alcalado Glacial

Not much to say. BBS, smooth as glass.

 

Nice to have you back, Scott. Losing 35 pounds is pretty extreme. Hope you're feeling better. BTW, how many passes are you making on each shave?

 

WEDNESDAY'S SHOWER AND SHAVE

I had a nice long hot shower using bar soap.

Facial prep Proraso glycerin bar. It does a great job in prepping the face for the shave.
The Vulfix 28 was up for lather today, it a home run with lathering RazoRock Artisan Mughetto di Bologna. The Vulfix brush is a very densely packed boar, it will be interesting to see how this brush will age.
Razor choice Gillette Open Comb with a no name blade.
Three passes resulted in a fantastic shave. Afterwards I did my normal post shave, today's splash Kanaga Water.

The :wave:were thrilled with extra great DFS, give a hurrah 10

I do hope that everyone's week has good.

 

Wednesday.

• Prep: hot water splash, hot washing cloth
• Music: Fisher Z, Going Deaf For A Living
• Brush: DVH boar
• Soap: Palmolive
• Razor: Ugly Duckling
• Blade: Feather, 2nd shave
• Shave: 3-pass + touch-up
• Post: hot water rinse, cold water rinse

This great shave lead to a BBS.

Have fun!

 

Wednesday 28th March

Hot shower and facial scrub
3P Pre/Post cream
Parker 31R Straight loaded with an Asco blade
Semogue 1250 Boar brush
La Toja Shave stick
Alum Block
Lacura moisturiser
Myrsol Agua Balsámica

Still trying to discover why my shaves at the weekend were not up to my expectations. Today I had a three pass DFS+
shave. While the La Toja does not appear to be as slick as some of my soaps/creams, my shave today was pretty good. All things considered.....I think my poor shaves were down to my lack of preparation.

 

Wednesday AM:

Pre: Hot Shower, Tabac SC + Glycerin
Razor: Merkur 23c
Blade: SuperMax Super Platinum (3)
Soap: Proraso Green Tea & Aloe
Brush: Omega 10005
Post: Thayers WH Lemon, Cold Rinse, Clubman

Overall a decent 2.5 pass shave. Time to change the blade for me though I think. It still feels a tad sensitive even now. Maybe this is why it has been habit for me to shave every other day, instead of every day. I'll giver a go tomorrow with a fresh blade, and see what the outcome is. I like the 2.5 pass shave where I can skip the WTG pass, as opposed to my regular 4+ every other day.

 

E-

I'm an every other day, 4 pass shaver as well. I've been contemplating shaving every day to cut out the WTG pass too. What a coincidence. I appreciate your comments.

 

Merkur 23C/Astra
Vie-Long horsehair brush
Phyto Expert SC
Cold water splash
Nivea AS splash

 

Dmitry, after a shave with Phyto Expert cream, your face felt good and cool, yes? I definitely should use it again soon. That cream is so good!

 

Thursday morning – Rocket Day!

- Calani Cadre Noir shave soap was my choice to ‘pave the way’.
- My trusted Mühle Basic Nr. 02 with Silver Tip Fibre to lather up and apply the aforementioned paving.
- Enter The Rocket! Shave Premiere with this beautifully built and finished English-made razor.
- The Rocket’s Payload: the Feather blade I’ve been using all week so far (4th shave).
- A generous splash of D.R. Harris Bay Rum after shave was a most appropriate way to end this enjoyable experience.

Nice!

I love my Red Tip SS and find it very well built. The Rocket feels different. It is also of really excellent built and although with a thinner handle, it feels incredibly sturdy. No chance whatsoever to lose ones’ grip on one of these. In fact, despite the Red Tip’s thicker handle and weight, the Rocket does appear to be an equal match, to say the least. The English TTO mechanism which, I was told beforehand, is different from the ones of the American-made TTOs, is a very smooth operation indeed. Both the Red Tip and the Rocket seem to bring approx. the same weight to the scale; will have to check on the weekend.

The Rocket’s definitely a keeper!

Hi Mike
Yes, the Red Tip is a joy to use as well, as well as a pleasure to behold. I personally think it is one of the best-proportioned and -looking DE razors out there.

I am an everywork-day shaver as well, which is usually from Monday - Friday, the weekend generally being shave free. I have cut out the WTG pass over a year ago, with the exception of Mondays as those shaves are generally a 3-pass job. But then Tue-Fri are 2 passes only, starting with an XTG and it works great.

My thoughts exactly, couldn't have expressed it any better. Thanks!

 

Got my shave on early for Thursday!!!!

Strop with Star Shaving "Big Daddy" strop
Hot Towel prep
Lucky Tiger Lemon Cream facial cleaner pre shave
Hot Towel again
Mama Bear's Ye Olde Barbershoppe shaving soap (my favorite )
Clubman badger brush
Richabr Herder, AZ DE OURO straight razor
Shave nation alum block
Lucky Tiger Disappearing cream after shave cream
Clubman after shave lotion
Clubman talc
Strop again.....3 pass for a BBS and one happy man

 

Well Bruce, its not mentholated, instead its billing "Taurine" and honestly I couldn't tell the difference it makes between it and just a cold splash of water on my face; it didn't seem to do really anything on my face, nor was it hydrating.

Scent wise it was more like a modern cologne, for me though it really reminded me of Brut's old Actif Blue without the heavy citrus bass note and the scent faded pretty rapidly; it wasn't synthetic in the slightest.

I will try it a couple more times before I write it off, but its not looking promising to say the least.

 

Thursday

Razor: Unbranded, ugly German silver steel.
Cream: RS Menthol
Brush: NF2213
Post: Alum, Blue Stratos AS



The 1st in a series of tests on the purple and green hones from the tri hone set from ebay.

I chose this razor for the tests as although its pitted and ugly it takes a sweet shaving edge. The progression was my usual which works very well for me. I use a King combo 1000/6000 then move to a finisher. The bevel is set on the 1000 and then I do 20 laps on slurry on the 6000, dilute and repeat then do 40 on just water. That brings the razor into a nice state to take to a finishing stone, which typically would be a Naniwa 12K superstone.

However this time the finisher was the greenish slate from the tri-hone set aka the Welsh Thuringian. I started with a slurry which did 40 laps, diluted and did 40 more, then I rinsed off the stone and did somewhere between 80 and 100 strokes to finish.

Result: An edge that would be hard to beat and which yielded a very smooth shave. It is certainly as good as I get from a Naniwa 12k and possibly a little better. The stone itself seemed quite hard when raising a slurry and the feedback while honing was good.

 

L'Occitane Lavender Soap
Razor Maxotte 6/8 High Grade
Le Tuft Le Une Grande
Vulfix Persian Musk
Alum & Witch Hazel
L'Occitane Bavx Balm
Botanics Moisturiser SPF 15
L'Occitane Cedre L'Atlas Eau De Parfum.

Jamie.

A lovely shave from the Maxotte 6/8, two pass shave WTG & XTG very smooth a super fine full hollow ground blade. I would describe this razor as a very refined edge indeed.

 

Thursday 29 March

Proraso preshave cream
Arko Stick
Omeaga Boar Travel Brush, face lather
EJ89, with Gillette 7O'Clock Super Platinum, Black (D1)
Alcolado Glacial splash, and Arko Cool ASB

I found a small jar of the proraso pre-post shave cream in the bottom of my travel kit that I had forgotten about, so of course I had to use it this morning. Nice little menthol kick to start off with, man I love that smell. I think I got the best lather out of the Arko stick that I ever have today, better than usual, super thick and foamy. I have been running a little late this morning, and I don't really seem to care at all. I took my time for a nice relaxing shave, and it really paid off. A three pass, plus one touch up on the jaw line gave me a DFS++. Just missed BBS, and not by much. This was probably my best shave this week. Cool and smooth, I'm a happy guy today, still running a little late, but I feel great.

Have a nice day.

 

Rotbart No.15
Personna Red
M&F Emillion
Dr. Selby 3x Concentrated Lavender Luxury Shaving Cream
Humphreys Citrus WH

Guerlain - Dandy