SoS: May 6, 2013 - May 12, 2013

Wednesday
Hot shower
Thater 4292/6,2 band,fan
Proraso PrePost Cream
The Fat
Ever-Sharp Hydro-Magic/Pella coated injector (4)
warm water rinse
Monster Block Alum
cool water rinse
Thayer's Cucumber WH
Pinaud Citrus Musk

Great BBS shave face and dome

 

Wednesday morning, May 8, 2013

Schick E2 Injector with Schick blade (4)
Semogue 1305 boar bristle brush,
TABAC shaving soap with hot water lather,
finish with cold water rinse for a DFS!

 

Gillette Slim Adjustable
Wilkinson Sword
IB LE Semogue
MdC
Floid Blue

DFS bordering on BBS! MdC is pretty terrific, I had a chance to try a sample my brother has. I feel an order approaching in the near future.

 

Swedish steel. At least thast's what the package says. I bought 10 of these a few months back. Dutch rebrand as far as I can guess. Ya know what? PM me your address. I'll send you a package.

 

Hump day!

• Prep: hot washing cloth
• Music: Bram Vermeulen, Vriend & Vijand
• Brush: Travel King boar
• Soap: vintage Williams
• Razor: Valet Autostrop
• Blade: Valet
• Shave: 3-pass + touch-up
• Post: hot water rinse, cold water rinse, hand strop blade

Nice smooth shave. I guess I'll have to lay my hands on an Autostrop strop. I fear these original Valet blades won't last as long as the Feather look-alike blades. Since I'm low on cash (and I fear I will be for some time) I'll just have to save for that one (yeah, and for the other things I'd like to have).

I saw a Valet in the local antique shop last weekend. From the looks of it I guess it'll take modified SE blades. Looks a bit battered; no case; no strop. € 10,--. Dunno. First the strop I guess.

 

SOTD Wednesday 5-8-2013

Futur Clone @ 3 w/Crystal
Proraso PSC
Rose of Bulgaria SC
GT G4 Scuttle
Caswell Massey Art Deco Badger
Thayer's Witch Hazel
Nivea Replenishing ASB
Rose of Bulgaria ASL

I have always thought about getting a Futur and was interested in the polish Chrome or the Gold finish. These were pretty expensive for my retirement budget and I wasn't sure about the large size and the slick looking handles. After discovering the Futur clone (Chinese made) offered and researching the reviews of it's performance, fit & finish and I decided to give it a go. The price at shaveabuck is half the price of a Merkur (German made) Futur in Gold which helped me to pull the trigger on this. I expected a basically relatively poor quality razor; very cheaply made; sub-par; thin plating etc. What I got was nothing like that! This is an outstanding razor. The fit & finish is excellent (better than all the Merkurs I have); the plating is thick and smooth (better than any of the Merkurs I have) and the performance was outstanding! There has been some discussion about the "Cloning" issue by Chinese manufacturers and that is a personal issue that must be addressed by the individual but, seriously, razors like this from China and Cadets, Matadors, Parkers and RazorRocks from India (which are also clones; at least the heads) are pretty hard to beat for the price. My view is; it's a razor and me buying it or not buying it isn't going to do anything about the world trade balance.
Kudo's to Joe at shaveabuck for the amazingly fast shipment of this razor and the Rose of Bulgaria products (which were outstanding as well). I'm happy to give my business to a small business owner like Joe who markets to the average guy with good usable products at a reasonable price. Well done Sir!

 

Wednesday morning.

Schick E2 Injector w/ Schick blade (1)
Omega 20102 Pro Boar brush
Ingrams shave cream
Witch hazel
Captain's Choice Bay Rum

Cold water three pass+ for a DFS!

 

Gillette Red Tip
Rapira Blade
Ever-Ready Vintage Brush with Rudy Vey restore-Finest Badger
Everest SC
TSD Sea Buckhorn Witch Hazel
Ahava AS balm
music-Old Crow Medicine Show
java-home roasted Ethiopian

 

Great gesture Mike!

 

Summer finally arrived here. It was a hot night and I played squash first thing this morning. I needed something summery, so out came the Grapefruit. I was going to use my new Gillette aftershave this morning, but it seemed like the Vitos would match the grapefruit better. The Speick in the old spice mug makes a cameo just to qualify for vintage week.

Razor: Merkur Slant
Blade: Feather
Brush: Vulfix Grosvenor
Preshave: Proraso white
Cream: ToOBS Grapefruit
Aftershave: Vitos Tabacco

Good shave. I took an action shot because the lather was amazing. The grapefruit scent explodes as you build lather. I could smell it even after the aftershave dousing. Lather with this cream comes in seconds for me. I've never used anything else by ToOBS, are all their creams this good? I used too much and easily had enough lather left on the brush after three passes to, I don't know, shave my legs or something. Or like two other guy's faces.

 

Wednesday 05/08

Pre-shave;Hot shower, Axe chilling facial wash
Featured Brush;Semogue 1325
Soap Choice;Honey Bee Sandalwood Vanilla
Today's Razor &Bla View attachment 37686 View attachment 37686 de Combo;Fat Handle Tech mated with Super Max
Post;Warm water rinse, cold water splash, Pinaud Three Flowers
Results;Near prefect DFS

 

7.5.2013

• Prep: shower, RazoRock glycerine pre-shave soap
• Razor: Gillette Super Adjustable [7, 5, 5]
• Blade: Gillette Platinum
• Brush: Frank Shaving Faux Agate
• Scuttle: "Estremoz" V2 Green
• Soap: Speick shave stick
• Post: alum, T.N. Dickinson's Witch hazel
• Aftershave: Taylor of Old Bond Street Jermyn Street

8.5.2013

• Prep: shower, VITOS pre/post
• Razor: Gillette Super Adjustable [7, 5]
• Blade: Gillette Platinum
• Brush: Frank Shaving Faux Agate
• Soap: Wilkinson Sword shave stick
• Post: T.N. Dickinson's Witch hazel
• Aftershave: Old Spice Champion

Today was the beginning of week 2 of stick month. Next in line was Wilkinson Sword shave stick and after a quick shave I must admit first impressions are very good. Dare I say it's even better than the Speick stick I used before it. I guess the tallow and lanolin in the Wilkinson stick are the key ingredients here. I was awarded with a very rich lather that didn't thin out between passes. More thoughts as the week goes on...

 

how is that tres flores splash?

 

Muhle Retro white/black Silvertip
Fraser's Shaving Cream
Merkur Futur
Astra SP (3)
3 passes
Pinaud Lime Sec

Great warm weather shave!

 

I really enjoy it, it has a refreshing feeling. Makes my face feel good. The scent is not overpowering it is more subtle.

 

Wednesday, May 8, 2013

Pre: hot shower
Brush: EJ, Pure
Cream: TOBS Grapefruit
Razor: '71 Black Beauty (2 passes on 1)
Blade: Gillette 7 O'Clock (3rd & done)
Post: Pinaud's Bay Rum, Lush Imperialis moisturizer



I messed up making coffee this morning (grinding error), which very rarely happens, and as I was cleaning up I thought to myself that maybe I should skip shaving for the day. Nonsense! my rational side insisted, you're just being superstitious again. I started over with the coffee, left it brewing, and talked myself into shaving while I showered. I went with my larger brush in Pure because I was feeling kind of scritchy myself, and proceeded to make a mess of a perfectly good amount of TOBS. A watery, soupy mess that didn't cling well and dripped off my face, leaving behind a bubbly wake that clogged my razor upon contact and was as generally unsatisfying as a cold plate of nachos at an airport Friday's when you're running late and starving. On the bright side, I'm finding that the Lush Imperialis is better on my skin by far than anything I've used as an ASB.

 

Wow, thank you! PM on the way!

 

That's a bad morning. Hope the rest of your day is good!

 

I knew you would like it. Now lets place a big order before SWMBO catches us.