Bowl : Vikings Blade Grand Chairman Brush : Frank Shaving Silvertip Badger Preshave, Soap and Post Shave : Proraso Pro, Wood and Spice Razor : The Razorine w/Derby Extra Blades
Off day shave, haven’t touched the shavette for a while, going to take it slow and easy. Proraso Pro’s Wood and Spice is definitely my favorite followed by Cypress and Vetyver.
The Razorine though, I am thinking of just setting it aside and going back to my Parker SR1 for shavette shaves.
Here’s the problem, I love how it married a safety bar into what is essentially a shavette but I really, really hate the whole blade assembly process. The head has so much wiggle room there is almost a whole millimeter of differential in alignment, both in x and y axis and therefor a combination of both, thankfully there is no z axis wiggle. What pissed me off today, taking almost 15 mins to set the blade and align it properly.
That aside, after everything is set up and aligned to my satisfaction, it was a great shave. Hence why I love the Razorine, it does give some of the closest shaves. Just hate how why it could not have used precision posts to set and align the blade and instead use slots with so much give and leeway, blade slant and exposure can be affected up to almost a millimeter in difference. 0.5mm is a huge gap when you are dealing with razors.
Bowl : Stainless Steel soup bowl Brush : Phoenix Accouterments’s Atomic Rocket Soap : Wet The Face’s Taboo (Sample) Post Shave : Thayer’s Witch Hazel (in spray bottle), Nivea Post Shave balm, Bodyshop Maca root and Aloe post shave gel Razor : Rockwell 6S -R3 with Fresh Derby Extra blade
Used the sample the night before but whether it was due to me not paying attention to the lather or the more likely reason, I had a bad blade. The shave last night left me quite raw. Like going at your face for 6 passes with a feather blade raw, with just after 2 passes.
Which ended with me stopping at 2 pass with no cleanup. I went into recovery mode post shave for bad razor burn, which was similar to today’s set up, that is, Thayer’s Medical Superhazel witch hazel, Phoenix Accouterments’s Mysterium Serum, and Body Shop’s Maca Root and Aloe gel. (I change the balm depending on how harsh of a shave I get, Nivea for light to mild burn, Prep for mild burn, Mysterium Serum for mild to bad razor burns) Recovered well enough for this morning’s shave and now the evening shave.
So, how did this evening’s shave go? First I made sure this time I had good lather, using about a thumbnail’s size dollop of soap and whipping it up in that soup bowl. In the end, I should have used less soap, the bowl I used is not exactly small, and I ended up with this:
For size context, soap used was Wet The Face’s Taboo
I had more than a quarter of the bowl filled
yogurt much, yes?
Lather went on slick, stayed slick and had relatively good post shave slickness this time. The night before I think I used too much water, this time round it was great!
Scent of the soap as per Artisan : Top notes of mandarin, apricot, orange, and tagetes. It’s warm and inviting undertones are comprised of balsam, rum, rose, violet, jasmine, ylang ylang, and iris. The sexy and sensual base notes are a heady blend of sandalwood, black currant, wild pears, vanilla, musk, and Vetiver.
Prepared the bowl by letting it sit filled with hot water to heat it up, then of course emptied, and whipped the soap by adding water with hot water on low trickle, so from the moment you start whipping till when you put the lather onto your face, the scent from the soap builds from the warm lather.
The opening with orange and mandarin quickly fades off and most of the scents blended in and unfortunately some were lost as the more prominent notes jump out and grab your nose, namely ylang ylang, vetiver, and that lighter steady base of sandalwood and musk. Strengh of the scent from the lather is on the lower end, 3 of 10. The scent’s imagery for me is oddly enough, Dagobah, home of Yoda. Earthy, down to earth orchards with flowering shrubs in a log / mud cabin.
Shave itself was great. I went full 3 pass and clean up to chase BBS, and yes, I went for that “I keep touching myself” glass BBS. Finished with witch hazel toning, balm to sooth and gel to lock it all in even though there was no irritation for that shave. Face felt awesome!
Bowl : Vikings Blade Grand Chairman Brush : Phoenix Artisan Accouterments’s Atomic Rocket Soap and Post shave : Phoenix Artisan Accouterments’s Agharta and matching Aftershave, Mysterium Serum Razor : Rockwell 6S w/Derby Extra Blade
Last night’s shave went a little sideways, for some reason lather on a soap that I was trying didn’t work as expected and or I had a bad blade (Derby) and skin felt a little raw even on the first pass. This was on the SLOC so it wasn’t the razor, was a new blade, and of course first time use soap. Chucked the blade, and will test that soap again lather tonight.
For now though, its Agharta, with a little serum help, just in case. Much better shave, while you do have to take Douglas’ sales pitches with a pinch of salt, he’s a hoot, great entertainer and his soaps are great. Felt great, smell great, ready to rock and roll and head off for work.
Steve's Wet Shaving in Singapore 