Pre-Shave : Cold Shower, PAA Cube
Bowl : Van Yulay Resin
Brush : Friendship Shaving Macy G4 Synthetic by Frank Shaving
Soap : Van Yulay Enter the Dragon
Razor : Tatara Nodachi Base + Masamune Cap w/Derby Premium Blade
Post Shave : Van Yulay Enter the Dragon Aftershave Splash and Balm

Still on the Spice trail, Van Yulay’s Enter The Dragon is slightly more powdery, greener “Old Spice” lite.
Lather while not as voluminous as the more recent Artisan releases, is still a good yogurt creamy texture that offers great glide and cushioning.
What Van Yulay soaps do really well though, is smell fanfrackingtastic!

Went with the more aggressive Tatara today and from the pic, you can really see that 0.90mm gap.
While the Default Nodachi setup already feels quite smooth even with its 0.13mm blade exposure geometry, the Nodachi Base + Masamune Cap configuration brings that exposure to negative -0.03mm to allow the blade to just barely kiss the skin on your face.
It is as gloriously smooth as you’d think it’ll be.

(Note that if you use the current Masamune Cap, I am not sure if they will change this in the future, you will have to use one of Tatara’s proprietary handle. It will not match with Standard handles like the Nodachi Cap would)

Easy, no irritation perfect glass BBS shave.

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• Pre-Shave : Cold Shower, PAA Cube
• Brush : Oumo 26mm SHD Silvertip Badger
• Soap : Soap Commander Endurance (Old Spice)
• Razor : Blackland Vector w/Feather Professional Blade
• Post Shave : Soap Commander Endurance Aftershave Splash and Balm
• Others : Vintage Shulton Old Spice EDT

Old Spice day!
Soap Commander’s Endurance is to me, the soap that I have found to be the closest match to the vintage scent (PAA Cold Spice coming a very, very close second) and it’s aftershave also as close to the original Shulton aftershave as you can get, though as with shaving and even especially with scents, YMMV.

The scent always brings a smile to me, with memories of long passed on uncles who represented a type of men that we rarely see today.

Went with the Blackland Vector today for precision.
With the lather smelling epically old school awesome and a dense and slick layer, the Feather Blade making it a very easy a one pass and pick up, no irritation and extremely enjoyable BBS shave.

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• Pre-Shave : Cold Shower, PAA Cube
• Brush : PAA Peregrino
• Soap : PAA Copalli
• Razor : PAA Copper Ascension w/Personna Platinum
• Post Shave : Cold Shower, PAA Copalli Star Jelly Aftershave, Aftershave Cologne
• Others : PAA Copalli Deodorant and Epic Solid Cologne

One of the most unique scents you can shave with and use as a personal scent, herbal, woody, resinous incense and a little fruity, the scent is as heady as it is adventurous.
I know Douglas loves those 1950s Sci-Fi / Adventure themes for his soaps and scents but this easily fits in with what you’d think Indiana Jones would use and wear.

The CATA-DOC does its thing again, this time with a Personna Platinum. A little less sharp than the blades I prefer but it still is smooth sailing. Just needed a little more buffing to get that clean true glass BBS shave.

Essentially a 1 pass (WTG, XTG & ATG buffing) + clean up shave, given the CK-6 lather with Cube Prep

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• Pre-Shave : Cold Shower, PAA Cube
• Brush : PAA Peregrino
• Soap : PAA Doppelganger Black (Dior Sauvage 2015)
• Razor : Blackland Vector w/Feather Pro Blade
• Post Shave : PAA Doppelganger Black Aftershave Cologne

Off day shave, so keeping it simple, and went with a favorite today, PAA’s Doppelganger Black, a homage to Dior Sauvage 2015.
The moment you uncap the soap, you’ll get a face full of that distinctive Sauvage scent.
PAA’s soaps are generally muscled scented and I Love it!

Went with the Vector today with the still sharp Feather Pro Blade.
SE blades last a long time and you can usually get an ungodly amount of shaves from them.
With SE blades I just stop counting and replace when they start to drop in performance, which could be anywhere between 10 to 30 shaves.

Easy, lazy, no irritation BBS.

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• Pre-Shave : Cold Shower, PAA Cube
• Brush : Oumo SHD Silvertip Badger
• Soap : WSP Rustic Blackbeard
• Razor : Tatara Nodachi Head + Bulldog Handle w/Rockwell Blade
• Post Shave : WSP Blackbeard Blackbeard Cooling Aftershave and Balm

Been awhile since I used a WSP soap, and chose to go with Blackbeard today.
That Spice Cherry Tobacco scent just pops out right at you, WSP never fails with that scent strength. Unless of course, you are one of those who prefer lightly scented soaps.
Me, lay it on me!

WSP’s Aftershave, is the type that Ken would go “Ohhhh the BUUUUURRNNNNN!!”
Yeah, feels good man!
And when the Balm goes on, layering on that second layer of menthol, prolonged burn baby!

Went with the default Nodachi today. There is a bit more blade feel but its still very smooth and I while I know that many hate the Rockwell blade, it worked perfectly in the Default Tatara.
Easy glass no irritation BBS shave.

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• Pre-Shave : Cold Shower, PAA Cube Face Wash, Proraso Cypress and Vetyver Preshave
• Bowl : Van Yulay Resin
• Brush : PAA Peregrino
• Soap : Proraso Cypress and Vetyver
• Razor : Tatara Masamune Base + Nodachi Cap + Bulldog Handle w/Bic Chrome Platinum Blade
• Post Shave : Thayers Lavender Witch Hazel, Proraso Cypress and Vetyver Beard Balm
• Others : Menthol in Salt Grinder, Davidoff Wood Blend EDP

The “better” cream line from Proraso, smells fantastic, is slightly better than the “standard” cream but for some, just not that much of a difference in performance.
YMMV.

For me, it feels great, and I like the way the Pro-line creams smells, the best of which would be Wood and Spice.
But for today, I am going to use one of the other two scents, Cypress and Vetyver.
With menthol of course. Ground in enough menthol that it was almost glacial.

Went with my most comfortable razor, the Tatara Masamune with the Nodachi cap.
The nice thing with the Tatara combinations that use the Nodachi Cap is that you can use standard handles and until the Bomb tip / UFO knurled handle arrives, the Bulldog gives the razor a firm grip that won’t slip.
The Tatara and Bic Chrome Platinum combination easily makes short work of any growth I had.

Extremely comfortable, true glass, no irritation, “I keep touching myself” BBS shave.
Can’t ask for more.

Ending the shave with Thayer’s witch hazel, Proraso’s matching beard balm, which oddly enough feels fantastic used as a skin balm and with Davidoff’s Wood Blend EDP which is essentially Spiced Vetiver with a touch of woods, not quite matching scents but it works.

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• Pre-Shave : Cold Shower, PAA Cube
• Brush : Friendship Shaving Macy G4 Synthetic by Frank Shaving
• Soap : Tabac Original
• Razor : Blackland Vector w/Feather Pro Blade
• Post Shave : Tabac Aftershave Lotion, Thayers Gentlemen Aftershave Balm
• Others : Guerlain Vetiver EDT

Mail call came in but wife forgot to tell me about it and I only found out about it after I had by evening shave.
Still, this will work for the morning shave as well.

Scent is actually quite mild so while I do get that some might not like the aftershave, the soap might be well worth using just for the lather.
Lather is fantastic, especially considering that it is a mass marketed soap, quality that you’d expect from artisan soaps.

Paired the shave with Guerlain’s Vetiver which complimented the old school scent from Tabac very well.

Went with the Vector today. Precision, control and take no prisoners with that feather blade.
Easy smooth BBS shave.

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• Pre-Shave : Cold Shower, PAA Cube
• Brush : PAA Peregrino
• Soap : PAA Doppelganger Grey (Aventus)
• Razor : Parker Variant w/Lord Platinum Blade
• Post Shave : PAA Doppelganger Grey Star Jelly Aftershave, Cologne Aftershave
• Others : PAA Doppelganger Grey Deodorant, Al Haramain L’Aventure EDP

Aventus, its everywhere!
Released in 2010, its still one of the most used, most complimented, most loved scent 10 years later.
PAA’s Doppelganger Grey did a fantastic job with bringing the scent to shaving with moderate scent strength. There are many others of course, but I like PAA’s offerings as they do offer the Full Monty experience. At the time when I bought my set, the solid cologne wasn’t available (it is now), so I might pick that up along with one other Full Monty set, that I have my eyes on.

Pairing with it is a mostly off the radar Aventus Clone Al Haramain’s L’Aventure.
I am not sure if its been reformulated but my version has monster performance (parfum level) with crazy silage, projection (you do not want to over spray or apply this just before walking into an office cubicle) and about 8 to 10hrs longevity.
The one I have cloned the smoky pineapple (16H11 I believe) batch so it smells absolutely fanfrackingsuperkalifragilisticallytastic.

I have heard that more recent releases of L’Aventure may have been toned down somewhat and may now be a little more fruity.
But with a price tag of around $40 it’s well worth it and in my opinion is better than the offering from Armaf.
YMMV of course, scents even more so than in shaving.

Going on a adjustable binge, grabbing the Variant this time.
After the Weishi’s superb performance, I am thinking of doing a shoot-out / comparison of all the adjustables I have and see if one is going to Top Dog if I am going to be stranded on a desert island with all the shaving soap in the world but only have one razor.

The Variant perform well, it does have that slight blade balance issue that I find with many adjustables, with one side with slightly more blade exposed than the other but I can work with it, treating one side (and since the Variant has a marked side, I know which one is the more blade forward) as a +30% aggression shave for the more stubborn areas and the other more docile side for my regular areas.

True glass, no irritation BBS shave.

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• Pre-Shave : Cold Shower, PAA Cube
• Brush : PAA Peregrino
• Soap : Zingari Man Seafarer
• Razor : Weishi Nostalgic w/ Tiger Platinum Blade
• Post Shave : Osage Rub, Zingari Man Seafarer Aftershave Balm
• Others : Menthol in salt grinder, Bvlgari Aqva Atlantiqve EDT

Menthol makes everything better. 🤣
At least for the tropics heat, and adding menthol to Seafarer made it a very cool and fresh sea scented shave.
Finished up with another cold shower, Osage rub and the balm but then I figured what is good for the head and face is good for the body and yeah… Osage rub to the body.
Whoooooooo!
Sprayed on the EDT and it does smell quite good, minty sea spray.

The Wesihi adjustable is surprisingly good. The adjusting ring is a little stiff and I am not sure how long this razor is going to last, we’ll see, but for today’s shave it performed better than I expected.
Its actually quite mild, having me go right to setting 5 (started at 3).
And like most adjustables that aren’t CNC milled, while there is a very slight variance in blade balance its not very noticeable. Better than my Rockwell Model T.

Shave characteristics are also good, so far without too much in way of blade exposure. Shave itself felt very smooth.
The only criticism I have is that the head could have been made slightly less bulky and thus more nimble but it does the job.

All in all I got an irritation free BBS shave. Not much more you can ask for.

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• Pre-Shave : Cold Shower, PAA Cube Face wash
• Brush : Friendship Shaving Macy Dual Band Badger by Frank Shaving
• Soap : Gentleman’s Nod Zaharoff Signature
• Razor : PAA Copper Ascension Twist Adjustable Double Open Comb w/Bic Chrome Platinum Blade
• Post Shave : Gentleman’s Nod Zaharoff Signature Aftershave Splash
• Others : Zaharoff Signature Pour Homme EDP and Parfum Extrait Solid Cologne, Zaharoff Signature Scented Candle

One of the better recent fragrance releases, Zaharoff Signature is one that I quite enjoy.
In a nutshell it’s Spiced Lavender Oud.
Very smooth, very old school while blending with the more modern scent profiles.
I found that loading a little heavier works best, regardless, whether you face or bowl lather, it is easy to get that creamy layer we all look for.
The Cardinal base is tweaked from what I understand, it is a little thirsty and once you get it going, it’s right up there with the rest of the top tier artisans as it does have a face food feel to it.

Went with the CATA-DOC with the Bic again.
This combination is my most consistent performer due to the nature of how it shaves but I understand that learning how to buff and riding that cap can take a while to learn for some. But once you do, I haven’t found anything else that does the job as well and without irritation, and having a good lather layer just makes it all the more easier.

Smelling fantastic and ready for the day.
Full day even though its my off day, Hospital follow up, taking the kid to repair his phone, errands, groceries … might go shopping for local shaving stuff, we’ll see. 😄

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