• 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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• Pre-shave : Cold Shower, PAA Cube Face Wash
• Bowl : Van Yulay Resin
• Brush : Friendship Shaving Macy Dual Band Badger by Frank Shaving
• Soap : WTF Face Book 1K
• Razor : PAA Copper Ascension Twist Adjustable Double Open Comb w/Bic Chrome Platinum Blade
• Post Shave : WTF FB1K Aftershave Splash and Balm
• Others : Menthol in Salt Grinder, Dolce and Gabbana Light Blue Intense EDP

Love WTF’s FB1K scent which is based on Dolce and Gabbana’s Light Blue, though I paired it with the Intense version EDP which slants the scent slightly sweeter with amber, slightly less salt in its aqua with a touch of Juniper, with just that little extra touch of citrus that makes it in my opinion the better scent over the original.

And of course, had to grind in some menthol.
Everything is better with Menthol, especially with this heat.

WTF’s lather is top notch and backed by PAA’s Cube pre-shave, it’s just slick city on application.

Went with my beautiful Whirling Dervish, armed with the Sword of Achilles and just went to Buff-Town!
Zero irritation, glass perfect BBS shave.
Yeah, its the kind of BBS that you just can’t help but go into “I keep touching myself” mode.

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• Pre-Shave : Shower
• Brush : Oumo 26mm SHD Silvertip Badger
• Soap : Soap Commander Vision
• Razor : Tatara Nodachi Base + Masamune Cap w/Bic Chrome Platinum
• Post Shave : Soap Commander Vision Aftershave
• Others : John Varvatos Artisan Blu

Another warm muggy day, so decided to not use a balm again.
My Vision still had some menthol in it from the last time I ground in some menthol and perfectly came out as fresh and cool especially with that wonderful scent.

Grabbed the more aggressive Tatara today, though to be honest, it’s still a toss up between this and the Masamune base + Nodachi cap combo. It’s still as smooth, more efficient with that 0.90mm gap but can and has bitten me while the other combination is far more docile.
Easy perfect BBS shave.

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So went on a shopping trip to Mustafa’s to pick up on a few odds and ends and some stuff for shaving.
First and foremost :

A 200ml (6.8 oz) Bottle of Tabac in preparation of the incoming soap, cost S$15.50 (US$11.30)
Yeah, I could get the Tabac goop in a can which was actually going for cheap, about S$4 (US$2.90) but nah, waiting for the proper soap to come in.
I know this is a polarizing scent but like its greener cousin Irish Moos, it’s old school and there’s something about old school barbershop scents that just makes me smile.

I almost picked this up as well but decided against it as I have more then enough razors and being a cheap Gillette Tech knockoff, I already have one of these.
Though, next time I am there I might just pick up one to keep “just in case” I feel the need to go full budget shave and my old one is broke or something.
If you are in Singapore though, this would be a good starting razor. As the Gillette Tech is a mild but very efficient DE razor and for only S$2.50 (US$1.80) you could do a lot worse.

And finally those very nifty lock tight containers that I use all the time for soap pucks.
Just cut and stick the box label to the cover with double-sided tape to know what’s inside. Though, with the Palmolive its easy even without doing this due to its unique scent.

Anyways, since the soap is in stick form, I grated two of my Palmolive sticks into it and use it as I would a soap bowl. Allowing of course for the soap to dry out before putting the air tight cover back on.

Cost is about S$2.50 (US$1.80) so I got a few as I also have Mitchel’s Woof Fat coming in later, maybe this week or next … covid delays.

• Pre-Shave : Shower, PAA Cube
• Brush : PAA Peregrino
• Soap : PAA Doppelganger Tri-Color (Irish Moos)
• Razor : Tatara Masamune Base + Nodachi Cap + Bulldog Handle w/Bic Chrome Platinum Blade
• Post Shave : PAA Doppelganger Tri-Color Star Jelly Aftershave, Aftershave Cologne
• Others : PAA Doppelganger Tri-Color Deodorant and Epic Solid Cologne

It’s way early in the morning, 06:00 and gotta get ready to go out to get stuff.
(Ain’t 24hr Megastores great?)
Essentially to go pick up another old school aftershave and stuff. And nothing better to set that old school mood with Irish Moos. Such a great scent! CK-6 lather doesn’t hurt either.

The Tatara Masamune base and Nodachi cap combo is of course as always, deceptively gentle and my most comfortable razor while still giving that BBS that you don’t really have to chase for.
Two Lather applications shave and done, essentially WTG, XTG and ATG with the first lather application, followed by a clean up run.

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• Pre-shave : Cold Shower, PAA Cube Face Wash
• Brush : PAA Peregrino
• Soap : PAA Big Shave SW 2020
• Razor : Vikings Blade Emperor Augustus w/ASCO Platinum Blade (3)
• Post Shave : PAA Big Shave SW 2020 Aftershave Cologne

Still feeling a little off, with the cold / flu so not feeling like going the full monty today, so just went with a simple shave.
Scents are funny and very YMMV, I know that for many this soap is supposed to be leather, leather and still more leather but for me, I don’t get that leather note, at least not the note that I remember as a kid working with my father making little leather bags.
I do get a bit of suede with a lot of dark greens, mesquite and resins.
Weird ya?

Anyways, ran the ASCO blade in the Empress and again it gave a smooth and easy shave.

Digging around I think they are from Egypt, made by the same guys that make Lord / Shark blades. Price $8.75 on amazon for 100s.
That is … a damn good buy. Good blades for that price. Even if I use them as a one day blade (2 shaves) that’s less then $0.09 cost per day, even more value if you go 4 to 6 shaves.
Always good to have alternatives.

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