Bowl : Van Yulay Resin Brush : Frank Shaving Silvertip Badger Soap, and Post Shave : Van Yulay’s Royal Oudh, Aftershave and Balm Razor : Razorock MJ-90A w/Treet Black Beauties Others : Paranakan Oud EDT
Hail to the Oud! I was missing the AS previously, I could have sworn I clicked to include it when I bought the soap but no matter, its together now as a set.
And again, even before I started the shave, I knew this is going to be one really good one. Off the container, you can smell the scent of dark oud along with cedar and a hint of sandalwood and musk.
Artisan’s description: “Top notes include lemon, pink berry and bergamot. The middle notes consist of cedar, galbanum and angelic root. Base notes are Regal Indian oud, sandalwood and Tonkin musk.” Based on Creed’s Royal Oud launched in 2011, the scent is old school, and takes you back to a time of Maharajas and Kings, its still one of those scents that you can wear and it’ll hold its head up high with dignity and masculine charm.
Kinda like the Man of the family, the King, the Alpha. While the younger kids run around screaming their heads off, wearing bright clothing, being loud and brash, Oud is the guy that projects power and when he says something, the room falls silent, straining to hear what he has to say.
If scents, were personages from a show or movie, I’d tag Royal Oudh as Tywin Lannister. Strong, proud, commanding, wielder of power.
Only to be laid low by that short stubby pineapple of a son, Aventus Tyrion . 😁
Oh, yeah, Glass BBS, no nicks, no weepers. Gods, I love great soap with great scents.
Off day shave before heading to the doctors for my medical. Routine stuff, get checked up, get medication, blood thinners, set new appointments down the road. The MJ-90A gives a really smooth shave for a mid mild aggression razor.
“It passed the Lonely Mountain bare, And swept above the dragon’s lair: There black and dark lay boulders stark, And flying smoke was in the air.
It left the world and took its flight Over the wide seas of the night. The moon set sail upon the gale, And stars were fanned to leaping light “
-excerpt from the Dwarven song of old wealth (Far Over the Misty Mountains Cold)
Bowl : Van Yulay Resin Brush : Frank Shaving Silvertip Badger Soap : Van Yulay’s Black Dragon Post Shave : Van Yulay’s Black Dragon Aftershave Splash and Balm (Both Mentholated) Razor : Rockwell 6S-R5 w/Zaza Blade
Yeah. There are “good” shaves, great shaves, then, once in a while you get the really epic ones. Scents evokes emotions and the imagination.This was one of those.
Some shaves just leaves an impression on you, that your mind just explodes with imagery and tableau as you shave, sometimes because of the name, the label, the scents all work to evoke memories, your imagination and take you off onto an unexpected journey. Thank you Ms Gillam, for today’s not just good, not great but a fracking awesome shave.
Scent on this thing is Amazing! Strength is maybe 4/10 for the soap off the container, but once you start lathering and then layer on the AS and Balm, that goes up to 6/10. Son actually told me that he could smell the scent even before he entered our room, with the scent filtering through from the bathroom. Don’t know how long it will last but I hope it will be for a while.
Scent as described by the Artisan; ” Our Dragon’ s Blood is layers of cedar-wood, orange, and patchouli infused with romantic notes such as rose, jasmine and lilac with natural essential oils, including blood orange and grapefruit. “ I am also guessing that there was a wee bit of sangre de drago in there too.
It came off woody herbal, resinous, vibrant and manly as frack. Coming off Oaken Lab’s low key cedar based scent yesterday, this one is anything but low key! From the time you sniff the soap off the container to lathering (use warm / mild hot water for best effect, even better if you have a scuttle) to going onto your face and finally layering on the Aftershave (which you have to shake well to mix the essential oils) you can tell that the scent is going to be great, and the balm, which many might skip buying, but holy crap, don’t skip on the balm! Trust me.
I got my glass “I keep touching myself” BBS shave, zero nicks, zero weepers, smell great, had that Dwarven song popped into my head and actually almost sang it in the bathroom…I did hum it though. 😁 Yeah. It was one of those shaves.
Bowl : Van Yulay Silicone Brush : Phoenix Artisan Accouterments’s Atomic Rocket Soap : Oaken Lab’s Far Afield Post Shave : Oaken Lab’s Far Afield (non alcohol), Prep Razor : Razorock’s MJ-90A w/Zaza Blade
Oaken Lab’s stuff is made in Indonesia, and as such, I believe one of the reasons why its AS is non-alcohol is because Indonesia is a Muslim Majority country by far and thus, their products need to follow certain guidelines if they want to employ local handlers and gain a local following. That said, this soap is amazingly good with a slight flaw.
The soap: This is a soft croap. It is soft with slight firmness so that it doesn’t swish around like liquid cream but soft enough that you can easily use a finger to scoop out a little soap into a bowl.
Scent off the tub is a little lackluster. I’d rate its scent as 2/10, you smell “soap” and a hint of cedar, maybe the barest hint of vetiver, green tea and I want to say lavender, but I can’t be sure, as the scent is very very light and I can’t pick up the notes precisely, just making wild guesses here based on the scent impression I get. Cedar though is definitely the anchor.
The scent as described by Oaken Lab : “Aroma: Mountain Mist, Still Lake, Cedar, 5 am”
Lathered up the scent blooms a little, you’ll definitely make out cedar with a fresh supporting scent that to be honest is there on top of the cedar but I can’t tell with certainty what its a medley of.
Still, it is pleasant, strong enough to mask the “soap” smell that soaps have, but not so much that you’d get a face full like you do with PAA’s soaps. And this is where you will start to compare this soap to PAA’s stuff, especially PAA’s CK-6 stuff.
This soap explodes with lather, with only about a pinky’s digit sized scoop of soap is more than enough soap to give you about 6 or more passes. This is the amount of lather left after a full 3 pass and clean up. I could definitely go another 3 pass and cleanup.
The soap is also quite thirsty, and is able to take quite a bit of water, but you want to go slow on the water, once you get it to light yogurt, it’s just right to go onto a wet face that has additional water and will create one of the slickest lather I have used. Again the comparison to PAA’s CK-6 formula for those of you who have used CK-6 will come immediately to mind. Extremely slick lather, extremely slick residual layer and post shave leaves your face feeling “refreshed” not dry and to be honest if I didn’t know better, I could have thought that this was CK-6. The giveaway of course is that does not have the perfumed scent profile (loud and strong) as a PAA soap.
So even with my face still felling a little abused from the previous night’s bad blade shave, I did say it was a very severe razor burn, the soap performed amazingly well, giving glide, slickness and protection so that I still got a true glass BBS with the Zazas, I am really starting to love these blades, and received zero irritation.
The Afershave Splash: Scent on the splash is a little stronger compared to the soap and this time you get the cedar notes right off with a the supporting medley of very light notes in the background but again it is barely there, I would rate the strength as 2.5/10, and it fades off quickly after application. A part of me felt that I would have been better off buying scented Witch Hazel with aloe extract as an aftershave. To be honest, this is what more or less the AS is. Oaken Lab’s AS does have that little extra to quickly soothe and tone your face’s skin, but with it lacking scent strength, you will feel that it is a lesser product compared to other aftershaves.
Buy the AS if you feel you need to complete the set, otherwise the soap is the star of this scent line. If the scent strength or longevity is boosted up a little, it would have pushed the line into a “great” product but as is, it is still a good line to buy, especially for the soap’s properties.
It is also to the nature of where its made and without alcohol in the AS, it one of the few that certain Muslim DE shavers might feel more comfortable using. The main website sells the soap internationally, but not the AS, which is fine. I’d pair Thayers Lavender or similar herbal scent with it.
All in all, I had a great shave thanks to the soap.
Bowl : Van Yulay Silicone Brush : Frank Shaving Silvertip Badger Preshave, Soap and Post Shave : Proraso White (for sensitive skin) Razor : Razorock SLOC w/Zaza Blade
Well, face still feels a little raw from last night’s bad blade. So going Proraso white to do a soothing shave. Using the SLOC also means that I am trying take advantage of its milder shave along with the smoother glide and hopefully not irritate the skin further. And finally going with the Zazas for its sharp and smooth blade work. All in all, great shave.
It Happened to this evening. I knew I was pushing it, using the Shark blade for the 4th shave and chasing BBS (nothing else matters!) with my Rockwell 6S with the R5 plate to boot. I got my BBS but on application of the Alum, my wife would have come running if I had let out the scream I wanted to.
HOLY FRACK!!
You know you royally fucked up when trying to make an “O” face, the skin around your chin and cheeks feel like it is on fire. What do you do then? Luckily, I have some things that I keep (and will try to always have on hand) around for such occasions.
The firs and foremost of this is Thayer’s Witch Hazel Medicated. Sometimes also called Thayers Super Witch Hazel, and can be label as “Topical pain relieve” as this one or “Skin Irritation Relief” as labeled on the some other bottles I have. Trust me on this, if you can get this do so. Applying it after drying off your face brings the kind of relief you get like shade and a pool of cool water to a man who stood in a desert for hours. Relief is immediate, but unless you follow up with something to re-hydrate and put on a later of protection and give return some suppleness to your skin, this is a temporary relief. Which brings us to the next item.
Prep / PAA’s Mysterium Serum (or both!) I’d recommend those on a budget or just want that balm for all occasions (pre-shave and post shave) to get Prep. I have never heard of anyone who has used Prep to say that it doesn’t work, nor have I heard anything bad of this bottle of balm. There are others who even swear its great as a shaving cream itself, which I think is a waste a really good balm. Its true value, is during times like this.
This also applies to something I got recently, which is PAA’s Mysterium Serum. This balm is on another level of giving your face much needed relieve and returned suppleness to your face. I personally think the serum is much better then Prep, but it cost more and not as versatile as Prep, you won’t use it as a pre-shave that’s for sure. But the version I got (Mentholated), feels like great going on, has that cooling effect that all mentholated balms has, and before I’d wince if I opened my mouth wide stretching the skin, after application, there’s no pain, if only a slight discomfort. Its fracking amazing stuff.
Either way, I’d apply either one or both after allowing the witch hazel to dry down. I did the Serum first, following up with Prep since there is a slight cactus / prickly pear scent to the Serum and I prefer Preps low eucalyptus. If you want to use both, don’t over apply and allow each balm to seep into your skin before applying the other.
And finally a moisturizing balm to finish it all. I used Proraso White as it has oat and tea extract to soothe sensitive skin, just the thing for razor burn. Again, don’t over apply. Just enough to lightly coat and allow to seep into your skin. Too much and you’d have an oily skin or worse, look like a japanese porn star.
What about you guys? What do you use for when you get severe razor burn?
Bowl : Van Yulay Silicone Brush : Frank Shaving Silvertip Badger Preshave, Soap and Post Shave : Proraso Green Razor : Rockwell 6S-R4 w/Shark Blade
Warm as heck, and I wanted something cool to start the day with. Can’t go wrong with a stacked Proraso Green shave. Really liking the Shark blades, paid bargain basement prices for them, but they are performing beyond expectations.
Bowl : Van Yulay Silicone Brush : Frank Shaving Silvertip Badger Preshave : Prep Soap : Heath’s Shaving Cream Post Shave : Reuzel Aftershave splash, Heath’s Post Shave Repair Razor : Rockwell 6S-R4 w/Shark Blade
Just revisiting some of my early purchases when I rejoined traditional wet shaving. The Reuzel AS is new though, but I am not impressed with it. There’s barely any scent and in comparison, Thayers Witch Hazel would have done the same thing or better especially Thayers super witch hazel medicated which even with it’s medicinal smell, actually smells better.
Heath’s is actually quite good to be honest, performance wise at least. Right up there with any of the artisan soaps from merry old England. Very slick, good residual slickness, very good post shave. It is too bad that it is scented as a spa treatment soap, that is, very tea tree-ish. Which is fine if you really like tea tree. Me, I couldn’t leave well alone. so, was experimenting around with a little eucalyptus / mint oils to make it smell better and just a drop of each made it less of a spa and more “artisan” shave.
Bowl : Van Yulay Silicone Brush : Frank Shaving Silvertip Badger Soap : Razorock Son of Zeus Post Shave : Razorock Son of Zeus, Prep Razor : Rockwell 6S-R3 w/Treet Black Beauty Blade Other : Hermes Terre D’Hermes
Last work day, so going to end with a bang that is Hermes Terre D’Hermes. Just love a shave that you walk away smelling like a God. Son of Zeus is one of the better scented and distinctive smelling shaving soaps out there.
As for the Treet blades, for me, as YMMV, Treet Black Beauties are “buy if they are on discount”, otherwise I’ll go for Sharks. Same price but Sharks hold their edge longer. I get 1 really good shave, and up to 3 without the blade starting to irritate. While Sharks will give me at least 2 really good shaves and anywhere from 3 to 5 ok shaves, and anything more, I get irritation from Shark blades.
Bowl : Van Yulay Silicone Brush : Phoenix Artisan Accouterments’s Atomic Rocket Soap : Pheonix Artisan Accouterments’s Al Fin Post Shave : Phoenix Artisan Accouterments’s Al Fin, Mysterium Serum Razor : Razorock MJ-90A w/Treet Black Beauty Other : Dior Sauvage (2015)
Al Fin’s scent imagery is still one that I really love. I’ll need to get the EDP sometime. Its unique and one that I really enjoy. For the moment, I’ll be pairing it with Dior’s Sauvage which plays nicely to Al Fin’s brighter tones. Tabacco, amber and Spice, all combined to smell really great!
Treet blades are still on track, 3 uses per blade give or take, 4 if I push it. They are not bad, though I am still weighing on how sharp it feels. Fresh blades are good for me, 2nd and 3rd really depends. 4th use seems to feel rough, so best use for me with these days are as “one day” use blades.
Steve's Wet Shaving in Singapore 