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Shave of the day, 6th June 2019 : WSP Matterhorn

Brush : Phoenix Artisan Accouterments’s Atomic Rocket
Soap : Wet Shaving Products’s Matterhorn
Post Shave : Prep, Wet Shaving Products’s Matterhorn Mentholated
Razor : Rockwell 6S w/Shark Super Stainless Blade

Haven’t used this in a while since I wanted to pair this with a matching body scent, am considering getting WSP’s EDP or one of the other clones, most likely L’aventure Blanche, I haven’t decided yet.

Regardless, you have to love that that fresh, “I’m breathing fresh mountain air” scent, which I understand to some is a little ozone-ny, a little like spa soap.
Though I would have to say that it was more likely spas copied the scent and used it on their soaps.

Though I’ll have to say that I have had some people tell me it smells like spa soap or detergent (WTF?!) so, your mileage will vary and scents are a personal thing, you might love how something smells on someone else but if your body chemistry doesn’t work with the scent, it can go awry. I do sometimes dab a little white musk attar (just a little) to compliment the scent. Regardless, it smells fresh and one of the few that you can really get used to in your morning shave.

Shark blades are pretty good.
Cheap and at the price of under US$6.00 before shipping makes it truly value for money even if I just treat them as a one off use. (they can last 4+ shaves) assuming your regular wet shaving supplier has them in stock or you use a shipping forwarder and have other stuff to ship in. Otherwise they go for about S$16 -S$18 on Amazon.

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5th June Evening shave, The Village Soapsmith’s Old Spice

Bowl : Vikings Blade Grand Chairman
Brush : Frank Shaving Silvertip Badgers
Soap : The Village Soapsmith Old Spice
Post shave : Prep, P&G Old Spice (in vacuum spray bottle)
Razor : Razorock SLOC w/Shark blade

Evening clean up shave and today being Old Spice day, what else other then another Old Spice soap and post shave.
Ending with a glass “I keep touching myself” BBS shave that, yes, I keep touching the chin and face because it’s freaky smooth.

Even after so many months having gone back to traditional shaving, I still can’t get use to the that glass feel of your skin when you achieved a perfect smooth shave.

Shave of the day, 5th June 2019, The Spice must flow!

Brush : Phoenix Artisan Accouterments’s Atomic Rocket
Soap : Phoenix Artisan Accouterments’s Cold Spice
Post Shave : Phoenix Artisan Accouterments’s Cold Spice Aftershave and Cologne, Prep, Original Shulton Old Spice EDT.
Razor : Rockwell 6S w/Derby Extra Blade

The funny thing about scents that smell great and was used by a generation for years only to be avoided by the young because the perception is they didn’t want to smell like someone’s dad, is that it becomes forgotten and scents that used to be immediately placed are now forgotten or memory joggers. “Hey, that smells great, reminds me of somthing…what is it?”

These scents tickles the memory, hopefully of good times, maybe of someone’s grand-dad when they were a child, that fuzzy pleasantness that you just can’t place but in the back of your mind something nags at you, that you should know, that you should be able to remember but can’t because not too many use them anymore.

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Evening Shave, 2nd June 2019: Wet The Face’s Nirvana impressions

Bowl : Vikings Blade Grand Chairman
Brush : Phoenix Artisan Accouterments’ Atomic Rocket
Post Shave : Thayer’s Witch Hazel, Gabbel’s Bay Rum.
Razor : Rockwell 6S-R3 w/Derby Extra Blade

As described by the Artisan:
Nirvana is an earthy fragrance it opens with a subtle citrus sparkle which is followed by notes of earthy moss and oriental florals and finished with an amber, vanilla-musk, and Indonesian patchouli dry-down.

Nirvana is the last of the samples I bought from Don, soap performance during and post shave are good, no tight drying of the skin, good cushioning lather, a slick layer that allows for buffing and helps blade glide, all the stuff you look for in an artisan soap.
The scent on this one is also quite good, off the container my wife said it smelled like peanut butter …and I am like “What?! No! It smells like…” and my mind froze as her peanut butter comment stuck there.
Its the vanilla-musk.
But it does smell great.

I do have to say that using WTF’s soaps, if you have to err, err with less water then too much. The soap will happily create a huge volume of lather that actually looks good if you used too much water, except that if try to use it, it’ll spread thin and give little to no protection or glide.
Thick yogurt not light, is what you want.
You can always wet the brush a little to add moisture but if you go too much water from the start, your lather will be useless.

Shave was damn good.
Glass “I touch myself” BBS, and no irritation.

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Shave of the day, 2nd June 2019 : Proraso Pro, Woods and Spice

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.

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Evening Shave, 01st June 2019 : Wet The Face Taboo Impressions

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!

Shave of the day, 1st June 2019 : Visiting Agharta

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.

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