To say that I was pissed off, after yesterday’s fiasco, is an understatement.
Not only did GFT’s Eucris under-performed, it severely under-performed to the point that I had severe razor burns, from using the Razorine for one pass and completing the other passes with a Rockwell 2C on R3 using Personna Blues, which were by no means harsh blades.

And because GFT’s Eucris didn’t give the Razorine a proper chance to shine, this time round I went with Proraso’s Professional line for Straight Razor use.
And I loved it.
Had to be really careful, with as light a touch as I can manage given that I could still feel the razor burn from the day before. But today’s shave didn’t pile on any additional hurt so to speak.
That’s the difference between a fucked up soap and one designed to give the user a good layer of protection and glide.

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Face broke out a few days before due to some shave oil I used. Hate using shaving oil, I’ll stick with Proraso pre shaves, they work and they don’t cause break outs. But the Razorine was relatively easy to control I and got a BBS without any major accidents over the “challenging terrain”.
Did give myself a minor nick or two though, but that was due to technique as I was still learning how to handle the Razorine.

Finished the shave with Proraso’s Cypress and Vytever balm and Tom Ford’s Grey Vetiver.
Love that Vetiver.

So.
What did I do with GFT’s Eucris?
A huge part of me didn’t want to throw it away, because after all, it did cost quite a penny.
So I tried to re-purposed it by reconstituting GFT’s Eucris with a stick of Derby’s Shaving Stick

by grating both GFT’s Eucris and the Derby Stick into a melting bowl, added some water and turned the combination into a sloppy gluey mess which went into the previously occupied Tupperware bowl storage bowl that originally held Fine Accouterments’s Fresh Vetiver.
And thus, yes, I switched the container containing which soap as befitting of my experience with them.

I’ll note that when grating GFT’s Eucris the puck felt like hard dried cheese or a hard wax puck as opposed to the other soaps I have handled which is usually slick to the touch, oily moist or slightly soft.
It is definitely GFT’s formula or bad QC.

At least now though, the GFT Eucris – Derby Stick hybrid actually lathers.
Unfortunately Derby’s strong “disinfectant” scent ran rough shod over the GFT, but meh, if I could not get this to work I would have thrown it out, so at least this soap was salvaged in a way.

Needless to say, GFT’s Eucris will be taken out of rotation and I’ll use it for …stuff.

Sharp blades, slick lather, have a great day!

No pre shave as first time using this soap, want to see how it performs.
Frank Shaving Silver Tip
Soap : Geo F Trumper Eucris (Hard Puck)
Post Shave : Body Shop’s Maca Root and Aloe
The Razorine
Personna Blue Blade

Stuff come in the mail last night and this is the first use for both Geo F Trumper’s Eucris and the Razorine.
Lets see how it goes!

GEO F TRUMPER’S EUCRIS (HARD PUCK)

This soap is proof that just because something “cost more” and people might spout about how great it smells doesn’t necessarily makes it a good soap. Maybe the cream version might have performed better but the puck, at least the first use, is disappointing at best, at worst, its going to be relegated to armpit shaving.

What’s the problem?
Lathering, to be exact lather dissipating faster then people at a party after being told “No beer, food or music allowed.”
Seriously, I wanted to like this soap. From its description, to packaging to people saying how good it is, its difficult when expectations are let down this hard.

Initially I thought that I didn’t load enough soap onto the brush.
Fine. So I went at the soap with the brush for several minutes till my hands, bowl and brush were filled with nothing but soap.

Lathering into the mug, didn’t gave me much hope as the lather, especially lather pushed up to the top were dissipating into thin air as I watched.
Adding a little more water made it worse so I took the brush to soap again and this time tried to load a little more and went straight to a face lather.
A little better but lather was still dissipating and after a while there’s hardly any sign that you painted on a “Santa”.

Touching your face, you can feel residual slickness and to be honest, I think it should be fine … maybe with a DE safety, but I definitely didn’t feel safe with a shavette .

You could also lather in sections and shave, its sort of ok, but that is a poor shaving experience and worst considering that this soap isn’t exactly cheap.
I’ll give it another go some other time, but if it continues to disappoint, I’ll use it for armpit shaving.

And oh, how does it smell?
Ok.
Its not great.
Not even close to Taylor’s Sandalwood, Phoenix Artisan Accouterments’s Bay Rum, or even the S$2.90 tube of “new” Old spice shaving cream in terms of bringing out the “Mmmmnnnnnssss! This smells guuuuuuudddddd” vibe.

For those went gaga over this scent, good for you.
Our mileage differed.

THE RAZORINE
Sadly because of the issue with the soap I wasn’t able to fully enjoy nor bring this razor to full use. I did one pass and after that with no confidence with the soap used, I went to my trusty Rockwell 2C on R3 to finish up the job.
The first pass was still telling however. This razor is a hybrid between a safety razor and a straight edge shavette and the safety bar makes all the difference. Oddly enough, you shave by the feel of the blade on your skin, its hard to describe it.
There is no set angle you have to use, not 30° just tilt till you feel the blade’s kiss and shave. Light touch, glide and slice hair off, and boy does this thing slice hair off. Anyone who has shaved with a shavette will know what it’s like.
I’ll need to give this guy another go another time with proper, good performing shaving soap.

Finished off with Body Shop’s Maca Root and Aloe post shave.
Really like this thing, feels good going on your face, face feels “refreshed” post application.
Alum and post shave indicated razor burn and yeah, I can really feel the sting. Haven’t had that in a while. Going to skip tonight’s evening cleaning shave.

Sharp blades and slick lather.
Have a great day!

Still a little under the weather and again was asleep when the delivery came in the afternoon. Only got my mitts on it in the evening when I got up for dinner.

First off, thank you @geofatboy https://shavenation.com/ for the handwritten thank you note on the invoice and the little extra. Small gestures, but its people like you who make coming back to wet shaving a joy.

This was one of the package I was really waiting for.
Ordered : 20th Mar 2019
Arrived : 02nd Apr 2019
Just about 2 weeks. I actually arrived much earlier in the week, but was stuck in customs and the mail was slow. Still, this is more than acceptable considering its shipped halfway round the world.

Soaps were refill pucks so I had to re-purpose some of my old soap bowls or use a tuple-ware container for easy storage.

For the Eucris I had a spare wood soap bowl (yeah, it looks like the one you get from Taylor of old Bond Street) and for Fine’s soap I had to grate it down into the bowl to reshape / repack it nicely.

• 

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And the Gorilla in the room the Razorine!
This was what I was waiting for.

• 

• 

Its a beautiful razor and will replace my Parker SR1 as the shavette of choice.
Will have to do a few dry runs to get a feel of how to handle it but should intuitive.
It’s too bad that I have already done my evening shave, so contents will have to wait till tomorrow morning for my Shave of the day.

Sharp blades and slick lather!
Have a great day!

Proraso Green Pre Shave, Cream, and Post Shave … Menthol Face Bomb!
Rockwell 6S
New actors : Frank Shaving’s Shaving mug and Silvertip Badger Brush.

The brush is awesome! Soooooooo soft and holds a butt-load of lather. More then worth the price!
Always love Proraso green, its a damn good wake up call and your face feels fresh as mountain dew on grass.

Smell great, feel great, have a great shave, have a great day!

Was feeling sick today, was asleep so missed the delivery but was woken up for dinner and I saw this waiting from me from China.

Yeah, many are weary of ordering from China as for the most part it is buyer beware. But I have heard a lot about this company and from multiple sources, on Youtube, forums and other places where wetshavers talk and aren’t too worried about being out of line for advertising dollars.

Amazon Link : https://smile.amazon.com/s?k=frank+shaving&ref=nb_sb_noss

Frank Shaving’s own online store (they’ll use China Post) : https://ishaving.co/
But they did a great job with packing with lots of bubble wrap and air pillows (as opposed to just newspaper / paper cushions form some China site stores), so this is a huge indication of their pride and quality.

If you do a Google search, you’ll see that google will redirect you to Trendhim.com, which will redirect you to trendhim.sg.
My advice at the moment is not to buy from that store. “Online store” looks good, well designed but I still have a package from them that is approaching 2 months and no sign of it. Buy from Amazon or from their own China based store. Prices are better, Amazon has better tracking and the China store while a little more basic does a great job of getting you to what you want.

So, I choose to buy from the China store and gave them a trial purchase since I already know how reliable Amazon is.

Purchase Date : 17th Mar 2019
Arrived : 01 Apr 2019
Three items. Brush, Razor stand and mug (as per to picture on top)

BRUSH :
Silvetip Badger Brush
Cost : S$38.00

Brush is beautiful.
There is no other way to say it. Even though I bought the smaller brush, it still feels weighty, the faux horn handle has a nice heft avoiding the “cheap” feel of many brushes of its price range has. This brush after treatment and when it was ready to use (I did do one shave … can’t help myself!) has great water and lather retention, and going onto your face, feels really, really good. If you didn’t know it’s price, you’d easily mistaken it for something costing $100.00 or more.

Brush comes with its own stand which is nice but I would recommend buying one of their stands (trust me, you can’t beat the price) which we’ll get to in a moment.

Being a badger hair brush, it will smell of wet dog out of the box. There is no escaping this. So you need to treat it before using it for the first time. A good soak, lather it up with one of your favorite shaving soaps (BAY RUM!) let it sit for a bit, then use hair conditioner, yeah, the same stuff your wife (or you) use and let that sit for 30 mins or so before rinsing it clean. And waaaalaaaah! A brush that doesn’t smell too much like wet dog. 🙂

You’ll need to use it everyday for at least a few days, usually up to a week, before the smell is completely gone and it’ll start to smell like your soap.
From feel alone, the brush feels great, I’ll need to use it over the week to know for sure but as it stands, just from the feel of the bristles on my fingers and palm, this brush is going to be my favorite, taking over from the Rockwell Synthetic, because being a true animal bristle brush, it’ll hold water and lather better then a synthetic.

RAZOR STAND :
Cost : S$11.00

I got the “Charcoal” (Gunmetal) version and it looks good and is actually hefty.
DOES NOT feel cheap even though it cost S$11.00.
That’s right folks, it’s an S$11.00 item that looks damn good, has a good heavy and stable base (unlike some other China made dinky, wobbly POS stands that cost more!) The one big plus is the upturned “hook” at the end of each prong, this keeps both your razor and brush secured and not slipping off.

MUG :
Cost S$15

What can I say, I wanted something more attas then my S$2 Japanese soup bowl when taking Shave of the Day photos. 🙂

Yeah, had to treat the brush anyway, so lathering up!
I do wish that it was a little larger, I might get a scuttle next time but this was good enough to make and hold enough lather for 5 passes.
That’s the other reason why I bought the smaller brush, it’ll fit in and can work up a lather in any shaving cup / bowl / scuttle.

CONCLUSION :
All in all I am very pleased with the price, the packing, and while delivery could be faster if I paid for it, it’s fine and I will definitely buy more from them. It’s too bad they don’t have larger shaving bowls or scuttles but ….

Frank Shaving’s items are definitely high on quality, low on price and they are both functional and good looking.

Have a great shave, smell great, feel great, have a great day!

Tea Tree Pre Shave Oil
Body Shop Shaving Cream and Post Shave
Rockwell 6S

Just putting Body Shop’s Maca Root back in rotation.
Love that post shave gel.

Have a great shave, smell great, feel great have a great day!

 

Lucky Tiger’s shave cream is something that is an odd horse. You don’t need to use a brush to lather up, just apply to wet face, lather with your hands. But that doesn’t mean you can’t use a brush. 🙂
Scent is very citrus, lemon fresh and you don’t need much of it. Just pour some, just less then a teaspoon into a bowl and lather!

While you can use your hands, a brush will lather it up really, really good. You can just use the bowl like I did, or just pour some of the shave cream onto the brush and go directly on your wet face.
The lather smells really good and the lather is really slick. If you used your hands to lather into your face, I don’t have to tell you to wash it off well before handling a razor right?
Hey, there’s always that one guy. 🙂

I love good shaving creams, I love good shaving creams that smell great even more.
This is one of them.
The only downside, you should probably only buy this off Amazon Prime Singapore.
Cost about S$15.30+/- and will take about 2 – 3 weeks for it to arrive from the US (free shipping if you buy other stuff with S60.00 or more spent).

Unfortunately the post shave lotion which is really good and smells lemony / citrus fresh is not available from Amazon Prime Singapore (US) for free delivery but you can buy from Amazon US (Global store / shipping) that cost you S$20.00 or the aftershave creams (variety of scents) for around S$24.00 and pay the shipping cost assuming you buy other stuff as well to make the shipping worth it. Or do what I did. Make do with the shave cream and use Proraso stuff (white / blue line goes well scent wise with it) to fill the gaps.

Local resellers sell this (if you can find them) for a mark up of over 100% to as much as 200% extra so expect to see the shaving cream going for S$30 or more.

Have a great shave, smell great, feel great, have a great day!

Proraso White Pre Shave
Taylor of Old Bond Street
Thayers Witch Hazel Lavender
Parker 22R

First off, I want to say;
Holy crap, the scent of this Sandalwood soap is something else!

I had my TOBS Sandalwood puck set into the soap bowl the way I like it, using shredder to shred  the soap and then repacking it into the bowl. (Wife was asking why was I playing with soap! 🙂 ) 

But how did it perform? Scent wise, there is a reason why TOBS’s sandalwood herbal is their best selling soap, the moment you unwrap it, or even open the soap bowl cover, the strength of the scent throw is quite substantial, trust me, your bathroom will smell of sandal wood and herbs if you have this soap open to the air.
And unlike some other sandalwood soaps that I have, perhaps because of the herbs they used, the scent isn’t as harsh and instead is very medicinally pleasant.

It lathers like a champ too.
You don’t have to load much onto your brush to be able to generate a huge amount of very rich, good lather with this soap and it goes onto your face easy without dissipating.
This is where though, depending on whether you bought the hard puck like I did, or the cream version will decide on whether you will have a lather with good post shave slickness.
The hard puck soap version does not, I repeat DOES NOT, have that post shave slickness that the cream version has. But the hard puck version has a better shelve life.
Meaning that you can keep it around for a few years and it’ll still smell as good. Cream versions usually do not have a very long shelve life depending on what they use to perfume the soap and or if the soap has preservatives.

The downside of not having post shave slickness is that you do have to be careful if you want to go over areas that no longer have a lather. If you are using the hard puck soap, don’t. Only go over areas of your skin that still has a layer of lather. Unlike some other artisan soaps, especially Tallow variants or PAA’s CK-6 line, TOBS’s hard puck soaps don’t leave a layer of slickness that will still protect your skin if you go over it again without a layer of lather. In fact your skin will actually be “squeaky clean” and resisting instead of slippery. So going over skin that is cleared of the protecting lather might get you a nick or cut.

Just re-lather up on areas you want to go over again. You should have lots of lather in your bowl.

All in all, I like TOBS’s sandalwood herbal because it one of those soaps that is really a pleasure to your nose. Buy the cream version if you want lather with post shave slickness, otherwise the puck is fine for those who don’t mind re-lathering a few times more often.
If you are new to DE shaving, buy the cream version.

Have a great shave, smell great, feel great and have a great day!

Proraso White Pre Shave
Phoenix Artisan Accouterments’s Al Fin Soap and Aftershave
Rockwell 6S

Paa’s Al Fin is …complicated. Its an original and its scent profile is …complicated.
Its floral, sort of… Earthy, sort of… Dark …tobaccoish … not really, since there are light elements of something lemony, and almost herbal as well.
The whole thing comes together to form a scent that’s complex and refreshing and yet down to earth and rough around the edges.

And yeah, using my black bowl. It sat in hot water for 15 or so minutes and I lathered while it’s still hot to the touch. 🙂
Yeah, I like my scent fix as you lather up a storm, the warmth of the bowl amps up the scent.
Kind of like if you had a scuttle.
This soap didn’t fail, all you need is to have tips coated, some water, about 2 teaspoons and you’ll still get enough lather to go at least 3-5 passes.
While the soap I have is not the CK-6 version it still lathers up very well.
Using PAA’s stuff is a joy.

Have a great shave, smell great, feel great, have a great day.

Phoenix Artisan Accouterments Atomic Age Bay Rum Soap and Aftershave
Rockwell 6S

The Soap:

PAA’s CK6 Formula Bay Rum.
This thing is nuts.
If you have never smelt bay rum, if your nose is a virgin to the aroma, the moment you open the cap the scent of bay rum will assault you with its heady, sweet, spicy, and wondrously amazing scent.

Even with just the cap open, the scent of bay rum will fill your bathroom, at least till your nose gets used to it.

And the moment you lather into a warmed bowl, mama mia!

I used my bamboo bowl today though, but the night before, my Japanese ceramic bowl that was sitting in hot water amped up the scent and the bathroom smelled nothing but bay rum. 🙂

The lather of this soap is one of the best if not the best I have used. You don’t even need to load too much on the brush, just enough to coat the tips of your brush, wet, not dripping, and you will get a very slick and thick lather easy.
Post shave slickness is very present, your fingers will glide on your skin as you rise off the soap, and it is as luxurious as it gets.

I understand that all the CK-6 (Crown King 6) formula soaps are like that so I’ll hope to get more of the other scents next time (I do have one other PAA soap …but that’s for tomorrow and its not CK-6)

I love the scent of bay rum, from Colonel Conks to Captain’s Choice to Barberry Coast’s Bay Rum.
But PAA’s is for the moment my favorite. And its done without cloves which I understand can be a tad too much for shavers with sensitive skin.

Aftershave:

The aftershave is a doozy too. Slap it on and OMG feel the burn!! Once you stop panicking, and just let it settle down, your face, like you, will let a sigh of relief and pleasure. And oh yes, smell awesomely like a pirate. 😁

Conclusion:

PAA’s Bay Rum line is definitely going to be a permanent fixture in my rotation and well worth the price and shipping halfway around the world.

https://phoenixartisanaccoutrements.com/

Have a great shave, smell great, feel great, have a great day!