First shave with the Pass-around RX Asylum and it's my first Artist type razor shave for a while, this is partly to blame for what followed! I have to say, there are some very nice samples in the box, so thanks to those that have popped those in, the box is full to the brim. I saw Wickhams Classic 24 and got very excited as it's a soap I've been thinking about. Well I scooped a little out into my warm mug, sprinkled some warm water in to let it bloom and a short time later went at it with the Simpsons Duke 3 brush... Now I have no idea what happened, but I was trying for a good 5-10 minutes to get a lather out of the soap and brush, towards the end it looked a little more promising and I started to apply, but the lather just disappeared. This is in stark contrast to my usual experience with Wickhams. This could be partly down to my lack of experience with the brush, or using too little of the sample pot, but it was a little disappointing. That being said, I initially liked the scent and then as I lathered up, the profile changed and I decided it wasn't for me regardless... So 10mins later and getting a little short for time, I walloped a glob of Speick Cream into the mug and had at it, two minutes later and a large swathe of lather was ready to be plastered across my ugly mug.
Thoughts on the razor now, beautiful thing. Cleverly designed, bit of a faff initially to load a blade but I think this will come down to familiarty with the razor. I agree with some previous comments that the machining lines going across the razor are a little unsightly for the cost, but it's still a lovely object.
On to the shave, I loaded up a feather pro, I had around 4 days stubble to mow through and felt the other more mild blades may not have been up to the task. That in itself was possibly a mistake, considering my lack of artist shaves recently and also the reputation that this razor can be a bit of a beast in some hands!
The angle is intuitive, easy to find and away I went. The whiskers were mowed down with consumate ease, though I did note that it seems this razor has a lot of blade feel, may just be me. Anyway, two passes later and I had a very, very good result, but my face was stinging a little, I had a couple of tiny nicks and multiple weepers. All of which healed up after application of some Thayers Aloe WH and Speick AB, but my face and neck were both stinging a little in areas. Fast forward to today and the result is still very good, but I have visible irritation patches on my neck (more so than usual) I was getting no irritation before I started faffing about with pass around razors! As such I'll need to give it at least the rest of today before I potentially shave tomorrow.
I'll use a milder blade tomorrow (if I'm healed), maybe even the soft guard as that seems to be getting a good write up and will report back.
Mixed feelings at the moment. I did enjoy the shave, I did get a good result in terms of whisker removal, not a good result in terms of skin condition. I am however very much looking forward to more shaves with it