Saturday 10th April
French Pink Clay & Charcoal Face Soap
Erasmic Shaving Soap
Omega 10098 Professional Boar
Yaqi Katana DLC w/Star Bakelite Handle
Gillette 365 (2)
Denim Aftershave (Vintage)
Second run with the lowly 365 which delivered a super shave!
Vocal fellow, so presumably quite thin, whose character is not so much "not smooth" but "not raw" giving a close and irritation-free finish. It's a simple, good, honest, no-frills stainless shave. I like that kind of shave. That said, I think I prefer SuperMax and so I'm rating the 365 just a tick below the basic Vidyut/SuperMax Economy Stainless (7.9) at 7.8.
... and that brings my little run through the Indian Gillettes to an end. Great to have re-acquainted myself with them, particularly in the aftermath of a monumental burn through the SuperMax house. While you might not agree with my ratings, they're my ratings - bear in mind that I'm not particularly a fan of platinum coated blades and have a preference for straight-up stainless. Curious, then, that my higher ratings are for platinum and lower for stainless.
Gillette Winner Special Platinum 9
Gillette 7 O'Clock Super Platinum 8.5
GIllette 7 O'Clock PermaSharp 8
Gillette 365 7.8
Gillette Wilkinson Sword (India) 6.9
Gillette Winner Stainless 6.9
Gillette Wilkinson Sword (China) 4
From this lot, while the Gillette 7 O'Clock Super Platinum is no doubt one which I'll find all manner of subtle characteristcs over time with different razors, it's the Gillette Winner Special Platinum that was the real find for me here - this is a blade I particularly like, where the sharpness is not so masked by the smoothness of platinum and gives a very consistent shave. Much thanks to donnie_arko for the introduction.
For points of reference, I hold the Gillette 7 O'Clock Sharp Edge (Yellow/Russia) very highly also at 9/10 while the Gillette 7 O'Clock Super Stainless (Green/Russia) failed to impress at 6/10. Meanwhile, over at SuperMax, most of their Super/Stainless blades sit around 8/10 and their new epoch Super Platinum at 8.5/10. Pretty concurrent, then with their Indian Gillette equivalents that they are no doubt chasing.
Enjoyed also was the Erasmic shaving soap. I usually use my vintage in the red bakelite pot, some kind of commemorative edition. This formulation is one of the newer ones, presumably the newest of those formulations? The one with lanolin in, anyway. Much thanks to
@Dcshaves for his generosity sending me this tub.
In the realm of toilet citrus scents, Erasmic is King! Derby the upper class and Arko the peasant ...
Yeah! Good (enough) shave, that!