Wednesday 17th March
French Pink Clay & Charcoal Face Soap
Martin de Candre Vetyver Shaving Soap
Semogue SOC Taj (Boar)
King C Gillette w/RazoRock Bulldog Handle
Gillette 7 O'Clock PermaSharp Stainless (2)
Novaya Zarya Russian Forest Cologne
What fun to go back to basics ...
I'm using a Gillette 7 O'Clock PermaSharp Stainless (and will no doubt have a little run through the rest of the 7 O'Clock blades) and while I'm doing so, I thought it would be fun to give the King C Gillette head a proper run out. I bought just the head (no handle) and so have popped it onto the RazoRock Bulldog handle, which suits the weight very well indeed and balances out really very well! The razor is somewhere between the R89 and the M34, and on the long handle put me in mind of the M23 which is the very razor that I started out with when I came to traditional shaving.
I did two passes. My usual single pass would have sufficed, but there was still plently of lather on the brush and it's a shame to waste MdC, right? So, another pass which might have caught one or two little stragglers. Technique was really intuitive to click with and that first pass really nailed it - I have a little patch that I sometimes have to go over a couple of times and that stands as a really good test area that proves, or otherwise, the effectiveness of a blade and/or razor.
Yeah! Fun! But probably not a shave I'll have again for a good long while as in all honesty the KCG doesn't bring a lot to a fellow who has a fistful of vintage Gillette and a Muhle Rocca in each holster.
Ahhhh ... the splash. I do like a strongly alcoholic splash and these colognes from Novaya Zarya are just right! Probably as alcoholic as Alvarez Gomez Agua de Colonia Concentrado, certainly more so than Pinaud Clubman, but with some good oils in the mix which just cut the alcohol off a little and leave a really smooth aftershave feeling. Classic aftershave behaviour, if you ask me, but as the great bard (Dylan ... Bob, that is) told us, "the times, they are a-changin'" and they certainly have.
Yeah! Good shave, that ...
Enjoying the Gillette 7 O'Clock PermaSharp Stainless which puts me very much in mind of the ASCO Stainless from Lord. It's not bitingly sharp, in fact quite the opposite out of the pack, but livens up through the first shave and left me with a very capable blade for this second shave. It's probably as sharp as the Lord Classic, but not quite as smooth. Wanting to put a provisional rating on it, it's an 8/10 which is a "good" blade in my books, but 8/10 flat rather than 8.1 or 8.2 ... or 8.5.
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