SOTD: Saturday 6 April - Friday 12 April 2024.

10/04/24
Pre - Droyt's Vegetas Glycerine Soap
Brush - Vintage Culmak Plus - Mühle 23mm Classic Silvertip
Soap - Maca Root / Palmolive stick Superlather
Razor - Schick J1 1958-64
Blade - Personna Injector
Post - Cold water Rinse
Balm - Barts Balm Ben Nevis - Amber & Moroccan Jasmine
A/S - Brut Original
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A great all round shave today. I am over the moon with the way the Mühle knot feels in the vintage handle, it really whipped up a great lather and felt fantastic on the face.
I completed a 3 pass shave routine with the J1 fitted with a new Personna blade, it has given me a very close, comfortable BBS finish.
Yes i did enjoy that one.
Enjoy your day all.
 
The RazoRock Barbershop Blue is a great performer with a superb scent like Floid Blue without the menthol.

The blade is a bit disappointing. I've tried sharper Chinese blades. This did the job but not much more.

Rating: 4 / 5

Razor: Wilkinson Sword Sticky
Blade: Ying Ji-Li 'Blue'
Brush: Phoenix Artisan Accoutrements Amber Aerolite Stygian Synthetic
Lather: RazoRock Barbershop Blue
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Brush - ES medium synthetic
Soap - LEA stick
Razor - EJ89 3D Diamond
Blade - Astra (Indian)

Good bits - the LEA stick is outstanding. I auditioned it as a holiday soap… currently using Arko stick. I think it just pips the Arko and could easily use it all the time at home.

Not so good - not having the best experience with the EJ razor. A bit weird really, as the EJ89 was my first DE razor years ago. everything is feeling fine and smooth now, but a bit irritated. I’ll put it aside for a bit and come back to it.

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Back to the late 90s for me...

I'm using carts a lot these days, mostly Feather but picked up a Mach3 on offer out of nostalgic curiosity and I'll be darned if it isn't the finest razor I ever used... They really nailed it with that design. Also shout out to Gillette Labs foam, I can lather up in 10 seconds and it's got a pleasant modern cologne scent not too dissimilar to Sauvage or something like that.

So, I'm now a heretic but stuff the masculine ritual, I'm all about results and the above gives a better shave and faster than anything else.

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Savonnaire du moulin
Wolfwhiskers Abyss Ubersoft 2
ATT M1 Kronos handle
Brazilian Gillette #1
Bozzano crème de barbear

A shave using a couple of products generously PIF’d by Sean C namely the Brazilian Gillette blades and the Bozzano aftershave cream ( also a tube of Nivea cream ) excellent shave with the Gillette blade which was smooth for a first usage and the cream which contains menthol to a pleasant degree but requires a bit of rubbing in to get rid of the white cast of the product. So thanks again to Sean C and happy shaving!
 
Rohleder said:
View attachment 119226

Back to the late 90s for me...

I'm using carts a lot these days, mostly Feather but picked up a Mach3 on offer out of nostalgic curiosity and I'll be darned if it isn't the finest razor I ever used... They really nailed it with that design. Also shout out to Gillette Labs foam, I can lather up in 10 seconds and it's got a pleasant modern cologne scent not too dissimilar to Sauvage or something like that.

So, I'm now a heretic but stuff the masculine ritual, I'm all about results and the above gives a better shave and faster than anything else.

giphy.gif
Click to expand...
I've picked up a Mach 3 some time in the last few months, and my results were pretty much the opposite - disappointed how rough it felt compared to the Wilkinson Sword "Barber's Style" cart, and the Henson Al13 beat them both.
I think I tried this a few times, comparing each other in a single shave (to make sure facial hair, skin and lather were the same), and the results were pretty consistently as described above.
And the Fusion and Gillette Labs blades were even worse than the Mach 3 for me.

Prep makes a difference for me, though - I shower after I shave, as I don't really do hot water showers, so my facial hair wouldn't get steamed much anyway.

I do wonder whether people overload their brushes way too much and whether that might be why they end up coming back to canned foam.
I found that for face lathering, if my facial hair is already reasonably well hydrated, I can get a very good lather with a 5 second load and 20-25 seconds of moving the brush about the face with a bit of water dropped into the knot as needed.

Eventually, I realised that pivoting head razors only work well for me comfortably well if I maximise the pivot, so I effectively end up using them like a fixed head razor anyway. The Gillettes still work for me worse than the ones mentioned above, though.

I suppose it's a roundabout way of saying my milage varied (repeatedly).
 
slapo said:
I've picked up a Mach 3 some time in the last few months, and my results were pretty much the opposite - disappointed how rough it felt compared to the Wilkinson Sword "Barber's Style" cart, and the Henson Al13 beat them both.
I think I tried this a few times, comparing each other in a single shave (to make sure facial hair, skin and lather were the same), and the results were pretty consistently as described above.
And the Fusion and Gillette Labs blades were even worse than the Mach 3 for me.

Prep makes a difference for me, though - I shower after I shave, as I don't really do hot water showers, so my facial hair wouldn't get steamed much anyway.

I do wonder whether people overload their brushes way too much and whether that might be why they end up coming back to canned foam.
I found that for face lathering, if my facial hair is already reasonably well hydrated, I can get a very good lather with a 5 second load and 20-25 seconds of moving the brush about the face with a bit of water dropped into the knot as needed.

Eventually, I realised that pivoting head razors only work well for me comfortably well if I maximise the pivot, so I effectively end up using them like a fixed head razor anyway. The Gillettes still work for me worse than the ones mentioned above, though.

I suppose it's a roundabout way of saying my milage varied (repeatedly).
Click to expand...

YMMV indeed!

I'm also a cold water shaver :)
I also very much agree with you regarding overloading, it was using straights which made me appreciate a thinner lather :)

I just came to the conclusion proper soaps and creams are a waste of time for me, I can happily shave using a straight with pretty much anything, so foam with a cart is life on easy mode. Speaking of which, for me it just works... Eyes closed BBS in under 60 seconds, love it... I can go about my day.

I did fall out of love with the hobby and it became a chore so I guess this is exactly the end result one might expect lol. It's a funny life, back when I had to scrimp and save, wheel and deal for every purchase I couldn't get enough of it. When I wasn't shaving I was discussing it, researching it, hunting for new products, vintage treasures...This went on for a good 6+ years but a couple of years ago my life circumstances changed and I could suddenly have anything I wanted, price not an issue, nobody to ask... And I lost all interest :( There's a lesson in that somewhere!
 
Rohleder said:
YMMV indeed!

I'm also a cold water shaver :)
I also very much agree with you regarding overloading, it was using straights which made me appreciate a thinner lather :)

I just came to the conclusion proper soaps and creams are a waste of time for me, I can happily shave using a straight with pretty much anything, so foam with a cart is life on easy mode. Speaking of which, for me it just works... Eyes closed BBS in under 60 seconds, love it... I can go about my day.

I did fall out of love with the hobby and it became a chore so I guess this is exactly the end result one might expect lol. It's a funny life, back when I had to scrimp and save, wheel and deal for every purchase I couldn't get enough of it. When I wasn't shaving I was discussing it, researching it, hunting for new products, vintage treasures...This went on for a good 6+ years but a couple of years ago my life circumstances changed and I could suddenly have anything I wanted, price not an issue, nobody to ask... And I lost all interest :( There's a lesson in that somewhere!
Click to expand...
I used a cart last month after watching kevyshaves use the Gillette skin guard. So the following day I went to the big Tesco in Dudley and got one.
Results was 11/10. I threw it in the bin as soon as I shaved because I knew it was a flawless result. I felt embarrassed and shamed just at how much I love the addiction of buying and selling and buying and selling. Don’t get me wrong …. With the items that I have…. They are keepers and the reason they are keepers are because they also give me 11/10 shaves. But bar the thousands and thousands and thousands of pounds that I can quite confidently say we’ve all spent on gear…. A skin guard - a synbad knot and a Stirling soap could see me to the grave….. but I am an addict and the buying and the selling is something I am trying to leave behind

Raining The Shawshank Redemption GIF
 
CunningMrFox said:
I used a cart last month after watching kevyshaves use the Gillette skin guard. So the following day I went to the big Tesco in Dudley and got one.
Results was 11/10. I threw it in the bin as soon as I shaved because I knew it was a flawless result. I felt embarrassed and shamed just at how much I love the addiction of buying and selling and buying and selling. Don’t get me wrong …. With the items that I have…. They are keepers and the reason they are keepers are because they also give me 11/10 shaves. But bar the thousands and thousands and thousands of pounds that I can quite confidently say we’ve all spent on gear…. A skin guard - a synbad knot and a Stirling soap could see me to the grave….. but I am an addict and the buying and the selling is something I am trying to leave behind

Raining The Shawshank Redemption GIF
Click to expand...
can i get an amen church GIF


Ditto!
 
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