Ok, umm, wow!
He waits, that's what he does. And I'll tell you what, tick followed tock, followed tick followed tock, followed tick.
After 4 days, he looked in the mirror and thought "wire like stubble - you are gonna need something special".
But he didn't do special, he did an unloved iKon slant, with a 3 shave old blade. In short, it should've been awful.
But wait, what is this? A nice soft silvertip omega and a sample of SSv2 Russian Leather is what.
A tiny bit scooped into a bowl and BOOM! Houston we have a lather.
He has been using SSv1 for months and knows it, so has an expectation. He considers SSv1 to be the perfect soap. SSv2 seems softer.
Happy with the initial lather he notices a small problem when applying to face. The brush likes the lather too much and won't transfer much to his mush. This could be the brush, more testing needed.
Once on the face the slip is great, the cushioning is great, the afterfeel is great, the shave is, well, good, Which is an achievement considering the handicap it was given. No balm was needed.
The scent, wow, the scent. Not overly excited by the idea of an imperial leather clone, this has changed his mind. He loved it. He now NEEDS some Russian leather in his den.
Next he is going to face lather rather than bowl lather. The only thing he disliked about this soap was painting it on didn't work so well. It clung too well to the brush. But this isn't a problem, it's a feature. Clinging well means that you get good glide.
And it's vegetal. Whatever we decided that means. Is there ANY tallow in it? If not then super impressive. A fully vegetarian soap with the softness of tallow? Impressive.
If SSv1 is a 10/10, this is a 9/10. Dropped a mark because it didn't paint well. And that's first impressions only.
I'll feedback on the other sample, and on different methods of lathering.
Final note. I concentrated on feeling for a tingle, but anything I may have felt was probably imagined. There was no after effect. So YAY, I don't have problem skin with this cream