Honeysuckle again, with the Vie-Long ambiguous brush, the Dorco PL602, and Saint Charles Shave Savory Rose

I wanted more honeysuckle, and Phoenix Artisan’s Honeysuckle shaving soap is just the ticket: the very fragrance plus an uncommonly good lather.

I used the Vie-Long brush shown. I think it’s horsehair, but it was sold as boar—a very fine-bristled boar, if so. But a great little brush and I like that handle shape.

If you’re still hesitating about spending $4 for a Dorco PL602 razor, I urge you to hesitate no longer. It’s truly a wonderful razor, very comfortable and extremely efficient. Three passes easily produced a BBS result.

Saint Charles Shave’s Savory Rose is an excellent aftershave that somehow got pushed to the back of the shelf. I’ve brought it forward for more frequent use. A rose fragrance without sweetness, as the name suggests.

Altogether a good start to a June Saturday.

The magical feeling of a extremely comfortable and highly efficient razor: How does it do that?

Although the Yardley shaving soap is decades old, it performs very well, and this morning’s lather with the Plisson was excellent.

The RazoRock Old Type totally removes the stubble without effort—almost absent-mindedly. A BBS result is child’s play for this razor, which feels on the face as though it’s doing nothing, just gliding over your skin picking up lather.

A good splash of Chatillon Lux Champs de Lavande, and the day begins.

A note on the pre-shave beard wash with MR GLO or other high-glycerin soap: I just heard from one shaver who has just splashed water on his stubble before lathering, and in shaving with an iKon 102 he found that the razor was clogging. He did find his lather was too thick and dry, and adding a bit more water helped. But he just recently discovered that his stubble is oily, which contributed to the sticking. When he washed his stubble at the sink with soap, rinsed, and applied lather, the clogging stopped: getting the oil out of his beard made a noticeable difference.

I do emphasize this idea in the Guide, but of course not everyone reads the Guide. I wish they would. It would prevent quite a few shaving problems, IMO.

Late start, fine shave: Dr. Jon’s Savannah Sunrise, WSP Prince, and RazoRock Mentor

Up a long time last night, pondering things, so slept in this morning. We’ve been having sunny days, fairly warm (70ºF, and I know people in the Southwest would not consider that warm, facing as they are 127ªF in Phoenix), and so Savannah Sunrise hit the spot. I particularly like the honeysuckle note (childhood memories), but the entire combination is wonderful: Orange Blossom, Peach, Gardenia, Jasmine and Honeysuckle. Perhaps I should get a larger tin, especially given that it is now his “Vol. 2” formulation:

Stearic Acid, Water, Castor Oil, Potassium Hydroxide, Shea Butter, Mango Butter, Babassu Oil, Essential/Fragrance Oils, Sodium Hydroxide, Sunflower Oil, Avocado Oil, Evening Primrose Oil, Meadowfoam Oil, Aloe Vera, Soy Wax, Slippery Elm Bark, Citric Acid.

All Dr. Jon’s products are vegan.

I’m not sure that this razor is the RazoRock Mentor, but I believe it is. It’s on the Maggard V3A side of the Edwin Jagger: more efficient than the EJ, more comfortable than the V3A. Not a bad razor at all.

Any fountain pen fans reading this? I just found my Yard-O-Led Imperial Dragon, a lovely fountain pen. Shedding the collection will be difficult.

Whipped Dog silvertip, Phoenix Artisan Solstice, iKon 102, and K.C. Atwood aftershave

I like this little silvertip from Whipped Dog a lot: a good size, a good resiliency, and a comfortable handle. Solstice was the obvious choice for today’s shaving soap, and it produced an extremely good lather. Phoenix Artisan and Crown King shaving soaps always leave my skin feeling very soft and nice, and they all lather well. I like the fragrance quite a bit as well: “Sage, Sweetgrass, Cedar, Rose Absolute, and Benzoin Resin.” The ingredients:

Saponified Stearic Acid, Aqua (Water), Saponified Ricinus Communis (Castor) Seed Oil, Saponified Cocos Nucifera (Coconut) Oil, Saponified Garcinia Indica (Kokum) Seed Butter, Saponified Butyrospermum Parkii (Shea Butter), Saponified Persea Americana (Avocado) Oil, Sodium Lactate, Glycerin, Fragrance

Well-prepped, I picked up the 102 and set to work. I got one odd little nick on the first pass—bad angle, I’m sure—but the rest of the shave went very well, and My Nik Is Sealed totally closed it off with no problem when I finished the shave.

A good splash of Prospector Co.’s K.C. Atwood aftershave, and I’m ready for a long day. Its ingredients:

Hamamelis Virginiana (Witch Hazel) Distillate, Organic Aloe (Barbadensis), Distilled Water, PolySorbate 20, Vegetable Glycerin, Citrus Sinensis (Grapefruit), Melaleuca Alternifolia (Tea Tree), Citrus Sinensis (Sweet Orange), Coriandrum Sativum (Coriander Seed) Oil, Juniperus Communis (Juniper Berry), Lavandula Angustifolia (Lavendar), Vitis Vinifera (Grapefruit Seed Extract), Phenoxyethanol.

 

Mr Pomp, Meißner Tremonia Pink Grapefruit, Maggard V3A, and Floris JF

Meißner Tremonia’s Pink Grapefruit shaving paste has a fantastic fragrance, thanks in large part to the inclusion of eucalyptus, which provides discipline to the fragrance. Mr Pomp is quite a good brush and did a fine job.

Maggard’s V3A provides a lot of blade feel but for me shows no inclination to nick. It’s riding on a UFO handle. Three passes, no nicks, fine job.

A splash of Floris JF aftershave, and the day begins.

The soft Omega boar brush, with Zi’ Peppino and the Merkur white bakelite slant

RazoRock’s Zi’ Peppino shaving soap is extremely good, both in fragrance and lather, and this wonderfully soft Omega boar brush did a fine job lathering. I performed the usual pre-shave ritual with a boar brush of wetting the knot well under the hot-water tap and then letting the brush stand while I showered. When my shower was done, the brush was ready.

This vintage Merkur white bakelite slant is now quite rare. A few years back, Italian Barber discovered a trove of them, NOS, in a warehouse and sold them off, but now the supply is gone. This slant has more blade feel than the iKon 102 or iKon X3, but it still is quite comfortable in being reluctant nick, and it is awesomely efficient: the third pass was required only for chin and lip, but I did do it overall.

A splash of the Zi’ Peppino aftershave, and the week is launched with poor Molly in for a teeth cleaning.

Selling 14 double-edge razors, including an adjustable and several slants: A two-week set

And also:

All are good (which is why I still have them at this point). You can see them listed on eBay.