The Solar Flare and the Dead Sea, with the Baili BR171 and Vide Poche

After three shaves with shaving soaps that require a generous amount of water, I thought I’d balance things with a shaving soap that requires you to be stingy with water. Phoenix Artisan’s Solar Flare is fine brush, and I shook it well before loading with RazoRock’s The Dead Sea shaving soap, having learned by experience that a brush that’s even slightly wet makes a lather too wet to do a good job.

Baili’s BR171 razor is superb and for $6 you can’t beat it (and indeed, you can’t beat it a substantially higher prices): three passes to a BBS result, and then a splash of Chatillon Lux’s Vide Poche aftershave, and I’m set for the day. The Wife is taking today as a holiday, so it has a very Saturday feeling.

Barrister & Mann Reserve soap with a badger brush: Worked like a charm

In a comment on my shave two days ago, John Perry mentioned that Will of Barrister & Mann specifically recommends using a synthetic shaving brush with Reserve soap (which, I note, has a consistency when wet that is quite distinct from other soaps). Perry pointed me to this video:

I haven’t yet watched the video, but I will. In the meantime, after the so-so lather of day before yesterday (with a badger brush) and the great lather yesterday (with a synthetic brush), I tried again with a badger brush, the Sabini silvertip pictured, and was more careful about adding water.

Perry notes that he starts with a somewhat wetter brush, but my habit is to shake the brush well so that it’s merely damp and add water only if needed. So I did that, and I discovered that I immediately had to add water, and two more additions were needed. This acts like a soap that contains clay, only perhaps a little more so.

I still am leery of starting with a wet brush, but given how quickly I had to add water and how much I added, my fears are doubtless overblown. And—most important—I got a very fine lather. So the problem I had was not enough water and perhaps as a result insufficient loading.

Still, I would say that the synthetic brush yesterday worked better than the silvertip brush today, so I probably will use only synthetics with this soap from now on. (I don’t know of any soaps offhand where a silvertip brush works better than a synthetic.)

Three passes with the Fatip Testina Gentile left the face totally smooth, and a splash of Lavanda finished the job. I look forward to the day.

 

Great lather from Barrister & Mann Reserve Spice (with synthetic brush)

Yesterday I got a so-so lather from Barrister & Mann’s Reserve Lavender, which struck me as odd, so today I used Reserve Spice with this Chiseled Face synthetic brush. Result: the lather was wonderful. I think tomorrow I’ll replicate yesterday’s shave (same soap, same brush) but be more careful to shake out the brush: the problem may have been too much water in the brush.

Having a wonderful lather does encourage a longer period of brushing the face just to enjoy the lather, so my Feather AS-D1 (one of the good ones—that model line had some razors that wouldn’t cut well) had an easy job and the final result was a very smooth face. (The razor also has a new blade.)

A good splash of Reserve Spice aftershave (after shaking the bottle well) finished the job and launched the day.

Lavender morning

My Simpson Emperor 2 and Barrister & Mann’s Reserve Lavender did not quite pull it off this morning. The lather usable but not really anything to blog about. Nonetheless, it did the lather job, and the RazoRock Mamba (the original stainless Mamba) really performed like a champ: awesome smoothness without effort and without a problem. A splash of D.R. Harris Old English Lavender Water finished the job on a high note.

Update: I used another B&M Reserve soap with a synthetic brush in this shave, and the improvement in the lather was astounding. A comment at the link notes that B&M specifically recommends using a synthetic brush with this soap, but I’m going to try again with the above brush just to see whether I can coax a good lather. But if you use a synthetic brush, no problem.

Phoenix Artisan’s Dark Chocolate—for the antioxidants…

As I dive into diet lore, dark chocolate looms large, and so today I went for a nutritious shave. My special Plisson European Grey, a gift The Wife purchased from the last Master Barber in Paris, made a wonderfully fragrant lath from Phoenix Artisan’s one-off for a Valentine’s Day a few years back. A little extra water was required during the loading, but I love the lather.

My iKon Shavecraft X3, one of my best slants, here riding on a UFO handle, did a superb job, doubtless helped by the two-day stubble: the result was not merely smooth,but awesomely smooth. A good splash of Dark Chocolate aftershave finished the job. It was advised that this aftershave be shaken well before applying, but I do that with all my aftershave splashes. It’s a good habit to develop.

Chiseled Face Sherlock and the Game Changer .84-P

Chiseled Face’s Sherlock shaving soap is a lovely soap that I have not been using so often as I should. He describes it thusly:

Our Sherlock scent is inspired by the character brought to life in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in his classic series – The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – written in the late 1800’s.  It is a warm tobacco-based scent blended with toasted caramel, black pepper, moist dirt, and finished with a touch of leather, moss, mandarin, honey and rose.

It really is an excellent fragrance, and the lather is superb, probably due to the ingredients shown on the label. (The current incarnation’s ingredients differ a bit: “Stearic Acid, Aloe Vera Juice, Beef Tallow, Coconut Oil, Castor Oil, Glycerin, Fragrance, Mango Butter, Avocado Oil, Silk Powder.”

Of course, the lather is in part due to my pre-Vulfix-ownership Simpson Duke 3 Best brush, a doughty little fellow that works his head off to make a good lather

The razor I just received from Italian Barber: the Game Changer .84-P, which has a slightly bigger than the original Game Changer (now renamed “Game Changer .68-P“). You can buy the .84-P baseplate by itself if you already own the original, though currently that baseplate is sold out (but if you use the blue tab at the right, you can sign up to be notified when it’s available).

I already had the original, which worked quite well for me, but the .84-P does indeed have more blade feel and is more efficient. I think if I could have only one, I would keep the .84-P and let the .68-P go.

Three passes, perfect smoothness, and a splash of Sherlock aftershave to finish the job. The weekend now begins!

A standard good shave elevated by the aftershave

The brush (a Maggard 22mm synthetic), soap (Colonia), and razor (Edwin Jagger with black-rubber handle) are all quite good: excellent performance, well made, and deliver a fine shave. But Anthony Gold’s Red Cedar aftershave takes the shave to the next level: a familiar and warm fragrance in an unexpected context. When I was in high school, I helped my step-father line some closets with red cedar, and the fragrance thus has strong connections for me—a kind of madeleine doorway to the past, as it were.