I promised I’d use my Brent’s Brush, and there it is. It’s quite soft, but once I accepted that and learned to use it, I find I like it a lot. It has no trouble working up an excellent lather, today from yet another Van Yulay soap sample. I haven’t checked the ingredients, but I’m sure that this soap contains clay as well: loading the brush required a couple of small additions of water during the loading, which seems typical of soaps containing clay. The lather itself, from Grand Lodge, was the thick, creamy, slick, and luxuriant lather that I’m coming to expect from these soaps. Ingredients:
Stearic Acid, Aloe Vera, Coconut Fatty Acid, Castor Oil, Glycerin, Potassium Hydroxide, Coconut-Babassu-Emu-Olive-Argan Oils, Shea Butter, Calendula, Extracts, Poly Quats, Sodium Lactate, Allantoin, Silica, Liquid Silk, Bentonite Clay, Essential Oils, and Fragrances.
So Bentonite clay instead of Kaolin clay, but clay all the same. The fragrance has a somewhat lush description:
Like walking into the Grand Lodge right after the first rain in the heat of the summer. You can smell the cool stone and extravagant leather chairs as smoldering pipes give hints of tobacco with a touch of amber and musk.
My nose is not so sensitive. The fragrance seemed to me quite pleasant and with a “traditional” air. Quite nice, but I lack the discernment to detect the overtones.
My vintage Merkur white bakelite slant did a fine job on the two-day stubble: perfectly smooth in two passes. I did drop the razor to the floor at one point, but (a) it is very lightweight, and (b) it landed on the bath mat, so no harm done.
A good splash of Chatillon Lux Champs de Lavande finished the job and started the week.
Filed under: Shaving
