A superlative shave with great (but not expensive) products.
Maggard’s 24mm synthetic is pretty much at the top of range of sizes I like: it works well, as does the 22mm, but I would not enjoy a 26mm. (As I’ve probably mentioned, synthetic brushes hold more water than you might expect, so one must give the brush 2-3 good shakes before loading, else the excess water will flood the puck and make loading difficult and the lather thin.) I shook the brush and loaded the soap with no problems.
LA Shaving Soap Company makes very good and very interesting soaps, and the fragrance of this one is particularly nice, at least to my nose. The ingredients are simple, and the soap performs quite well:
Vegetable Stearic Acid, Distilled Water, Coconut Oil, Potassium Hydroxide, Vegetable Glycerin, Vanilla Extract, Eucalyptus Essential Oil, Spearmint Essential Oil.
I tend to gravitate to soaps that use a variety of oils (among them almond oil, avocado oil, cocoa butter, emu oil, kokum butter, lanolin, shea butter, tallow, and so on), but the performance and feel of this soap is totally fine, and it will appeal particularly to vegans. (As I understand it, vegans, who avoid use of any animal products, are a subset of vegetarians, who avoid foods from animals (though some will accept dairy and eggs).)
The Maggard V2 open-comb head is a clone of the Parker 24C/26C head, but with standard threading, and it is an exceptionally comfortable and efficient razor. It’s shown here on the Maggard MR7 handle, and this one is a keeper. Total cost is about $30, same as the Parker 24C/26C, but of course this version has a stainless steel handle (whose design is more appealing to me than the Parker handles).
Three passes produced a perfectly smooth face, to which I applied a good splash of Van Yulay’s After Dark aftershave splash, which you’ll note at the link is sold in various sizes, including the always popular 1 gallon size. The ingredients for the aftershave are more complex than LASSC’s soap and also not vegan:
Aloe Vera, Witch Hazel, Abyssinian Seed-Emu-Red Castor-Evening Primrose-Rosehip Seed Oils, Comfrey, Calendula, Tepezcohuite, Oat, Marsh Mallow and Green Tea Extracts, Liquid Silk, and Fragrance
Her ingredients list shows “marshmallow,” but I’m pretty sure that she does not use the spongy sugary confection but rather an extract of the marsh mallow (two words), an edible wild plant with medicinal properties (more info at the link).
A great shave and a fine finish. The weekend looks good.
Filed under: Shaving
