La Toja, as I’ve blogged previously, pretends to a host of benefits from the springs. Note: “To pretend” has a common meaning (“to make believe”), but I’m using its other meaning (“to lay claim to, to claim” — as in “pretender to the throne”).
That came to mind because I recently learned the Esperanto verb “pretendi,” which has only the meaning “to claim, lay claim to.” Interestingly (at least to me), the Esperanto verb “rimarki” means “to notice,” a less common meaning of “to remark.” I suspect that when Esperanto was developed (in the 1880s) those meanings of the English verb were more commonly used. In British fiction of the early 20th century sentences such as “Did you remark the hat she wore?” were not all that uncommon, nor were statements such has “He pretends to a host of virtues” (meaning he claims them).
The shaving soap really is superb, and I recommend it highly. And when combined with the iKon slant — the stainless slant, now sold with a B6 coating — the result is astonishingly good.
I did have some problems for a while with this slant. When I first got it, I loved it and it performed flawlessly, but then I started getting nicks and began to avoid it. In my current razor regimen I go through my entire collection and repeat the sequence thereafter — and that meant I resumed using the razor fairly often. I soon realized that my nicks were not the razor’s fault but my own: I was holding the handle too close to my face, producing a bad blade angle, which inevitably will cause nicks.
I moved the handle farther from my face — or, equivalently, focused on keeping the cap in contact with my skin (ignoring the guard) — and the problem vanished. Today’s shave was extremely comfortable — not even the threat of a nick — and the shave resulted in skin that’s totally smooth and (probably thanks to the La Toja soap) very soft. If you get nicks with a razor, experiment with the blade angle by keeping more of the cap touching your skin as you shave — that will require moving the handle farther from your face.
A good splash of La Toja aftershave, and the week begins.
The brush today is the RazoRock Keyhole. Note the knot — a 22mm Plissoft knot. Every brush this week will have that same knot, though the handles will vary.