I used Grooming Dept Moisturizing Pre-Shave again this morning, and this time I remembered not to fully rinse my face following the first and second pass, but rather wet it lightly before lathering for the next pass. I did this by lightly tapping the shave area with my wet hands, then lathering. It worked fine.
This morning’s soap I purchased as a refill puck (see photo at right for an example), not in a tub. The refill puck is is $11.32, the puck with a tub is $14.15. So I bought the container separately ($1.75) from Maggard Razors — the black plastic containers from this page.
It turns out that the label on the puck is easily peeling from the plastic wrap and retains it stickiness, so I peeled the label off and stuck it to the lid of the container. I then made a label for the side of the container and stuck that on as well, as shown in the photo below.
The soap puck is smaller in diameter than the container, so I cut a thin slab off the puck and cut it into strips. I put the puck in the tub and then mashed the strips into the space around the puck, filling it completely. The soap yields enough to pressure that it’s easy to mash into place. The result is a container solidly filled with shaving soap.
As for the shave itself, it went very well indeed. My technique in applying the pre-shave is now polished, and the Maggard 22mm synthetic worked up quite a nice lather. Using a damp brush, I began loading, in the process adding one small driblet of water. I thought the puck’s fragrance was very like Mickey Lee Soapworks Drunken Goat (made using, among other things, Guinness Stout and goat milk), so I decided to use that aftershave.
The razor is the original RazoRock Game Changer, the .68-P, and it does a marvelous job, today made easier by the pre-shave. Three passes left my face completely smooth, and The Drunken Goat aftershave was a perfect ending — a wonderful start to the weekend.