The very fine bristles in Yaqi’s “cashmere” knot made a very fine-grained and thick lather, redolent with the fragrance of stout — Guinness stout, to be specific. I’m not sure of the “oatmeal” — Guinness is made from barley — but perhaps the oatmeal is in the fragrance. Mystic Water notes:
A dark brown soap made with Guinness stout and scented with a smooth beer fragrance that is blended with creamy oatmeal, orange peel, butterscotch, farm-fresh milk, almond, and vanilla. It doesn’t smell like actual beer but it is a warm, comforting scent. Fragrance and lanolin.
So the oatmeal is a fragrance note, not a soap ingredient (though oatmeal is indeed used in some soaps, though not, so far as I know, in shaving soaps). Her soaps are
made with beef tallow combined with stearic acid, shea butter, castor oil, sustainably sourced organic palm oil, avocado oil, aloe vera, bentonite clay, silk protein, allantoin, and extra glycerin. It offers exceptional protection, glide and post-shave skin care and is excellent for even sensitive skin and tough beards. Most of my shaving soaps also include lanolin, and I use both botanical essential oils and high quality fragrances in my soap.
The clay explains why I had to add a little water as I loaded the brush. I wondered at that, because I had forgotten that this soap contains clay.
Well-lathered, I picked up my RazoRock MJ-90A, which, like yesterday’s razor, has a stainless handle and a black head, though the blackness of the MJ-90A’s head is not from a DLC coating but from the machined aluminum head being anodized. Also unlike yesterday’s razor, though the MJ-90A certainly does a fine job if you use light pressure and the correct blade angle, it is not nearly so picky about those as the iKon stainless slant. Whereas the MJ-90A would be a fine choice for a novice razor, I think that the iKon stainless slant requires that the user has some experiential knowledge of good shaving technique in order to avoid difficulties. (In contrast, I believe the iKon Shavecraft #102 slant would perform well for a novice.)
Modeled on the design used in the Edwin Jagger head, the MJ-90 did a superb job this morning: completely smooth result after a very pleasurable shave. A splash of MLS’s The Drunken Goat carried forth the Guinness theme and left me read for a day indoors, while the weather outside gets sorted.