Mystic Water’s Oatmeal Stout is a good replacement for the no-longer-available Mickey Lee Soapworks The Drunken Goat — no goat milk, but a good tallow-based shaving soap that has the sturdy fragrance of stout:
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.
She notes that her shaving 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.
I got a very fine lather with my Plisson HMW 12. I did have to add a little water a few times as I loaded, and as I worked up the lather on my face — and later, as I rinse the brush — that this Plisson has a very full knot. It’s not dense, but it has a lot of volume and bristles.
The Above the Tie R1 did a very fine job, quickly and easily stripping off the stubble, and a splash of The Drunken Goat, augmented with a couple of squirts of Grooming Dept Hydrating Gel, finished the shave.
The tea this morning is Murchie’s Balmoral Blend: “a strong, traditional, rich blend of bright Ceylon and malty Assam teas… Recommended for traditional tea lovers, fans of Irish Breakfast, English Breakfast, Scottish Breakfast and Assam Pure looking for a different mix of teas or tea drinkers looking for a strong black blend with some briskness but not as much as pure Ceylon.”