It’s hard to break away from boar once you’ve used a well-broken-in boar brush, and right now that’s the only sort of boar brush I have (but perhaps it’s time to get one that’s not yet broken in and start a new brush romance). This Omega 20102 was for a while my favored boar, and though I now like the Omega Pro 48 better (again), this guy is still no slouch. I wet the knot well under the hot-water tap and let the brush stand, sopping wet, while I showered. That’s all it needs.
I applied my lesson learned from the two previous shaves and again over-loaded the brush (though perhaps I am simply loading the brush, having previously under-loaded the brush). The soap is a special run, Phoenix & Beau Specialist (“vanilla, vetiver, malt whiskey, hops, barley, and freshly picked tobacco leaf”), made for West Coast Shaving (which offers the matching aftershave, being the only vendor who has P&B aftershaves to match the soaps).
The razor today is Above the Tie’s S1, a slant with very little slant to it but a nice razor nonetheless. Three passes (with that wonderful lather) left my face totally smooth, and a splash of Southern Witchcrafts Valley of Ashes aftershave milk provided an excellent finish with another overtly masculine fragrance: “Coal, Tar, Bourbon, Tobacco, Bitter Citrus, Smoke, Leather, Motor Oil, Burning Rubber, Diesel, Clove, Birch Tar, Bergamot.” This fragrance reminds me strongly of Chiseled Face’s Midnight Stag (“Russian Leather, Motor Oil, Hoppes #9, Birch Tar, Oakmoss, Gasoline, Smoke, Cedar, Cade, Bergamot, Vanilla”).
“Lessons learned,” a useful exercise following any experience, is a pause to ask yourself what new things you’ve learned from the experience. Sometimes, it’s nothing; but sometimes, now that you mention it, ….
For example, I’ve now made quite a few batches of fermented vegetables — well beyond plain sauerkraut — yet in my most recent batch I still learned a couple of lessons. I generally write down lessons learned since I’ve found that recording them helps also to remember them — and if I do forget, I can readily refresh my memory.
The tea this morning is Murchie’s London Afternoon: “Fragrant rose petals are interwoven with smoky Lapsang Souchong, sweetened with creamy vanilla and a touch of bright bergamot.”