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The thing that struck me most about the shave today was the wonderful fragrance: “amber, tonka bean, amyris, cedarwood, agarwood, vetiver, cigar tobacco, black tea, jasmine, and geranium.” This soap is the Bison formula, but the soap is now made in the Milksteak formula. (I was surprised this morning to see the amazing range of Milksteak shaving soaps Declaration Grooming offers.)
I used my Omega Pro 48 (10048) brush because I am still seeking to repeat the earlier lather experience, and I did indeed get a fine lather, but still not so stunning as Wednesday’s — but the fragrance more than made up for it.
This Above the Tie R (nowadays called the R1) has a fair amount of blade feel, but it’s still comfortable and highly efficient. I easily achieved a BBS result, and the wonderful Chatillon Lux aftershave toner reprised the fragrance and refreshed my skin. The ingredients:
Witch hazel, aloe vera, calendula extract, cat’s claw bark extract, shea oil, marula oil, polysorbate 20, meadowfoam seed oil, glycerin, fragrance, sodium lactate.
I notice that Chatillon Lux also offers some aftershaves with the current Declaration Grooming Milksteak line, but with a somewhat different formula:
Hammamelis Virginiana (Witch Hazel) Water, SD Alcohol 40, Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Juice, Vegetable Glycerine, Fragrance, Sodium Lactate, Allantoin, dL-panthenol, Menthol, Hippophae Rhamnoides (Sea Buckthorn) Fruit Extract, Salix Alba L. (White Willow) Bark Extract, Vitis Vinifera (Grape) Seed Extract
Both versions seem kind to the skin, though alcohol is pretty high on the ingredient list in the new formula and absent from the older formula.
The tea this morning is Murchie’s Ode to Joy, which (being a Christmas special offering) is gone until December. “A merry blend of aromatic jasmine and apricot makes an enchanting green-black tea. The fruit and floral notes enhance those naturally detected in black and green teas. Ingredients: Black tea, jasmine green tea, calendula flowers, elderflowers, natural and artificial flavouring.”
