In the previous post, I commented on the power of habits — first cobwebs, then cables. But habits require practice to settle, and my new third-pass practice missed a beat this morning. That’s normal with a habit still settling in, and I expect the habit to be established by the week’s end.
But first, the pre-third-pass part of the shave: Today’s shaving soap, Phoenix Artisan’s First Night (on Planet Earth) uses his CK-6 formula, and has an appealing fragrance:
Top Notes: Raspberry, Pine Resin, Lavender, Basil, Bergamot, and Sicilian Cedrat
Middle Notes: Carnation, Leather, Sandalwood, Patchouli, and Geranium
Base Notes: Leather, Tonka Bean, Amber, Benzoin, Oakmoss, and Bourbon Vanilla Bean
Being of the CK-6 persuasion, it made a wonderful lather, today helped by my Simpson Emperor 3 Super.
The razor this morning is the redoubtable vintage Merkur celluloid slant. Perhaps another abandoned cache of these will be discovered in some warehouse, but that seems unlikely now.
The first two passes went well, and then for the third pass, I used the new technique: using my left hand, I squeezed the brushes knot to expel the lather. Then with my right hand I spread the lather over the shaving area. [Then here is where I should have rinsed out the brush to clean it, letting the lather lie on my face the while. I forgot.] Then I shaved the third pass.
The result was wonderfully smooth, accentuated by yesterday’s rough face. A splash of First Night aftershave, augmented with a couple of squirts of Grooming Dept’s Aion Hydrating Gel, finished the job.
[Then I cleaned the brush, but in tomorrow’s shave, at this point the brush will already have been cleaned.]
The tea this morning is again Baltimore Coffee & Tea Company’s Brassica® Green Tea with Orange and TrueBroc®:
Brassica® Tea with TrueBroc® is a delicious, gourmet tea with 15 milligrams of TrueBroc® from broccoli added to each tea bag. The natural antioxidant found in broccoli and broccoli sprouts has been shown to last longer than Vitamin C, E, and A in removing free radicals from our bodies. TrueBroc® activates the body’s own natural antioxidant defense system, including Phase 2 detoxification enzymes.