I’m not sure why my flash did so poorly but I suspect it’s due to reflection from where the label doesn’t cover the lid.
At any rate: I used palm-lathering since Mike’s Natural is one of the soaps that did not work so well with my wet-brush lathering method, and I have to say that palm-lathering this soap works a lot better than my other method: it was easy to work more water into the lather (which this soap seems to like), and the result was extremely nice, both fragrance and lather.
Both the Stealth and the iKon DLC slant are excellent razors. The iKon seemed to glide a little easier, which I attribute to a combination of its greater mass and the polished DLC coating. In particular, the coating seems to contribute to the glide.
The other spot to check was to compare under-the-nose performance. The iKon seemed to be easier to use in the WTG pass than the Stealth, but the XTG and ATG passes were equally easy, I would say. But shaving under the nose has not been a problem for me—perhaps physiognomy, perhaps technique, perhaps a combination. But the iKon did feel a bit less bulky.
Both razors gave a very smooth and easy shave. I continue to like the SE handle on the iKon and was wondering what it would look like if the polished portion of the handle, just above the knob at the end, were given a DLC coating (for looks, not function: I don’t think one would particularly want a DLC-coated smooth handle, though I’d certainly be willing to try—and in that case, the matte rather than the polished finish would be better).
A good splash of Stirling Vetiver finished the shave, and the result is a BBS, nick-free finish.
Filed under: Shaving
