A perfect shave. Guys who are buying Whipped Dog silvertips with the optional deeper setting of the knot (to make the knot more resilient) might want to consider a Vie-Long badger+horse brush: excellent resilience and body, and a very nice brush overall. You can try soaking it before use: wet it throughly under hot water, then let it stand on the base while you shower. That makes it even nicer.
The soap is the Martin de Candre limited edition Fougère shaving soap. I got a very fine lather very quickly, and I was interested to note (in looking up the link) that the oils used are olive and coconut. Olive oil can obviously be used to make a wonderful shaving soap, but I still treat its presence as a cautionary warning, particularly with small artisanal soapmakers. My attitude is based on my experience in trying to get a good lather from a variety of olive-oil-based shaving soaps. But Martin de Candre has solved whatever problem olive oil presents, and his soap is wonderful. (So is Queen Charlotte Soaps shaving soaps, which also use olive oil—but that is far down in a list of ingredients that includes other oils: tallow; castor oil; shea butter; glycerin; cocoa butter; coconut oil; avocado oil; palm oil; olive oil; and lanolin.)
Great lather, at any rate, and three very nice passes with my new slant, holding a previously used Trig blade. Smoothness reigns. One very shallow, very small “nick”: a dab of My Nik Is Sealed took care of that. Then a hearty splash of Floris JF and the day and week begin.
Filed under: Shaving
