I make it a practice to purchase the products I use (not as the alternative to stealing them, but to accepting gifts and gratuities), but occasionally I will find myself using a freebie—much less frequently than some suppose—and in this case the freebie is because the soap and aftershave are not yet available, and I am responding to a request to test them and provide feedback.
I didn’t think it fair to use the Whipped Dog High Mountain Badger brush for a test of a shaving soap until the brush is performing better, so I chose the l’Occitane Plisson synthetic. The soap is in a 5″ tin, a size I enjoy for the ample working surface. It looks like a glycerin soap—transparentish—but has a different feel, somewhat rubbery. I easily got a very good lather. I did not identify the fragrance, but certainly it was pleasant enough. The lather was quite good, I thought, and easily awakened. I did take care to load the brush fully: the lather springs forth so readily I think it might be easy to overestimate how much soap the brush has loaded. Go for the microscopic bubbles and then some.
Three passes with the Mongoose polished head on an iKon Special Edition handle, an Idea I owe to BostonPhotoTourist. That combination does indeed work quite well. Again a comfortable shave with a BBS result and no nicks or burn. I did note a strong impulse to flip the razor to the other side at those places where I normally do that—for example, when I start shaving the second side of my face in each pass. Instead, I rinse the head at those points. An SE razor is not quite so efficient as a DE razor but the time penalty is probably less than 10 seconds per shave.
The aftershave was a pleasant fragrance. I spritzed a fair amount in the palm of my hand, rubbed hands together and applied it, and I enjoyed the sensation. It does not seem to be alcohol-based; my skin showed its approval by feeling good.
That’s pretty much the feedback I have: looks good to me, but the fragrances might be pumped up a bit. Still, that’s a trade-off: as the fragrance grows stronger, more will have skin reactions. The right balance must be found. Still, I would like a bit more.
Filed under: Shaving
