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Coarse-brush week, and today is Leviathan and the Baili 171
Yesterday I used my Omega 20102 and today you see the Omega Mighty Midget, a mix of boar and badger. I do wet the knot and let the brush sit while I shower to soften the boar bristles. A reader...
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Milksteak morning with a Vie-Long Brush and the Fatip Testina Gentile
The Vie-Long horsehair brush is today’s coars-brush participant. Horsehair brushes do best if soaked before use — wetting the knot well and letting the brush stand while you shower is more than...
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Phoenix Solstice and the Baby Smooth
I missed the Solstice this year — I was in the middle of the Meßner Tremonia run — but it’s never too late to enjoy a great shaving soap. This is not the CK-6 formula, but it’s damned good, and I do...
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Chiseled Face’s Sherlock and Fine’s Marvel
Today’s coarse brush is my other Vie-Long horsehair, whose knot is somewhat shorter than the other. Both brushes are quite nice, with a comfortably coarse feel on the face. I soak horsehair knots...
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Summer Storm on the 4th of July
This Mühle Gen 2 synthetic is not all that coarse, though coarse compared to a synthetic of the Plissoft variety. This brush feels on the face very like a silvertip badger brush, which I believe was...
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The smoothest shaves
I consistently get extremely smooth shaves from this vintage Merkur white bakelite slant — particularly when shaving a two-day stubble. RazoRock’s Zi’ Peppino shaving soap is an excellent shaving soap...
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Barrister & Mann Cologne Russe and the Rockwell R3
The fragrance of Cologne Russe is striking — haunting, even. And that Rooney Emilion is a terrific brush. I loved the lather I got this morning and spent some extra time enjoying the fragrance and the...
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Barrister & Mann Spice Reserve and the Maggard V3A
Excellent products + some experience = excellent shave. I was told that Barrister & Mann recommends a synthetic brush for their Reserve formula shaving soaps, and I do like the Fine Classic. Great...
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Barrister & Mann Lavanille plus Phoenix Ascension
Lavanille is a classic Barrister & Mann fragrance, and the lather was excellent. The Phoenix Ascension is quite a nice little razor and with no great effort left a perfectly smooth finish for the...
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Lavender morning
Following Barrister & Mann’s advice, I used a synthetic brush with this Reserve shaving soap — the Yaqi Target Shot, which I like more and more — and made a wonderful lather. I was careful to...
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Wholly Kaw, the Game Changer, and Pinaud Clubman
The RazoRock 400 is a very nice bush, and today’s lather from Wholly Kaw’s King of Bourbon was wholly pleasant. This is the original Game Changer (.68-P), and a very nice razor it is, too — for a...
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Monday perfection, always good
Many areas of life are still for me challenging, but at this point I would say that I have shaving pretty much nailed. That’s good, because it would be a burden to begin each day doing something that...
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I really like Van Yulay soaps
In one of my final exhanges on Reddit’s Wicked Edge subreddit, I posted about my positive experiences with Van Yulay shaving soaps and how the ingredients, always interesting, varied from soap to...
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Van Yulay After Hours and the Fendrihan Mk II
Another Van Yulay shaving soap I like a lot (and purchased after trying a bunch of different samples: for me, this one stood out). This has a somewhat different formula from yesterday’s Achilles, but...
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Otoko Organics, an unusual shaving soap — with the Game Changer .84-P
A commenter recently pointed out that Otoko Organics is now available on Amazon.com. I really like it, though its maker notes that it is not a soap. The description at the link: Otoko Organics Wet...
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Russian Tea and Oriental Spice
The Simpson Duke 3 Best made a marvelous lather from Strop Shoppe’s Russian Tea, which has a spiced tea fragrance (cf. Bigelow’s Constant Comment). Three passes of my RazoRock Old Type, a surprisingly...
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An old-timey shave with Yardley (famous) and Geo (not)
This vintage tub of Yardley — a well-regarded brand in the 1940s and 50s — I purchased some time back via eBay. It’s a triple-milled soap, and its fragrance and latherability have endured with little...
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Wickham Garden Mint, a Fine slant, and Irisch Moos
A reader reminded of of Wickham, and this shaving soap — Garden Mint, by which they mean spearmint rather than peppermint — is an extremely pleasant soap for spring and summer, when it is seasonal,...
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Declaration Grooming series, starting with the Icarus formula
Declaration Grooming has experimented with their soap formulations a fair amount, the Icarus formula was one of the earlier moves into a premium soap. I like soaps with interesting ingredients, and...
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Declaration Grooming Bison Formula: Yazu/Rose/Patchouli
Declaration Grooming followed their Icarus formula with their Bison formula: Stearic Acid, Water, Potassium Hydroxide, Avocado Oil, Vegetable Glycerin, Bison Tallow, Mango Seed Butter, Castor Oil,...
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