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A Spanish-oriented shave in honor of Don Quixote
I looked about for Spanish products. Vie-Long is certainly Spanish, and a nod to Rocinante. Cervantes never specifies the color of the steed, though it is often depicted as white, but it might have...
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Marvel and Marlborough
I let the Omega Mixed Midget soak while I showered, so it was ready when I returned to the sink. Prep for the shave stick was MR GLO, and then a good rub of the stick over my stubble and a good brisk...
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An unfortunate choice of shaving cream, with a shave rescue from a shave stick
The shave cream shown unfortunately did not do the job. Perhaps I just used not enough, but the amount I used was the amount of shaving cream I normally would squeeze from a tube. (I’m going to use a...
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A great shave and a shaving cream finding
Yesterday’s shave was a disappointment in the lather department. I thought one possibility was that I had used insufficient cream, since the bead of cream from that tube was thin, but I thought I...
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A baseball shave: Field of Dreams and June Clover
When I ordered some Mystic Water shaving soaps, I also received a number of samples, among which was Field of Dreams: The inspiration for this soap comes from my own memories of hanging out at my...
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A stout-hearted shave
The RazoRock Keyhole brush is a perfect exemplar of the tectonic shift in the shaving brush landscape. It’s a very nice brush indeed — in appearance, in feel, and in performance — and it costs $10. If...
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Terre du Dragon and the Emperor
Last April Dapper Dragon announced on their Facebook page: Scaling Back and Changing Focus After considerable discussion and deliberation, I have made the decision to move out of the traditional...
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Woody Almond Shaving Paste and Red Cedar Aftershave
Another example of why there’s no need to pay a high price to get a good brush: the RazoRock Bruce. At $12 it’s more expensive than the Keyhole brush ($10), and has the same knot, but some might...
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Cuppa Joe, Good Brush, Great Shave (with a slant, natch)
I like this RazoRock 400 brush, and this morning I noticed that the handle works quite well when held by a slick and soapy hand. The knot is a fine-bristled Plissoft synthetic, and the lather it...
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Fall spices and Cinnawood Boroka
Phoenix Artisan’s Star Craft Brought forth a fall-fragrant lather from Seifenglatt’s Pumpkin Pie shaving soap, a seasonal issue of some years back. The marvellous Baby Smooth did its usual perfect...
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Sandalwood Rose and Rose Lemon
I do like this brush. When I use it after an absence from it, it takes me by surprise with its knot — somewhat firm but very soft on the face. I like a 22mm knot, but you can get the knot in 24mm as...
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Pine and Cedarwood, and the Ghost Town Barber
I had meant to use Mike’s Natural Barbershop, but picked Pine and Cedarwood by mistake. However, Mike uses fragrance so sparingly that it makes little difference. The one drawback in his soaps, so far...
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Java Hive, Solar Flare, and Short Comb walk into a bar…
… only to discover it was not a bar, but my bathroom — so they delivered a great shave. I grow increasingly fond of Phoenix Artisan’s Solar Flare shaving brush, a 24mm synthetic, and it certainly did...
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Solstice and Edwin Jagger
I would have used this on the Equinox if I had remembered. I do love this fragrance, and this Kokum Butter formula from Phoenix Artisan is very nice. The PA Green Ray brush is a favorite, for both...
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Sandalwood and Fire Fighter
Although this Tcheon Fung Sing Crazy Sandalwood is labeled “Forte,” the fragrance is not nearly so strong as AOS Sandalwood, though certainly pleasant, and the soap provides a good lather, today with...
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Well begun: A great shave kickstarts a good day
Sometimes — and with practice and good products, fairly often — a shave will almost resonate with “great experience.” It helps if one doesn’t use the same setup every morning. However fine the...
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Speick for a great shave
I knew that Speick referred to an Alpine flowering plant, and I thought that Speick products used the blossoms. Not so: High in the Austrian Alps grows a little plant, which has lent its name to our...
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The perfecting of the Edwin Jagger razor, and good marketing thought in the...
I mentioned yesterday that the Speick shave stick bore its brand identification only on the bottom of the plastic base. Wilkinson Sword not only has the name proudly (and visibly) displayed on the...
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Lovely shave, and a Henson/Baby Smooth comparison
Lovely lather from the Mennen Shave Stick, whose brand is clearly shown on the wrapper, modestly smaller than the product identifier — good customer-centered design, given that the customer would be...
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Palmolive shave stick: Good product, bad marketing decisions
This shave concludes the four-day sequence of shave sticks, and with a very good shave indeed. This little Vie-Long brush is a favorite, and the lather I got from my Palmolive shave stick was...
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