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Phoenix Artisan Black Shroud, Thäter 22mm, and the Yaqi Mercury
Exceptionally good shave today, and highly satisfying. I’ve been waiting for this 2mm H.L. Thäter shaving brush that I ordered from Maggard Razors. I wanted it because previously I had a couple of...
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Grooming Dept Sandalwood Nobile and Yaqi’s “Top Aggressive Slant”
Today’s prep was good, at least. My Simpson Emperor 3 Super worked up a wonderful lather from Grooming Dept Sandalwood Nobile, a Kairos formula soap (tallow, goat milk, etc.). The fragrance is...
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Yaqi Tile, a marvellous razor — a knock-on of the Henson — plus a shaving...
Lenthéric stopped making shaving soap long ago — perhaps in the 1930s, certainly by the 1940s. The tub is made of bakelite, a popular material in the 1930s, and the little art-deco design on the...
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The best razor in terms of price/performance ratio
The soap today is Arianna & Evans Peaches & Cognac shaving soap in their Kaizen formula. The scent is pleasant, though I could not distinguish all the notes in the description, which reads...
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Yaqi and Yardley
Yardley is another extinct shaving soap, though I believe this one dates from the 1950s. Neither the lather nor the fragrance has quite the quality of the Lenthéric I used yesterday, perhaps because...
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Some shaves are simply great
What promises to be an ordinary shave achieves a glow of excellence as it unfolds, each step finding its own special quality. First, the soap. When I bought this shaving soap — Green Irish Tweed, by...
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Soap from another point of view — and a thought on branding
I just watched a very interesting video on the inside baseball about content creators of food videos on TikTok and YouTube — the next post will have the video and some of my thoughts on it — but the...
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Lavender morning
The Mühle synthetic is their Gen 2 imitation badger, and this morning it got a particularly good lather — dense, thick, and fragrant — from Mike’s Natural Hungarian Lavender shaving soap. The razor...
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Spitfire and Dorco PL602
I increasingly like Phoenix & Beau’s shaving soaps, and the Spitfire fragrance is very appealing. My Simpson Persian Jar 2 Super easily made a very fine lather, and again I note the excellent...
View ArticleFarewell to Dr. Jon (and his handcrafted shaving soaps)
An email just received, with the subject line “It’s been fun!”: Thank you all so much for the last 9 years! We started Dr. Jon’s as a hobby, more specifically a way for me to pay for my newly found and...
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Amber Rose and a delightful shave — with the white “Bakelite” slant
A spoiler: it was a great shave today. The Omega Pro 48 shown in the photo is now so well broken in that it’s a great pleasure to use — pleasurable in loading and in lathering and in having a...
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Boar and Rose
The Antica Barberia boar brush is better than the Omega Pro 48 so far as its handle is concerned — matte-finish cast aluminum is more pleasing than chrome-colored hollow plastic — but its knot is not...
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Honey and Floïd
The Kent Infinity synthetic shaving brush is unexpectedly pleasant. The knot — almost cylindrical — has substantial resilience, but it is also surprisingly comfortable. The tips are quite soft and the...
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Otoko Organics and Irisch Moos, with great companions
I just noticed the green theme of this shave, beginning with the handle of my Omega Mixed Midget — “mixed” because badger and boar bristles make up the knot. I wet the knot before I shower so the boar...
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Sherlock finds a fine shave
Chiseled Face’s Sherlock made an excellent lather today, thanks in part to Phoenix Artisan’s Astreus brush with its 22mm knot. Three passes with the Edwin Jagger razor shown produced a perfectly...
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La Toja feels so good
I do love La Toja, in part because of its backstory. It also produces an extremely good lather, this morning with my 24mm RazoRock synthetic. The Baili adjustable, sold by Italian Barber as the...
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A splendid shave with Aces over 8s and my glow-in-the-dark slant
Monday morning shaves are always good — two-day stubble — but today’s was exceptional on several counts. First was using my Omega Pro 48, a superb brush despite its modest price. Mine is now well...
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Alt-Eleven and the Fendrihan Mk II
The Omega 20102, shown in the photo, feels good on the face, lathers well, and has excellent capacity, but (and you expected that word, didn’t you?) the knot when wet and/or lathered has a hollow in...
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Disenchanted with a brush
I liked my Omega 21742 a lot initially because its soft knot was such a contrast to the usual firm boar knot of short-loft boar brushes. The Omega Pro 48’s great loft combined with the resilience of...
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Starting the brush investigation
The Omega 21742 brush used in yesterday’s shave failed to hold a lather through the shave. I want to know the problem’s cause, and the possible factors seemed to be: Water problem Soap problem Brush...
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