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Fine synthetic and Plisson synthetic
Yesterday’s shave had me thinking that the Fine synthetic brush ($20) was very much like a Plisson synthetic brush (least costly is €34.80, which today is $38.12). Since it’s hard to make comparisons...
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Standard v. Gillette NEW, with Otoko
An experimental shave long ago requested and finally remembered: comparing the Gillette NEW and the Standard. But first, the (wonderful) lather: the Vie-Long horsehair brush shown, a favorite, worked...
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NEW v. Standard, Part 2, with i Coloniali in a supporting role
So I reprised yesterday’s test but with each razor having a brand-new Personna Lab Blue blade. The brush is Plisson’s European Grey, a very pleasant brush indeed with its hefty plated-brass handle. I...
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Gillette NEW, short-toothed v. long-toothed
The lather was terrific: Lenthéric shaving soap is absolutely wonderful, fragrance and performance. With the Fine synthetic, prep became almost the high point of the shave. I wanted to compare the...
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Catie’s Bubbles and the #101
I’m always surprised when I read men saying that the Omega 10049 (Pro 49) or the (even larger) Omega 10048 (Pro 48, shown in the photo) is too large for face lathering. They don’t seem to me to be too...
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Mickey Lee and the Parker 24C
A very fine shave today, beginning with an excellent lather my Rooney Style 2 made from Mickey Lee Soapworks Bee Witched, an excellent soap with an interesting and pleasant fragrance. The Parker 24C...
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Very smooth shave with iKon OC razor from some years back
Extremely nice shave today. The Geo. F. Trumper Almond shaving soap is pre-reformulation and is a very nice soap, which the Morris & Forndran brush worked into a fine lather. Three passes if the...
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iKon open comb again—different model
An extremely nice shave this morning. The organic (“bio”) asses’ milk shaving soap makes a great lather, and with Mr Pomp, the brush shown, I really enjoyed it. This is a different iKon open-comb from...
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Mindfulness experiment
In Leisureguy’s Guide to Gourmet Shaving the Double-Edge Way (the latest edition of the Guide), I discuss how shaving supports mindfulness, which I take to be a focused and non-judgmental awareness of...
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iKon and Spellbound Woods
Spellbound Woods, from Mama Bear, has a terrific fragrance and provides an excellent lather, created today with the help of a G.B. Kent BK4 brush. The iKon shown is one of the early models, and is a...
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Gillette Tech and Soap Commander
A very pleasant shave today. The Soap Commander shown is their Love fragrance, which they explain as “Nothing but fresh roses in this scent. This is our attempt to dupe the Klar Kabinett™ Shaving...
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Great shave to start the week: Merkur 37G and Vintage Blades own soap
An extremely good shave this morning. Some years back Vintage Blades LLC contracted with an English soapmaker (before the recent round of reformulations) for a private-label triple-milled traditional...
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Test shave and new-brush bad lather, plus the iKon slant
Extremely nice shave today, though I did not previously rinse the new brush nor did I make a test lather with it. It’s a Frank Shaving pure badger and I bought it to experiment with: I want to see...
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A vintage German slant, Shaver Heaven, and Dark Rose
An extremely nice shave today, once more using a slant. While some say they cannot tell any difference between a slant and a regular razor, I notice that a slant much more easily produces a BBS...
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Another slant shave, with the Eros slant and Martin de Candre
I bought the razor shown as the Eros slant and blogged it that way, but then I found it listed as a Walbusch slant—and now on eBay I see it again as the Eros slant with the original box showing the...
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Above the Tie S1 slant and Phoenix Artisans Otra shaving soap
Excellent shave. I like the fragrance (and packaging) of Otra shaving soap quite a bit. The fragrances comes with quite a story (including a video), and the soap’s ingredients include seaweed extract....
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Another great shave with a slant: Stainless Stealth and i Coloniali
A great shave in all respects: enjoyable and totally trouble-free BBS. The Wet Shaving Products Baroness brush made a fine lather from a little i Coloniali shaving cream smeared onto my beard. I...
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Very fine shave with Honeybee Soaps Coffee Mocha and the Stealth—and an...
Shannon’s Soaps interviewed me, and you can read the interview here. Very nice shave today. I haven’t used Honeybee Soaps Coffee Mocha for a while, so it was good to renew my acquaintance. The H.L....
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Fine shave with flat-bottom Tech and Jabonman shaving soap—and the Stirling...
A highly enjoyable BBS shave today. Stirling Soap Company has come out with their own version of an “angel hair” synthetic brush and, perhaps in deference to its origin in Texas, it’s an enormous...
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The other Eufros soap is also excellent—and a vintage Merkur slant
Another great shave. This Eufros—Violet—is as good as yesterday’s: very easy lather, very thick, smooth, and fragrant lather. This morning I used my Wet Shaving Products Monarch to make the lather,...
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