And The Packages Come Rolling In...

The results of my shopping spree have started to arrive. It's fun time!

The first to arrive, and perhaps my favorite, is this:
A Beardsley and Avon "Empire" straight razor with a double concave grind...an awesome, enormous blade with so much steel it feels like driving a truck around your face. It's not exactly sharp enough to shave yet, but it will be. Oh yes, it will be. (Pictures from the seller on Ebay).


A closeup of the blade, something I hope to clean up a little bit...but I like the etching. I wonder if there's any way to preserve it?



Next up is another box from good old Mr. Mayhew at Connaught Shaving. A beautiful bowl of dark oak, with a puck of Mitchell's Wool Fat; the bowl is not the best for lathering, but it's a great display piece (bottom right in the picture)


I also got a big old bottle of Paul's Three Crowns Indian Sandalwood Aftershave Milk. This stuff is GREAT for really bad shaves--it soothes and calms like you wouldn't believe.


Still on the way is a puck of D.R. Harris Marlborough shave soap, a container of Bronnley's English Fern talcum powder (Yes, talcum powder. Shut up, ok?) and a bottle of Trumper's Wild Fern EdT.

The last is a bit of a new interest of mine. I've come to be quite interested in scents...learning about "top notes" and "heart notes" and "drydown", the difference between tree moss and oak moss, and whatnot (if you wish to do the same, I recommend www.basenotes.net, a great resource for learning about the world of fragrance. God help me.). And it's all because of Penhaligon's English fern--the first Eau du Toilet I've ever found that I really, REALLY like. And so I got a wee bit obsessed with it...it turns out, of course, to be incredible expensive, and the company is more than a wee bit difficult to deal with. SO I settled for the next best thing, a bottle of Trumper's Wild Fern, a very similar take on the Fougere of legend. And then, of course, I got the Bronnley's talc in English fern to put a little frosting on that old cake of madness.

Meditations: The Enabler

Moderation is not my strong point. There are those who can attest to this. However, marriage has been good to me. Sometimes, it seems, TOO good.

My wife is a wonderful person. Seriously, I can't number the ways in which she makes my life better. But the one way that really, truly, surprised me was her support in this mad hobby.

Now, things started inauspiciously. I first mentioned the desire to purchase a shaving brush sometime last summer. She seemed largely disinterested, until I mentioned that it might cost about $30. She actually got pretty upset about this--she took it as a bad sign (see my first sentence above...). However, she eventually got used to the idea, and the feared financial cataclysm never occurred. Granted, her job with her bonuses, and my job with my pay raise and bonus, made this a bit easier to avoid.

So, I progressed, acquiring and acquiring, and my wife seemed fairly distant. She would occasionally comment on the number of packages, but as far as real disapproval goes, nothing really ever came. And then came the shocking revelation that all this time she had actually been curious about wetshaving. She wanted to know about all the creams and soaps and the brushes; she wanted to see how I made lather, and just how I used that enormous metal contraption to shave every morning. And then came the straights, and she wanted to know about honing and stropping, steel and scales and different grinds. She took me to home centers to look at hones, and furniture stores to look at wood, and then the true shocker: she bought a display case to put in the entertaining room, so people could see the curious things that I used to scrape the hairs from my face. That one threw me for a loop, indeed.

Recently, she's taken to watching me hone, and peering through the microscope to see the edges I'm working on. It's amazing. And joyous.

Just last week she told me "It's been a while since you did any shopping--isn't it about time you got some soaps and stuff?" without a hint of irony...indeed, she ENCOURAGED me to buy stuff! So I have a few boxes on the way to me, at the encouragement of my wife.

I am too, too lucky. And an, I can't wait for those boxes to roll in!

There's A Moos Loose...

After a great deal of Kerfluffle (that's the technical term, I believe) I finally got my hot little hands on the fabled Sir Irisch Moos shave soap.



This soap first raised its ugly head on the Board Which Shall Not Be Named, with an innocent question about its continued existence; it turns out this soap brand, once produced by a smaller German company, had been purchased by Maeurer and Wirtz (the producers of Tabac) and is only available from a few German vendors. This lead to a swarm of requests for it, and an eventual group buy--which apparently has not shown up, three months later. Other sources were sought, and eventually it has reached the mainstream supply route--I know that Superlather.com has a shipment on the way, with plans for more if interest is high.

And it is.

I got my stick though a trade with a member of TSD, and it showed up a couple of days ago. I tried it yesterday and today, and one word: WOW.

The lather is, in a word, "Tabac-y". It is quick to lather, and produces a great, smooth slick cushion of shaving goodness. The soap only comes in a stick form, which is just dandy with me, but some people might not like the process...you rub it on your face and hit it with the brush. In seconds, you are all kinds of ready to shave. Fantastic.

Of course, the big difference to Tabac is the scent--this is the big deal, I think, because a lot of people love Tabac's lather but not the smell. I personally love both--but I do like change, so the IM was welcome. Now, the thing is, IM really has a lovely scent. It is rich and well-rounded, with some nice citrus notes on the top end, but a clear warm heart. Oddly enough, I can still get some Tabac notes there--maybe cloves, some Lavender and perhaps a touch of vanilla. But like I said, I love the scent of Tabac, so I'm all kinds of happy here.

So yes. Irisch Moos is more than worth the effort of finding it--especially now that is approaching wide availability. I will be buying it again, no doubt.

I believe the word is CRAPTACULAR.

Oy, what a week I've had.

Between car crashes, unrelated trips to the hospital, hauling tons of books up and down stairs, caring for sick family and working overtime at work, things have been a weeeee bit unpleasant around the house.

So this week's shaves took a backseat to just getting the hell out of bed--quick and dirty. I did get a good week of shaves out of the Futur loaded with a 7 O'Clock PermaSharp, using MWF and Tabac stick...so I can't complain. But yeah, nothing magical or blogworthy.

I'm hoping to change that this week...I've got some Irisch Moos shave soap coming, and I'm working on some honing challenges with my straights, and I'm developing a WHOLE NEW ACQUISITION DISORDER!!!! So, let's get back to business, and enjoy us some shaves.

Review Double Day!!!! Valobra Fougere Soft Soap

As promised (It's yesterday somewhere...) Another review...And another great product!

I'm a huge fan of the Valobra shave stick. It's a great soap, and it's fairly reasonable priced, if a bit small. I am also a fan of fougere scents like Trumper's Wild Fern or Penhaligon's English Fern. When I heard, then, that there was a fougere scented version of Valobra's Soft Soap (a.k.a. "Crema die Sapone purissima"), I thought "That sounds like a winner..." and then, when I heard no one on the shaving fora had tried it, and that it was only available from a single German retailer, well, I decided I would be the one!

I tracked down (a.k.a. clicked the link in the forum post describing it) the website selling it (1001seife.de -- all German, but Xenia Trost, the owner, is perfectly capable of communicating in English; drop her an email!) and got a couple of boxes sent.



When the boxes arrived, of course I opened right away, to see what was up. What I found was interesting...A brick of a sticky, putty-like soap (much like Cella, but greyer) that smelled like...Valobra. The very first reaction I had was a bit of disappointment. The fougere scent I had waited for was just like the Valobra shaving stick I had had for ages. Nice, but...nothing new. Then, some of the more floral notes started to come through, and I noticed a roundness and sweetness I hadn't noticed in the stick. These really came through in the lather--lavendar and a touch of bergamot. Very very nice; the scent has become perhaps my favorite soap scent.

I molded the soap into a topped glass bowl and tried a lather--and was so, so happy I did. Fantastic stuff...I got some of the creamiest, loveliest lather I have ever had from any soap, and some of the best shaves. I just wanted to keep using it and using it...and I have. I think this might very well be tied with MWF right now for the best thing in my shave drawer.

Man. Fantastic scent, fantastic lather...I can't recommend this soap highly enough.

Review Time! J. M. Fraser's Shaving Cream

This one was a pleasant surprise from those crazy Canucks...


As I may have mentioned before, I got a sample of this cream from Da Great White North in a trade, and then I got a nice full jar of the Oriental Spice scent, and let me tell you, I will do it again. I believe that, ounce for ounce, this might very well be the best vaule cream on the market. You can get a POUND of this stuff for $13 Canadian...A POUND!!! "But Surely..." you say "But surely, for that pittance this must be one of those wimpy little underperformers like Williams or that crap sassafrass soap you got off Fleabay!"

And I would give you a resounding "HAH! Fie upon thee! This cream is ALL THAT!"

Also, don't call me Shirley.

The original scent, a fresh, perfectly acceptable lemon lime, is a light cream that is just begging to whip up a great lather. A little water, a little whipping, and BOOOM, great shaving lather. It's slick and smooth--it isn't, perhaps, the most cushioney or protective, but it is pretty gosh darned good. The Oriental Spice (of legend) is not quite as easy to lather. It takes a bit more water and a bit more work, but it seemed to me to offer a touch more protection that the original. Why this might be I have no idea...maybe it's related to the fact that it's twice the price (that is, roughly the same price tag, but half the product)? Whatever the case may be, it's worth every looney...and then some.

Good creams, get them.

GOOOOOAAAAALLL!!!!

Well, I did it. Made it to March with no DE, and I lived to tell the tale.

Following up on the deal to exclusively use a straight for a week may not seem like a big deal to some, but when that cold steel is held against your throat, it makes you think about things. Things like health insurance...and scar tissue...and your wife's scorn.

But it was a good thing. My technique improved a lot, and I got to know my razors better, and I even started honing. I now know I can get a pretty darn good shave with a straight, but that it is DAMNED easy to nick yourself, not to mention cut your ear pretty well. I also found that, for reasons I can not fully understand, the straight is MUCH easier on my neck than the DE.

Even with meticulous care, no pressure and slow, careful strokes with my Futur, I almost always end up with redness and irritation on my neck, just to the sides of my adam's apple. With the straight, though, this didn't happen. Even if I managed to nick myself in those areas, there wasn't nearly as much discomfort and hardly any red at all. This fact was brought home to me today, after I finished my (very smooth) DE shave--my wife frowned and looked at my neck, and said "Didn't do too well today, did you?"

No, I guess not...

So, anyway, having proved something to myself, I think I might give this straight thing a bit more time. I'll go with my futur until my current blade gives out, then it's back to the straights for a while. I have some honing to work on, and some smoothness techniques to...smooth out.

Come back tomorrow for a product review twofer, ok? I PROMISE, there will be stuff NON-straight related.

I PROMISE.

Some, anyway.