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beginish’s Eye on a Splintered Mind

I used a RV Shavemac today and it worked just as fast (after soaking, of course) and face lathered pretty quickly.
 
One thing the synths don’t provide is that feeling of scrubbiness while face lathering. I’m getting a much better massage feeling from the 57 than I did last year. The Chubby 2 synth came closest, but I think that had more to do with density than the character of the fibers themselves.
 
Lots of variety in the shaves this month. I’m still contented with the Schick adjustable injector with Chinese Schick blades. It still feels almost like cheating, but there is much to be said for family tradition. Since I’m still working from home, I keep using Floïd Blue for my AS and I expect to finish it this year.

Much variety in the brushes so far. My Simpson 57 was as satisfying as I remembered it and a welcome change from all of those synthetics. This week I have been using a Simpson Beaufort 4, a Pure badger gem that is like an Emperor with a handy ridge in the middle of the handle. Bowl lathering with TOBS St James cream was a snap.

I finished that tube of St James this morning, and am moving on to a tin of St Charles Shave’s Sandalwood soap. I’m sad that Wendy has stopped making soap, but thanks to Sam (@woodpusher), I have 3 tins of Fairway in reserve as well.
 
My experience with SCS is that I get anywhere from 4-6 weeks from a tin. My water is on the hard side, and I need to load more to get what I need. I have never been a big sandalwood fan (but I keep trying!), and the one that works the best for me scentwise is the legendary, but sadly discontinued, Coates’ shave cream.
 
With a new year started, I’m trying to shake off 2020, starting with big weight gain. It took only a few months to undo 18 months of work and 20 pounds. First thing is to just move more. I’m thankful to have a job, but working from home means I often don’t get past the front porch. At least the lotteries are prompting me to walk to 7-11 and get my tickets. I’m also committed to getting running again, so today I did day one of Couch to 5K. I did this once before when coming off of knee surgery, and am hopeful that the cold weather doesn’t get in the way.
 
I’ve been using my Simpson Beaufort 4 in Pure for the last couple of weeks. Last week, I was bowl lathering TOBS cream and the brush was great. This week was a face lather with SCS Sandalwood, which,um, wasn’t. The pure badger was super prickly and a slap of Floïd Blue was....interesting. In honor of the Biden inauguration, I’ve broken out my Simpson 46, the Berkeley for the coming week. I’m looking forward to a more comfortable lathering experience with the Best badger knot.
 
I finally decided to face the weight gain damage from 2020 and got on the scale yesterday. Survey says........+27. Worse than I thought. So it’s time to get back at it. I just have to move more and add exercise on top of it.

So I started couch to 5K last week and successfully made it through week 1 yesterday. If I can keep it up, I’ll be reliably at 5K distances by March, just in time for spring.
 
Great first shave with the Berkeley this morning. It’s been 2-3 years since I last used it and after today, I definitely regret it. It has all the character of the Dukes, in a much smaller form factor (the Classic is a tiny Chubby.....that’s what she said).

I continue to get a fine shave from the SCS Sandalwood soap, but the lather is more about coating than creating volume (which is odd since it has SLES). So even using the small brush, I don’t expect the tin to go past mid-February. I may start planning for the next software product now. Who am I kidding....next will be a new tub of TOBS Royal Forest cream that I got for Christmas.
 
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