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beginish’s Eye on a Splintered Mind

beginish said:
Thank you, sir!

Of note today is that I finished my 5+ year old tube of L'Occitane Cade ASB. Fare thee well.

Moving on to Harris Pink.
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Yes that stuff last forever whether it be in a tube or a puck
 
New AS is on the clock...DR Harris Pink. A non-alcohol based splash is a nice change. The scent is incredibly light, so much so that I can't even tell that it has a scent. Postshave feel is good, and the splash itself has a slippery feel to it.
 
beginish said:
New AS is on the clock...DR Harris Pink. A non-alcohol based splash is a nice change. The scent is incredibly light, so much so that I can't even tell that it has a scent. Postshave feel is good, and the splash itself has a slippery feel to it.
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The ones I see so far are low alcohol content, does that it’s imply witch hazel? What is the scent supposed to be?
 
GearNoir said:
The ones I see so far are low alcohol content, does that it’s imply witch hazel? What is the scent supposed to be?
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Bob’s right, very light rose. I don’t think it’s witch hazel. It reminds me very much in face feel with that slippery texture to Lucky Tiger, another non-alcohol AS.

bobmsp said:
I believe it's rose. I'm tempted to audition it for resupply next year.
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I’ll weigh in after I’ve used it. My fear is that it will have a tackiness or heaviness that is more like Trumper Skin Food, and is ill suited to use in warm weather.
 
woodpusher said:
non-alcohol AS = 0.5% beer
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There is something to that. When I slapped it on this morning, there was certainly no sting, but there was also no cooling. Yesterday, I used a slant with a very old blade on a 3 day old beard, and managed to make more weepers than a viewing of Steel Magnolias. I certainly didn't mind the lack of sting from the Pink, and the skin was still a little tender today. That said, I was looking for that cooling feel that just didn't show up. I also can't smell it. I have some issues with my sense of smell, so I'm not surprised, but there really should be something.
 
3 more days of use, and I'm liking Pink. To pick up the scent, I need to use more than I typically shake out, and it's very pleasant. I also pick up a scent later in the morning, but I can't tell whether it's from the Pink or residual Arlington from the soap. It's tough to smell your own cheeks, unless you're Frank Booth.
 
I am a confirmed use it until I finish it kind of guy. In shaving, that applies to soaps, creams and AS, but in real life it also applies to books and money. As far as soaps go, I have migrated away from the load it like it owes you money approach to loading what I need to get two passes out of a lathering, so my soap use rate has gone way down, from about 90 days for a triple milled soap to upwards of six months. That's great for making things economical of course, but tends to try my patience when it comes to the daily grind. Alas, I do not have the stamina of @woodpusher.

So lately, I've been working in the odd 'cheat' shaves, and using shave sticks for it. I had been using Irisch Moos as my regular cheat, but that stuff's unobtainium, so there can be nothing 'regular' about its use. Instead, I have a whole bunch of unused or barely used sticks that I've accumulated (Valobra, Wilkie, vintage Colgate, vintage Williams, Lea, QED) and will put to this use. Saving them for travel is a fool's errand since, well, I don't travel much. Every single one of them is an outstanding soap in its own right, and in puck form, would get the love that it truly deserves (yes, I know Valobra has puck versions, but when was the last time you saw someone pen a thread entitled "An Ode to Valobra Pucks?")

Go ahead, I'll wait while you look.

So for the last two weeks, I've used the Lea stick on Monday or Tuesday. You may recall that Lea reformulated the stick about 4-5 years ago, giving it a base of tallow and lanolin. I've used it several times before this, and it's always done well, but my experience with it when not in a hotel bathroom has really shown how good it is. I scrape a very thin coating of soap on my cheeks and neck whiskers, and then hit it with a damp brush. In no time, I have a very good lather from it. Timing-wise, I go from scrape to shave in about a minute. This is much shorter than it takes me to load the brush from a puck and then face lather. It's also a lot less messy. With Lea, the postshave feel coming from the lanolin is just great. I almost feel guilty not using it in the winter. Almost.

So, I'd like to recommend that anyone who is pressed for time in the morning (like me) and wants to get a high quality lather and shave, use a shave stick! They are as good as any soap being made by 'Big Soap' or being cooked up on an artisan's stove. A little goes a long way (e.g. the notion that you have to see a thorough coating of soap on your whiskers before lathering is, in my experience, incorrect).
 
Shave sticks...... well, you know what Tony the Tiger says about them......
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Extended cheat this week with the Lea stick. My once per week suspicions that it's actually a good soap are confirmed. I'm curious if anyone has grated this particular soap and pressed it into a puck, and what their experience has been.

n.b. Autocorrect fixes into when it's misspelled as ito, into Ito. Someone trained MacOS in the OJ trial.
 
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