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cmh737 Straight Venture Journal Continued

Sunday's shave:

Greetings all; I know it's been a while since I made a journal entry, so thought I'd do that today.

After some tennis with my daughter this morning, I decided to indulge in what turned out to be an absolutely magnificent shave!

I opted for the Merkur Progress w/Persona Red (which is my go-to razor of choice these days), the Vie Long European White badger brush, and this soap (the single greatest floral scented soap EVER!):

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Finished up with Guerlain Habit Rouge aftershave splash, and then some vintage Guerlain Habit Rouge EdC, this one:

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My goodness! This is what wet shaving is all about! Awesome - simply awesome!!!

Hope everyone is well. We all are in my "universe". Still working, albeit not as much, but hopefully things start to improve quickly.

Oh, BTW, still taking guitar lessons and diggin' it! As a matter of fact, I added an electric guitar a couple of weeks ago - got a brand new Fender Strat (Player's series) - sunburst. Learning a Stevie Ray Vaughn song now ("Mary Had a Little Lamb"). And knowing my "collector gene" and habit of falling down rabbit holes - I see a Tele in the not too distant future! :cool:
 
Congrats on the new Strat! I’ve owned both a Strat and a Tele during my playing years, and loved both.
 
Saturday, July 18th

Just popping in to say that I'm still kickin'. Nothing noteworthy to report, really. Shaves are becoming a bit more "routine" without the use of a gazillion different products.

I've gotten to the point where I just don't care about that much variety anymore in terms of razors and shaving soaps/creams. I'll use a straight once in a while (used the Brian Brown just the other day for example), or the injector on occasion, but I mainly use the Merkur Progress for my daily driver. And for soaps/creams, I still won't limit myself to one soap, but I do find myself gravitating mostly to just a select few: Stirling, MdC, vintage Williams, vintage Colgate Cup, AoS creams, and TOBS creams. I still have others that I use often, like Mystic Water and Tabac for instance, but I'm no longer venturing down the soap rabbit hole. I literally have enough soap to last me a lifetime.

In terms of brushes, I'm not caught in that rabbit hole any longer either. Of the 27 brushes I have in the rotation (give or take a couple), that's good enough for me and I don't see acquiring another.

Aftershave products? I mostly use unscented products now. If I use a splash, it's Fine Snake Bite mixed with Witch Hazel. But I mostly use (and even after a splash), Lubriderm Men's 3-in-1 lotion. It truly is unscented, and helps out my ole mug very well.

Fragrances? Well, this is one rabbit hole that I am still in free-fall (especially the vintage fragrance rabbit hole). For today, I decided to layer two Creeds - GIT and Imperial. It works very well.

Hope everyone is well.

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Hey Chris, good to hear from you and great update!

I have reached a similar point and have begun thinning things down a bit. I do like variety, but don’t need an endless supply. I like to think I am refining my choices. And after my last SR purchase, I think I have my various ADs in check. Be careful out there.
 
Friday, August 7th:

Another simple, back-to-basics type shave today, and it was fantastic.

Soap: Williams (vintage). One of the slickest soaps there is. Stirling is still #1 for me, but vintage Williams is a very close second.

Brush: TGN boar. An under-the-raider gem of a knot. If you like boars, this is definitely one to have. I've had numerous boars over the past few years (Semogue, Omega, Zenith, and TGN), but only have 3 now; and 2 of them are TGN!

Razor/Blade: Merkur 34C w/Persona Red. The good 'ole 34c. I like it as much as the Merkur Progress. Those are my go-to razors these days. And I've been using the Persona Reds almost exclusively the past several months.

After shave: Kouros aftershave splash (current version)

Post-shave fragrance: Kouros EdT (vintage)

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I'm on a bit of a Kouros kick as of the past few months. It's funny how preferences change over time. I remember when Kouros launched (1981) and I hated it. Fast forward to about 5 years or so ago, I decided to try a sample of some vintage, just for kicks, and was like, "meh". Then winter of 2018, while browsing in an airport Duty Free store, I saw a bottle (the current version, obviously) and decided to try it. Hmmm, not too bad, so I got it. It's been highly reformulated and tamed from the original, but not too bad. Then about a year ago, I began sampling the different vintage versions. Today I opted for my 1992 bottle (Parfums Corp). Magnificent!

Hope all is well with everyone.
 
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