The Shaving Cadre
Welcome to The Shaving Cadre, a forum dedicated to gentlemanly discourse about wet shaving and other topics of common interests. Membership is always free so register today and join in the fun
cmh737 Straight Venture Journal Continued
- Thread starter cmh737
- Start date
So...I was thinking about your sub-par lather experience, or at least a lather that didn't meet expectations. One of the things with this soap that I've realized that is that I have to work the lather quite a bit more and add quite a bit more water than I think to get the ideal lather. It's a very thirsty soap...so, not sure how much water you used, but it could be that it was under-hydrated and not quite worked enough. Just in my experience with this base....
The Visions and Revisions scent sounds nice, and the ingredients list on their website is promising. They also have an aftershave that looks good; mostly witch hazel, aloe, glycerin, and allantoin.
As far as DE and injector being better than straight razor shaving, for me it depends on what you want to get out of a shave. If closeness is your main goal, I agree with you. I get closer shaves with DE, SE, and injectors than I do with my straights. But one of the things I value is gentleness to the skin, because I've always been an everyday shaver and likely always will be. On that front, in my opinion, the straight is better than any other instrument I have tried.
It's good to have options. I have been using a straight 6 days a week since February, but as time goes on I'll likely throw in a few more DE, SE, or injector shaves. Otherwise, I have a lot of stuff I have to sell off!
As far as DE and injector being better than straight razor shaving, for me it depends on what you want to get out of a shave. If closeness is your main goal, I agree with you. I get closer shaves with DE, SE, and injectors than I do with my straights. But one of the things I value is gentleness to the skin, because I've always been an everyday shaver and likely always will be. On that front, in my opinion, the straight is better than any other instrument I have tried.
It's good to have options. I have been using a straight 6 days a week since February, but as time goes on I'll likely throw in a few more DE, SE, or injector shaves. Otherwise, I have a lot of stuff I have to sell off!
Thanks, Chris. And I'll get that soap dialed in - it's too good a scent not to!
Yeh, I think you're right, Josh. I'm going to certainly experiment more, and with different brushes. The scent is just awesome.
Roger all, Randall.
Seriously...you guys are all talking about A&E Asian Plum and it's killing me! Must Buy A&E!
Thanks, Chad. And enablement is what we do, right.
The scent is really something different for the den. And it's nice and robust; a 5/5 on the SOS scale.
Thursday's shave:
I've got to leave for work in just a couple of hours, so I decided to go with the "IN...JEC...TOR"! And I also opted to use another one of my newly arrived soap samples, the Noble Otter, "Noir et Vanille".
My initial reaction to the scent, just from smelling it from the container, was quite favorable. To me, it smelled like a just-poured glass of sweet iced tea. But once lathered, it changed. I don't know how to describe it other than it undertook a "plastic-like" smell with some "oddness". From a scent perspective only, this one is definitely NOT "puck worthy" for me.
Performance-wise, this was a good soap. My initial impression is TBD following more uses of this brand (I have one other sample). The style of lather that the Rudy Vey w/Plisson L'Occitane synthetic whipped up was more on the "meringue" side of the house vice the "yogurty" side. It was slick, but not "elite" slick for me on this initial use. And there wasn't much, if any, residual slickness which didn't allow for much comfortable buffing. Post shave moisturizing, however, was good.
Finished up with some Lucky Tiger After Shave & Facial Tonic + Fine Snake Bite, then some Sampson's unscented balm. Haven't decided on a frag yet; I'll probably go with Creed Imperial EdP.
I've got to leave for work in just a couple of hours, so I decided to go with the "IN...JEC...TOR"! And I also opted to use another one of my newly arrived soap samples, the Noble Otter, "Noir et Vanille".
My initial reaction to the scent, just from smelling it from the container, was quite favorable. To me, it smelled like a just-poured glass of sweet iced tea. But once lathered, it changed. I don't know how to describe it other than it undertook a "plastic-like" smell with some "oddness". From a scent perspective only, this one is definitely NOT "puck worthy" for me.
Performance-wise, this was a good soap. My initial impression is TBD following more uses of this brand (I have one other sample). The style of lather that the Rudy Vey w/Plisson L'Occitane synthetic whipped up was more on the "meringue" side of the house vice the "yogurty" side. It was slick, but not "elite" slick for me on this initial use. And there wasn't much, if any, residual slickness which didn't allow for much comfortable buffing. Post shave moisturizing, however, was good.
Finished up with some Lucky Tiger After Shave & Facial Tonic + Fine Snake Bite, then some Sampson's unscented balm. Haven't decided on a frag yet; I'll probably go with Creed Imperial EdP.
Way Way behind Chris! All caught now.
Some great shaves, pictures, and reviews!
Good job on the Arks prep! That's a heck of shine!
Hope you can get the naturals figured out!
The Maggard London Barbershop is one of my favorite scents!
OH and Congratulations on #600!!
Some great shaves, pictures, and reviews!
Good job on the Arks prep! That's a heck of shine!
Hope you can get the naturals figured out!
The Maggard London Barbershop is one of my favorite scents!
OH and Congratulations on #600!!
Roger that, Dave. I've blind bought many a soap - always a gamble.
I've got the "Barrbarr" scent to try next.
Well, it was just one use, and from a sample. I've got one more scent to try.
Thanks, Walt.
I have high hopes for the other Noble Otter scent sample that I have.
Roger all, Craig; and thanks. BTW, funny you should mention Maggard shaving soap; see below.....
Back in town, and a late post with a couple of soap entries from the road:
Mystic Water "Rosalimone" from Friday: As I was posting this scent to my "master soap list", I noticed that I've actually used a bunch of different Mystic Water shaving soaps. I counted them and it adds up to 35. I have to admit, I really like the variety of scents that Michelle offers, and I don't recall a single one that I disliked. Some were on the "meh" side, but that's all. Really, I just wish that all of them were strong on the SOS scale; some are, and some are rather subtle. This Rosalimone is one of the subtle ones for me. It's a pleasant scent that Josh reviewed recently, but the sample only registered about a 2/5 at most on the SOS scale for me.
Maggard's "Groves of Italy" from Saturday: I've used a few of the Maggard soaps before, and agree with Craig, that the London Barbershop scent is one of the best "barbershop" scents around. But this time I used one of the Maggard line of soaps that I haven't tried yet, this Groves of Italy. The scent of this one is clean, fresh, and pleasant. It has a "fresh linen" type of vibe going, with florals mixed in. It's almost like a nice laundry detergent smell, and I mean that in a very good way. I thought I detected some gardenia in the mix, but their website says jasmine. No worries, it was very nice, either way. Is it a scent that makes me want to order a full tub of it right now? Probably not, but I certainly wouldn't rue the decision if I did. Performance-wise, with the hotel water in Indiana, it was "elite" status! And my goodness, did it ever have a huge water margin. Very slick, very protective, nice residual slickness, and nice post shave. I don't recall the Maggard line being so good - did they tweak the formulas? The real test, however, will be seeing how it works with the water at my house.
Mystic Water "Rosalimone" from Friday: As I was posting this scent to my "master soap list", I noticed that I've actually used a bunch of different Mystic Water shaving soaps. I counted them and it adds up to 35. I have to admit, I really like the variety of scents that Michelle offers, and I don't recall a single one that I disliked. Some were on the "meh" side, but that's all. Really, I just wish that all of them were strong on the SOS scale; some are, and some are rather subtle. This Rosalimone is one of the subtle ones for me. It's a pleasant scent that Josh reviewed recently, but the sample only registered about a 2/5 at most on the SOS scale for me.
Maggard's "Groves of Italy" from Saturday: I've used a few of the Maggard soaps before, and agree with Craig, that the London Barbershop scent is one of the best "barbershop" scents around. But this time I used one of the Maggard line of soaps that I haven't tried yet, this Groves of Italy. The scent of this one is clean, fresh, and pleasant. It has a "fresh linen" type of vibe going, with florals mixed in. It's almost like a nice laundry detergent smell, and I mean that in a very good way. I thought I detected some gardenia in the mix, but their website says jasmine. No worries, it was very nice, either way. Is it a scent that makes me want to order a full tub of it right now? Probably not, but I certainly wouldn't rue the decision if I did. Performance-wise, with the hotel water in Indiana, it was "elite" status! And my goodness, did it ever have a huge water margin. Very slick, very protective, nice residual slickness, and nice post shave. I don't recall the Maggard line being so good - did they tweak the formulas? The real test, however, will be seeing how it works with the water at my house.