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Down in the Heart of Texas!

fhalden said:
I would never presume to question the supremacy of the Mexican food in either El Paso or Tucson, as I've never had the pleasure of visiting either place. I would, however, as crazy as it sounds, like to put in a good word for Baltimore, MD. Since around 2000, East Baltimore has developed a community of around 40,000 Mexican immigrants sufficient in size to warrant groceries and restaurants. One in particular serves delicious Mexican fare, located in a storefront they never bothered to adapt from the previous tenant. Yes, there is great Mexican food to be had in Baltimore at, "Scratch And Dent Furniture." Now, if we're talking crab cakes or steamed crabs, I'll put Baltimore's Faidleys, Costas Inn, or Jimmy's up against the world for being the best. Up the road a few miles, a superb crab cake is to be had at Box Hill Pizzeria. Other than these four, I've never found a serious challenger. Sorry to derail here. I'm hungry and homesick.

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Well now I would like some seafood...
That sounds really really good!

DeepSea said:
The best Mexican good I have ever eaten was in Tucson at Taqueria Juanitos. We happened to stumble upon it on a road trip from Florida to California 6ish years ago.
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You are not helping me here! 😜
 
Patelliott said:
Hey Rick! As Ben said there are quite a few towns that are smaller than Dallas and El Paso. The town I live in now is about an hour north of Dallas and it is super small.
However, El Paso is not a bad place to visit, and they have the best Mexican food! El Paso is right on the US-Mexico border so you can get a pair of boots made just across the border for a great price if you ever had skins that you wanted a pair of boots made out of.
Also if you are a fan of country music please check out some of the legends from mainstream country and then check out Texas/Red Dirt Country. A lot of stuff from the past few years on mainstream radio is more poppy than I prefer.
As far as the PAA western soaps I have not tried them, but they are on my radar. I just tried my first PAA CK-6 soap about a week or 2 ago and that was a very surprising and enjoyable shave!

One of these days I will be making it to your neck of the woods to tour around with my wife. She has ancestors from Scotland and my family is from Ireland so we want to visit those places as well as other parts of the EU!

Thank you for commenting on my journal and I hope you are staying safe out there!

-Pat
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Thanks Pat and Ben for the suggestions.
The plan is one day, with my wife, drive across Texas, with no rush, just enjoy it :-)
A visit to El Paso is a must for me :) my plan was to pay Mr. Paul Bond a visit and have him make me a pair of boots made to measure, unfortunately he's passed away but the business is still going. I bought a pair of his boots online maybe 10 years ago and I love them. Sadly big companies like Justin and others have moved manufacturing to China and they now produce rubbish boots that look good. I believe there are still a few great boot makers in Texas, keeping the art of boot making alive, Tex from Abilane comes to mind :-)

if you are visiting Scotland and Ireland I suggest you do it in summer, the weather can be a bit of culrure shock for you lol.

The UK it's not longer part of the EU, we are going through a transition period until the end of the year.

Cheers
 
Journal Entry 69
(DE:4 SE:13 SR:4)

Pre-shave: Hot Shower
Razor: Occam's OREN
Blade: Feather ProGuard (5)
Brush: @Smattayu AoG PIF #5 Synthetic
Bowl: N/A
Soap: Saponificio Varesino- Cosmo
Aftershave: Osma Alum & Stirling Tea Tree, Witch Hazel, Aloe splash & Saponificio Varesino- Cosmo splash
Moisturizer: CeraVe Moisturizing Cream & Hyaluronic Serum drops
Fragrance: Mont Leblanc

Results:

WARNING: Another Long Post
​
Now I understand why Dave speaks so highly of SV. Wow what a shave! These are my initial thoughts:
Strength of Scent- This soap is the opposite of CBL Iron Throne. Off the puck I had to bring the tin above my belly button to smell the scent, but when I started lathering it hit me about as powerful as Nuavia Rosa and ETHOS. Very pleasant scent.
Ease of Lather- this soap did not take much to get the lather going. 2.5 mL and 3 brush dips for 3 passes. I would say that it took about as little time to build the first lather as ETHOS.
Cushion- I would say this soap was exactly like CBL. Great cushion on the first pass, but a little bit of blade feel on passes 2 and 3. Still a very enjoyable and comfortable shave.
Slickness- I felt like SV was on par with ETHOS. It got a little dry on pass 2, but two brush dips and it was right back to major slickness on pass 3.
Residual Slickness- Right up there with CBL. Very, very slick after a rinse. In fact it was so slick that there was zero tugging on clean up!

All in all it was a wonderful shave and this has been a ton of fun to do. In fact I might extend this one more day. I might see how PAA CK-6 stacks up against these soaps, but I may already know the answer. One thing I know for sure is I need to re-do how I classify soaps. The soaps that I thought were Elite are more along the lines of Tier 1 and 2. Still great soaps, but I cannot justify putting them in the same class as the 4 soaps I just tested.

20200531_091657.jpg

Pictured above are the products I used in todays shave. All items were purchased by myself with the exception of the brush. The brush was a generous PIF by Eric and passed along by @Dave in KY.

Thanks for hanging in there and reading Cadre! I hope y'all have a great Sunday!
 
fhalden said:
I would never presume to question the supremacy of the Mexican food in either El Paso or Tucson, as I've never had the pleasure of visiting either place. I would, however, as crazy as it sounds, like to put in a good word for Baltimore, MD. Since around 2000, East Baltimore has developed a community of around 40,000 Mexican immigrants sufficient in size to warrant groceries and restaurants. One in particular serves delicious Mexican fare, located in a storefront they never bothered to adapt from the previous tenant. Yes, there is great Mexican food to be had in Baltimore at, "Scratch And Dent Furniture." Now, if we're talking crab cakes or steamed crabs, I'll put Baltimore's Faidleys, Costas Inn, or Jimmy's up against the world for being the best. Up the road a few miles, a superb crab cake is to be had at Box Hill Pizzeria. Other than these four, I've never found a serious challenger. Sorry to derail here. I'm hungry and homesick.

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@fhalden I live a half mile away from Box Hill. Small world. Yes we have some pretty good Mexican places here. Where abouts did you live?
 
Maryland998 said:
@fhalden I live a half mile away from Box Hill. Small world. Yes we have some pretty good Mexican places here. Where abouts did you live?
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I lived in Fells Point for about 20 years, moved down to TN three years ago to take care of my elderly mother, but my heart is still up there.

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GearNoir said:
Nice shave! Can you expand on your thoughts on the Cosmo scent a little more? Is it boozy? Sweet?
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Not sweet at all it is the most unique of the SV Line. the coffee not mixes with the citrus of Italy Mandarin orange, grapefruit, bergamot, peach pineapple and apple mixed with the coffee is something unique the nutmeg softens it a bit, but the pepper and Coriander give it a somewhat South of the border flair after a bit of dry down. Finally the spiciness is kept with a fresh pungent vetiver and then drys down creamy and soft with the Vanilla and incense. Hope that helps @GearNoir
Cosmo.JPG


nice shave Pat!
 
Journal Entry 70
(DE:4 SE:14 SR:4)

Pre-shave: Hot Shower
Razor: Occam's OREN
Blade: Feather ProGuard (1)
Brush: @Smattayu AoG PIF #5 Synthetic
Bowl: N/A
Soap: PAA- Sangre de Drago
Aftershave: Osma Alum & Stirling Tea Tree, Witch Hazel, Aloe splash & PAA- Sangre de Drago splash
Moisturizer: CeraVe Moisturizing Cream & Hyaluronic Serum drops
Fragrance: Versace Eros

Results:

WARNING: Another Long Post...Last One!​

So I decided late last night that I would end up testing a PAA CK-6 base soap because I was so surprised by the way it performed when I first got it. This will be the last soap that I test for this experiment, but I am going to re-evaluate each soap in my den and do a little re-classifying.
The PAA soap I decided to use was Sangre de Drago because I love this scent so much. If you could not tell already I favor scents that are more associated with fall and winter.
Strength of Scent- up to your nose it is super strong, however surprisingly it was not very detectable when laying in the counter. Once lathered the scent projected more, but not like the previous 4 soaps.
Ease of Lather- this soap does not take long to whip up a great lather. It took 5.0 mL of water and 3 brush dips. It does dry out a little quicker than the other soaps I tested.
Cushion- This is a very cushiony lather and very protective. Zero blade feel on all three passes.
Slickness- Very good slickness. I would probably say it was around ETHOS's slickness.
Residual Slickness- This is where this soap really took me by surprise last time. Residual slickness is up there with CBL and B&M Excellsior base.
Post-Shave Feel- Very good post-shave feel. It is not as good as ETHOS and Nuavia Rossa, but still very good.

All in all this was a good shave and very enjoyable to compare all of these soaps. I will post my rankings and scores a little later tonight once I get home.
20200601_055352.jpg
The photo above is of everything used in today's shave. Everything was purchased by myself except for the brush. The brush was a generous PIF from Eric and passed off by Dave in KY.

Thanks for reading and following along Cadre! Have a great Monday!
 
Not bad for a vegan base. I was impressed by the previous iteration. Have a good one, Pat.
 
MilkCrate said:
Great review! Looking forward to the overall scoring.
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Thanks Tim!

bentheduck said:
Not bad for a vegan base. I was impressed by the previous iteration. Have a good one, Pat.
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Thanks Ben! Honestly that was my same thought when I first tried it. Really good for a vegan soap. I think SV and Nuavia Rossa are vegan too.

NurseDave said:
Love seeing someone else enjoying the OREN
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Honestly between my Rockwell 6C, Fatboy, and OREN, the OREN is actually my smoothest razor. That is why I chose it for this because I knew it would be consistent every shave without me having to think about it. That way I could focus more on the soap.
 
WARNING: EXTREMELY LONG POST
Sorry @NurseDave and @Maryland998​
ETHOSCBLNuaviaSVPAA
SoS54.554.754
EoL54.754.554.5
Cushion54.554.755
Slicknes4.554.754.55
Residual4.554.7555
Post Feel54.7554.754.5
29/3028.5/3029/3028.75/3028/30

SoS- Strength of Scent.
EoL- Ease of Lather.
Cushion- How much blade feel was present during the shave.
Slickness- Was there any tugging or skipping while lathered.
Residual Slickness- Was there any tughing or skipping after final rinse.
Post-shave Feel- How my face felt after the shave. Was it hydrated, dry, soft, or tacky, feeling.

I chose these categories because I feel like these are most commonly debated about amongst the wet-shaving community. There may be some of you, like myself, who doesn't give a RIP about residual slickness but others do.

Procedure:

1. Take lid off of soap and set on counter to record strength of scent. Record sos during each pass.
2. Soak brush and shake out excess water using 4 shakes. I did this to try an maintain the same amount of water in the brush each time I load.
3. 20 second load. If SV were a softer soap I would scoop out ¼ teaspoon like I normally do, so instead I will do a 20 second load for each soap.
4. Face lather and add water using medicine dropper. Record amount of water used.
5. Lather face and do a standard WTG pass. Record slickness and cushion.
6. Wet face, re-lather, and do a XTG pass from Left to Right. Record slickness and cushion.
7. Wet face, re-lather, and do a XTG pass from Right to Left. Record slickness and cushion.
8. Wet face, no lather, and clean up to test residual slickness.
9. Post shave lather, rinse, towel dry, and wait 5 minutes to record post-shave feel.
10. Follow up with usual post-shave routine.

Results:

ETHOS and PannaCrema Nuavia were dead even in their own way. For me they both had a powerful scent. Their cushion was consistent throughout the shave, and their post-shave feel was unlike any other. Nuavia Rosaa was a tad slicker, but ETHOS was a little easier to lather. At the end of the day I could not say one was overall better than the other.

Next was SV. Now let me just say that Cosmo was in the 4.2 beta version and not the 4.3. I do not know how big a difference that is, but given the results it could make that much of a difference. SV's slickness scored lower because it dried out really fast on pass 2 and a little at the end of pass 1. There was a little dryness on the post-shave feel, but when combined with their splash it went away very quickly. SoS off of the puck wasn't the strongest, but once lathered it was like ETHOS and Nuavia Rossa. A very enjoyable soap, and I am very curious about the beta 4.3 base now. Thanks Dave.

Next was CBL. Now I am curious how this would have scored if I used the Tonsorial base. SoS was not as strong off of the puck and did not last when lathering. I did note that this could have been from the cooling agent. Roasted Oatmeal Stout is very strong and provides great cushion, another category where Iron Throne dropped a little. However, CBL Premium base has a slickness and residual slickness out of this world, and I cannot say the same about the Tonsorial base. Post-shave feel was a little dry, but the cooling agent made my face feel super fresh which is why it dropped only a quarter of a point. Overall this is a wonderful soap and if you don't have a tub I highly suggest getting some!

Lastly was PAA. The surprising test. I really did not think this soap would score this high, but cushion, slickness, and residual slickness were all fantastic. The scent was not as strong off the puck unless you put your nose in it, but was a little stronger once lathered. EoL was a little longer than the others and post shave feel was drier, but this soap can really perform with the rest of them.

This was a ton of fun and honestly after the way PAA scored I was ready to say that all five soaps would be considered elite in my den. However, when you think of pro teams and the elite players in the league it is a small percentage and when you think of number of pro players vs. the number of college players that is already a small percentage. So PAA will not be considered elite in my den, but it will be a top Tier 1 soap. The minimum score for elite soaps will be 28.5/30 from now on.
Just as @BarberDave said the great thing about this hobby is it is all preference. What may be elite to me may not be considered elite to others and visce-versa.This was a ton of fun and I highly recommend y'all doing it with your own den!

Thanks for hanging in there and reading Cadre!
 
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