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For the Love of Old Spice - Illini's Shave Journal

Happy Saturday Cadre!

I posted over in the AS/Frag sub but I'm in the process of dipping a solo toe into the designer frag world and working with the Mrs. to pick up a "signature scent" thanks to a Paypal gift card. Looking for one that can be used year-round both for date night as well as work, weekends, etc. Went to Sephora and Ulta yesterday after work, identified some favorites, and am bringing the wife along this evening to make the final decision. Talk about a potentially expensive rabbit hole!

Spent this morning and early afternoon cleaning out the garage and power washing the floor. Going to Menards later today and tomorrow we'll put in some new storage units and shelving while re-organizing. Thankfully it's in the 70's this weekend.

On the shave front, inspired by @Somnos I pulled out my Cremo shave stick yesterday and was very impressed. Couldn't quite pinpoint the scents but the performance was perfectly acceptable and I would definitely not mind bringing this with me on vacation. Even better that it's widely available to pick up in Walmart, Target etc.

New soap from Macduff landed this morning, "Coast-to-Coast." Notes on the tub are "Ginger Ale, Maple Syrup, Canadian Rye Whisky, Spice, Herbs, Citrus, Amber." This one is a true gourmand profile and I absolutely love it. If you've ever had a Kentucky Mule cocktail, that is exactly what I smell from this soap. The ginger and rye are super prevalent but the maple is there too. I don't love to blind buy a new artisan but this one was a good impulse purchase. Performance was great too. @NurseDave if you're looking for a nice boozy shave soap, this one might be a winner for you too as long as you like ginger!

Enjoy your weekend!

Friday July 9th, 2021
Razor : Heritage Gibbs Adjustable Beta
Blade : Personna Lab Blue (119)
Brush : Whipped Dog HM
Pre : Shower
Soap : Cremo Original Shave Stick
Post : Osage Rub & Classic Match Blue EdT

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🇨🇦 Saturday July 10th, 2021 🇨🇦
Razor : Canadian Gillette Prewar Tech
Blade : Personna Lab Blue (120)
Brush : Ever Ready 100T with a Plisson Knot
Pre : Shower
Soap : Macduff's Coast-to-Coast
Post : AV Original Sport

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Happy Monday, Cadre. Another weekend that went far too quickly.

Wife and I spent another 45 minutes or so at Sephora Saturday night and after smelling another 20 or so bottles of various scents on the strips, she narrowed it down to YSL L'Homme and YSL Y Le Parfum. She clearly favors YSL since coming in 3rd was YSL L'Homme L'Intense! Unfortunately, Sephora doesn't do sample decants anymore, must be a causality of Covid. So I sprayed one side of my neck and inside elbow with L'Homme and the other Y Le Parfum and we headed to dinner. After dinner she declared "the left side" to be the winner, which was L'Homme. After my afternoon trips to both Sephora and Ulta on Friday, then a visit with the wife on Saturday, we ended up right where I had originally started blindly with L'Homme. Kinda funny. Placed the order for a 3.3 with FragranceNet this morning and came in just under $80 after tax and the coupon.

Tomorrow begins the official return to office at our company. It's been 487 days since we stopped going in and moved to remote work. That is wild. Has a similar feeling to the old first day of school which is funny. Skipped a shave yesterday so today my trusty Red Tip mowed down a couple days of growth with no issue.

Have a great Monday!

Monday July 12th, 2021
Razor : '55 Gillette Red Tip SS
Blade : Personna Lab Blue (121)
Brush : Stirling Kong
Pre : Shower
Soap : Summer Break Rope Swing
Post : Osage Rub & Classic Match Blue EdT
 
We have the option to go into the office now. But the office will officially open after Labor Day. One plus from the pandemic is that going forward, we can work from home two days a week. Our team will work from home on Mondays and Fridays. And we can now dress casual. We have never had a casual day in the last 13 years I have been here.
 
@MilkCrate That is also what our office will be post-Labor Day, 2 days WFH and 3 days in. Between now and then it's 1 days required in-office. I think most people are planning the MF WFH and TuWTr in the office once we return "full-time" after Labor Day. We were casual dress before Covid but my previous company was a very strict business casual with no "casual Fridays" to speak of. Wearing jeans every day to work was a much welcomed perk when I joined my current company!
 
Nice to see people today in the office. Had lunch with a few colleagues down by the Chicago River and it's great to feel continued movement back to normal.

Nice chilly shave after an early morning workout. Broke through the bottom of this tub of Nor'easter so it's not long for this world. Will be good to get another soap on the 2021 kill list! YSL L'Homme shipped this morning so might even have it in hand before the weekend!

Tuesday July 13th, 2021
Razor : '56 Gillette Flare Tip SS
Blade : Personna Lab Blue (122)
Brush : Ever Ready 100T with Plisson Knot
Pre : Shower
Soap : Captain's Choice Nor'easter
Post : Osage Rub & Classic Match Blue EdT

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If there's one upside to frags being so pricy, it's that it's keeping me from purchasing them for fear of bringing down the wrath of the wife! Stopped in Kohl's this afternoon to pick up some socks and just happened to stop by their frag section. Not extensive but they did have most of the base Polo line out for testing. Absolutely loved the Polo Blue Sport - it's clear that my preferences lie in the lighter, bluer, aromatic profiles. Unsure if that's a true preference or if it's a result of the time of year. Guess we'll see once autumn and winter roll around but I think that my nose might just lean that way.

Wonderful shave this morning after working up a sweat mowing the lawn. Sea Spice Lime is just too good. The longevity of the toner is pretty surprising, I'm sitting here 7 hours later after work and I'm still catching a whiff of it every now and then.

Wednesday July 14th, 2021
Razor : Gillette NEW LC
Blade : Personna Lab Blue (123)
Brush : Omega Proraso Boar
Pre : Shower
Soap : Seaforth Sea Spice Lime
Post : Seaforth Sea Spice Lime

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This has been a long week and I'm not really sure why. Feels like today should be Friday, but alas. The good news is today kicks off The Open over at Royal St. George's. And being WFH means I can keep it on my second screen as we work through the workday. Someday I hope to attend all 4 golf majors - went to a practice round at the Masters so just 3 more to check off.

Received a tub of MLS Ecto Cooler in the mail yesterday and used for this morning's shave. I was a little worried the tiny 70g tub would be difficult to load from but I had no issues getting a great soap load. Such a short and clean list of ingredients in his base and the resulting lather was stellar. Scent is exactly what you'd expect : orange and menthol. I'll admit that I have a strong nostalgic affinity for the Hi-C drink this was based on growing up in the early 90s so this was a no-brainer. Not a super complex scent here but one that I love. Basically a chilly orange dreamsicle, and that's a great one for summer!

Thursday July 15th, 2021
Razor : '52 Gillette Bakelite Tech
Blade : Personna Lab Blue (124)
Brush : Yaqi Tuxedo Barberpole
Pre : Shower
Soap : MLS Ecto Cooler
Post : Classic Match Blue EdT

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GearNoir said:
That’s not what I expected to see, lol. Echo makes me think of Ghostbusters, Slimer, and green ooze. Hi-C though hm? 🤔
Click to expand...

Ha! Yes, it was a tie-in with the Ghostbusters TV show with Hi-C that long outlived the show (juice was made from 1989 through most of the 90's!)

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Happy Friday, Cadre! We made it.

Well I threw on that Cool Water dupe from Belcam and just was not a huge fan. Which is kinda ironic since I love most blue aquatic scents. Oh well, no harm no foul, since the wife didn't love it either after spraying it on me and letting it dry down a bit. Back to Walmart it goes! My YSL L'Homme order is on the FedEx truck to be delivered today, so I'm super pumped for that. Might stop by Macy's while out and about this weekend to see if they'll make some samples for me now that Sephora doesn't anymore. Not in the market for anything else but man do I love smelling all these fun frags. Another weekend without major plans, so going to work on finishing up the garage reorg, including hang up peg boards along one of the walls. Hopefully able to get through it in one day so we can relax on Sunday, but we'll see.

Today's shave was simple on paper but yielded stellar results. The Lea stick is just a nice clean soapy scent and the lather was flawless and gave an awesome shave. Chased with Clubman for Clubman Friday and I'm ready for the weekend!

Friday July 16th, 2021
Razor : Merkur 37c
Blade : Personna Lab Blue (125)
Brush : Stirling Boar
Pre : Shower
Soap : LEA Shave Stick
Post : Clubman

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Happy Monday Cadre, hope you all had a wonderful weekend. It was a busy one here, spent Saturday framing and hanging peg boards alongside one of our garage walls and wrapping up the garage reorganization. It looks 1000x better than it did just a few weeks ago. Yesterday we cleaned the windows in prep for our son's baptism party we're hosting next weekend.

My bottle of YSL L'Homme landed Friday afternoon and I wore it Saturday night for "date night" at home, which was Chinese food and a board game. I'm super thrilled with the purchase and it definitely will be my "signature scent" going forward since we both love it so much.

Didn't shave Saturday and yesterday's shave was a quick but "cold" one. Today I reached for the Rope Swing again, chased with more Osage then finished off with L'Homme. Ready for a good week!

Sunday July 18th, 2021
Razor : '53 Gillette Super Speed
Blade : Personna Lab Blue (126)
Brush : Ever Ready 100T with Plisson Knot
Pre : Shower
Soap : Captain's Choice Nor'easter
Post : Osage Rub

Monday July 19th, 2021
Razor : Schick Krona
Blade : Personna Lab Blue (127)
Brush : Omega Proraso Boar
Pre : Shower
Soap : Summer Break Soaps Rope Swing
Post : Osage Rub & YSL L'Homme EdT

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