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

Hope everyone had a nice weekend! Friday's memorial and luncheon was definitely the toughest I've ever been to. I'm not sure how my friends had the strength to get through that day as I struggled through it and I wasn't the one who just lost their son. Just glad I could be there to support them.

On a happier note, celebrated my mother's birthday with my parents and sister on Saturday with Giordano's deep dish and apple cake which was very nice! Yesterday my wife's friend and her husband came over for brunch as we hadn't seen them in a while which is always enjoyable. Other than that, fairly relaxed weekend as we continue to prepare for our daughter's arrival in August. We have a scheduled C-Section date of August 23rd, so that will be the latest date she joins us. My son came 5 weeks early so my wife is bound and determined to have everything ready super early this time around. Fits her architect "type A" personality to a T.

In shavedom, I've been very happy with my summer soap rotation consisting of Summer Break Rope Swing, Seaforth Sea Spice Lime and CBL Poseidon and generally chasing with Thayer's Coconut Water, Osage Rub or AV Ice Blue. Hoping to finish off a few of these soaps this summer but we'll see.

In my shallow dip into fragdom, I've really been enjoying my tiny bottle of Tommy EdT as it's been taking me back to middle school. Shocked at how good I find it despite the "dated" profile and low price point. Definitely a cheapy gem IMHO. Received some samples of the reformulated YSL Y EdT, YSL Libre EdP, Invictus Platinum, and Gentleman Reserve Privee from Bloomingdales a few weeks ago so looking forward to trying them out. Also purchased a sample vial of YSL Y Eau Fraiche as there are full bottles heavily discounted at Nordstrom Rack right now and wanted to see if I liked it enough to pick up.

Thanks for catching up with me friends!
 
Sample of Y Eau Fraiche landed this morning and it's a wonderful, fresh summertime scent! Much to my dismay, my wife was NOT a fan of Light Blue Forever or Italian Love both of which I loved so I've been on the hunt for a citrus bomb that we both like. This one got the seal of approval! I now have a 100mL en route to my local Nordstrom Rack.

@GearNoir your move!


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Hope everyone is having a nice week! It has been oppressively hot the last 2 days here in Chicagoland, and I realized that it had been almost 3 years since I made the walk from the train to my office downtown in super hot weather (summer 2019.) Definitely didn't miss sitting down at my desk here in the office sweaty from the walk in.

Still waiting for my YSL Y Eau Fraiche to land at my Nordstrom Rack, so been continuing to enjoy using Tommy and A&F First Instinct Together as my warm weather frags. Looking forward to this upcoming Father's Day weekend, we're half way there friends!
 
Been a quiet day at work today which has been nice. Noticed that the new season of Westworld is coming next week so we're debating re-watching season 3 as it feels like ages ago that it aired.

Brisk shave this morning chased with Tommy Bahama St. Barts. Man oh man, is this EdC just vacation in a bottle. Also used it liberally when we were down in Florida on vacation so it has a nice olfactory memory with that trip.

Thursday June 16th, 2022
Razor : Schick Krona
Blade : Personna Lab Blue (3)
Brush : Stirling Boar
Pre : Shower
Soap : CBL Poseidon
Post : Osage Rub & Tommy Bahama St. Barts EdC
 
Hope everyone had a lovely weekend, and a belated Happy Father's Day to all my fellow dads out there on the Cadre. I had yesterday off of work so a nice 3 day weekend was had. Visited with my family on Saturday, went to our pool on Sunday and then relaxed around the house yesterday. My in-laws were exposed to Covid early last week so delayed our get together with them until this weekend.

My wife did surprise me with a fragrance for Father's Day, and a very good one at that : Banana Republic Tobacco and Tonka. She apparently saw me watching a video about it on my phone earlier in the week and happened across it at our local Burlington a day later. It's a wonderful scent and one that I'm particularly excited to wear once the weather cools. Sprayed it on the insides of my elbows last night around 7pm and was still smelling it this morning! The wife is a keeper!

Also went and saw Top Gun on Friday evening which was awesome. I grew up with the first (original theatrical release predates my birth but watched it yearly as a family) and this was a phenomenal swan song for the 80's classic.

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Saturday June 18th, 2022
Razor : Schick Krona
Blade : Personna Lab Blue (4)
Brush : Stirling Boar
Pre : Shower
Soap : Summer Break Rope Swing
Post : Osage Rub & Tommy EdT

Monday June 20th, 2022
Razor : Schick Krona
Blade : Personna Lab Blue (1)
Brush : Stirling Boar
Pre : Shower
Soap : Summer Break Rope Swing
Post : Osage Rub & Hugo Boss Reversed EdT

Tuesday June 21st, 2022
Razor : Schick Krona
Blade : Personna Lab Blue (2)
Brush : Stirling Boar
Pre : Shower
Soap : Summer Break Rope Swing
Post : Osage Rub & YSL L'Homme Ultime EdP
 
Scuttlesoap said:
I’ve seen a lot of people rave about how great the BR Tobacco & Tonka Bean is - your wife must really love you!

Happy Father‘s Day (late) to you my friend!
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Thank you Brian!

Yes, after watching a YouTuber talk about it, I spent some time scouring review sites and it really piqued my interest, evidently enough that my wife remembered me talking about it when she was walking past the frag display!

I hadn't heard of this line from Banana before and at the $22-ish price point at the rack stores, seems like a great buy! Will be on the lookout for more of them in the future. This one definitely punches above the $22.
 
Happy Hump Day Cadre! This hump day happens to be my birthday, and while working is always a bummer, at least now I can WFH which makes the day a little better!

Finally got the email yesterday morning that my bottle of Y Eau Fraiche was ready at our local Nordstrom Rack, so stopped there with my wife and son last night after an evening Target run to pick it up. Evidently when you do a ship-to-store order, you get a coupon for $5 off $50 for that day only in store. Well, my wife must have been feeling extra generous as she said the $22 Banana Republic frag was so cheap that I could go pick something out if it rang out to ~$50. Just so happened that they had bottle of Polo Deep Blue Parfum, a bottle both of us enjoyed very much when I tried a sample last year, for $52. So couple that with the $5 of $50, so it came out to $50 and change after tax and I came home with a 100mL of Eau Fraiche and 125mL of Deep Blue Parfum. Talk about a good birthday surprise for me! Think I'm set in the frag world for a long while now!

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Fightingillini22 said:
Happy Hump Day Cadre! This hump day happens to be my birthday, and while working is always a bummer, at least now I can WFH which makes the day a little better!

Finally got the email yesterday morning that my bottle of Y Eau Fraiche was ready at our local Nordstrom Rack, so stopped there with my wife and son last night after an evening Target run to pick it up. Evidently when you do a ship-to-store order, you get a coupon for $5 off $50 for that day only in store. Well, my wife must have been feeling extra generous as she said the $22 Banana Republic frag was so cheap that I could go pick something out if it rang out to ~$50. Just so happened that they had bottle of Polo Deep Blue Parfum, a bottle both of us enjoyed very much when I tried a sample last year, for $52. So couple that with the $5 of $50, so it came out to $50 and change after tax and I came home with a 100mL of Eau Fraiche and 125mL of Deep Blue Parfum. Talk about a good birthday surprise for me! Think I'm set in the frag world for a long while now!

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I remember when our friend here was a Classic Match guy - who occasionally dipped his toe in the Nautica and Michael Jordan pool……then he got himself hooked on YSL and now he could do his own YouTuse channel ❤️

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Scuttlesoap said:
I remember when our friend here was a Classic Match guy - who occasionally dipped his toe in the Nautica and Michael Jordan pool……then he got himself hooked on YSL and now he could do his own YouTuse channel ❤️

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The moral of the story here is to make sure if you're going to drop down a rabbit hole, make sure it's one that your wife can also enjoy because if she does, you get the green light to spend some money!!
 
Birthday celebration was fairly low key, as it falls very close to Father's Day every year so the two are starting to blend together. Got my free Dunkin cold brew in the morning, free piece of chocolate cake from Portillos with lunch (can you tell I'm a cheap Polak yet) and for dinner my wife made Sloppy Joes. After our son went to bed I poured a dram of Hampden Great House 2021 and we watched the last episode of Obi Wan. I was never a big birthday celebration guy so this kind of low key day is exactly what I wanted.

Didn't shave yesterday but did throw on Polo Deep Blue EdP after my shower and it's just as good, if not better, than I remember it smelling in Macy's last year. Nice green notes on top, not sure I get the mango notes listed but it's definitely green, combined with some nice citrus and, of course, ambroxan and sea notes on the finish. Might not be the most "challenging" juice out there, but man does it smell good and last a good while!

Have a team outing for work this afternoon which should be nice. Supposed to be taking tomorrow off to go to the Shedd Aquarium with my parents, son and wife but my son has been sick with an on and off fever since Monday afternoon. Wife is taking him into the doctor today, we'll see what happens.

Thanks for stopping by!

Thursday June 23rd, 2022
Razor : Schick Krona
Blade : Personna Lab Blue (3)
Brush : Stirling Boar
Pre : Shower
Soap : Summer Break Rope Swing
Post : Osage Rub & YSL Y Eau Fraiche EdT
 
Happy Friday friends, we made it!

Yesterday afternoon we had a team outing which was awesome - 2 hours aboard "donut boats" up and down the Chicago River followed by a couple of local watering holes in the Logan Square neighborhood. Had never seen this kind of boat before but it was a blast!

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My son has finally shaken the fever but now has what looks like a head cold. The two have to be related but who knows - he doens't go to day care and has been home all week so weird that it took this long to move from fever to head cold. We ended up postponing the aquarium day with my parents for a couple weeks so decided to not take the day off as it should be super quiet anyways. Hoping to get off a little early. We'll be headed over to my in-laws tomorrow for a belated Father's Day celebration but other than that, should be a quiet weekend here. Hard to believe we're almost to the 4th of July already!

Have a great weekend, thanks for reading!

Friday June 24th, 2022
Razor : Schick Krona
Blade : Personna Lab Blue (4)
Brush : Whipped Dog HM
Pre : Shower
Soap : Summer Break Rope Swing
Post : Osage Rub & Sean John 3AM EdT
 
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