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novicewetshaver's shave journal

novicewetshaver

novicewetshaver

Sr. Shave Member
For tonights shave i revisted SV's 70th after watching barberdaves video. the video made me want to give the soap another try and also that soap smells really really good! i backed off the product today, instead of using 1/2 teaspoon of product i used slightly more than 1/4 of a teaspoon. yes im still measuring out what i use, it seems to work for me and seems to work better for me when bowl lathering. i used about a tsp of water to bloom the soap while showered, but i think i needed maybe a bit more water or perhaps hotter water because i was having trouble getting all the soap laoded into the brush. Some of the soap just stayed on the bottem of the bowl no matter how hard i scrubbed at it. i used about 3 tsp of water but i think i could have gotten away with slightly a bit more because the lather felt a bit underhydrated for me. i did scrub the soap into my face for the first and third passes to try to stimulate them sebum glands as Barberdave suggests and it did seem to help develop a better lather. i did a 4 shave pass with only slight irrattion and a 2 pass head shave with lather to spare. over all a much better shave this time with sv.

todays gear
Sv 70th
1/4 tsp product
3 tsp of water
gillette slim adjustable 7 and 9 setting
wizemet blade 3rd shave
70th Aftershave balm

overall a pretty good shave, looking forward to trying it out again, tomrrow im thinking either cubebe or dragons blood. Cant get enough of that dragons blood, love the scent on that one.
 
For today's shave i revisted Sv's cubebe. i got a decent shave with it, not a bbs shave but a decent shave. Only slight irratation and with no tight skin a few nicks. i did a 3 pass shave with clean up. i used 1/4 teaspoon of product, but i think this was too much because it seemed like the brush was really overloaded and the soap wouldnt realase all that well, it felt like there was a lot of the spoap in the middle of the knot that wasnt realising, i think i need to try face lathering with this particulare soap rather than bowl lathering. i get an ok lather with bowl lathering but i just ccant seem to get that really creamy lather with it. I did scrub the lather into my face again and it seemed to help develop the lather very well. i added the water from blooming back into the lather mix as spider suggested above. My skin felt a bit raw after todays shave and slightly dry, but not to bad. i think i need to spend more time with this soap, it doesnt leave my skin feeling as hydrated as something like stirlings or cbl's soap and im not tryin to knock the soap i think i just need more experience with it. i think i should also give face lathering a try.
im also not sure if i have the razor agression set too high for this particulare soap. some soaps i can do a clean up pass on setting 9 on my slim other soaps i can't. i did however try going over areas with the razor on setting six and this seemed to help somewhat in the neck area but not the chin area. seems like i need a higher setting for the chin area especially atg.

Todays gear
Sv cubebe
sv cubebe aftershave
Cbl tonsorial russian tea skin oil
wizemt blade
slim adjustable
 
Afternoon shave.
For todays shave i decided to give face lathering another shot. i used Cbl's cigar shop hombre's. i loaded about 30 seconds with a damp brush. i did a three shave pass, but i felt as tho i had made the latehr too thin. i pulled out the remain lather because it got way too thin and then i reloaded off the puck for about 45 seconds. the lather from this load seemd a bit better and i did a 2 pass clean up and a 2 pass head shave but i still think the lather needed a bit more work. my face didnt feel very hydrated and had some slight irration, but nothing too bad. it didnt feel like razor burn just a slight irratation around my cheeks and chin area. got a few nicks around the moustache area. i didntt get a really thick creamy lather it was more on the thinner side. im not sure if i need to add more water to build up the lather or perhaps load for a bit a longer. gonna experiment so more another day with face lathering, but for tomrrow i think im going to do a dragons blood shave.

todays gear
gillette slim seting 7
wizemet blade 5th use
cbl cigar shop hombre
cbl aftershave milk
barister and mann's aftershave
 
novicewetshaver said:
Afternoon shave.
For todays shave i decided to give face lathering another shot. i used Cbl's cigar shop hombre's. i loaded about 30 seconds with a damp brush. i did a three shave pass, but i felt as tho i had made the latehr too thin. i pulled out the remain lather because it got way too thin and then i reloaded off the puck for about 45 seconds. the lather from this load seemd a bit better and i did a 2 pass clean up and a 2 pass head shave but i still think the lather needed a bit more work. my face didnt feel very hydrated and had some slight irration, but nothing too bad. it didnt feel like razor burn just a slight irratation around my cheeks and chin area. got a few nicks around the moustache area. i didntt get a really thick creamy lather it was more on the thinner side. im not sure if i need to add more water to build up the lather or perhaps load for a bit a longer. gonna experiment so more another day with face lathering, but for tomrrow i think im going to do a dragons blood shave.

todays gear
gillette slim seting 7
wizemet blade 5th use
cbl cigar shop hombre
cbl aftershave milk
barister and mann's aftershave
Click to expand...
Lather can quickly "thin out", if you add water too quickly. I would suggest not timing your loads, but rather load until you feel the brush is SATURATED with product. Go to the bowl and work it good. Add a few drops of water at a time and keep going, until the lather is shiny; you have achieved micro-bubbles; and that the lather barely clings to the brush. Work that properly-hydrated lather onto your beard area. Work it in GOOD!.
Lighten your touch with the Slim. They can bite and irritate. Dial it back to 5 and practice removing the lather---NOT the beard.
 
for todays shave i went with stirlings intrepid man. it was one of them long tiring days today and it felt good to use some stirling products. i had a days worth of growth and i decided to bowl lather today. perhaps tomorrow i will try some more face lathering. i went with my usual 1/2 of product to about 4 tsp of water added very slowly. i got a super rich dense creamy lather that left my face feeling well hydrated and not tight at all tonight. i went with a 3 pass shave with a few clean ups and a 2 pass head shave. i used a new wizement blade today. Followed by some intrepid man afterhsave and the matching balm. A very comfortable and close shave today.

todays gear
gillette slim 2 passes on setting 7 and 1 pass on 9 with a clean pass on setting 5
1/2 tsp stirlings intrepid man
4 tsp of water
stirlings aftershave and balm in matching scent
have a goodnight cadre
 
So its been about 5 days since i shaved. i had an unfortenate kitchen accident and coudnt use my left hand, but today my hand felt like it was back in working order. im not a lefty but i try to use my left hand to shave as much of the left side of my face as possible. For todays afternoon shave i went with darkfall, we actually had some drizzle today and the weather was very damp and we actually had cloud cover which is pretty unusual for us. i started teh shave out with blooming the water with about a tbs of water whle i shower and this seeemed to make for easier loading, i didnt get any soap stuck to the bottom of the my lathering bowl like i normally do, and as i was loading i did barberdave plunger motions, i think that help get more of the soap into the brush and it seem to load better. i went with 1/2 tsp worth of product to about 6 tsp of lather and got a really nice hydrated lather. i took a thin layer of the lather and worked it vigoursly into my face to try to get the soap deep into the pores and get that sebum flwoing. the lather thickened up and i worked it for a bit longer before going to paint brush strokes and developing a really nice lather on the face. i started out on setting 5 on my slim but then bumped it 6 and that seemed to be the sweet spot. normally i go to 7 but i wanted to see how settings 5 and 6 worked out. i did about 3 passes of clean up to get all the stragler whiskers. then i went on to do a 3 pass head shave. i had minimal irratiation today and i think i may have had a slight reaction to something becuase my cheeks were slightly red as was the bottom of my neck area. maybe i scrubbed to hard with the brush? the redness went away after about an hour, but my skin felt slightly raw, not underhydrated just a bit raw. I'm thinking about going for a bay rum scent tomorrow or maybe some dragons blood. It sure did feel good to shave though and get this damn beard off. i finished the shave off with the matching aftershave and used stirlings intrepid man afterhsave balm to try to cut down on the smokeyness a bit. I like the darkfall scent but to me it seems the smokiness is to up front and center and the other scents get lost because the smoke scent is so strong, just my thoughts tho, i still like the scent, just would prefer slightly less of the smokiness.

Todays gear
slim adjustable settings 7,5, and 6
my trusty captains shaving bowl
DG Darkfall 1/2 teaspoon to 6 teaspoons of water
wizmet blad 2nd use
DG darkfall afterhsave
stirlings intrepid man afterhsave balm
 
For todays shave i decided to give mystic waters a try. i used the sample of egyptian dragon i got from spider. the stuff smell really good to me unfortenatly i had some trouble lathering it. i used my normal 1/2 tsp of product to about 4 tsp of water but i got a rather bubbly lather unfortneatly. the soap did develop a bit on the face but tended to thin out as i shaved. i did a 3 pass shave with a clean up shave and got slight iratation in the chin area and slight razor burn on the bottom of my neck with a few nicks here and there. i may try to use a bit more product in the future i really like the smell of this one so im going tot see i can get it to work. i finish off the shave with some thayers witch hazel in the rose flavor, but i think i should have went with lavender instead of rose. finished off the shave with stirlings intrepid man post shave balm. a decent shave but i think i need more time with this particular lather. great smelling soap, hope i will be able to get it to lather well in the future. i think for tomorrow im going to do a CBL dragons blood shave.
 
For this evenings shave i did a dragons blood texas on fire shave. i used 1/4 of each to about 4 tsp of water added slowly. this seemed to produce a pretty good lather. i tried out the new fatboy i got from @Luecke3262 tonight with a new wizemet blade. i started out on setting 4 but the razor seemed to tug slightly so i bumped it up to 5 for the first 2 passes. this seemed to go pretty smoothly but when i went to the atg pass i was having a bit of trouble cutting, it felt like i needed to add pressure to cut through the whiskers so i bumped it up to seven and did the atg pass on that setting and it that seemed to do the trick, did a few clean up passes on setting seven then did a two pass head shave. overall a pretty good shave not much irratation. i must say i enjoyed using the fatboy for tonight's shave, it seems more manueverable and nimble when compared to the slim, i think i may switch to the fatboy for my daily shaver. i finished off the shave with some thayers rose witch hazel and dragons blood tonic. i didnt use an aftershave balm tonight, i wanted to see how my face would feel without one, but i think i should have. although my face felt soft and not particularly irratated it still felt like an aftershave balm of some sort prbly would have been good. Overall a really good shave after a long day. Thanks to @Luecke3262 for the fatboy, really enjoying the razor so far.

tonights gear
Fatboy on settings 4,5, and 7
CBl's Dragon's blood and stirling's texas on fire
new wizemet blade
thayer's rose witch hazel
Cbl's Aftershave tonic in dragon's blood flavor
until next time cadre!
 
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