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The wonderful excesses of acquisition disorders...and wet shaving

CBLindsay said:
I love that smiling stark, I think I’m going to stop buying soaps and vintage straights so I can buy a few of the more impressive razors.
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Thanks Chris! You have a killer blade too in that Koraat...Leo makes me drool when I see it. But IRT Jerry Stark's razors, I would be hard pressed to find a better buying experience and quality blade than this one.

Smattayu said:
Nice shave Josh. The scent sounds like one I'd love.
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Thanks Eric! if you haven't tried any of DG's soaps, this would be one I would recommend to both you and Chad...or anyone that loves vetiver type scent profiles.
 
No shave day for me today. I've found that shaving every other day is becoming my preferred routine, as I've been getting good enough shaves that trying to shave the next day is shaving a CCS face, and risks irritation. I've debated just doing two passes, to allow for more to be present the next day, but where is the fun in that? I'm an impulsive person, and I'll always want to chase that baby, even if it means a little bit of over-shaving occurs.

All the same, I have my set-up all laid out, picture taken and ready to go for tomorrow. The frag was a bit of a surprise choice...but as I was smelling the bottle of matching AS to the soap, I got it too close to my nose and got some on the septum...the cloud of fragrance that enveloped me took me to a very unexpected, albeit very pleasing, place and fragrance choice. I'll put it this way, with this being fougere week, I was expecting to use English Fern quite a bit. Not only is it a classic smelling fougere, but it's one of my favorite one's, period. That's what I originally expected to be using tomorrow, and this matches up so much better.

Have a great Palm Sunday everyone...looking forward to seeing what the week brings!
 
Monday, 26 March, 2018
Wholly Kaw Fern Concerto | Klas Tornmblom 9/16”
Currently on Shave #474 | Straight shave #283

“The return of He Who Shall Not Be Named, but at least he smells good…”

Well…that could have been better. This was the first time I’ve been subjected to the Monday’s in a while, (every day is Monday out here), and Murphy hasn’t really shown his face in a while, so it was due. What I can say, is that the software was top notch, the hardware was top notch, but the user left something to be desired. I’ll explain a little later…

So, the next fougere was Wholly Kaw’s Fern Concerto. Where the Declaration Grooming was a very dark, very green interpretation of a fougere, this was on the completely opposite end of the spectrum. This was very bright, with the primary notes of bergamot and other citrus coming right to the front along with some geranium and a light lavender. There are some darker notes beneath that do come out during the shave to round it out, as well, but overall this is a very bright interpretation.

Like I said yesterday, when I was smelling the aftershave, I got it too close to my nose and got some on my filtrum. (not my septum as stated yesterday) The fragrance immediately reminded me of Acqua di Parma Colonia Intensa. Not identical, but so darned close that you would almost say that this could be a colonia vs. a fougere. I don’t have AdP, however so I grabbed the closest thing in Salvatore Ferragamo Acqua Essenziale Colonia. This doesn’t have the citrus “bite” that AdP has, but it’s very close, and has a great evolution for a fragrance, ending in a nice deep woody accord that will last for 24 hours on clothing.

The lather I was able to generate was nice and full, bowl lathering at first and finishing with some face lathering. The first pass ended up being a bit dry, so I added some water on subsequent passes, getting a nice shiny lather. The Tornblom was nice and sharp, taking care of the whiskers with great aplomb. By the time I got around to the third pass, I was finishing up with the straight, about to grab the injector for my neck as usual. I was finishing up the ATG on the chin and a combination of failure to pull the skin taught enough and coming in too hot led to the edge digging in…oops. I knew it right away, and just to confirm that my technique was bad, I went ahead and did it again for good measure. Of course, after the second one, I lifted off and stared at the edge as if it all of a sudden had a burr in it, knowing full well the fault lied with the person staring at me in the mirror. I finished up with the Injector, and went ahead and grabbed the styptic, as there was a nice pool of red building on my chin, which closed them up quite quickly. The aftermath was a couple of ¼” cuts, not too deep. The alum of course stung, but felt good all the same. The aftershave was great, with a nice hit of menthol to wake the face up. I finished off with quite a few strategically placed dotties of the Ferragamo Colonia, and went to start my day, knowing that Murphy was taking a vacation in Afghanistan.

Have a great day everyone!
 
Bummer about the seepage Josh!

Other than that looks like it had the makings to be a great shave!
 
Ah so murphy is on the other side of the globe I see. I guess that means we can tempt him in the states! Just kidding. lol

Nice read and I really need to buy some Wholly Kaw!
 
Cvargo said:
Ah so murphy is on the other side of the globe I see. I guess that means we can tempt him in the states! Just kidding. lol
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Thanks Chad...but you know that Mr. M can travel across the globe via wormhole, so not sure how safe and reckless you can be...lol. Quantum physics don't apply to him...

Cvargo said:
Nice read and I really need to buy some Wholly Kaw!
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Yes...YES YOU DO!

clyde72 said:
Bummer about the seepage Josh!

Other than that looks like it had the makings to be a great shave!
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Thanks Craig! It's been a while since I caught myself, so it was (unfortunately) due. Outside of the mini-filets, the shave was wonderful! This is right up there with King of Oud and Rose Chypre Concerto for my favorite WK scent....and my favorite out of the plethora of fougere's that Sri has released.
 
Sorry Murphy visited you. Other than that, it seemed to be a good shave.
 
Quijote said:
Sorry Murphy visited you. Other than that, it seemed to be a good shave.
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Thanks Don! It was a good shave other than the bites...it's been a good 16 months since the last time I got bit, so I guess I was overdue.
 
Heh, a 2nd time for good measure from Murphy. That guy just don't play fair.
 
Sorry Old Man Murphy was lurking. Sounds like the rest of your face are nice and smooth though.
 
NurseDave said:
Heh, a 2nd time for good measure from Murphy. That guy just don't play fair.
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Yeah, Murphy ran a real good Psy-OPS campaign on me to get me to do that twice in succession. I'll have to ramp up my IO efforts to counter this...

Xenostr8shaver said:
nice stuff Josh, as I get caught up
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Thanks Dave!

DocHoliday0831 said:
Murphy sucks!!! Good shave otherwise though.
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Thanks TJ! Indeed he does...but he definitely keeps us on our toes!

Majorrich said:
Sorry Old Man Murphy was lurking. Sounds like the rest of your face are nice and smooth though.
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Thanks Rich...it was a good shave otherwise. I'm going to have to speak with the powers that be and make sure the guard force doesn't let him on camp next time.
 
Wednesday, 28 March, 2018
Asylum Shave Works Royal Fougere | ERN Ator Swayback 5/8”
Currently on Shave #475 | Straight shave #284

"Ode to Dave"

Fougere shave #6 brought Asylum Shave Works Royal Fougere to the table…a wonderful rendition of fougere reminiscent of Penhaligon’s English Fern and Geo F. Trumper’s Wild Fern. I haven’t had an opportunity to try Wild Fern, but this soap is very close to English Fern, which is a huge positive. The soap is made by one of the Cadre’s favorite soap makers out of Chandler, AZ, in their Tallow base. To say that the combination of soap base and fragrance is stellar is an understatement. I chose the Paladin Cleo, and purposefully overloaded the soap. Normally, I bowl lather, but with these soaps, the best performance is unlocked with a combination of bowl and face lathering. I bowl lather until I get the lather to nice and almost too lose consistency. It normally has a bit too much air in it at this point. From there, I go ahead and begin to face lather, which knocks quite a bit of the air out of the soap, turning it into a great thick and cushioned lather. The addition of a touch of water brings out the slickness…perfect for just about any shave!

Following Monday’s visit by Murphy, I was debating grabbing one of my safety razors to take care of the shave, but it had healed up enough where I decided to go ahead with the straight. I grabbed the ERN, as it’s one of my more reliable razors, recently touched up. With a solid base of slick lather, the ERN went to work, taking care of the first two passes without any incident, even going over the previous incident without any problem. For the ATG pass, I did the cheeks and jawline with a bit of skin pulling, but left the chin, neck and moustache area for the ‘jectah. This ultimately was a very wise choice in the end, as the ‘jectah threatened to catch on the wound the first time over. I avoided that spot from there on, and ended up finishing with a BBS, with that nickel sized spot being DFS. Alum and aftershave did sting a little in that spot, but was absolutely quiet everywhere else. Topped off with EF infused balm, and a few dotties of EF to cap a great shave.


Have a great day everyone!
 
Great read, shave, and picture Josh!

Agreed that Asylum Royal Fougere is a great scent and soap!
 
Hmmm, you know, I haven't tried a single soap from them yet. Not sure how that happened.
 
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