Pre: La Toja Pre Shave Soap
Brush: St James of London 28mm SB
Razor: Merkur Progress, 3.5
Blade: Wilkinson Sword Premium Chromium courtesy of
@Mark1966
Soap: Ogallala - Bay Rum, Limes & Peppercorns
After:Balm
After Shave: Ogallala - Bay Rum, Limes & Peppercorns
I got caught up with some
real property case law last night and with the exception of a brief doze on the lounge it ended up being 5:15am before I knew it...
Bit of a lengthy post this morning, a review of the soap and the 'old razor blades' so apologies in advance. I have been dabbling unartistically with Autodesks 'Pixlr' (Google ap store, free) for my SOTD's in a vain & futile attempt to match the photographic excellence I see posted here.
Just briefly, I 'grate and sprayed' the puck of Ogallala, didn't bother freezing the puck and rarely do, unless its hot and humid. I just go with a clean coarse grater and a mister bottle of cold water, pressing the soap flakes down in layers: nice pinch of grated soap flakes - a light spray then plenty of pushing it down to the edges evenly. As depicted you can see I use soap (actually food) containers I picked up for $3.50 from via TSW. The technique is simple, it works and it works well for those (imho) bloody irritating and probably American odd puck sizes - I keep my soap sealed as it preserves the scent for months even years and I insist on basically uniform tub size for storage reasons. The scent of the Bay Rum Lime and Peppercorns from releasing all the oils during grating is worth it for the experience alone.
So how did the Ogalla Bay Rum, Limes & Peppercorn perform ?
Well. It lathers effortlessly, a soaked brush, shaken of excess water and almost 'dry' and a pre-load of 25 seconds or so 'like you hate it' of course loaded more than a sufficient amount onto the brush for a generous 3 passes, or an obscenely indulgent and enjoyable 2 pass shave for me (WTG XTG). The soap was a little thirsty but no more than most and certainly not a stand out in that regard. The scent as it suffuses is fantastic, Bay Rum sure, Lime YES! with just a sublimated hint of pepper. A thick, generous lather full of cushion, mid level glide and a top tier post shave finish...plenty of facial moisture and hydration on the BBS. As to be expected there is a little hum from the Bay Rum, but certainly not a cat'o'nine tails searing like some other brands. I like Ogallala a lot, the lime is balanced very well and the Bay Rum does not flatten the proceedings nor is it overburdened with clove which tends to extinguish all else. A really nice, thoroughly enjoyable mid tier soap which I picked up for $15 or so on special some months back. I plan on grabbing another puck when they restock, its a spin on bay rum that I will wear and use in Summertime.
I never put straight alcohol splashes onto my skin, I'm as white as a sheet with fair skin and I get redness and irritation if I shave then splash. I used to be a balms only guy, but with a nice application of After Balm to protect the skin I can then liberally apply aftershaves. A fantastic scent from the Ogalla Bay Rum, Limes, Peppercorn splash. Again, it's balanced and it endures for a good 4 to 5 hours.
And what about those Wilkinson Sword blades our resident wet-shave curator par excellence so kindly sent me ?
A bit experimental this morning - almost reckless in my book. A few packs of judiciously selected and decidedly vintage looking blades arrived a week or so ago by way of an education from our nations capital and I have slowly, with some trepidation been using them.Probably very run of the mill for some of the older members here but new to me. These old blades are good I will say - I get it now - Sort of - I have one brand left to try being (Gillette Super Stainless (AKA - pre-Spoilers). Coincidentally I used Wilkinson Sword blades some 15 years ago in an old Fatboy and my father before me used them all his life, howeverthere has been so much water under the bridge since then I cannot honestly recall with any accuracy, their performance or much regarding the shaves.
So, Wilkinson Sword - A traditional blade, an English blade..No eastern european "I'll take a thousand please, what do you mean the factory shut down oh CRIKEY! better make it 5,000" business here. Seriously though, they are nice blades and afford a great shave albeit not as efficiently (they are less sharp) as my Feathers however the margin for error after pulling an all nighter reading NSWSC judgements is something worth considering. I will definitely be keeping the rest of them for future trips down memory lane or if my hoard of 100 feathers runs out. As an aside I explained the vintage blade hoarding thing to my wife who sighed, smiled and put the kettle on - I didn't think mentioning the 'spreadsheets' was advisable at that juncture as she would most likely think me quite mad....
Saturday morning...I'm a little tired, but well read, and most importantly I had a bloody good shave and that's what really matters.
Shave well today gentlemen! Let's see your best
2016-09-03_07-25-09 by tvrepairzone, on Flickr
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