2008.05.03 Shave of the Day

*Shave of the Day*

Category	Mfg	Item Name	Rating 1-5	Blog Link
	Shower
Bath Soap:	Issy	Sandalwood Rose Bar Soap	5	[Link]
Shampoo/Conditioner:	Lucky Tiger	Super Dandruff Shampoo	4	[Link]
Facial Wash:	Burt's Bees	Soap Bark & Chamomile Deep Cleansing Cream	4	[Link]
Hair Tonic:	Pinaud Clubman	Eau de Portugal Hair Tonic	4	[Link]
	Shave
Razor:	Feather	Artist Club DX Japanese Style Non-Folding Razor ACD-N	5	[Link]
Razor Blades:	Feather	Professional Blades for Feather ACD-N	4	[Link]
Razor:	Merkur	500 Progress Adjustable Double Edged Safety Razor Chrome	5	[Link]
Razor Blades:	Personna	Double Edge Super Platinum Chrome Razor Blades (Comfort Coated)	4	[Link]
Brush:	Shavemac	23mm Custom Nickel Blue Silvertip Badger Fan Shaped Shave Brush	5	[Link]
Shave Cream/Soap:	The Gentlemen's Quarter	Mandarin Ice Glycerin Shave Soap	4	[Link]
	Post Shave
Aftershave:	Master	Musk Aftershave
	Other
Shaving Other:	Face Prep	Hot Towel Treatment
Shaving Other:	Lather Prep	Lather building directly on face.
Shaving Other:	Technique	(Feather WTG)/(DE 45XTG/ATG Cleanup)

Result: 4.6/5.0 Nothing wrong with this shave. Finally didn't kill myself shaving on a weekend because I didn't shave right after doing yard work. It's about time! I treated the shave soap like a stick and rubbed it on my face. Tons of lather.

2008.05.05 Shave of the Day

*Shave of the Day*

Category	Mfg	Item Name	Rating 1-5	Blog Link
	Shower
Bath Soap:	Issy	Sandalwood Rose Bar Soap	5	[Link]
Shampoo/Conditioner:	Lucky Tiger	Super Dandruff Shampoo	4	[Link]
Facial Wash:	Burt's Bees	Soap Bark & Chamomile Deep Cleansing Cream	4	[Link]
Hair Tonic:	Lucky Tiger	3 Roses Hair Tonic	4	[Link]
	Shave
Razor:	Feather	Artist Club DX Japanese Style Non-Folding Razor ACD-N	5	[Link]
Razor Blades:	Feather	Professional Blades for Feather ACD-N	4	[Link]
Razor:	Merkur	500 Progress Adjustable Double Edged Safety Razor Chrome	5	[Link]
Razor Blades:	Personna	Double Edge Super Platinum Chrome Razor Blades (Comfort Coated)	4	[Link]
Brush:	Crabtree & Evelyn	Edwin Jagger Made Brass & Faux Ebony Best Badger Shave Brush	4	[Link]
Shave Cream/Soap:	Rick Browning	Rosey Shave Scream (QED RoseGeranium soap + TOBS rose cream)	3+	[Link]
	Post Shave
Facial Toner:	Thayer's	Rose Petal Witch Hazel & Aloe Toner	4
	Other
Shaving Other:	Face Prep	Mild cleanser begin shower. 45-60 sec HOT water end shower 20-30 sec splash begin shave.
Shaving Other:	Lather Prep	Lather building directly on face.
Shaving Other:	Technique	(Feather WTG)/(DE 45XTG/ATG Cleanup)

Result: 4.2/5.0 I weeper at bottom of neck. I put a chunk of Rick's scream into the middle of the brush and face lathered it. More lather than I know what to do with. The screams are like super lathers and give the best of both worlds of cream and soaps. Nice job. I passed the A/S stage and just slapped on some Rose Petal Thayer's.

2008.05.02 Shave of the Day

*Shave of the Day*

Category	Mfg	Item Name	Rating 1-5	Blog Link
	Shower
Bath Soap:	Issy	Sandalwood Rose Bar Soap	5	[Link]
Shampoo/Conditioner:	Lucky Tiger	Super Dandruff Shampoo	4	[Link]
Facial Wash:	Burt's Bees	Soap Bark & Chamomile Deep Cleansing Cream	4	[Link]
Hair Tonic:	Lucky Tiger	3 Roses Hair Tonic	4	[Link]
	Shave
Razor:	Feather	Artist Club DX Japanese Style Non-Folding Razor ACD-N	5	[Link]
Razor Blades:	Feather	Professional Blades for Feather ACD-N	4	[Link]
Razor:	Merkur	500 Progress Adjustable Double Edged Safety Razor Chrome	5	[Link]
Razor Blades:	Personna	Double Edge Super Platinum Chrome Razor Blades (Comfort Coated)	4	[Link]
Brush:	Patrick Camara	24mm Custom Afzelia Burl Wood Silvertip Badger Shave Brush		[Link]
Shave Cream/Soap:	Kent	Lanolin Shave Soap	4	[Link]
	Post Shave
Aftershave Balm:	Lucky Tiger	Mint & Menthol Vanishing Cream	4	[Link]
Aftershave:	Pinaud Clubman	Citrus Musk Eau De Cologne	4	[Link]
Facial Toner:	Thayer's	Lavender Witch Hazel & Aloe Toner (Used as body moisturizer)	4	[Link]
	Other
Shaving Other:	Face Prep	Mild cleanser begin shower. 45-60 sec HOT water end shower 20-30 sec splash begin shave.
Shaving Other:	Lather Prep	Lather building directly on face.
Shaving Other:	Technique	WTG/45XTG/Cleanup
Shaving Other:	Technique	(Feather WTG)/(DE 45XTG/ATG Cleanup)

Result: 4.6/5.0 Nice, close, no hassle shave with the Kent (Mitchell's Wool Fat) Lanolin Shave Soap. I used the Thayers' Lavender Toner as a body moisturizer to great effect. The brush I have been using all week has broken in very nicely.

Thayers' Witch Hazel Facial Toners

Many many uses for this product. I primarily use it as a post shave facial toner and a dry skin moisturizer. Either way, it a great product to have around. I have the Lavender, Original and Rose Petal versions and I need to get the Cucumber version. The Lavender and Rose Petal versions are lightly scented and fade fairly quickly so you don't walk around all day smell like flowers but they do complement and Rose or Lavender shave creams/soaps you used. As a moisturizer, I find these products to work well for light-moderate dryness and if you pair them up with a heavy moisturizer you get the a better result IMHO.

Kent Lanolin Shave Soap

This soap is also known as Mitchell's Wool Fat Soap. It's the same soap but can be usually found a little cheaper. This soap is a little different kind of animal as it is lanolin based versus the normal glycerin based shave soap. It has very little scent to it and can be tough to get the lather right. I suggest definitely putting a some water on this soap to soak a little for trying to lather off of it. It will go much better for you. The glide, comfort and everything is quite nice. Some shavers say it drys out there skin a little but I find it to be fine. I think because I go to the trouble of soaking the soap and making sure there is enough water in the lather on my face. Good soap to have in your rotation but this soap may not be for everyone.

Question about Brush Stiffness

There was a question about brush stiffness in one of The Shave Den forum postings about floppy and brush stiffness in general.

The questions were:

1.) Is there a difference between Floppiness and Lack of Stiffness?

2.) Does grade affect stiffness (pure, best, silver/super)?

3.) Which manufacturers or models are stiffer and which are less so?

I posted the following answer:

"All good questions. There are many variables in brush stiffness. Type of hair, loft of brush, density of brush and so on. Some rules of thumb would be Silvertip is softer (less stiff) then regular badger, shorter loft is stiffer than longer loft and finally denser brushes (read how many hairs packed per square cm). Floppy just means when you wet the brush the hairs spread out all over the place indicating a lack of stiffness or backbone to a brush. As far as manufacturers go, that's a research project all it's own. I know, I'm generalizing here but even between the same brush what's floppy to you may not be floppy to someone else or maybe the manufacturer happened to pack the brush a little denser. "

As a an added note, I consider floppy to have very little backbone so when the brush spreads out it has very little spring back. An ideal brush for me would be one that was packed very densely, a loft around 50-55mm, a knot of about 23-24mm and a high end grade "best badger" that has fairly stiff bristles with soft tips.

2008.05.01 Shave of the Day

*Shave of the Day*

Category	Mfg	Item Name	Rating 1-5	Blog Link
	Shower
Bath Soap:	Issy	Sandalwood Rose Bar Soap	5	[Link]
Shampoo/Conditioner:	Lucky Tiger	Super Dandruff Shampoo	4	[Link]
Facial Wash:	Burt's Bees	Soap Bark & Chamomile Deep Cleansing Cream	4	[Link]
Hair Tonic:	Lucky Tiger	3 Roses Hair Tonic	4	[Link]
	Shave
Razor:	Feather	Artist Club DX Japanese Style Non-Folding Razor ACD-N	5	[Link]
Razor Blades:	Feather	Professional Blades for Feather ACD-N	4	[Link]
Razor:	Merkur	500 Progress Adjustable Double Edged Safety Razor Chrome	5	[Link]
Razor Blades:	Personna	Double Edge Super Platinum Chrome Razor Blades (Comfort Coated)	4	[Link]
Brush:	Patrick Camara	24mm Custom Afzelia Burl Wood Silvertip Badger Shave Brush		[Link]
Shave Cream/Soap:	Kiss My Face	Unscented Shave Cream	4	[Link]
Shave Cream/Soap:	Ogallala	Bay Rum Glycerin Shave Soap - New Formula	3	[Link]
	Post Shave
Aftershave Balm:	Lucky Tiger	Mint & Menthol Vanishing Cream	4	[Link]
Aftershave:	Ogallala	Bay Rum Aftershave	5	[Link]
	Other
Shaving Other:	Face Prep	Mild cleanser begin shower. 45-60 sec HOT water end shower 20-30 sec splash begin shave.
Shaving Other:	Lather Prep	Lather building directly on face.
Shaving Other:	Technique	WTG/45XTG/Cleanup
Shaving Other:	Technique	(Feather WTG)/(DE 45XTG/ATG Cleanup)

Result: 4.6/5.0 Much better lather result this time. I scrubbed the heck out of the soap to get more soap and I added a squirt of Kiss My Face Cream and got a very good combination lather. So, I added some KMF to the Ogallala Soap container with a sprits of Ogallala Bay Rum Aftershave and will let it marinate a few days and see what happens.