WetShaving

June 20th, 2025: The Clash

• Brush: Rad Dinosaur Creations - Emerald Peak TnS v9 Tip Badger
• Razor: Schick - Injector
• Blade: Schick Yellow
• Lather: Catie's Bubbles - 322 - Soap
• Post Shave: Spearhead Shaving Company - Seaforth! Sea Spice Lime - Aftershave
• Fragrance: Brut - Classic - Splash On

Daily Theme: 322 is a dark, dank, and even in soap form lingers on the skin, at least I get faint whiffs of it in the hour or two after shaving. Notes of Hatian Vetiver, Patchouli, Oakmoss, and and black currant, it does not exactly inspire images and feelings of zest and life, which is where Sea Spice Lime comes in. Following 322 up with Sea Spice Lime was like slamming and locking up the brakes to make a U-turn. While I can't pick out each note specifically in this, the lime, sea spray, and pink pepper are the key notes that I notice and are a stark contrast to 322. It goes straight from walking out a underground cellar to strolling on the boardwalk with waves on the horizon, the olfactory experience matches this imagery. I finished my shave off with Brut Classic. It is green like SSL, but to me it is not in the same category. The anise hits hard up front and the woodiness sneaks in, a nice green fougere. Some notes are shared between these scents, and everybody's experience of these scents will be different, but to my nose these do not go together well. Each successor steals the show.

Daily Challenge: Here is my entry for today's challenge. I was really racking my brain on figuring something out for today, but I think it is a tasteful photo given my gear and available photo backdrops. The different shades of green are enough to stand on their own, but remain coordinated. The knot, SSL label, and Schick all have that creamy sail/ivory color and lends well to the leaves and stones. Don't forget the black caps. I think this is a nice photo.

June 20th, 2025: The Clash

• Brush: Rad Dinosaur Creations "Nebulagance" - TurnNShave Quartermoon 26mm Synthetic
• Razor: RazoRock - Game Changer .76-P
• Blade: Wizamet Super Iridium (2)
• Lather: Zingari Man - The Master - Soap
• Post Shave: Southern Witchcrafts - Gravefruit II - Aftershave
• Post Shave: Stirling - Glacial Unscented - Balm
• Fragrance: Barrister and Mann - Ubrique - EdP

$discord

Theme: None of these scents make sense together. The spicy barbershop of The Master clashed with the complex citrus in Grave Fruit II. Then the spicy leather of Ubrique barges in and continues the confusing progression.

All great scents, but they don’t really work together naturally.

Dsily challenge: I think the picture works nicely. Props to my lovely wife for the assist.

$selfcare - I spent the day hanging out with old friends, swimming in the Russian River, and drinking good wine. My self care cup feels full.

$fof $roty

Duodi 2 Messidor an 233 de la Révolution, jour d'Avoine

• Brush: Semogue Owner's Club Boar 🐗 'Taj'
• Razor: Thiers Issard Le Grelot
• Lather: Stirling Electric Sheep 🐑
• Postshave: Naissance 702 Witch Hazel
• Postshave: Stirling Electric Sheep Aftershave
• Postshave: Nivea After Shave Balm

And it's already Messidor, summer has begun! And truly, it's 🥵

Electric sheep is a clear summer scent, and I felt mildly refreshed – even though this didn't last very long.

Have a good evening!

~Shared via emacs & sotd.el~

June 20, 2025

• Brush: Zenith r/Wetshaving 31mm x 57mm Moar Boar
• Razor: Gillette Slim Aristocrat H4
• Blade: Gillette Nacet (1)
• Lather: Declaration Grooming - Champs de Lavande - Soap
• Post Shave: Spearhead Shaving Company - Seaforth! Roman Spice - Aftershave
• Post Shave: Thayers - Coconut - Toner
• Fragrance: Maison Francis Kurkdjian - Oud - Eau de Parfum
• Talc: Yardley Classic

2 passes. Face lather. Excellent shave.

These are definitely not scents that complement each other, however, there was an interesting scent journey as I progressed from soap to aftershave to fragrance.

Champs de Lavande notes:
two types of lavender, ylang ylang, eucalyptus, rosemary, bergamot and black pepper

Roman Spice notes:
grapefruit, apple, spring water, jasmine, geranium, frankincense, beachwood, spice

What I found interesting about these two choices is that both fragrances were done by Shawn Maher. While the scents are completely different, I can definitely discern his style in both. While Roman Spice has mass appeal, I'm not so sure that Champs de Lavande does. The idea behind the latter scent is "the embodiment of a Midwestern prairie in an early summer midafternoon". I feel that he really nails this. It feels like an accomplishment in perfumery but perhaps not one that everyone will appreciate. I think it is amazing.

Maison Francis Kurkdjian Oud is, well, and oud fragrance. Again, it doesn't complement the other fragrances, but I don't care. I'm happy to finish any shave with an oud that smells this good.

As for the photo. Magenta and green are complementary colors that predominate the photo. Composition is a matter of taste, so I won't comment on that, but I hope you like it.

June 20th, 2025: Non-Complimentary

• Brush: Stirling Soap Co. 24mm Synthetic
• Blade: Personna Twin Pivot Plus (Atra) Cart (2)
• Lather: Barrister and Mann - Roam Two - Soap
• Post Shave: Old Spice - Original - Aftershave

Theme justification: Roam Two has a sharp grass/hay theme to it. According to this review, grass, thyme, sage, and blackcurrant are the main players. This makes it less mellow and more kablamlow. Roam Two is a new, hip, reimagined take on the original Roam. Old Spice, conversely, is warm, mellow, and overall pleasant. A crowd pleaser. So they're very different, but do they clash? I'll leave that for the judges to decide.

The Clash: Day 20 of Lather Games

• Brush: Declaration Grooming Washington Blood of Kings B3
• Razor: Atelier Durdan – Horizon $ARTISTCLUB $ADJUSTABLE $CNC
• Blade: Feather Professional
• Lather: CBL – Rock the Casbah
• Post Shave: Stirling Soap Co. – Boat Drinks
• Fragrance: Farina – 1709

Theme justification: I never wrote down the scent notes of CBL Rock the Casbah because I don't like the scent, and apparently the internet agrees with me because I can't for the life of me find any person or site that found it worthwhile preserving them. The scent is a strong aromatic lavender (and if you've ever tried CBL, you know what I mean by "strong". It'll wrinkle your nose) with some warm, slightly nausea-inducing note that neither I nor my wife can place. What's sure is that it doesn't play well with sweet banana-coconut-rum combo of boat drinks. Farina's bright Tuscan summer citrus throws a last wrench in this construction. You'll note that I chose products that dissipate quickly.

The star of this shave is the razor. These hashtags have never been seen in that combination before. In this particular community, being European is usually a downside: I pay more for things, get them later, and reselling makes no sense because of shipping costs. But not today. Our ever-busy shave goods sponge u/J33pGuy13 somehow has the juice to get a prototype of the soon-to-be-released Horizon (French horizon, not English) for a pass-around. Since I live closest to Augustin, the pass-around starts with me 🎉.

So this razor has a very simple cam mechanism to move the base plate back and forth w.r.t the top cap where the blade tabs anchor the blade. Looking at the video from Augustin, I was worried about the alignment between the base plate and the top cap as the adjustment bolt slides from one end of the cam to the other, but it turns out that the two pieces have tight tolerances: they slide easily with no perceptible slack. Really satisfying.

I decided to start on level one for this first use. It's fairly straight forward to find the right angle, and even at this lowest exposure, the razor is plenty efficient. The feedback is not quite GEM or Futur level, but quite loud and satisfying by safety razor standards. The head is heavy, maybe the heaviest I've tried, and that includes contraptions like the Wilkinson razor. I'm not sure yet how I feel about that, but it didn't get in the way of a close and comfortable shave.

I'm a sucker for mechanical innovations in safety razors so this is catnip for me. I can't find thrill anymore for yet another very well made three-piece safety razor, but this I can get behind. I'm holding back and try to continue forming opinion until I have more shaves with it under the belt, but this went as well as a first shave can.