As the sharp eyed reader might have spotted, the last couple of my SOTDs have featured the Williams Mug Soap, which I got as part of a care package from a friend and gentleman from my favourite shave forum.

In addition to the soap – which he offered to ship since I haven’t had the opportunity to try it previously – he put a lot of other welcome items in the box as well.

A lovely bevy of samples – allegedly taking up space in his drawers, but a windfall for me.

• Four samples of Saponificio Varesino after shaves; Cubebe, Dolomiti, Tundra Artica, and Manna Di Sicilia
• A sample of Esbjerg shaving cream
• A sample of Stirling Soap Co’s Barbershopw shampoo bar
• four B&M aftershave samples; two Reserve Cool, one each of Reserve Classic and Reserve Spice

Add to the soap and the samples a nice selection of blades; Med Preps, Lab Blues, Israeli Personnas and Crystals. From what he tells me the Med Preps and Lab Blues might be similar, so I’ll be sure to do some compare and contrast between the two – perhaps load up my Gillette Old from the my Khaki Kit with one and my Gillette Single Ring with the other and use them on opposite sides of my face?

And in addition to all that – which was already beyond what I was expecting – my friend found it in his heart to add a GEM G-bar, also known as the Heavy Flat Top. I do enjoy GEM and other vintage Single Edge Razors, and I am beyond excited to add the G-Bar to my rotation.

So a big thank you and shout out to Charlie – both for his friendship and for the box filled with joy!