A while back I received a small 1 oz bottle of beard oil from WSP.
There is not too much to say about it really; the oil work very well, the smell is pleasant but quite strong. If you’re after a beard oil and either prefers or wants a scent that lingers all day, this is a pretty good one.
Direct from BullGoose shaving supplies in California, a tub of Dr. Selby Lavender Luxury Shaving Cream – three times concentrated. Was intended to arrive by Christmas 2015, but with the delays in the Norwegian postal system…
The hard cream came with an operators manual in Spanish, but luckily a fellow shaver over at my favourite shave forum translated it into English in his review a couple of years back:
Always leave the tub open and use the cap as a base. The reason is because Dr. Selby shaving cream (in the tub 3 times concentrated) will always have a dry surface and it will render 400 shaves. Only in case of travel cover the cream.
Wet the brush, discharge the water over your face then swirl the brush in the tub as shown in the image. This way the cream will not get wet and it will not waste too fast.
To multiply the cream production on your face. Wet the brush a little more and keep swirling until it turns creamy, compact with no air bubbles.
Roughly halfway through my LEA shavestick. It’s a nice stick for travel, since it comes in a very sturdy plastic container.
And the app is pretty okay – not bad, but not fantastic.
Shaving Buddy, available for Android, lets me keep track of my shaving hardware and software, track their use, enter my Shave of the Day, and – allegedly – share it on imgur.
Allegedly?
Yeah, I simply can’t get that feature to work. Which is a shame, because that would be neat, but it also don’t matter too much to me. The ability to keep track of my gear, usage statistics and seeing what gives me the best shaves is enough in my opinion to recommend it.
There is a free version available, but you’re limited to five items in each category (razor, blade, brush, lather, aftershave, and additional care). You might want to give the free version a go before shelling out 3USD for the full version. I decided to pay the full price, since I felt it was worth it to me. YMMV.
A couple of months ago I picked up a Wilkinson Sword Badger brush as a souvenir while abroad. I’ve been keeping it in my rotation since, and feel I’ve gotten enough of a feel for it to do a quick review.
The first thing to keep in mind is that the Wilkinson Sword Badger is NOT an expensive brush – I paid 6.25€ for mine in a supermarket – I’m sure it can be gotten even cheaper elsewhere. It would therefore be unfair to compare it a high end badger, or a reasonable priced horsehair for that matter.
The handle is conical with an oval base – it’s wider than deep – and sits okay in my hand; not bad, but not great either. The knot is reasonable soft without being overly floppy, has good flow and don’t shed much… a hair every other shave or so. It was slightly scritchy the first couple of lathers, but that has disappeared along with most of the backbone – in other words not the best brush on a hard soap. It works wonders on soft soaps though, loading up fast and efficiently.
Overall I think the Wilkinson Sword Badger is a great brush for the price – keeping in mind that the price is low. Recommended for the shaver on a budget, or for those wanting to try out traditional wetshaving without breaking the bank.
Apparently there is an app for everything these days – I’ve deceided to test out once that promises to make it easier to keep track of my gear, add notes, compare shaves and apperantly also makes it easier to share a SOTD.
Stay tuned – the free version only lets you keep track of a limitet number of items in each category (razors, brushes, blades, soaps, aftershaves and other stuff), so I might have to go premium.
Grooming and skin care isn’t a thing that only us guys do – in fact, I suspect some of the ladies spends at least as much time and care on their skin as we do on our beard and faces… maybe even more!
Joking aside, my Better Half found a recipe for home made body butter online a while back, and wanted to give it a go. The original recipe called for a half cup each of shea butter, cocoa butter, coconut oil, and a light oil like olive or jojoba – essential oils are optional. Now, neither of us are any good at following recipes… we like to tweak them to suit us. So the recipe we ended making was closer to this:
A bit more complicated than the original… but the end result was worth it.
We measured out the solids and oils in a glass bowl and put the bowl in a pot of water on the stove to melt it while stirring. Once melted, we took it of the heat and let it cool a bit before we added the essential oils and put it in the fridge to cool for an hour. Taking it out of the fridge, we whipped the half solid goo with an electric hand mixer for about ten minutes, before putting it back in the fridge for another hour or so. Then it was just a matter of scooping it into a suitable jar, and apply to dry skin.
The verdict? So far, much better than the stuff you can buy in the stores or online. A bit on the goopey side, but soaks into the skin in five minutes or so.
A few months back I got my hands on an old soldier – thanks to a fellow gentleman over at my favourite shave forum – and I’ve put the old warrior into use again when I take to the field. He don’t live in my GoBag, but I use him when I’m away on training and when I’ve to spend the night at base.
I’m talking about my Gillette Khaki Set, off course. The serial number marks him as a mid 1918 production, and the single button enclosure he lives him is usually encountered with the first Khaki Sets manufactured for the US Army when they got entangled in the Great War.
The razor itself is a “typical” Old Type Ball End, and the handle has suffered the all too typical crack, without degrading the experience or making the razor less excellent. To me it simply highlights the fact that the old warrior is getting close to a hundred years old, and I actually decided against repairing it for now.
My kit is overall definitely “user grade”: the mirror has gone AWOL at some point, which apparently detracts from the collectors value of the kit… good thing I’m not collecting, but using it. The blade holder is still in great shape, as is the enclosure itself. The print on the inside of the flap has worn a fair bit, but is still legible with the help of a bright lamp.
The Razor itself is a reasonable mild razor, at least when paired with a blade such as the Perma-Sharp Super. The ball on the end of the handle makes it somewhat tail heavy, which could help people new to traditional wetshaving keeping a low pressure. The chequering on the handle is still sharp, which helps with gripping the razor with slippery fingers – being from too much lathering or from the mud of Flanders… even if you’re not in the marked for a Khaki Set, I can definitely recommend a Gillette Old Type.
Value – priceless, given the history.
Quality – high for the whole kit, having been around for almost a hundred years and still in great shape.
User friendliness – uhm.. it’s a three piece razor, how can it not be user friendly?
Grip – as mentioned, great after all these years.
Blade replacement – again, it’s a simple three piece razor.
Aggressiveness – midrange, despite some claims online that the Old Type is aggressive.
Balance – heavy in the tail
Overall – a good razor in a great kit.
A fair number of fellow shavers over on my favourite shave forum thinks that the BiC Sensitive is pretty good razors for being plastic disposables… so when I spotted a bag over at our local tools / work clothes / household goods store for a little more than a bottle of soda, I had to pick it up.
Having used one for a week, I’m somewhat on the fence about them. They are not horrible in the way that carts are for me, in other words no shave bumps and rashes, but they feel fairly flimsy and way too light… probably to be expected from disposables costing next to nothing, but it does mean I can’t find a space for them in my den.
I’ll give another one a go next time I’m travelling. If I don’t like them for that use, I have free razors to hand out to the conscripts that shows up unshaven on mondays and claims to have forgotten their razors at home…
The parts of my facial growth that I keep and cultivate – ie.: my goatee – needs some tender loving care as well. Oil, balm and wax is part of the solution, but much like lather is useless without a razor, those are of limited use without a proper comb.
When I picked up beard oil and balm from Big Red, I choose a comb as well – the No7 in cherry appealed to my tastes, so that is the one I choose.
The comb is sturdily made from laminated cherry and maple, and the packaging is even more sturdy.
It’s not too much to say about the No7 comb, and none of it bad. It combs out tangles, helps spread the beard oil and in general do a wonderful job go taming my curly, wild beard.
If you have a beard or a moustache, you probably need to comb it from time to time… and while a comb from Big Red isn’t as cheap as the plastic ones from the corner store, it feels much more natural to use as part of my daily grooming.
Recommended.