Pre-shave: Dr Bronner’s Magic Soap, liquid peppermint
Lather: Nieva Shave Cream
Brush: Body Shop syntetic brush
Razors: Merkur 985CL loaded with a fresh “Lord Platinum” blade
Post-shave: cold water rinse and Aubrey Men’s Stock North Woods aftershave
Still on the road, so still shaving from the GoBag. A pretty good shave all things considered, despite being somewhat rushed.
Lots of fun stuff here. First out, the bowl that one of the guys on my favourite shave forum referred to as a fairy tale shave bowl. It’s quite nice, even more so when the price is taken into consideration:
I made sure to pick up a Arko shaving cream – I haven’t tried it before, and this one is mentholated… I like menthol:
Then it’s the great unknown: one of the cheapest razors I’ve come across so far. I opted for the boxed version, which brought up the price by 50% – and it was still under 3 USD! Almost scared to try it… but also oh so tempted. Gents, let me present the YUMA! Notice the hollow handle, the paper-thin head and the “who knows what fell into the pot” zinc alloy;
Next up a quality razor from Egypt – or at least more expensive than the yuma. Still cheap and hopefully cheerful, the Racer Razor – which I seriously am considering as part of a starter kit I’m planning to put together:
And last, but not least, the neck duster I told my Better Half was the reason for the whole order – so she can get all the little crumbs off my neck and shoulders when she buzzes my head.
It’s like having an impromptu little Christmas!
Pre-shave: Dr Bronner’s Magic Soap, liquid peppermint
Lather: Nieva Shave Cream
Brush: Body Shop syntetic brush
Razors: Merkur 985CL loaded with a fresh “Lord Platinum” blade
Post-shave: cold water rinse and Aubrey Men’s Stock North Woods aftershave
On the go again, so still using the stuff in the GoBag. Pretty good shave, but missing my alum block and regular aftershave.
Pre-shave: Dr Bronner’s Magic Soap, liquid peppermint
Lather: Nieva Shave Cream
Brush: Body Shop syntetic brush
Razors: Merkur 985CL loaded with a “Lord Platinum” blade
Post-shave: cold water rinse and Aubrey Men’s Stock North Woods aftershave
Still on the go, so still using the stuff in the GoBag. Third shave with the blade, so while the blade still gave me a DFS it has to go – better to discard a blade that’s good than the suffer a shave with a blade that’s gone sour.
Still I’m on the go, so still reviewing a few of the things in my GoBag…
Bottom line up front? The Body Shop brush is a perfectly acceptable brush.
The one in my GoBag is my second one, after wearing out the first – and I got my third BS brush in my nook at home, as part of my rotation. I bought the brush in my GoBag before I got into DE shaving – canned goo was never for me, so only a couple of weeks after I started shaving frequently I bought my first brush and shave cream from Body Shop. Even with my on-and-off shaving, beard growing and experiments with electrics the brush was worn out after fifteen years… so a replacement was needed. Less than a year later I started DE shaving and realised there were better brushes by far out there… anyhow, back to the brush in question:
The brush itself is simple; a turned wooden handle, a knot of white man-made fibre dyed dark on the tips (probably to imitate badger) and… well, that’s all really. The first one I had had an all white knot, and was much less soft than the current model. The current model is far from badger soft through, or even as soft as a broken in boar. If anything it’s closer to unbroken horse, so if you want a soft touch this may not be the best choice of brush.
It’s not a big brush – about the same size as my Turkish No6 – and the balance is towards the handle. It’s not particularly dense either, but if it had been denser the knot would probably been way to stiff. Speaking of the knot; it don’t really retain much water either – but then again from what I gathered only the most costly of synthetic brushes do. This can be a problem if you like to lather directly on your face, but with a bit of dipping and some pumping it can still deliver a wonderful lather in copious quantities.
What I can say with certainty is that the quality of the brush has been improved – the pair I has gotten over the last three years or so is heads and shoulders above the one I got back in ’92 or thereabouts, before I went to boot camp. The old one would shed a hair, or two or three, each time I used it – the now ones does not. The old handle had a very thin coat of varnish, the newer ones have a thicker, more durable layer.
Overall I would rate the brush as a good starter brush, even if it’s more expensive than my favoured Turkish horses, and a good travel brush considering it dries in less time than it takes me to drink a cup of coffee.
Pre-shave: Dr Bronner’s Magic Soap, liquid peppermint
Lather: Nieva Shave Cream
Brush: Body Shop syntetic brush
Razors: Merkur 985CL loaded with a “Lord Platinum” blade
Post-shave: cold water rinse and Aubrey Men’s Stock North Woods aftershave
Still on the go, so still using the stuff in the GoBag. Miss having my alum block, but otherwise a DFS all things considered.
Since I’m on the go, it makes sense to review a few of the things in my GoBag…
I received a tube of Nivea Mild a little while ago as part of a generous PIF, but have been too busy with my other soaps to take time to try it. Since it’s in a tube, I decided to put it in my GoBag before I went this time around, and I don’t regret it.
It lathers easily enough with the help of a brush, and I suspect it’ll lather up okay even if you shave brushless. It provides a decent glide and cushion, although not quite up there with some of my better soaps – still more than acceptable though, and heads and shoulders over any canned goo you can think of. According to the label it should “pflegt & entspannt” – that’s “nourishes and relaxes” for those who’s German is a bit rusty – and it certainly feels good on the skin.
The scent is faint and lemony, but reminds me a little bit of air freshener… it’s not a bad smell, but since I’m mostly using hand made and somewhat high end soaps at home I’m a bit spoiled. As much as it galls me to say so, the Nivea Mild smells of of fake scent. If you can live with that is up to you – I don’t have a problem with it while I’m travelling at least, but it would put the cream out of the rotation if I was in my nook.
Overall, if you want cream in a tube and don’t mind manufactured scents – as opposed to natural ones – I can recommend the Nivea Mild.
Pre-shave: Dr Bronner’s Magic Soap, liquid peppermint
Lather: Nieva Shave Cream
Brush: Body Shop syntetic brush
Razors: Merkur 985CL loaded with a fresh “Lord Platinum” blade
Post-shave: cold water rinse and Aubrey Men’s Stock North Woods aftershave
On the go – so using the stuff in the GoBag. The Nivea Shave Cream is part of a genrous PIF from a fellow shaver, and performs rather well for face lathering. The aftershave was a sample bottle the Better Half got me, and while it smells okay, it has little in the way of heal, seal and moisturise that I’ve gotten used to from my regular aftershave. Overall a pretty good shave while away from my nook.
Pre-shave: Dr Bronner’s Magic Soap, tea tree oil bar
Lather:Col Conk’s Bay Rum
Brush: Still new Vie-Long 14033 mixed horse-badger brush
Razors: Parker 22R with “Gillette Goal Stainless”, Feather Popular with a “Feather Hi Stainless”
Post-shave: Alum block and Krampert’s Finest
Still breaking in my new brush – letting it meet the Colonel today – and it just keeps getting better. I might have taken the blade in the 22R one shave too far though, got a few bumps on my lower neck. Overall a pretty decent shave, head and shoulders above anything I managed using cartridges.
I was lucky enough to get a full size bottle of Krampert’s Finest Bay Rum Aftershave as a PIF a little while back, and would like to share my experience with it.
The short version: If you like bay rum, get hold of a bottle of Krampert’s Finest. If you don’t like bay rum, a bottle of Krampert’s Finest will likely change your opinion – so get hold of one.
The longer version? Well, if you insist…
Krampert’s Finest is – if you’re to believe his website, and I see no reason not to – the result of a man being unsatisfied with the available aftershaves and wanting to make something better. I would say Krampert have more than succeeded; this is a damn nice aftershave.
The scent is hard to describe… partly cause I’m not terrible familiar with what Bay Rum is “supposed” to smell like. It smells different than my Col Conk Bay Rum shaving soap, which is my only other exposure to Bay Rum. It is however a very nice scent, perhaps slightly old fashioned but not in a bad way – more like a Porsche 911 is an old fashioned car… perhaps a better term is “classic”.
The scent also triggers some recollection on my part – like a memory I can’t quite pin down. Not a bad memory, mind you, but still.. wish I could pin it down. Oh well, I’m on a tangent.
The customs note affixed to the package stated it was a moisturizer, and Krampert’s Finest do a great job of moisturizing my face after my shave – it works so well I have caught myself using it even if I haven’t shaved. It also does a good job of sealing and healing any minor nicks I might have inflicted on myself while shaving.
The aftershave also seems to have a curious ability I can’t quite explain; the scent seems to linger longer those days I want it to. Perhaps it’s just me noticing it more, perhaps I unconsciously puts more on, or perhaps it is magic. I honestly don’t care – it works.
Actually, those two last words there can be used to summarize Krampert’s Finest: It works.
It works better than the other – honestly limited – selection of aftershaves I’ve tried. Smells better too… so go get hold of a bottle. It is just that good.