Tag Archives: Grooming

Quick review: Emporio Armani’s “Stronger With You”

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Another freebie I gotten recently, the “Stronger with you” is another masculine scent.

The base is fairly noticeable; with it’s blend of musk, cedar and vanilla it almost drowns out the sage that constitutes the main body of the scent. The top-notes of rose-pepper and cardamon comes through nicely though.

To my nose it’s a nice, unobstructive scent – it’s not a scent that takes a lot of time or though to work through, yet it’s not so simple as to be dismissed. To me it’s a confident, yet young and/or immature scent – better suited for a man in his twenties than in his sixties… although your mileage may vary, as always.

Quick review: Gucci Guilty Absolute pour homme

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A freebie I received a little while ago, the Gucci Guilty Absolute pour Homme is a pretty decent masculine scent for winter use.

To my nose it’s a somewhat fruity scent, with a deep base note of cedar and patchouli, with  lavender, lemon and orange flower on top. Long lasting, distinct yet neutral, with a complex simplicity…. yeah, pretend that last bit made sense. You can put it on and forget about it, or put it on and spend a few hours untangling it… works just as well both ways.

It’s also approved by the Better Half, which is always a good thing. It may well be a little on the heavy side for summer, but it suits winter just fine.

Simple pleasures

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A repost from another blog of mine, from 2010 – with some pictures from other posts added

It is something very satisfying to whip up your own lather before shaving… to see a tiny bit of shaving cream and a few drops of water turn into a nice, thick, rich and nice smelling lather. The slightly cool feel as the eucalyptus and menthol lather first touches, and then covers, most of the face – and then taking it off with long, controlled strokes with my old fashioned safety razor. A quick splash of water, and then the sting of the alum as it finds the small nicks and scratches that I couldn’t see in the mirror.

It don’t matter if the lather cup I use is a bright pink snack bow from Ikea. It don’t matter if my brush is a reasonably cheap one from Body Shop. It don’t even matter that my bathroom is a ‘three toilets, three showers’ shared ablution container that – frankly – is a bit run down. What matters is that it’s five minutes of ManTime, and a link to my more or less daily routine at home. Try that with a spray can full of foam and plastic razors with five blades…

Moving onwards

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Over the last few months I’ve amassed a fair number of perfume and EdT samplers… the benefit of being patient when my Better Half visits makeup stores (“…and one sample for you for being a good sport”, as the cashiers would say).

So I’ll do my best going forward to put my unsophisticated nose to work, and do some reviews of those – and my stack of unreviewed aftershaves.

New arrival in the Den: Proraso Wood and Spice

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Smells pretty good. Will report on performance.

Lessons identified

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The Clearasonic vibrating face brush gadget is a wonderful and efficient tool to get a deep clean of the skin (I might do a full review of it later).

My love for Dr Bronner’ 18-in-1 Organic Pure Castile Liquid Soap with Peppermint should be obvious from how often I use it as a preshave soap.

The two combined makes for a rather intense experience… not painful per see, but my face still tingles an hour after the incident.

Why I shave / buzz my head

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As some of you might have guessed from one of my posts earlier this year – titled “Head shaving for n00bs” – I’m in the habit of buzzing and sometimes shaving my head. While people might do that for several good reasons, these are mine reasons to do so:

  • It’s damn convenient – saves time in the shower and saves money at the hairdresser
  • It’s comfortable, particularly in summer when it’s hot (in fact, I started while in Africa) but also under a cap or hat in winter
  • I’ve been informed that it looks good on me (YMMV)
  • Gray hairs? What gray hairs?
  • Did I mention convenient?

Taking care of face and beard

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A local chain have started carrying this brand, and so far I’m quite satisfied with both the face cleaners, the moisturiser and the beard stuff. I’ll review each in more detail as I get around to it.

Head shaving for n00bs

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I’m sure I’m doing pretty much every single thing wrong when it comes to this, but I’ve shaved my head twice now without neither slicing my noggin to ribbons nor leaving tufts of hairs… so I can’t be that far off the mark.

Usually I get help buzzing my head with some decent clippers. Since I’m on the go for right now, I had to take matters in my own hands – I had a hair colour, and that means my hair was longer than I like.

What you’ll need:

  • Some form of clippers, if you wait as long between shaving your head as I have been.
  • A razor, and based on other peoples comments on my favorite shave forum, I decided against a DE.
  • A brush, and I picked my cheap synth since it was next to my BiC in the bag.
  • Shaving soap, and stick seemed sensible to me.
  • A handheld mirror, as well as wall mounted mirror
  • Aftershave or moisturizer.

Start by buzzing of as much as possible of the hair, using the mirror to make sure you haven’t missed any spots. Rinse well. Apply soap and lather. Shave carefully, using the mirror and avoid any pressure. Rinse and repeat. Wash any remaining soap off, inspect and apply aftershave and/or moisturizer. And that is that.

Got a haircut the other day

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