3rd
DaveWave94
04.11.2024 - MMMMFF Tobacco
- Brush: vintage yellow bakelite handle w/ 21 mm AP Shave SynBad knot
- Razor: GEM Micromatic Bullet Tip/Flying Wing (gold)
- Blade: GEM PTFE
- Lather: House of Mammoth - Tobacconist
- Post-Shave: HAGS Barberwood AS toner; Alterra men natural ASB
1 pass face shave to get back into the swing of things while still giving my face a bit rest after yesterday's rough shave. Comfortable shave but not close at all.
Oh look, Dave has done the MMMMFF thing despite his aversion to themed shaves! Yeah, sometimes a little nostalgia is all it takes to get me going. Tobacconist was great as always, the Flying Wing is perhaps the GEM razor with the best handle in terms of ergonomics for me and it's a pretty mild but efficient shaver.
I realized today that I totally lack any balms or toners with tobacco... I should change that. Weird justification for impulse buying? Maybe. It'll suffice though. 🤔
Congrats on the kill!
I also managed to cut my nostril [...]
The witches of the South should be pleased by your offering and shall grant you great shaves from now on! 🧝🏼♀️
JK, I hope it heals up soon. Cuts suck.
03.11.2024 - Sunday Comeback
- Brush: RazoRock 400 Noir SE 24 mm
- Razor: Wilkinson Xtreme 3
- Blade: Xtreme 3 cartridge
- Razor: KAI Captain J-7 kamisori shavette
- Blade: KAI Protouch MG
- Lather: E&S Rasage - Barber (sample)
- Post-Shave: Thayer's Original toner; alum block; Alterra men natural ASB
2 passes on the head; 1 plus cleanup on the face. Great dome shave, bad face shave.
First off apologies about the lack of my skincare article - I had about 4 rough drafts but each time my inner perfectionist deemed them not good enough. Imperfect grammar, rambling too much, information being too superficial... I'll try to get back at it this coming week.
Today was a test shave: first of a cartridge razor that I'll take around for travelling near the end of this month. I really like Wilkinsons/Schick's Xtreme 3 disposable razors for head and body shaving, but finding an old one with replaceable cartridges at the dutch discounter yesterday was cool. It's not as flexible as the dispos, but still passed with flying colours.
Then came the moment of using my old kamisori shavette again... and oh boy, do I suck with it. Bless the Japanese for guarded AC blades, otherwise I would have mutilated my face badly. The handling and coordination requirements are vastly different to any DE or SE razor. I liked how great it felt to sculpt the contours of my moustache, but the goatee was troublesome. So I actually scraped off a tiny patch of epidermis near the lower left part of it, on the neck. But well, without the guard it would've been a solid cut. Alum fixed what my lack of technique caused.
The soap is an old sample of E&S. I had way too many of these and now's a good time to kill it. Barber is a very solid barbershop scent, but more in the perfume definition than the wetshaving one. Less sweet, more aromatic. I like this, but not enough to get a full tub.
Hope everyone had a nice weekend ✌🏻
31.10.2024 - Halloween Shave: Samhain
- Brush: RazoRock Beehive 28 mm
- Razor: Leaf Thorn
- Blade: snapped KCG
- Lather: Southern Witchcrafts - Samhain
- Post-Shave: Thayer's Original toner; Natura Siberica ASB gel
1 pass on the head, 1 on the face around my moustache and goatee. The face shave felt better than the head shave - I suppose the dome won't get used to daily shaving.
Ghouls, ghosts and goblins, today is finally Halloween! Of course I used Samhain. I really look forward to this scent every time; sadly this year without the matching AS since I now weirdly have allergic reactions to that.
Today was also a day where I spontaneously decided that I'll trim my short beard down into something different. I now sport a style similar to this - minus the hair and Christian Bale's awesomeness of course. Net profit is that I finally can shave the parts of my jawline that are prone to itching. It felt good to shave my cheeks again - the patchy growth there really doesn't do my skin any favours and I can wear something nicer and tidier now.
So, Halloween is usually a day off for me. We have a regional christian holiday in East Germany and that's why many church officials are strongly opposed to Halloween. Baffling, since Christianity took over celtic pagan traditions with their own holidays. This video explains it very well in short (Buzzfeed Unsolved is way better than their parent company). My only gripe with the holiday? It became too commercial and too soft. Regardless, I hope everyone of you has a fine time today!
30.10.2024 - Halloweek 3: Dreams in the Witch House
- Brush: RazoRock 400 Noir SE 24 mm
- Razor: Leaf Thorn
- Blade: snapped KCG
- Lather: Southern Witchcrafts - GraveFruit II
- Post-Shave: Southern Witchcrafts - GraveFruit II AS; Natura Siberica ASB gel
2 pass head shave. Gave my face some rest as I currently have a bit of a sore throat (yay for everyone around me being sick atm).
It's Witchcrafts Wednesday, it's the season of the witch - and this tub features a skull with grapefruits! What a perfect fit for today.
GF2 is one of my all-time favourites, as some of you already know. It's firmly in my top 10 of amazing scents. It's fresh citrus without smelling like toilet cleaner. It has an aura of sophistication, something very intriguing, almost enchanting - true to the SW name. I never had the opportunity to smell the original, but this one is bliss. This fragrance was created by Shawn Maher and it shows that he's a very skilled perfumer. Yeah, it's a bit better suited for the warmer seasons. But this doesn't stop me from occasionally enjoying it even in winter!
Instead of rambling around about the concept of witches like an idiot, I'll just leave you some music that combines the young genre of 'Witch House' with old folk: Untitled Burial Mix 2
29.10.2024 - Halloweek 2: In Space, nobody hears you scream
- Brush: TGS Galaxy 26 mm
- Razor: RazoRock Hawk V2 w/ Superknurl handle
- Blade: KAI Protouch MG
- Lather: HAGS - Aftermath (vegan version)
- Post-Shave: Moon Soaps Old School "balm"; panthenol after sun cream
1 pass both for head and the beard contours. Slight burn, otherwise good shave.
Today is yet another soap by HAGS - this one still had artwork that could potentially be done by a real person, but unfortunately no artist is credited.
This is the artwork. We see a space exploration uncovering a previous explorer who wasn't so lucky in their adventures. I like the 50s Sci-fi vibes this gives off, kinda like the old horror comics. Apart from the Alien and Predator franchises, Sci-fi horror isn't very successful on the movie front. In gaming, there's Dead Space as a mayor player. Personally I find a space setting or Sci-fi world very intriguing, but it requires a certain amount of world building and lore.
However, HAGS art and names have more often than not zero to do with the scent. This one is a dupe of Amouage Interlude Man, a notoriously expensive and very complex fragrance. But in soap form, it's mostly on the gourmand side IMHO. The vegan base can't really reach the greatness of their Mutton tallow or Osiris base though.
As for Aftermaths: I have to announce that my skincare article won't make it until the end of October. I hope I'll finish it Friday evening (which will be morning or midday for our american friends). Turns out experts don't want to talk that much when you're not paying for an appointment or don't belong to a newspaper/famous blog. So you folks will have to do with the articles by dermatologists I was able to find...
Dear @[email protected] , I wanted to let you know since Saturday that your Oro Valley sample reached Germany. Apologies, my ADHD brain forgot. Thanks a lot for it!
28.10.2024 - Halloweek 1: Sweeney Todd
- Brush: AP Shave Co. Snakeskin handle w/ 26 mm Silksmoke Flattop/Fan hybrid knot
- Razor: Leaf Thorn
- Blade: snapped KCG (new)
- Lather: HAGS - Barberwood
- Post-Shave: HAGS - Barberwood AS toner; Manuka Health repair balm
2 passes on the head, 1 around the beard. Good shave overall, minor burn.
Seeing @[email protected] post inspired me to use some of my soaps with morbid/dark/creepy artwork for this Halloween week. Let's see if I can manage a consistent string of daily shaves until Thursday...
Barberwood seems to feature Sweeney Todd, the murderous barber of Fleet Street. If HAGS would actually pay good artists instead of relying on AI-generated slop, it might've turned out a bit better. However, we got this thing here. Ugh... I'm personally not against AI generated pictures for teachers who want to give some interesting visualisation and can't draw for shit, but for official art on products you sell?... Eh, come on. Get a real artist. Scent is your typical sweet powder barbershop, inoffensive and a people pleaser. I personally prefer the unique takes like Old Strathcona and Ghost Town Barber much more.
I haven't seen the movie with Johnny Depp, as I personally deeply dislike musicals. But there's one Depp movie fitting for this season that I wholeheartedly recommend: The Ninth Gate
This was one of the first "darker" movies I saw when I was ~13/14. I've seen it a few times since - the trailer doesn't really do it justice. It's a slower movie at the start, but once it picks up momentum it goes ahead like a boulder down a steep hill. Also, this one really needs you to think and come to your own conclusions. I still fear a majority view it through a christian/religious lens and are afraid of it bc of that. Personally I think Polanski is a POS but if I couldn't separate art from artists, I also wouldn't be able to enjoy H.P. Lovecraft as much.
Have a great spooky week, folks! 🎃✌🏻
4th