LGSOTD 17-Jun-24

• Brush: Wald - A1 #OLDWORLD #PREMIUMPLASTIC
• Razor: Lambda - Athena #CNC
• Blade: Wizamet - Super Iridium
• Lather: HAGS - Undertow
• Post Shave: HAGS - Undertow AS
• Fragrance: The Essence Vault - 199 (Aventus) EDP

Don't have a cow, man!

This was a random buy when I was on a very brief Aventus kick, it was brief though. I like the scent, but it doesn't blow my skirt up (putting this here just in case of confusion). I didn't actually realise this was vegan when I picked it up, not that that matters. It performs well enough, but I prefer many others, and the splash feels a little drying for me. Looking back I should have thrown in Cubebe, but I'd already committed.

Brought in the very pretty Lambda Athena, I see a ton of these being bought then passed on. Surprises me a little as its an excellent razor for me. I do prefer to polish this one up (and this is in need of a clean) rather than letting it colour which is a pain.

Challenge - Knee Lather

Now, I actually generated the lather on my knee with my Oumo synthetic, this Wald is a loaner and I didn't want to abuse it for the purpose of the games. Kept having to move the lather up the leg out of the way, I loaded far too heavily and needed a little more water than the final pic, but I got there in the end. Painted on with the Wald for a very good finish.

Photocontest

Seeing as its vegan day, I thought I'd go for a 'Bucket'. Sadly I didn't have a pail/bucket to show it was empty of milk. Tenuous at best, but it's an attempt, told you they would get more desperate!

Tomorrow's challenge is going to need a bit of searching, as daft as it may seem I don't actually know what it means!

Have a grand day all.

Cheers

Marc

June 17, 2024 – Lather Games!

• Brush: Cayuen Abalone w/ 28mm Timberwolf Synthetic.
• Razor: YPM – Winning Razor Mk2, polished, tattooed ("The Razor of Mankind!") #CNC #TITANIUM
• Blade: Gillette Winner Stainless (1).
• Lather: PAA – Astro Traveler
• Aftershave: A&E – Ultima Unmasked Unscented Splash.
• Fragrance: PAA – Astro Traveler

I know, this soap would not have been my first choice, but I don't have any other vegan soaps. I usually also have to use a pre-shave soap because vegan soaps don't work for me. The scent is sublime, and I'm sad that it's gone: The scent profile is as follows: Bergamot, Grapefruit, Spiced Orange Zest, Black Pepper, Nutmeg, Saffron, Oakwood, Vetiver, and Tobacco.

Decent enough finish for a Monday, and away we go!

#LatherGames

Bonus:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CYqqFqoLnnk ← The Alphabet Explained: The Origin Of Every Letter

LG Day 17- Veggin' Like a Legend

• Brush: MOAR F’N BOAR
• Razor: Schick M1 Adjustable
• Blade: Schick Injector (4)
• Lather: Catie’s Bubbles - Purple Grapefruit
• Post Shave: Thayers Lemon Witch Hazel
• Post Shave: Zingari Man - Unscented AS balm

This was not the shave that I had planned for today, but when I woke up and saw today's sponsor, I called an audible. Now I unfortunately won't be using Retreat on Sandalwood Day. But, hell yes to the Catie's Bubbles on a Monday. Catie's Bubbles is easy to love in any of their bases. Plus, they make some of my favorite scents in this whole wetshaving thing- Connecticut Shade and Retreat, in particular. And lest we forget Waterlyptus, the quintessential scent of summer which will be put to good use once this month of shaving shenanigans is completed. Purple Grapefruit is no slouch though. Lavender + Grapefruit just works and is perfect for the morning deep breathing shave meditation.

And then there's the Daily Challenge...friggin' knee lathering. I had high hopes of shooting video of me knee lathering while sitting on the shitter this morning, but I failed to hit the video button on my phone thanks to not having any coffee in my system. But the lather happened. While it was tempting to taken things a step further and shave my leg, I thought better of it.

Try to enjoy your day and remember to be kind to one another.

June 17, 2024

• Prep: House of Mammoth Embrace Doppio Bath Soap
• Brush: Dogwood Handcrafts 26mm Quartermoon Synthetic
• Razor: Star Reito Staraet 55 Special Steel 6/8 Half Hollow Square Point (Yasuki Steel)
• Edge: Max Sprecher (9)
• Lather: Saponificio Varesino - Morado - Soap
• Post Shave: Saponificio Varesino - Morado - Aftershave
• Fragrance: House of Mammoth - Embrace - Eau de Parfum

Arguably some of the best vegan steel out there.

And no, I'm not "knee-lathering" on Monday morning. JFC, man.

• Prep: Warm Shower
• Brush: Stirling Two Band Synthetic
• Razor: Van Der Hagen 85mm Safety Razor
• Blade: Gillette Nacet
• Lather: Pinnacle Grooming - Flower Power
• Post Shave: Van Der Hagen - Unscented Aftershave Balm

LG SOTD 17Jun2024

• Brush: AP Shave Ocean Waves - 26mm synbad fan synthetic
• Razor: Henson - Ti22 Medium
• Blade: Personna - Viking’s Sword (2)
• Blade: Rise - Classic (2)
• Lather: Southern Witchcrafts - Druantia
• Bowl: my left kneee
• Post Shave: Stirling - Aftershave Balm, Unscented

Monday has come again so let’s make the best of it. Welcome to the seventeenth shave of the 2024 Lather Games. Today's theme is “Don’t Have a Cow, Man!” where we shave with a vegan lather.

I’m a biologist - you aren’t going to sell me on vegan shave products strictly on ethical concerns. Nature and the universe does not now nor has ever given a flying fart how many aware beings are crushed, eaten alive, starved to death, drowned, tortured, etcetera. In fact, the notion of living beings having any differential value over non-living things seems to be a bias held by a small number of particularly clever living beings. There is certainly no indication that nature makes any such distinction.

But we do. It’s part of what makes us interesting as a species. We may very well cause the largest mass extinction in hundreds of millions of years, but we might also avoid or at least mitigate it because we are the first mass extinction causing phenomenon in the billions of years life has been creeping along the planet to be aware of what is happening and have some ability to affect it. Neat, right 😅

Which is to say that all things being equal, I would choose the vegan or at least vegetarian soap over the tallow based one. All things are not equal though. While there are excellent plant based shave soaps, it appears it’s easier to hit performance milestones with animal fats so there have been more tallow soaps in my den than non tallow by a wide margin.

Southern Witchcrafts has the best vegan base I’ve tried. Their base is great, period, top five of any base for me probably. Unfortunately, the Venn intersection of scent aesthetics for Southern Witchcrafts and my tastes is narrow. I’ve tried fourteen different scents from them and liked only one: Druantia. Fortunately, I love it, but wish they made other scents I liked. Druantia is obviously the lather for today’s shave.

Being that it’s Monday and on my way to work, should have skipped the challenge, but after going back and forth, decided that may as well try it because then I can really protest what a brain dead, not fun, waste of everyone’s time this challenge is.

Worked out that the only way to achieve this was to shave before the shower. Then, because of that, needed to move day’s shave gear to upstairs bathroom where normally shower because can’t very well go walking around the house with lather knees making a bigger mess than already. Then got to work. The shave itself was fine, typical blade face off in the Henson Medium. After the shower and cleanup I regretted the unscented Stirling - had picked to not clash with Druantia, but that was long gone in the shower by time I applied balm.

Ultimately, this is face lathering with extra steps. You literally can’t build up the volume of ready to go lather as in a bowl, so instead you treat it like a palm lather on the knees and transfer the goopy protolather to the face and then finish it there.

So, ultimately the challenge is about face lathering for bowl latherers and face lathering for face latherers while a wholly time wasting and unnecessary step is introduced for both to make it technically different than the challenge to change up your lather routine we already had.

I learned nothing, nothing about the challenge was better than slightly silly, and visually and prose-wise it’s boring to present. The only way to possibly make this challenge interesting for the audience would be to make us build on the knee standing up while the whole thing is filmed, and there is nothing that can be done to make it interesting for the shaver because it’s just needless disruption of routine for an arbitrary 0.2 points.

The “New All the Things” shaving challenge introduced the participant to a different class of razor. Reverse Lather pushed us out of comfort zone to lather up with a different but still standard method. The ATG highlighted the value of following your hair’s normal growth patterns. Pasty Lather Day served to remind us of the importance of proper hydration. Even yesterday’s leg day gave insight to most about shaving a body part that only one gender is normally expected to maintain.

But what did knee day accomplish? Nothing. Is this to build empathy with someone with only one arm and leg and an aversion to straight face lathering? There is no lesson, good or humorous, to be found.

Enjoy your day!

——

Tournament of Blades Fight 420, Round 2: Personna - Viking’s Sword (Israel) vs Rise - Classic (Bangladesh)

For the second round, the Rise gave a near perfectly smooth shave. The Personna had no faults but it had more noticeable feedback.

Winner of Round 2 and Fight 420: Rise - Classic

User uses a lot of words to chastise judges for a wholly pointless daily challenge.

SOTD: 2024-06-17 - That's a vegan

• Brush: Wilkinson Sword Classic
• Razor: Gillette Superspeed 40s NDC
• Blade: Gillette Platinum, 4th use
• Bowl: Captain's Choice Standard Copper Bowl
• Lather: Southern Witchcrafts - Necromantic
• Post Shave: Southern Witchcrafts - Necromantic splash
• Fragrance: Southern Witchcrafts - Necromantic EdP
• Additional Care: Osma - Alum Block

Vegan soap, vegan brush, vegan splash, vegan EdP, vegan alum block, vegan razor, vegan blade, vegan bowl, vegan towel, vegan coffee...

But ain't no way I was putting no vegan milk on my bowl of Lucky Charms!

June 17, 2024 – 2024.06.17 SOTD: Lather Games Day 17 – Don’t Have a Cow, Man!

• Brush: Dogwood Handcrafts Matte Black with 26mm UHD Independent Fibre Knot
• Razor: Aylsworth Drakkant
• Blade: Wizamet (1)
• Lather: Southern Witchcrafts – Necromantic
• Post Shave: Elysian – Styx
• Fragrance: Elysian – Styx

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Daily Theme: Don't Have a Cow, Man!

Theme justification: Southern Witchcrafts Necromantic is a vegan soap.

Relevant Post Shave & Frag: My theme here is "relating to dead people." Necromantic is described as being related to "necromancy: the resurrection of or communication with the dead," so I went with Elysian Styx for both the aftershave and frag. The River Styx is a river that Charon takes dead people across to get to the underworld.

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Scavenger Hunt ~~Justification~~: COMPLETED

Razor facts: N/A

Brush facts: N/A

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Daily/Special Challenge: Knee-Lather Day

You know, I'm starting to suspect something is up with the judges. First they want to see our legs all nice and smooth, then they want us to show them our bare knees covered in lather. Whatever. Who am I to judge others?

Here's my recently shaved knee covered in soap. Here it is all lathered up. Finally, here is the aftermath before I cleaned up

One of the reasons that I like to bowl lather is the that it keeps the messiness to a minimum. Knee lathering created a mess. 2/10 don't recommend

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Fragrance description

For Necromantic, I get a light rose and wine smell. It's quite nice.

Elysian Styx can best be described as a "dark" apple scent. It's not a bright, fresh apple pie scent, or something like Braeburn. It's closer to the end of apple season, when the only apples left on the tree are past their prime and falling to the ground.

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Now onto the shave!

Despite the knee-lathering, SW produced a good lather (as expected). Nice and slick. Shave was nice, but messy due to the lathering technique. I will not be doing that again.

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Totals:

• Razor Hashtags: 10/10
• Brush Hashtags: 10/10
• Hardware Sponsor Points: 2/2
• Software Sponsor Points: 11/16
• Number of Lather Brands: 17/30
• Number of Lather Scents: 17/30
• Number of Post Shaves: 17/30
• Number of Frags: 17/30

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Contest Hashtags:

#FOF

#ROTY

June 17, 2024 – No animals harmed in the making of this shave.

• Brush: Aurora Grooming LG 2024 with 26mm AP Shave Co. Pure Bliss #FRANKENBRUSH #PREMIUMPLASTIC #SHD #FAUXFUR #SUBBROOSH
• Razor: Gillette Superspeed
• Blade: 7 O’Clock – Sharpedge (Yellow) (6)
• Lather: Southern Witchcrafts – Boonana
• Post Shave: Stirling Soap Co. – Black Cherry
• Fragrance: Creed – Aventus

I don’t own a lot of vegan soaps. Catie’s Bubbles, Dr. Jon’s and SW. The other two were spoken for by other themes, so this gets the run today. Boonana is not a summer scent, but I can dress it up a bit as part of #fof. We’re going to go with a fruit medley. Stirling Black Cherry Splash followed by Creed Aventus (original version with the pineapple, not the flanker Cologne version.) By doing this progression I pulled the sent notes back to warmer weather.

No complaints about SW, once I had a few lathers under my belt it performs just like a good tallow soap. I went ahead and used my synth brush to complete the no dead animals idea.

For #photocontest, since today is about vegan soaps, i.e. plants. Let’s do a plant picture. “But Tsar,” you say “plant isn’t a category.” Too true, but a cactus is a plant, and so I put on in this picture.

For the challenge, sorta odd that I had to shave my legs yesterday then lather on them today, but that’s the rules, so here we are one knee lather. This was made harder by the fact that a) I needed to shave in shorts to avoid accidental NSFW pics and b) my toilet lid slipped off halfway through the lather, so I had to balance, hold my shorts up to avoid getting lather on them and tighten the bolt. Finally, some of y’all need to go back to anatomy class. “Upper Thigh” is not “Knee.”

June 17, 2024

• Brush: Maggard 24mm 2 Band Badger
• Razor: Blackland Era - Level 3 SB
• Blade: Bolzano Superinox (German) (8)
• Lather: Wet Shaving Products - Black Amber Vanille - Soap
• Post Shave: Southern Witchcrafts - Incorporeal - Aftershave

Before today I would have told you to steer clear of the Rustic soap base from Wet Shaving Products, because it's pretty much garbage compared to, well, everything.

Today I cracked the code, though, and the lather was honestly pretty decent. I loaded heavy with a dry-side-of-damp brush to avoid things bubbling up too much. The initial lather was the consistency of marshmallow fluff™, and after adding a suitable amount of water, the lather was good.

The only thing (ok two things) that have kept this soap in my collection is 1) it was a gift from a dear friend, and 2) the scent is fucking amazing. It's right up my alley.

Figured I'd use an aftershave from a notable vegan artisan, Southern Witchcrafts.

2024-06-17 - Vegan

• Lather: Catie's Bubbles - Irish Coffee
• Post Shave: Epsilon - Scottish Spirit
• Fragrance: American Crew - American Crew
• Razor: Weishi Butterfly
• Brush: West Coast Shaving - Two-Tone

Vegan Day: Hey, neato, I'm using today's sponsor! Have I ever done that before? Probably!

Unifying Theme: National Nouns

Knee-Lather Day: I have done the knee-lather thing once. Today, I shaved my face while using a suribachi bowl.

I didn't opt out of the challenge, mind you. No, I'm following it to the letter, because anyone and everyone who completed yesterday's challenge is a leg-shaver, and therefore should lather on their shoulder today. I didn't write the rules, guys.

Even so, I did give my legs another pass. I learned that there's much more to be learned than you can even become aware needs to be learned if you only do an annual leg-shave. I might have also learned that my legs don't like Feathers, but that would need further testing.

I'm not sure how long I'll keep this up, but that's not to suggest I'm going to just give up. I will say, though, that if I were intent on keeping my legs bare, I would look into permanent laser hair removal. Kind of like how I'm looking into having someone shoot lasers into my eyeballs. A notable difference there is that I'll still have the option of putting metal frames on my face, but who among regular-leg-shavers would want to maintain the option of hairy legs?

But I digress. Post-leg-shave shoulder.

#FOF Irish Coffee has gotten a lot of use over the Games, thanks to beverage and/or explicitly-coffee-focused days. It does smell like coffee (arguably more so than others), and the whisk(e)y element imparts a sweetness that reminds me—this morning, anyway, as I'm not sure I've has this thought before—of Stirling's Iced Coffee. Even so, it blends seamlessly into Scottish Spirit, which I have previously only experienced in the presence of General Tso.

American Crew is pretty unremarkable. Fragrantica says it has prominent "aromatic" notes. Oh, good. Much like I like my food to taste like "flavor" and my music to be "auditory!" I'm sure it has a specific meaning in this context, but c'mon, people.

June 16, 2024 - So obvious, it's brilliant

Lather: Los Angeles Shaving Company - Bespoke #1

Got this smush through clandestine means from . Definitely vegan. Must be a hint... but can it be that obvious of a hint? Yes... yes it can.

Stay tuned for this week's podcast as well! Coming soon.

Lather: Catie's Bubbles - Miracle

yes.

June 17, 2024 - Monday

• Brush: Chisel & Hound "Chocolate Drop" / 26mm Maggard Razors faux horse
• Razor: Everyday Razors "Stinger"
• Blade: Wizamet (1)
• Lather: Barrister and Mann - Roam Two
• Post Shave: Barrister and Mann - Roam Two splash
• Fragrance: Barrister and Mann - Roam Two EdT

Perfect timing for Roam Two in BaM's new vegan Omnibus base to arrive over the weekend. I found it to perform similarly to its tallow based counterpart, that is to say excellently. The scent is decidedly not the MF Roam of old. It seems to have the same core of herbal grassiness, but swapping the wood smoke for.....fruit? I don't quite understand why currant is here, but it's strong off the top. I'm not saying it's unpleasant, just different. With the splash I get more of the earthy soil and rich tobacco elements with the fruity currant and ginger taking a back seat. The EdT slightly changes things up again which to me is a good thing. This kind of brings everything together in a more balanced way and really evokes that dry-ish herbal scent of a windswept plain with some lingering tobacco in the breeze. It's a really nice scent that I'm excited to get to know more, but fork to my nose I think I prefer the soap scent of the original smoky one. Maybe because there's some sort of nostalgia tied into that one I don't know.

EDIT: Oh, and the Everyday Razor is far too mild for my preference. Even the scalloped "Wild" side. I have no idea who would ever think this is "wild". It's more mild than a Gillette Tech. The solid bar "Mild" side is useless.

• Brush: Maggard Razors Timberwolf
• Razor: Maggard Razors MR14 with Ikon Bulldog handle
• Blade: Gillette Silver Blue
• Lather: Dr Jon’s - Black label
• Post Shave: Proraso Red

This stuff is so damn good. I have quite a few tobacco scented soaps and this is the cream (non-dairy, of course) of the crop. It just smells “manly”. Whatever that means. I think it smells a little like my grandfather, who worked as a night watchman at a tobacco warehouse for some years in the early 80s and I would go to work with him sometimes and sleep on this old ratty leather couch. But everything smelled like tobacco at the end of the night. But not in a bad way. It is a scent I very much enjoy and makes me a little nostalgic.

Vegan SOTD:

• Razor: Gillette British Aristocrat #16
• Blade: Wilkinson Sword (8).
• Brush: Summer Break DeMaranville B15
• Lather: Dr. Jon's - Flowers in the Dark
• Aftershave: Dr. Jon's - Flowers in the Dark
• Fragrance: Dr. Jon's - Flowers in the Dark

This remains one of my favorite scents in the whole wide world. Flowers in the Dark is like the lavender sun and I'm like Icarus trying to build better and better lavender wings to reach the lavender perfection that is FITD.

Challenge: One of the judges clearly has a knee fetish and I refuse to ruin it with pictures of my knobby knees (also I'm just too lazy to do it. I did list AI have a crack at it though.

June 17, 2024

• Prep: Hot shower
• Brush: Chisel and Hound Sakura with v21 Fanchurian
• Razor: Muhle Companion
• Blade: Astra Green (Indian)
• Lather: Talent Soap Factory - Switchback
• Post Shave: Zingari Man Sego Aftershave Balm Unscented

Talent Soap Factory soaps are vegan, so it's on theme.

Knee lather challenge: built my lather on my shoulder. And my knees, too, I guess.

ROTY

Jun. 17, 2024
Brush: Dogwood Handcrafts Titan DG B16 Badger
Razor: Timeless AL .45
Lather: Catie’s Bubbles - Purple Grapefruit - Soap
Post Shave: Catie’s Bubbles - Purple Grapefruit - Aftershave
Post Shave:* GreenBox - Alum

This set was my prize from the 2020 Lather Games. It’s a great scent, and I am really enjoying the CB base, now that I have the water dialed in.

One of the things about this hobby, is that different soaps have different tolerances for water. Same amount of water can give a perfect lather with one soap, over water another, and create a pasty one for a third.

The razor is a nice one for the price. I nicked my upper lip because it’s more aggressive than the .45 gap might suggest. It has a lot of blade exposure as well.

2 passes. Nicked my upper lip.

Shared from My Shave Den for iOS

June 17, 2024: Meat, it's what's not for dinner

• Prep: warm splash of water
• Brush: Yaqi Sagrada Familia Tuxedo 24 mm
• Razor: AtT S1
• Blade: Gillette Blue
• Lather: Dr. Jon's - Flowers in the Dark
• Post Shave: Dr. Jon's - Flowers in the Dark
• Fragrance: Dr. Jon's - Flowers in the Dark

One of my all time favorites. I'll miss this shop and scent dearly.

Today I shaved with Saponificio Varesino Felce Aromatica and a Prometheus/tuxedo brush. I used a GC84 with a Personna blade. I followed up with Flowers in the Dark aftershave and edt. R.I.P. lavender champ.

Jun. 17, 2024
Brush: AP SHAVECO AP400B XL 28 mm (G5C)
Razor: EldrormR Industries MM24
Blade: Personna GEM PTFE Coated [3]
Lather: Jordan’s - Lemon - Soap
Post Shave: Noble Otter - Rawr - Aftershave
Post Shave: Noble Otter - Rawr - Balm

Shaving soap ingredients: Stearic Acid, Aqua, Glycerin, Shea Butter, Palm Oil, Coconut Oil, Sodium Hydroxide, Potassium Hydroxide, Castor oil, Olive Oil, Sodium Lactate, Fragrance, Color

Shared from My Shave Den for iOS

LG 17 - Don't have a Cow, Man!

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• Brush: Black Anvil Shaving - Morrigan - Oumo Manchurian Lotus 26mm #SHD
• Razor: Japanese Straight Razor with custom horn scales
• Lather: Talent Soap Factory - Wolf Mother
• Post Shave: MacDuff Soap Company - Old Strathcona
• Fragrance: Bvlgari - Man In Black

Today my son has graduation, I'll try to elaborate the post later ~~or not~~.

I'm back. The shave has been a mess the shoulder lather was just ok, in my rush I forgot to strop the razor and still feel it on my face.

.#FOF MiB

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Jun. 17, 2024 - no beef Monday
Brush: Sawdust Creations Studio Floyd
Razor: Robeson ShurEdge The Razor The Fits Your Face 6/8 hollow * Lather: Zingari Man The Gypsy
Post Shave:* DG / HoM / NO - Cerberus Fougère - Aftershave

I got no beef with vegan soap. Especially when the base is a good one. That was the case today. First time trying this awfully-named soap that I got as a sample with something I bought on the bazaar, if I remember correctly. Had the slickness I needed for a solid shave this morning. Good stuff!

No knee lathering for me. What kind of sheer mania is that?!

Day 17

• Brush: Frank Shaving – Imitation Silvertip Synth
• Razor: Silver Star Vintage DE
• Blade: Gillette Silver Blue
• Lather: Southern Witchcrafts – Druantia Soap
• Post Shave: Southern Witchcrafts – Druantia Splash
• Fragrance: Southern Witchcrafts – Druantia EdP

Today, I decided to dive into my bathroom apothecary and pulled out the whole Southern Witchcrafts Druantia line-up. Because (1) it’s Vegan, so it fits the theme and (2) who doesn’t want to smell like they’ve just emerged from a mystical forest that’s most likely, probably, definitely haunted by ancient spirits?

I think we’re past the point of anyone here shitting on Vegan soaps, right? Like, we all know Vegan soaps can be on par with tallow soaps. Because this soap lathers up like a dream—if your dreams are filled with druids, spells, and mossy glades. As I lathered it up, I smelled "freshly rained-on foliage" with a hint of "I swear I'm not summoning anything in my bathroom" and some spices to round it out. The slickness, performance, and scent are all excellent. The splash is like getting a slap from an enchanted tree branch, but in best enchanted way possible.

Finishing off with the EdP is like continuing on through the foggy enchanted forest at dawn, where you might just stumble upon a hidden fairy community. The scent of the EdP lingers longer than an unwanted houseguest, but in this case, you won’t mind at all. Plus, the witchy vibes it gives off might make those houseguests think I’m casting spells, so they can get the hell out of my house! I've long said that SW EdPs are the best bang for your buck in wetshaving. The scent stayed as my day went on, keeping me smelling like the mystical woods and spicy amber all day long. It’s perfect for when you want to be that person at work who smells intriguingly enigmatic, like you just might know how to cast a spell or two. #FOF

All in all, SW's Druantia line-up turned what could have been a Mundane Monday Vegan Shave into a Magical Monday Vegan Ritual Shave. I love herbal, earthy scents with a twist of the arcane, so this one is definitely for me. Just gotta make sure I don’t start feeling the urge to dance naked under the moonlight.

Challenge: First, I shave my legs and now I’m lathering on my newly shaven knee? Who comes up with this stuff? Kinda funny to see the line of hair where I shaved to yesterday.

photocontest: Money

iamhonestlylying’s Daily Top 5:

In honor of “Don’t have a Cow, Man”… My Top 5 Favorite TV Catchprases of All Time:

5) "Bazinga!" - Sheldon Cooper from The Big Bang Theory. The year is 2012 and something amazing happens in your life. There’s a 40% chance I was saying “Bazinga”.

4) "It's gonna be Legen… Dary." - Barney Stinson from How I Met Your Mother. Is something going to be super trucking awesome and want to build a little suspense? Here’s your answer!

3) "Did I do that?" - Steve Urkel from Family Matters. No need to apologize when you accidently blow up your neighbor’s garage. Just sheepish look at them and in your most nasaly voice say, “Did I do thaaaaaat?” and all will be well in the world!

2) "What'chu talkin' 'bout, Willis?" - Arnold Jackson from Diff'rent Strokes – Admittedly, I’ve never seen Diff’rent Strokes, but I’ve said “What'chu talkin' 'bout, Willis?” more times than I’ve said any other catchprase on this list. It’s that Legen-(wait for it)-Dary.

1.) "How you doin'?" - Joey Tribbiani from Friends – If you were a female around Joey and he said that, you might as well drop your panties right then and there.

** 17.06.2024 **

• Brush: AP Shave Co 26MM G5C
• Razor: Karve Shaving Co - THE CHRISTOPHER BRADLEY OC-B
• Blade: Gillette Minora
• Lather: Southern Witchcrafts - Carpathia
• Post Shave: Southern Witchcrafts - Carpathia
• Post Shave: Mühle alum stone

I love the Southern Witchcraft base. I am not so in this "tallow vs. Vegan" but I notice that I have more tallow base soaps. To be fair scent is the leading! Tallow or vegan if the base is good has no difference to me. SW soaps are supreme quality! And the reason that I have only one of their soaps is because this is the only scent that I like. But I love it! When I open the lid the aroma is bringing me back to my grandmother village house in the moment when I open the doors of old kitchen cabinet and the smell of all spices mixed through the years catch my nose. That's why this soap is so dear to me because brings precious memories and make them so vivid! This soap always will attend in my collection ( hope they not stop making it)!

This two days I feel like Kim Basinger peppering for shooting commercial.

My legs itching 🤬 In their wisdom judges put "knee day" after "leg day" because the view of long hair in lather is not so pleasant and they solidified my opinion they are pervert foot fetishists.

This was the first knee lather video I saw and I just found it hilarious. Also the point about knee day after leg day also made me laugh.

June 17, 2024

• Brush: Declaration Grooming - Jefferson Thaw B16 - 28mm Artisan Tied Badger
• Razor: Wolfman WR2
• Blade: Wilkinson Sword
• Lather: Catie’s Bubbes – Saturday Morning Soap
• Post Shave: Chiseled Face – Gemulietake Splash
• Fragrance: Gallagher Fragrances - Wicked Good EdT

To think there was a time when people thought there was no possible way vegan soaps could perform as good as tallow soaps. But, as humans, our history is riddled with bad predictions. Like that guy in the 1800s that said everything that can be invented has been invented, or those people who said the internet was just a fad, or that time u/OnionMiasma sent me a card proclaiming he would beat me in this year’s Lather Games. Bad prediction after bad prediction after bad prediction. (And yes, Mr. Miasma, I saved this card as bulletin board material for these Games. Little did I know you’d run away scared and become a judge this year.)

But fortunately for everyone, inventions continued to be invented, the internet is here to stay, u/OnionMiasma won’t be winning The Lather Games this year, AND Daddy Bubbles is a stubborn son of a bitch who built his business on making vegan soaps just to prove other people wrong... His words: "When I was trying to teach myself the basics behind making shaving soap (there was almost no publicly available information on it, was a very closely guarded secret til John from LASSCO and myself started sharing) there were two soapmakers in a Facebook Group that threw down the gauntlet saying that you can't make a good shaving soap without using animal fat. I took that as a challenge and I've never turned my back on that. Neither of them is involved with the industry anymore, yet here I am and there's plenty of other veggie based soapmakers now because of it." Source

Saturday Morning is one of the more fun scents that Catie’s Bubbles has, and if you know me, that means it had to be part of my den. Shaving with a soap that smells exactly like Fruit Loops always brings a smile to my face. The scent is spot on and is a joy to use. For my splash, I opted to the sweetest coffee scented splash I have: Gemulietake. Scented like cookies with coffee. Because if you’re having Fruit Loops for breakfast, why not down a cookie with your coffee afterwards? To close out another Gourmand #FOF, I used Wicked Good by Gallagher Fragrances and let me tell you: This is THE gourmand fragrance. It’s chocolate and vanilla and soooo sweet. Absolutely perfect for me and perfect for today’s sugary sweet shave.

Challenge: To the people complaining that knee lathering is impractical… Have you tried yoga?

A little peek behind the curtain: it took me like 6 tries to get that pic. I set my phone on a timer and for some reason, it wasn’t focusing. Maybe my phone was trying to help out and blur my face for me? Either way, a serious lack of hydration with that lather. Had to work in a lot more water to be usable.

Soap Theme Justification: Catie’s Bubbles makes Vegan soaps.

Relevant Post Shave & Fragrance: Sugar rush shave! Sugary cereal soap. Cookies & coffee splash. And chocolate and vanilla frag.

June 17, 2024 – LG Day 17 – Don’t Have a Cow, Have a Banana

• Brush: Stirling Two-Band Synthetic 24mm
• Razor: EldrormR Industries MM24
• Blade: AccuTec Pro Premium
• Lather: Southern Witchcrafts – Boonana
• Post Shave: Murphy and McNeil – SFWS South Beach
• Fragrance: Blackbird – Y06-S

Vegan soaps – they’re not hard to find, and it’s increasingly easy to find a good one. Catie’s Bubbles and Southern Witchcrafts are the GOATs, but ~~Vegemite~~ ~~Vegan Bussy~~ Veggiebus is supposedly very good, and I’ve enjoyed other vegan bases littered throughout my den. As previously stated, the base race is slowly destroying us. Vegan bases are a good thing, because it brings us one day closer to BEEF DAYS becoming a reality.

Today is an ode to the banana. Did you know that the bananas we eat today (the seedless, sterile Cavendish variety) is at risk? It turns out that cloning plants isn’t great for keeping diseases away. The cavendish may go the way of the Gros Michel, which was itself destroyed by fungus in the 50s, and only meaningfully exists today as the basis for the “banana candy” flavor. In the meantime, bananas still seem to be bafflingly cheap, and I imagine they will continue to be so with the next cultivar, should the cavendish meet its peril.

Three distinct takes on the banana. First, a peanut butter, banana, and honey sandwich (sans peanut butter), my favorite type of sandwich as a child, and which still brings me joy when I eat one today. Honey isn’t in the notes list, so it’s possible that the florals and maybe bourbon are doing tricks on me, but that’s what I get from the puck – banana and honey. It lathers and dries down into a much more “normal” scent, not a gourmand by any means, and on the tame side for SW. Full tub worthy for sure. Next, SFWS South Beach. I described the matching soap a couple days ago, and the splash is the same, sunscreen scent, but with a bigger punch of synthetic banana, unlike the soap which leans more coconut. Finally, Y06-S. This might be the weirdest fragrance I’ve ever worn. It “starts off as friendly floral with a clear and contrasting electronics note to distract you from the fact – that what you are truly smelling is banana.” No, Lauren, what I’m smelling is burning plastic. I sprayed this and immediately became worried that this is definitively not something one wears to work. Alas, they weren’t totally wrong. It did indeed dry down into some soft, white florals (mind you, with a synthetic/plasticky backdrop), and something reminiscent of banana. Not the banana you think of when you think what a banana smells like. More like the smell of green banana skins, not yet ripe, sitting on the grocery store shelf having just been unboxed by an underpaid employee. This fragrance is an enigma. #FOF

I lathered on my freshly-shaved knee. I then scooped the lather onto my head and painted it with the best I could with my brush. I resisted the urge to build a better lather once it was on my head, and only had enough for one pass with some cleanup, but that’s okay as my MMOC scars are still healing.

edit: fixed broken link…again

I really enjoyed Hug's description of scents in this write-up. He has a definite knack for engaging copy - and I found this post particularly enjoyable.

LG23-17: Don’t Have a Cow

• Brush: Wald Shaving 29mm A1 Fan
• Razor: Carbon Cx-Ti .68mm
• Blade: Astra SP (36)
• Lather: Wholly Kaw - Vor V - Vegan Shaving Soap
• Post Shave: Barrister and Mann - Lavanille - Balm
• Fragrance: Clandestine Laboratories - Master
• Passes: WTG, XTG
• Coffee: Colombia SO
• Music: Mort Garson - Mother Earth’s Plantasia

This Wholly Kaw soap isn’t my favorite vegan base, but it performs well, and can often be had for a good price. The texture is kind of a dry paste in the tub and lathers up quickly. Plus this complex raspberry and leather scent (TF Tuscan Leather) is striking.

My aftershave and fragrance continue the leather theme, Lavanille with a strong floral element and Master with tobacco and citrus. Both are heavy leather scents for the middle of June; not recommended for hot days.

SOTD * Brush: Stirling - 2 Band Synthetic.
Razor: Viking - Chieftan Jr.
Blade: Gillette - Minora Platinum.
Lather: Catie’s Bubbles - Azure.
Fragrance: Les Indemodables - Rose de Jamal.

I don’t hate the Viking Jr- it was one of my first safety razors and going from that to the Henson was noticeable different due to the weight and angle. Is this Zamac? Is anything I own zamac?

Catie’s Bubbles is awesome. My one interaction with Chris was great and he was really helpful with my Azure selection. The sample sizes are generous and I now own 3 of them plus this one full tub. I know there will be more to come, and look forward for to exploring the others on my list to try.

For my photo- I am only outside in 10 minute increments as it’s 95 degrees with a Real Feel of 104. F No thanks.

I may or may not have knee or shoulder lathered. But no photo evidence is involved.

photochallenge Air

ROTY

2024-06-17 LG SOTD

• Brush: Yaqi Rainbow (26x55 Synthetic)
• Razor: Merkur 33c
• Blade: Feather
• Lather: The Goodfellas Smile - Abysso
• Post Shave: Aqua Velva - Ice Blue
• Fragrance: Ralph Lauren - Polo Blue

Developed a bit of a cold over the weekend. Luckily this vegan TGS soap is stronk and it cut through my sad sinuses. Very good Cool Water type dupe. The soap is a little smoother and fruitier than the real thing, which is welcome. No clue what the splash is like. Followed it up with blue aftershave and blue perfume.

Soap performance was just as satisfying as any other vegan soap I've used. It's fine, y'all. Vegan shave soaps earned their bad reputation back in the dark ages of modern shave soap before artisans truly understood what they were doing. If a modern vegan shave soap sucks, it sucks because the soapmaker sucks... not because it's short on animal-derived ingredients.

June 17, 2024 – Lather Games 2024 Day 17: Don’t Have a Cow, Man!

• Brush: r/wetshaving Zentih MOAR BOAR 31mm #SUBBROOSH
• Razor: Gillette Bakelite Handle Tech X-2
• Blade: Gillette Winner (8)
• Lather: Catie’s Bubbles – Porch Drinks
• Post Shave: Catie’s Bubbles – Tonsorial Parlour
• Fragrance: Azzaro – Pour Homme

Use of Theme: Don’t Have a Cow, Man!

I was always using Catie’s Bubbles for today’s shave and am happy that they are today’s sponsor. My first choice was Tonsorial Parlor since I think it has become my favorite barbershop scent and I have the matching aftershave to go with it. However, in light of today’s daily challenge, I called an audible, pulling out Porch Drinks instead. In certain parts of the country, drinking on the porch goes hand-in-hand with playing music. Porch drinks also smelled pretty good when coupled with Tonsorial Parlour, so that was a nice surprise. Fragrantly finishing our little porch jam is Azzaro Pour Homme which actually has a Cardamom note in common with Porch Drinks. I’m quite certain there would also be plenty of moss on the oak trees surrounding our little cabin in the woods.

Daily Challenge: Knee Lather

I come from Forked River with a lather on my knee.

Jr_Donut’s banjo makes an encore performance in this year’s knee lathering daily challenge. Just know that I’m sparing you all the grueling 10 minutes of lathering.

Happy picking, happy shaving, and be kind to one another.

Playing an instrument while shaving? Sounds like a great daily challenge.

Player attempts to knee lather while simultaneously playing the banjo. Neither are done adeptly.

Don't have a Cow, Man!

• Brush: Мужской Материк - Blue Stabilised Burl with Maggard Tuxedo knot #FRANKENBRUSH
• Razor: Dovo Bismarck 2 (7/8", full hollow, carbon steel)
• Lather: Talent Soap Factory – Razberri and Tomato Leaf
• Post Shave: Noble Otter – 茉莉綠茶
• Fragrance: Tom Ford – Tobacco Oud

Theme: Talent Soap Factory produces a vegan base.

Relevant post and frag: I received this smush from Chief Podcast Djustice u/OnionMiasma who notably has a plant-based username (thanks for the smush!!). In his honour, I only used software with plant-based names. Raspberry and tomato leaf in the soap, jasmine and green tea in the splash, and tobacco and agarwood in the frag.

On a side note, the razor and brush are also vegan. No animal hair, no horn scales, etc.

Challenge: since I skipped the leg shave yesterday, I did not get to do a shoulder lather today and had to go with the knee. This was my first time using TSF soap, and this isn't my most practised lather method, so I was a bit uncertain how this would end. Luckily, the TSF base is super easy to pick up and to hydrate slowly, so I didn't make too much of a mess in the bathroom.

LG SOTD Jun 17 2024 - Leather Lather Memories

photocontest

[Theme: Kipple, sometimes also called Trash]

• Brush: Black & Yellow Merit 99-5 by Heritage Collection Shaving / AP Shave Faux Boar Synthetic 24mm #FAUXFUR #FRANKENBRUSH #RESURRECTIONBRUSH
• Razor: Muhle - R103 Tortoiseshell OC #ZAMAC
• Blade: Muhle - Stainless Razor Blade
• Lather: Catie's Bubbles - Lancaster Leather - Luxury Cream Soap
• Post Shave: Catie's Bubbles - Lancaster Leather - After Shave Lotion
• Fragrance: Memo - Oriental Leather - Sample

"Come in. Sit down."
"Ok if I talk? I'm kind of nervous when I take tests..."

MEMORIES OF GREEN

Vegan. No animals.
Cruelty. All there's left.
Green. Memories.

Memories. Are they mine? Are they real?

I have no recollection of the reason why my username here is MudAccording.
Did a Reddit bot suggested it for me? Not a clue. 

Could I be the bot?
I took the test before accessing the forums.
The other shaving forums, where they call me deckard.

An intrusive memory pops up in my brain:
“They don't advertise for killers in the newspaper. 
That was my profession. Ex-cop. Ex-blade runner. Ex-killer.”

After a chain-reaction of extinction events, big corporations like Tyrell flooded the market with synthetic replicas of animal products.
Some small artisans had started earlier, mostly for conscientious objectives, trying to raise awareness about the impending risks.

Awareness.
Risks.
Truth.
Objectives.

None of it matters anymore.
Nor does objectivity.
Objects are all that's left.

So. Many. Objects.
If entropy is irreversible, might as well make the most out of it, right?

Kipple.
Useless objects, like junk mail or match folders after you use the last match or gum wrappers or yesterday's homeopape. When nobody's around, kipple reproduces itself. For instance, if you go to bed leaving any kipple around your apartment, when you wake up the next morning there's twice as much of it. It always gets more and more.

No hope.
Hope was a trap invented by those in power. Still, it provided a sense of purpose.
No longer.
No more life, just survival.

Like many others, I have trouble remembering.

Objects. Collectibles from a past that is long gone.

My razor.
Handle is supposed to be tortoise.
Another intrusive memory: 
“Tortoise? What's that?”
“You know what a turtle is?”
“Of course!”
“Same thing.”

My brush.
Faux boar, it says.
From before the Third Boar War, I guess.
And the handle is advertised as a replica of Merit 99-5, a lost artifact from before.

Objects and memories. That’s all we live by.

I keep trying to recall the smell of leather.

Today I opened one of the most precious artifacts in my collection.
A sample of Catie’s Bubbles Lancaster Leather shaving soap.
Just the Luxury one, not the Premium, still missing from my collection.
There was always the promise of a better version, back then.
Sample tub will soon be done.

Philip K. Dick,holed in his apartment, wrote some of these words already.
Obsessed by old memorabilia.
After the shave, here's one of my proudest finds: the matching splash.
Full bottle, it was. Each time I use it, I regain some memories, but lose a bit more of what was left.

It's too bad, she don't last, eh!
But who does.

SOTD WRITEUP

Brand new razor. I always wanted to try the R41 OC head. Thanks to an online offer, the tortoiseshell handle was just a few bucks more than just the head. Too bad it’s the most stupid handle I ever tried. A perfectly cylindrical slippery surrogate of all the gravitas an actual tortoise stands for. The weight of the head is not balanced by the plastic material, nor by the length of the handle.
Loved the head: with the Muhle sample blade that came in the package, I got a nice close shave, without irritation even after an ATG pass.
Loved the head, but that handle is already turning into kipple.

SPECIAL THEME

No rule-subversion today.
As Captain Bryant reminded me: “Stop right where you are! You know the score, pal. You're not cop, you're little people!”.
Sometimes you have no choice but bow. So I kneeled and knee-lathered. All I learned is that I wasted more of my precious soap than if I had been bowl-, hand- or face- lathering.
All that lather has been lost in vain, like tears in rain.

THE SCENTS

Dick.hole today.
CB Lancaster Leather embraced me in its suede leather accord, soft-hearted beneath its HarrisonFordian aura of ruggedness. Frankincense, Cardamom, and what seems like a touch of aromatic wood (Agarwood?) provide a glimpse of Orientalism.

The melting pot overflows in the AS. My brain is electrocuted by sudden memories of dried fruits, candied citrus and spices that are used in many traditional Italian Christmas sweets. Also Vanilla and bergamot, like in Miracle, but there's so much more here.

I picked Memo Oriental Leather to complete the animal-free reinvention of a tanned animal hide.
What a surprise! While the fragrance per se used to reflect the idea of an oriental leather, today my brain's and nose's leather receptors have been satiated by Lancaster Leather, so all I can smell in Memo's fragrance is the patchouly drydown. I almost thought I had accidentally sprayed a fresh reinvention of Givenchy's Gentleman.

No, Memo was not a false memory.

I still feel human.

I hope.

FOF

END TITLES

ROTY

OP has watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate.

Don't have a Cow, Man!

• Brush: Chisel and Hound Vitae Taper w/AP Shave Co. 26mm Pure Bliss Knot
• Razor: Yates Precision Polished Winning Razor #CNC
• Blade: Personna - Comfort Coated
• Lather: The Holy Black - Artisan Line Gunpowder Spice Shaving Soap
• Post Shave: Old Spice - Classic Aftershave
• Fragrance: Old Spice - Classic Cologne

Daily Gratitude
Thanks to my mom for getting this soap as my 15th birthday present a few months ago. Thanks to my mom for the aftershave. Thanks to my dad for the cologne. Thanks to engineeredshave for doing the winning passaround. Thanks to the judges and fabulous people putting this whole thing together.

Daily Mistakes
I feel kind of crappy because after buying archsoup's soap lot I sold a bunch of it without really noticing that it was kind of flipping and that's a bit messed up. Classic 15 year old making mistakes.

Daily Writeup
Man this is the Lather Games I was excited for, shaving my legs and lathering on my knee and taking weird pictures of random stuff with my shave stuff.

Daily Theme Points
The Holy Black shave soap is based on a vegetable derived stearic acid, making it vegan.

Daily Relevant Post Shave & Fragrance Points
Old Spice!!! (the holy black gunpowder spice is an old spice dupe)

Daily Challenge
Proof of lather. Don't worry, I didn't shave my knee with a passaround razor lol. I built a quick lather on my clean smooth shaven knee and at the end of the shave the lather had dried out a bit on my knee to the point that I could rub it in as a nice lotion! Now I smell even more like Old Spice!

Hardware Scavenger Hunt
I don't quite remember if I've already done CNC hashtag yet so I'm just making sure. I'm 99% sure this razor is #CNC.

Photo Contest
Time, if time was an old crappy chinese broken target watch that was way overpriced.

TL;DR
Gratitude, guilt, happiness, old spice, time, I win rookie of the year thank you very much give me my prize.

Side Contests

photocontest

ROTY

June 17, 2024

• Brush: Simpsons Chubby 2 Jade 27mm HMW

• Razor: Dovo Bismarck 6/8" Full Hollow Round Point

• Lather: Catie's Bubbles - Waterlyptus - Soap

• Post Shave: Combe Inc. - Aqua Velva Classic Ice Blue - Aftershave
• Post Shave: Thayers - Lavender - Toner
• Fragrance: Initio - Paragon - Eau de Parfum
• Talc: Yardley Gold
   

---

I have a knee-jerk negative reaction to the idea of lathering on my knee. Waterlyptus was the perfect way to start this hot, humid day here in MD. Chris had a stroke of genius with this scent.

June. 17, 2024 - SOTD 

• Prep: Splash of warm water
• Brush: Oumo O4 Venus SHD Badger Brush 26MM
• Razor: King C Gillette
• Blade: Gillette Nacet
• Lather: Black Ship Grooming Co. - Davy Jones
• Post Shave: Nivea Men - Sensitive Soothing Aftershave Balm

SOTD June 17, 2024 

• Prep: Splash of warm water
• Brush: Van Der Hagen Boar Brush
• Razor: Van Der Hagen 85MM Safety Razor
• Blade: Van Der Hagen Stainless
• Lather: Southern Witchcraft - Tres Matres
• Post Shave: Barrister & Mann - Behold the Whatsis balm

I may not like many of SW's scents but I wholeheartedly believe they have the best vegan base. First time I've used Tres Matres, it's one of their better scents but not up there with Samhain and Pomona. However, the lather was fantastic and shave was effortlessly smooth

Jun. 17, 2024
Brush: Stirling 2-Band Synthetic Brush
Razor: Merkur 37C
Blade: Gilette 7 O’Clock - Super Platinum [6]
Lather: Talent Soap Factory - I <3 Bacon - Soap
Post Shave:* Kroger - Witch Hazel - Aftershave

Shared from My Shave Den for iOS

Jun. 17, 2024
Brush: AP Shave Co G5C
Razor: Karve CB
Blade: Rapira Super Stainless [2]
Lather: Barrister And Mann - Seville - Soap
Post Shave: Thayers - Witch Hazel Original - Aftershave
Post Shave: Zingari Man - Unscented - Balm

Omnibus base is pretty good. As you can tell from my album the knee lather went ok. Especially with all those hairs left over to agitate the lather since I skipped yesterday due to personal safety concerns. Cheers!

https://imgur.com/a/lorgW1Q

Jun. 17, 2024 - Never Skip Knee Day

• Prep: Shower, Baxter Shave Tonic
• Brush: MRed 26 mm Badger
• Razor: Schick Injector Type L
• Blade: Schick Injector (3)
• Lather: Mama Bear Soaps- Aged Spice
• Post Shave: Old Spice (Indian)

I skipped it.

June 17th, 2024

• Prep: Shower
• Brush: G5C
• Razor: Gillette RFB
• Blade: Gillette Platinum
• Lather: Catie's Bubbles - Saturday Morning
• Post Shave: Catie's Bubbles - Saturday Morning
• Fragrance: None

It's fitting that Catie's Bubbles is the Sponsor Spotlight today, as I used Catie's Bubbles. It's a vegan base (as I'm sure the judges know) with a great base and an even better scent. I wasn't allowed sugary cereals as a kid, so Fruit Loops were always the forbidden fruit (didn't intend the pun but it happened.) I get that hankering for a bowl anytime I whiff this soap. And the cooling in the splash is a great touch for this nationwide heatwave. Wanting to stay even more on theme, I went with a synthetic knot, and I guess for that matter a vegan razor, as I didn't use a straight with horn scales or anything like that.

I loaded and lathered completely on my knee, but Imgur doesn't want to upload videos, so here are some pics and a couple of screenshots from the clip

June 17, 2024 – LG 17: Don’t Have a Cow

• Brush: Rx Shaving Maggard 26mm Synthetic
• Razor: Gillette Tech
• Blade: Voskhod (1)
• Lather: Southern Witchcrafts – Pomona
• Post Shave: Barrister and Mann – Frankly My Pear
• Fragrance: Gallagher – Fineapple

Lather Games 24 just went prestige, aka worldwide! From California to England, today’s shave is brought to you from London. I’ve don’t interstate LG before, but this is the first international take.

Fruit centric shave today for our #FOF, starting with more subdued and spicy and making way to sweet. Pomona (RIP I think?) is heavy on the apple, but has plenty of warm wine and spice notes, it’s minimal sweetness coming from honey. Think mulled wine. BM FMP is a medium sweet pear forward scent, with whisps of ginger. Lastly fineapple returns to the apple but with a bright citrus supporting cast in pineapple. It’s also more tart, crafted around green apple instead of red like in pomona. It makes its way to a soft jasmine/white floral, while remaining fruit dominant throughout.

For our #PHOTOCONTEST we went with steampunk. What’s more retro than a radiator, with a valve of course, that’s also likely to remain in use well into the future.

As for our challenge today, NSFW? here you go. Had to strike my best Captain Morgan pirate pose to make it work. How fitting that knee lather day is after leg shaver day, though I didn’t do my legs yesterday so it is what it is. Soap straight on the leg, lathered there, then to the face. In hindsight should have used much more soap.

For sponsor, CB is great. I don’t own a ton from them, but I also appreciate their ample sample size and hear great things about the cream which I’m to try.

soap brands 17/30, post shave 17/30, frag 17/30, post/frag linked 17/30, software sponsors 12/16, hardware sponsors 7/2, razor hashtags 9/15, brush hashtags 10/15, photo contest 17/30, daily challenges 14/26, special challenges 2/4

June 17, 2024 - Don't Have a Cow, Man!

• Brush: Rubberset 400 w/ Maggard Synthetic
• Razor: Yates Precision Manufacturing - 921-M
• Blade: Gillette - Platinum
• Lather: Proraso - Eucalyptus Oil & Menthol Shaving Cream
• Post Shave: Mennen - Skin Bracer

Today's Theme: According to Proraso's website, Proraso Green is "cruelty-free and no ingredients of animal origin", so I am taking their word for it. Used a synthetic brush instead of my Omega today to let the judges know I mean business on vegan day.

Today's Challenge: As a lot of our loved ones know, we can be a quirky bunch. Obsessing over new soaps, razors, buying the latest scents, and all the fun that come with traditional wet shaving. My girlfriend has been totally cool with it up until today. Normally, when I shave in front of her, I will just whip up a quick lather on my face and call it a day. However, today was different.

As I was scrolling r/wetshaving this morning, she asked about the subreddit and asked why I look at other people shaving and read about it. Nothing I could say would make any logical sense to her, so I did not even try. I told her I have been doing daily challenges to win fake internet points and then asked "Are you feeling okay?" I brushed it off and then told her today was a knee lather challenge instead of face lathering. She then became very concerned for me and I saw her pick up the phone. I knew this would not be good.

Without hesitation I ran into my bathroom, locked the door, and busted out my shaving gear. As soon as I started my knee lather, I heard BANG BANG BANG and the sirens going off. My girlfriend doesn't realize how important these fake points are to me. Cops were yelling, banging on the door, and crying for me to stop, but I continued the lather. I'm still locked in my bathroom and do not plan on coming out anytime soon.

ROTY

6/17/24 Lather Games shave

• Brush: Trotter Handcrafts T1 manchurian

• Lather: Wholly Kaw - Fougere Bouquet (the really old vegan formula)

• Razor: .95 Wolfman WR2 w/ Gillette platinum

• Post Shave: Stirling - unscented witch hazel & aloe toner

• Fragrance: Wholly Kaw - Fougere Bouquet

I thought that I had turned this tub into a bath soap years ago, but when I found it while digging up some stuff I figured I’d have to use it for vegan day. u/whollykaw how long ago were the old white label tubs from Sri, 10 or so years? I ask and mention that because the scent strength on this is sitll rockin, it's pretty impressive. And it really is a great scent, I love this one and it was a great excuse to bring out the matching cologne.

Have a great week everyone.

stacking day challenge gonewild

I was about half a second too slow to get the picture of my knee stack. So the quick try to grab it as it falls pic is the best I've got. 

But I've led you on dear judge. Its not gonewild because there's no foot pic. You see I know the game. Try to get as many feet pics as possible for your needs. Well fear not. I have come to your rescue. Sub to r/wetshavinggonewild instead of making us do feet pics

• Lather: signature soaps - a brittania shaving soap
• Brush: moar
• Razor: st leger

Theme: vegan soap innit. Challenge: knee lather was ok. A bit pasty but nowt so dry as water day. 

June 17, 2024 - Don’t Have a Cow!

• Brush: AP Shave Co - 26mm G5A SHD
• Razor: Gillette English Tech
• Blade: Gillette Nacet
• Lather: Southern Witchcrafts - Pomona
• Post Shave: House of Mammoth - Alive Splash
• Fragrance: House of Mammoth - Alive EdT

Today’s Theme:

Tried to keep it vegan today. Southern Witchcrafts base is vegan, but performs as well as a tallow. I almost grabbed a boar brush to tickle my knee, but remembered to grab a synthetic. After I already used the splash and fragrance, I realized I didn’t check to see if animal products are in the scent. Hopefully not, but it’s too late at this point.

Challenge - Further Fetishization of the Shaves:

Some judge must have a leg/foot thing trying to get us to take pictures of leg shaving and knee lathering. I took better care to leave my foot out today. I normally bowl lather for my shaves. Seeing pics so far of the front of the knee being used, I thought, “Wait a second! The back of the knee is more bowl-like.” Unfortunately that meant kind of building a lather and fighting gravity. Almost as much as built up in the brush fell onto the floor. Still, it worked. I started with an almost dry brush to load, and kept dipping the brush in water until I said that it looks like a lather. A little under ideal hydration for me, but then I think I would have made a drippy mess with more water.

FOF

Today’s theme gave me a few choices, but my best ideas for an alternate have been used or is already planned. Caties Bubbles will get a turn soon. Southern Witchcrafts is a fantastic base. Start off the bat with that before the but. But many of the fragrances feature a dark, mushroomy, dankness. So I have to be carefully what I choose! Because the first time I tried a sample, it didn’t agree with me. Pomona does not give that vibe, just apples in the fall. I decided to tie my fragrances together around apple. Alive has a green apple note, but it isn’t the dominant scent. When I used Alive for Austere August, by the end of the month, my nose could key in on the apple pretty well. My main hit is more citrus and evergreen, but behind it a hint of green apple lurks to delight my nose. Love the scent of Alive, and Pomona and Samhain are my favorite Southern Witchcrafts scents. I really should add tubs of those perhaps.

Sponsor Time:

I have slowly been expanding my CB inventory. Last year I got a PIF of Un Jour Gris. I already had Saturday Mornings and La Piment en Vie. I’ve recently added a couple more. I really like their stuff, and Saturday Mornings triggers memories of getting up at 6 on a Saturday to watch cartoons while eating a bowl of Froot Loops.

Don’t have a Cow, Man!

• Brush: Proraso
• Razor: Fatip Piccolo
• Blade: Rapira Platinum Lux
• Lather: Saponificio Varesino - Tundra Artica 4.1

photocontest

Steampunk

Today’s Challenge:

Knee-Lather Day

Jun. 17, 2024
Brush: Yaqi Green Obsidian Synthetic
Razor: Green Cult GC 2.0 II
Blade: Treet Falcon [2]
Lather: Saponificio Varesino - Stella Alpina - Soap
Post Shave:* Saponificio Varesino - Felce Aromatica - Aftershave

Went with the shoulder because bending over to knee lather isn’t the dream for my back. That actually went better than palm lathering for me, it’s basically face lathering but way off the mark.

Tried to be as vegetarian as possible today, even made a mushroom lasagna

Shared from My Shave Den for iOS

DAY 17 LATHER GAMES! NO MOO!

• Prep: Water
• Brush: Razorock 400 #RESURRECTIONBRUSH
• Razor: Parker Adjustable Injector
• Blade: Schick P20
• Lather: Southern Witchcrafts - Tres Matres
• Post Shave: Southern Witchcrafts - Tres Matres splash
• Fragrance: Southern Witchcrafts - Tres Matres EdP

Vegan day! Now I know that a lot of people will use Catie's Bubbles cause that's their whole thing, "I'm gonna do fucking vegan soaps and prove they can be as good as tallow soaps", that he did, he even overdid it. His premius base is just TOO good! Buuuuut, the manufacterer that debunked the Tallow vs Vegan myth was Souther Witchcrafts. That's why I use it on vegan day. This is the third yeard in a row I think I'm using SW Tres Matres on vegan day. It will probably die this year, cause the ring of death is almost upon it. Bought this soap 3 or 4 years ago, so it's had quite the impressive journey!

Even though I don't think I'll ever be a vegan, in today's spirit I tried to do as many vegan things as I could, just so I could get in the mood of the whole ordeal. I went for lunch to a very nice vegan indian restaurant near work, where I had some Lobia Masala and Dhal Tarka, both are quite interesting and a refreshing change of "scenery" for me. Afterwards while going around doing tasks I stopped and had a coffee with some soy milk. Now that wasn't my thing, but hey, one should try something new at least once. And I'm finishing the day off with a nice glass of an Old Fashioned cocktail, which is also vegan!

Other than destroying the tallow vs vegan myth, Southern Witchcrafts, while not my top tier base(believe me it's not a slouch, easily an S tier) somehow it always makes my shave special. I recently made a video on my channel that is called "If I HAD to chose one setup". Guess which soap I chose, yup, it was SW. Really can't explain it, shaving with this artisan is magical!

Daily Challenge

Here's a video of what I did, before you read what I wrote.

Knee lathering.... All this foot stuff, really makes you wonder how much of a foot fetish the judges have, even though I don't judge for such things. I find the whole feet obsession a bit, disturbing, question mark? I mean I'd much prefer penis/vagina lathering or butt lathering. Those would be helluva good challenge photos!

So, I had a great idea today, but time didn't allow it. What I envisioned was going to a friend that has a FWD car. Strapping the brush to the cented of the hub cap, lifting the car on two jacks and let that mf'er ref them tires while I put my knee there so I could get lather.

Alas it did not happen, what I ended up doing and FAILING(in some sense) miserably was putting my own car on a car jack and spinning the wheel by hand while I placed my knee in front of the brush. It was a very lenghty process but in the end there was lather of some sorts. I put the car down got back home and shaved, wasn't the best, buuuut hey it worked, somehow.

Daily Lather Themes: 17/30 * Daily Challenges: 15/30 * Hardware Scavenger Hunt: 20/20 * Hardware Vendor Points: 2/2 * Software Vendor Points: 9/16 * Software Vendor Bonus Point: 0/1 * 30 Different Soap Brands Point: 17/30 * 30 Different Soaps On Theme Bonus Point: 17/30 * 30 Different Post-Shaves Bonus Point: 17/30 * 30 Different Fragrances Bonus Point: 17/30

taped brush handle to a tire and then lathered his knee

taped brush handle to a tire and then lathered his knee

• June 17
• Brush: Chisel and Hound – 26mm AP Shave Co Synbad
• Razor: Aylsworth Razors - Drakkant
• Blade: Astra Superior Platinum
• Lather: Talent Soap Factory – Tea Shoppe
• Post Shave: MacDuff’s Soap Co – Santa’s Cheer
• Fragrance: Clinique – Cookies & Kisses

Today’s shave is the yang to yesterday’s ying. Yesterday, I was in tropical paradise, and today, I’m drinking tea by a warm fireplace on a winter’s day.

My shave began with the cozy warm aromatic embrace of Talent Soap Factory’s Tea Shoppe. As I lathered up, I was enveloped in the warm scent of freshly brewed tea and delicate spices. It felt like I was getting cozy under a blanket on a chilly winter afternoon, the steam rising from the teacup as I prepared for a close and comfortable shave. The soap provided a rich, creamy lather that felt like a warm hug for my face. After the shave, it was time to continue on with the winter, holiday spirit with Santa’s Cheer. This aftershave splash is a festive blend of more sweetness and spiciness. It’s like I finished my cup of tea, and it was time to move onto eggnog. It’s a scent that made me feel like I was carrying a bit of holiday magic with me.

To finish my routine, I sprayed a couple spitzes of Clinique’s Cookies & Kisses. Keeping on with the winter warmth them, this fragrance is the epitome of holiday spirit, with notes of warm vanilla, spiced cookies, and a hint of sweet frosting. It’s like capturing the essence of a holiday baking spree in a bottle. The scent wrapped me in a cloud of delicious sweetness like I was baking cookies for the Holidays. It’s like Christmas came early this year! The combination of these products left me smooth, spirited, and smelling like a delightful holiday treat.

Challenge: Okay, so I struggled getting lather built on my knee. I tried using CosmoBarber's precision loading method, but couldn’t get a smush of soap to stick to the skin on my knee, so I thought outside the box and used jeans, thinking they would have more friction and skicking powering than my skin. And I was right! It actually worked! I honestly thought this would be a disaster, but it worked far better than I thought because I was able to get the soap to stick to my jeans. Brilliant!

LG2024- June 17 “ No beef”

• Brush: Prometheus Handcrafts Custom Baseball Bat Birch APShave G5C knot
• Razor: Razorock GC .84
• Blade: Voskhod (5)
• Lather: Southern witchcrafts- Druantia
• Post: wholly Kaw- eroe splash

Shave: About 2 months ago I got the sampler pack of the full Southern Witchraft lineup. I was blown away. They have some of the most unique offerings of any artisan with a vegan base. Their bases performs just as well as any tallow base. The only scent I didn’t like or love was Necromantic, I get too much wine and I have never been a wine drinker. I liked Druantia the best and purchased the trick. I packed up most of my stuff this weekend so I’m trying to kill some Splashes.

Challenge: Nope

Viewing: no beef

ROTY

Jun. 17, 2024

• Brush: Chisel & Hound Strata W/TnS Quarter Moon Synthetic

• Razor: Blackland Sabre

• Blade: Personna GEM PTFE [19]

• Lather: Southern Witchcrafts - Valley Of Ashes

• Post Shave: Southern Witchcrafts - Valley Of Ashes

• Fragrance: Bath & Body Works - Graphite

Don’t have a cow man!

Well we had a cow today. My wife called me and said she was bringing my son to the emergency room this was at 11:41 this morning. By that point he had been sleeping since 3:30pm (15:30) yesterday. I left work and drove there. When I got there he was sleeping but woke up long enough to say hi to me and went back to sleep. They ran every test they could on my poor boy, even a catheter because he could not pee, a CT Scan and a Spinal Tap. Thankfully everything came back normal other than he has an ear infection. They were worried he had a brain infection but nope nothing. Tested him for drugs that came back clean. But just like that after the spinal tap and catheter he was wide awake. My boy has ADHD and he never took his meds this morning so he super hyper fixated on not being able to pee. But he asleep now, we are taking him to see his primary doctor tomorrow and he’s now sleeping on the couch because thats where he is most comfortable because he’s sore. I did have to laugh when they came and got me after the tap and cath, he said “Dad, they put a tube up my pishadeel. Tell them not to do that again”.

Anyway I did shave, no knee lather, 2 challenges in a row I have not completed. SW is tied with CB for my favorite vegan soaps.

Frag is sage, leather and bergamot and goes really well with VOA

Photo contest theme Fire. I half assed it. I had a plan for today fire and ash like a valley of Ashes but, my kid had other plans.

Now I’m gonna just sit here and sleep in my chair in case he wakes up in the middle of the night and needs anything.

#ROTY #FOF #photocontest

OP had a cow of a day.

Jun. 17, 2024 -It’s a party!

• Prep: CeraVe - Hydrating Facial Cleanser

• Brush: AP Shave Co Black & Clear w/G5C 26mm

• Razor: GEM G-bar

• Blade: GEM PTFE

• Lather: Talent Soap Factory - Cakehole

• Post Shave: Mickey Lee Soapworks - Lū’au

• Fragrance: House of Mammoth/Barrister and Mann - Smash

Today has been an insanely long day and after a weekend full of shit, sorry I don’t have it in me tonight. I had the brilliant thought yesterday to lather my knee with my other knee (brush tied to the other knee) but after over 11 hours at work today it’s not happening. Boo work

Daily Challenge: sigh I guess this isn’t the worst thing that y’all have asked us to do this week and since I noped out of shaving my legs I guess I have to lather on them today. Here you go judges feast this eyes on my sexy kneecaps

Daily Theme Justification: TSF prides themselves on all vegan soaps. At least I think they do, it says it right on their site so I assume they take pride in that fact!

Relevant Post Shave & Frag: Today is a birthday party scent! Cakehole = cake, Lū’au = fruit punch and for the adults Smash = How you wish you felt to survive the third 5 year old birthday party of the month

Edit: thanks for the smoosh u/Priusaurus! It smells just like cake! lol

2024-06-17 Cow's, Don't Have One

• Prep: Coffee, Face wash soap/warm water
• Brush: Maggard Razors - Maggard Blue Swirl, Timberwolf Synthetic, 24mm
• Razor: Karve Shaving Co. - Bison #RAINBOW
• Blade: Gillette 7 O'clock Super Stainless (green), DE
• Lather: Catie's Bubbles – Miracle
• Post Shave: Catie’s Bubbles - Miracle

This new base from Catie's Bubbles is just so good. The scent on this is...overall think incense but not heavy. Great set! Should have picked up the Edt and had the whole shebang...I'm not always the brightest.

Today's Theme - Don't Have a Cow Man!

And I won't, though I often do. But not with this great Moo, snort, and quack free all veggie shave soap. It is free of all that!

Today's Challenge:

Well, I skipped leg day yesterday. Not out of embarrassment or being lazy, just out of an abundance of caution. I suffer from eczema (mostly hands but also legs). Yep, my own body decides let's be a jerk to itself and why does a body do that? Hell if I know. Things are reasonably good on the legs but I don't want to trigger it. Face and neck have always been free of it but if I ever go dark that would be why. So, I will go with the shoulder. I hope this is acceptable, however if it is not, all is good. Rules are rules.

So with that said, here is a shoulder lather pic. I do, weirdly think the knee might have been easier.

Scent notes for those interested:

Catie's Bubbles Miracle (both soap and aftershave) - Bergamot, Lavender, Amber, Vanilla

By the way, per the maker - In a round-a-bout way the soap is named after Miracle Max (played by Billy Crystal) in the Princes Bride, who wishes us to "Have fun storming the castle!". If you like a good movie - The Princess Bride has held up quite well and is still fun.

Take care and have a good one.

User convinces judge to give daily challenge point even though he couldn't physically do the challenge since he did a more difficult version of the challenge.

June 17, 2024 – Leftover Jelly Bean Knee

• Brush: Extro Comesi Synthetic 26mm
• Razor: Gillette Black Beauty
• Blade: Gillette Platinum (4)
• Lather: Extro Cosmesi – Liquirizia & Magnolia
• Post Shave: Fine Accoutrements – American Blend

Even as a child I was a weirdo who loved black licorice and still consider all sorts on of my favorite candies. So naturally I was enamored with my first splash of Fine’s take on Rive Gauche. This soap is a great start of the shave to, white floral and musky licorice. But I find it just too damn fluffy and can’t figure out how to perfect the lather. I absolutely love the scent of this soap but my skin hates it. My knee on the other hand did just fine!

Long day at work and another long one tomorrow. I could ramble on about Extro Cosmesi but you judges deserve a break from our yammering and probably had a long day at work too.

Cheers!

June 17, 2024 - Don’t Have a Cow, Man!

• Brush: Zenith B15 #OLDWORLD
• Razor: Gillette Black Beauty T3 #ADJUSTABLE
• Blade: Wizamet (31)
• Lather: Saponificio Varesino - Opuntia
• Post Shave: Captain’s Choice - Venture
• Fragrance: Zoologist - Dodo

Challenge: Didn’t we basically do this yesterday? You guys are weird. Are you people trying to see balls? Because, this is how you get pics of balls. What's wrong with a good ol’ fashioned chest lather? I could have a luxurious chest lather going. But, no. Instead I’m showing off my knee like a mennonite hooker.

Today’s software fragrances all feature a note of pineapple. Starting off is Opuntia from Saponifico Varesino. First off, this is a great fragrance. I used this Zenith B15 with my tub of Saponifico Varesino Desert Vetiver in the same base for Austere August. This soap is okay. The fragrances are so good. I don’t want to get rid of them. Opuntia has an invigorating note of pineapple. The pineapple is bolstered by bergamot and black current. It’s aromatic. Meshed with the fruit, I get a woody note, and some musk. Underneath, there’s a note of rose and grassy scent notes. It’s a playful combination of fruity, woody, and musk that feels sophisticated.

This sample of Captain’s Choice Venture aftershave was in the Adentus box from /u/jwoods23. Venture is their Aventus clone. I smell pineapple, but also lots of aromatics. There’s some fresh spicy notes. The scent strength is pretty weak. It’s only been a few minutes and I can’t really smell it on my face. Let’s pop open the sample. In the vial, it smells more citrusy with a hint of pineapple. There’s a lot of bergamot. There’s a bit of a floral note. After repeated sniffing I get a whiff of patchouli. It’s much brighter and more aromatic than Stirling’s Aventus dupe, Executive Man. It’s fresh and fun. I wish I could smell more of it when it’s on my face.

Initially, I was thinking of using another Aventus dupe, Armaf Club de Nuit Intense Man. After comparing the scent notes to Dodo, I saw they were similar on paper. Now I’m wondering how similar Dodo is to the Aventus clones I’ve smelled (I’ve never smelled the real thing). Not very. There’s an intense note of sharp, tropical fruit. It’s dank and slightly tart. It makes me think of papaya.

It’s been about 20 minutes. The dankness isn’t as strong. It’s hard to pull specific notes. There’s a lot of fruity and fresh spicy scents. It feels like a singular fragrance.

It’s been a couple of hours. The fruity notes are gone. The fresh spicy accord remains. I think I’m not really smelling the basenotes, because this sort of just fell-off. The opening was unique and fun. Sadly, the base is kind of boring and not very noticeable.

#photocontest - time. I wanted to show off my new Millennium Falcon clock. You've never heard of the Millennium Falcon?! It's the ship that made the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs.

#FOF

June 17, 2024

• Brush: Omega Penelli White HI-BRUSH Synthetic
• Razor: Schick Injector
• Blade: Schick Injector
• Lather: Catie’s Bubbles – La Terre Verte

Today I am on theme by using Catie’s Bubbles. I haven’t used a lot of this brand but the descriptions have been pretty on point with a few of the major notes. Especially to someone like me who doesn’t always pick out subtleties. Oak moss, patchouli, sandalwood. Each complementing the other without being overly forward. It’s a nicely blended fragrance that isn’t overwhelming or boring. Just the right amount of each. I know it is supposed to evoke a forest, but I can’t get over how It reminds me of a nice vinaigrette. Just a couple ingredients but when blended nicely, it’s a game changer.

Challenge: I tried my best to get an opportunity to do this in private but it’s hard when vacationing. So my wife thinks I’m a dummy. This is after I stopped in a parking lot to take a shave photo with a Prius in the background.

Darkness for my scavenger hunt. I was trying to get the colors on the gear to contrast. #photocontest

fof

June 17, 2024 – Don’t Have a Cow, Man!

• Brush: Semogue 2000
• Razor: Blackland - Blackbird Lite
• Blade: Personna Lab Blue (3)
• Lather: Catie's Bubbles – Barnegat Bay
• Post Shave: HAGS – Isla Muerta splash
• Fragrance: Goodfellow and Co. – Spiced Ginger and Rum
• The Lather: Today’s lather really wasn’t as difficult as I thought it might be. I didn’t have much issue getting plenty of soap to stick on my shaved knee, and like Catie’s Bubbles is apt to do it lathered up rather easily. The scent itself is a pleasant bay rum, but admittedly I’m not the biggest bay rum guy.
• The Shave: I tried to transfer the lather directly to my face using my knee, but apparently I’m just not that flexible. My wife got quite the kick out of watching me attempt to rub my knee on my face. In the end I had to use my brush to transfer the lather to my face so I could have a decent shave.
• Aftershave/Frag: Todays scent theme was bay rum so Isla Muerta was up for my aftershave. If you haven’t smelled it, Isla Muerta is a bay rum scent with a little added citrus not that makes it a little brighter. I followed that up with Goodfellow’s Spiced Ginger and Rum to stay within the Spicy rum wheelhouse.
• Theme: Catie’s Bubbles promises no cows harmed, or any other animal for that matter.
• Challenge: I formed my lather on my freshly shaved knee, see pictures above. At first I thought this may have been a useless challenge, but then I realized this gives the judges a way to see if anyone tried to cheat the leg shave day and reuse old leg shave pictures from last year's games. Well played judges.
• Acknowledgement: Thank you u/2saintsdude for all of today’s shave samples.

17 June 2024 Complementary Non Dickkhole Barrister and Mann Petrichor

• Prep: Warm Shower
• Brush: Prometheus Liquid Rainbow 28mm
• Razor: Stirling SS Standard Plate
• Blade: Gillette Silver Blue (11)
• Lather: Barrister and Mann - Petrichor (18)
• Post Shave: Barrister & Mann - Muire Wood A/S
• Post Shave: Thayer's Concoction
• Post Shave: Good Oleo
• Post Shave: Stirling Soap Co. - Unscented Balm
• Fragrance: Narcisco Rodriguez - For Him EdT

B&M Old Vegan base is so good. I need to try the new Vegabus base.

I'll post the ingredients when I get home, but it's pretty clean.

I don't know why /u/bostonphototourist ended this base.

Cheers

June 17, 2024 – LG24 Day 17 - Don't have a Cow, Man!

• Brush: AP Shave Co. Black & Clear handle w/ 24mm G5C Premium Synthetic fan knot
• Razor: Schick Injector Type M Variant D2,H1,G1
• Blade: Schick Stainless Steel Injector (4)
• Lather: Catie's Bubbles – Florentine Fern
• Post Shave: Stubble Buster - Absolutely AS Splash
• Fragrance: OriginLab - Inspired by Ultra Male Parfum

Daily Theme & Relevant Post/Frag: Catie's Bubbles is renowned for its vegan soap base (and today's Sponsor to boot!), making Florentine Fern an easy lather choice. For post and frag I leaned into Florentine Fern's fougère roots. The post (a Boss Number One dupe) is an Aromatic Fougère and the frag (a JPG Ultra Mâle dupe) is an Amber Fougère. The soap's and post's aromatic and woody accords and the frag's vanilla, fruity and sweet accords are very complimentary (at least to my caveman nose) and work well together.

Daily Challenge & Shave: I'm a ~~disciple~~ practitioner of Cosmo's Precision Loading method. Having a predictable amount of soap has helped me consistently make slick, wet, protective lather. When precision loading, I've always used a bowl to load my brush and then build my lather on my face, until today that is. With today being Knee-Lather Day that means no bowl to load and no face to lather, instead, brush loading and lather building will be performed on my right knee.

The first step of precision loading is to scoop some soap. That's about 2g of Florentine Fern, and as I discovered during the lather-building phase, that's wayyyyyyyyyy to much soap for CB's fantastic vegan base. The next step is to spread the soap ~~in a bowl~~ on your knee and wet your brush (damp only because any water trapped in the brush can cause over-hydration during the building phase). With soap adequately spread ~~in a bowl~~ on my knee, it's time to load the brush. I was able to load about 95% of the soap, but since my knee is convex (instead of concave like a bowl), picking up the rest wasn't worth the effort. Next is the lather-building phase, on my knee as per today's challenge. To avoid getting foamy lather, I dip my brush tips, do a little building, dip again, build again, and so on until the lather takes on a shiny appearance. Normally 4 to 5 dips gets the lather shiny. Not today. I dipped at least 10 times and the soap kept on asking for more! At about 12 dips the lather finally looking shiny and voluminous. I gave the lather a few more dips of water (until it started dripping down my leg) and started face-painting before the lather collapsed upon itself due to the quantity of water I added. I grabbed my Schick Adjustable and attacked my stubble. The wet, slick, protective lather was awesome and delivered a fantastic shave.

Today's Learned Lesson - Cosmo states (I think in his video, but maybe in a SOTD) that his precision loading method will work on any flat surface. Today's challenge demonstrates that precision loading can be performed on any surface, including your knee!

6/17/24

• Brush: Muninn Woodworks w/ TNS 28mm M7 Fan
• Razor: Iberia 14 Doble Temple 8/8, Extra Hollow Square Point
• Lather: Southern Witchcrafts - Labyrinth
• Post Shave: Southern Witchcrafts - Labyrinth Aftershave Splash

Wow, my schedule these last few days is just messed up. I'm getting my shaves in later and later. And I forgot about the daily challenge. Woe be upon me.

I do have me a vegan soap, tho! Labyrinth is my favorite SW scent. It's right up my alley. Hopefully, I can put some energy in earlier tomorrow and buckle back down!

Jun. 17, 2024 Don’t Have a Cow, Man! * Brush: Chisel & Hound Quartermoon
Razor: Yates Winning Ti
Blade: Gillette Silver Blue * Lather: Henri et Victoria - Kraken * Post Shave: Chatillon Lux - Yuzu/Rose/Patchouli * Post Shave: Osma - Alum
Post Shave:* Jack Black - Double-Duty Face Moisturizer

ROTY

• Brush: Farvour Turncraft 'Blue Diamond Dust' / AP Shave Co G5A 26mm
• Razor: Gillette Ball End Tech
• Blade: Gillette Platinum
• Lather: Catie's Bubbles - Blugere
• Post Shave: House of Mammoth - Mood Indigo - Balm
• Fragrance: House of Mammoth - Indigo - EdP

Just about forgot to shave with editing the podcast today, so the daily challenge will have to get skipped.

I've recently opined that there's something just a little bit more special about the CB Premium base. This wasn't supposed to be my soap today per my calendar, but I just wanted a great shave, and so this got the call up. I can use something else on Fougere day instead of this.

Riffed off the blueberry note to (Mood) Indigo, which was awesome.

No animals were harmed in the making of this shave, to my knowledge. At the very least, the soap is definitely vegan.

https://imgur.com/a/oBNkH2J

• Prep: PAA - Bubble Gube
• Bowl: My Knee
• Brush: Simpson - Wee Scot Badger #RUNT #SMOLL
• Razor: Gillette - Hybrid Tech
• Blade: Durablade - 7am Plus Hi Platinum
• Lather: Southern Witchcrafts - Samhain
• Post Shave: 345 Soap Company - Trench Lines

Ok, so there I am minding my own business knee lathering my vegan SW Samhain soap and there is a knock at the door. "Honey, why is the door locked? Are you shaving your legs again?" I said "No" in my most manly voice. Fast forward 6 months "Well you see judge, it was all part of the Lather Games." He never heard of them. So, I will blame the Lather Games for my divorce. Maybe I should wear a "Bro" from Seinfeld next time I shave my legs. In reality both yesterday's challenge and today's challenge went well. I made enough lather today for a 2.5 pass shave using my knee and my amazing little Wee Scot brush. https://imgur.com/a/6pYC2wQ

Today's Challenge complete, I am now an experienced knee latherer.

Overall a nice shave with my Gillette Hybrid Tech. Although the blade was mediocre at best.

Still a different razor, blade, brush, aftershave and soap brand today.

ROTY

June 17, 2024 - Don't have a Cow, Man!

• Prep: Warm Shower
• Brush: Yaqi Arctic 24mm
• Razor: Blackland Dart #CNC
• Blade: Voskhod (5)
• Lather: Southern Witchcrafts - Labyrinth
• Post Shave: Southern Witchcrafts - Labyrinth
• Fragrance: Southern Witchcrafts - Labyrinth

I've been looking forward to today's shave for the last few days. I love SW, and Labyrinth is one of my favorites from them.

Then you had to add (NSFW?)this stupid daily challenge(NSFW?) and ruin a good thing. How am I supposed to get the glorious lather from my knee to my face? Oh well, I figured it out and don't think the shave suffered at all.

PHOTOCONTEST - DIY

LG24-17: Don't Have a Cow

• Brush: Trotter Handcrafts Daliesque 26mm Manchurian T1 Badger Knot
• Razor: Gillette English RFB NEW No. 77 (1933)
• Blade: Gillette 7 O’Clock Super Stainless (Green) [1]
• Lather: H.A.G.S. - The Awakening - Soap (Vegan) (OSIRIS)
• Post Shave: MacDuffs Soap Company - Summer Cabin - Aftershave (Alcohol Free)
• Fragrance: Declaration Grooming - Contemplation - Eau de Parfum

H.A.G.S. has so many bases now that I can't keep track of them all. OSIRIS is/was their vegan base.

Awakening is a dupe of Tom Ford Bitter Peach. I haven't smelled the original, but this scent is fantastic. Pairing with Summer Cabin and Contemplation worked really well.

Monday, June 17, 2024

• Brush: AP Shave Co - Black Matte Alumihandle Layered Comfort - 25mm Mühle STF
• Razor: Karve Shaving Co. - Overlander (Matte Black Aluminum)
• Blade: Personna Med Prep
• Lather: Los Angeles Shaving Soap Company - Topanga Fougère - Soap
• Post Shave: Los Angeles Shaving Soap Company - Topanga Fougère - Aftershave

Even used a synthetic brush to be extra vegan today. Also, I ... rediscovered? that my Topanga Fougère splash has no reducer. Didn't rediscover the lack of a reducer until the bottle was completely inverted though.....

June 17, 2024 - tobacco et donuts

• Brush: Simpson Wee Scot
• Razor: Gillette Flat Bottom Tech
• Blade: Wizamet
• Lather: Barrister and Mann - Roam Two
• Post Shave: Summer Break Soaps - Valedictorian
• Fragrance: Abbate y La Mantia - Garibaldi

Breaking out the sample of Roam Two in the new vegan omnibus for this shave. I really get the tobacco out of the scent, so we're pairing it with Valedictorian and Garibaldi (two very tobacco forward scents).

I don't know why I chose to use the Wee Scot for this shave, but it worked. Here's some proof of the knee lather. It was able to make just enough lather for two passes and not one bit more. The new vegan formulation of Omnibus is absolutely legit. It's right up there with the other top tier vegan bases for sure. Super duper slick. Seems just as water hungry as regular Omnibus too. The scent on Roam is starting to grow on me, but today was really just a fantastic coincidence/excuse to break out Garibaldi. This scent is so good.

Photo contest theme today is Donuts. This dozen donuts did not last very long, I'm glad I had help to eat them today. #photocontest

June 17, 2024

• Brush: Prometheus Handcrafts w/ 28mm Synthetic

• Razor: Karve Christopher Bradley OC B Plate

• Blade: Ladas Super Stainless

• Lather: HAGS - Dark Side - Soap (Vegan Base)

• Post Shave: Zingari Man- No. 1 - Balm

• Fragrance: Zingari Man- No. 1

This is the HAGS Vegan base from back when they had every scent in 4 different bases, which everyone loved (sarcasm). People were pretty crazy and made a fuss about this scent when it was released. I bought into the FOMO hype and got a tub. While it's good, it isn't earth shattering. Zingari Man's NO. 1 products matched beautifly with the oud and rose notes.

I knee-rely forgot about the daily challenge. Since I was a wet blanket about the leg shaving. I participated the the knee lathering today. I don't know if I'll continue to do it an-knee-more, but it wasn't too bad.

June 17, 2024

• Brush: Shavemac w/ AP Shave Co 26mm Pure Bliss™ SHD Premium Synthetic Knot
• Razor: Blackland Osprey
• Blade: Astra SP (Green)
• Lather: Southern Witchcrafts – Necromantic
• Post Shave: Southern Witchcrafts – Necromantic

Southern Witchcrafts is one of those companies where you either love or hate their scents. Either way, you can’t say their scents aren’t unique. Not many companies would dare add notes of dirt, diesel, mold, burning rubber, charred wood, etc. to there soaps. Yet, as odd as some of these ingredients are, they seem to work for me in MOST instances (Boonana smelled like fermented bananas, and just wasn’t good to me).

Necromantic is one of the scents I like, and I don’t know why. The dirt is there, in your face and unapologetic. And then you smell the roses and the other scents. It’s like being in a freshly tilled garden.

As for the performance, SW is definitely top tier. The lather is slick and voluminous, and it isn’t hard to whip up either.

Today’s Challenge: After this challenge, I can honestly say that I am not a huge fan of lathering soap on my knee. I usually lather in a shaving bowl, but when I don’t, it’s directly on my face or head. I’m not great at either of those, and this was no different. Software Search

June 17, 2024 - DON’T HAVE A COW MAN

• Brush: Stirling - Synthetic 24mm
• Razor: Schick - Krona 1960s TTO DE
• Blade: Personna - Platinum
• Lather: Catie’s Bubbles - BARNEGAT BAY
• Post Shave: HAGS - Isla Muerta
• Fragrance Goodfellow & Co. - No. 07 Spiced Ginger & Rum

SOAP - You know it always amazes me how vegan/veggie/non-animal soaps perform! Does it compare to animal derived? Maybe? I don’t know but seems to be right there at the same level. This soap is bay rum that is super strong and to match it I am using a spice bay rum splash and frag. By the time I got out of the bathroom I was yelling ARR-MATEYSS to everyone. I was ready to wear an eye patch at work and looted the staff room fridge! AHOY MATEYS!!!

RAZOR - Nothing new here.

THE THEME - So I got to show off my smooth legs yesterday and now I get to do it again today! NICE!!! Right leg first!! Then left leg!!! I take these pics while I am shaving and realize there is a border to where my shorts go up to!! Hilarious! Jungle, demarcation zone, then flat lands. Got to say lathering on my smooth knees was a tiny bit weird but hey it could be worse. I must confess at the end this was a knee slapper of a good time!

SOTD - 2024-06-17

• Beard Growth: 24 Hours
• Prep: Hot Shower
• Pre Shave: None
• Brush: Yaqi - Mysterious Space Synthetic
• Razor: Blackland Blackbird Ti
• Blade: Treet - 7 Days Platinum
• Passes: WTG x2
• Lather: Cella Milano Organic Shaving Soap BIO
• Post Shave: Stetson Aftershave,Mario Badescu - Facial Toner (rosewater)

• Fragance: Axe Body Spray Deodorant,Kenneth Cole - Vintage Black EDT

• Comments: Vegan day - decided to use cella bio from the previous day again. Really liked this one.

2nd use on the Treet blade, first pass was great 2nd pass was not good. Ended up with significant irritation which I can still feel almost 12hours later

#ROTY

June 17, 2024

• Brush: Zenith Boar 24 x 48 mm
• Razor: Fatip Piccolo Slant Closed Comb
• Blade: Feather - New Hi Stainless (2)
• Lather: Catie’s Bubbles - Pine Barrens
• Post Shave: Chiseled Face - Summer Storm
• Fragrance: Di Ser - Tsuzumi Boshi

Went with Catie’s Bubbles, in keeping with the no-animal-ingredients theme. All the scents I used today showcase various facets of pine, cypress, and other woody notes. Summer Storm aftershave is pine-forward. Di Ser is a Japanese perfumer that claims to use only natural ingredients. Their stuff is expensive (I’m using a sample acquired from Luckyscent). Tsuzumi Boshi doesn’t last long— at least on my skin—but it has an entirely distinct character.

Today’s featured work of art is by Giuseppe Arcimboldo, who assembled trippy portraits out of fruit, vegetable, and plant components. The example shown here is a portrait of Emperor Rudolf II of Habsburg as Vertumnus.

#ROTY

June 17, 2024  

• Brush: Dogwood – Badger  
• Razor: Merkur 34C  
• Lather: Zingari – The Traditionalist  

Theme: The Traditionalist in Zingai’s vegan base. I think I don’t react well to this one, my shoulder is red and itchy and the part of the leg I shaved tingles.

Challenge. See SOTD picture. Lathered on shoulder. Took awkward shower picture. Shaved leg. Called it a day. The knee is the better surface for lathering. Would be willing to try elbow lather next year.

Other thoughts: the problem with the big bin of samples is that you have to paw through it like a trash panda every day to find the one you are looking for. Or you paw through it to discover if you have something on theme. Next year, instead of den tours the challenge should be to dump your den software into a container and then dig through it to find the next three days of themes. Extra points for those who can and are willing to take tasteful photographic evidence of Scrooge McDucking it through their hoard.

user proposes scrooge mcduck sample challenge