July 15, 2023

• Brush: Beard and Blade Classic synthetic
• Razor: Karve Overlander SS
• Blade: Gillette 7 O’Clock Black Super Platinum
• Lather: Barrister and Mann - Death
• Post Shave: Nivea - En(balm)ing fluid

As you probably can understand, my chosen theme for today’s SOTD is Death. Unfortunately, I do not own any Tabac products..… sooooo… uhmm…, I had to go with my 2nd choice - Death from the Barrister and Mann’s Four Horsemen series. Ouch…. Eh… Did I hit a sore spot there? Take your best shot, click the downvote button - I’m ready.

Hashtags #photocontest #oof

Music
“Shuriken” - Alix Perez, Headland Spotify / YouTube

---

Daily challenge:

My favourite YouTube wetshaver is Donald Youngner aka Wet The Face. Not really watching to learn about new hardware/software or anything like that. This guy is just like that next door neighbour you wish you had. I think his wife is sick and in palliative care, so that is kind of sad. Honorary mentions goes to John Shaves and The Virtual Groomroom for razor reviews. YMMV!

LGSOTD 15-July

• Brush: Simpson - M7 Manchurian #OLDWORLD  
• Razor: E2UK DE #RAINBOW 
• Blade: London Bridge 
• Lather: Barrister and Mann - Le Grand Chypre
• Post Shave: Barrister and Mann - Le Grand Chypre AS

I was on the fence today with the software selection, I had tried to look around and see what was classified as a chypre other than Le Grand.  I did a run around on Fragrantica checking what I had in hand. It pulled out GFT Eucris but wasn't sure if it would cut it, this is way above my head, I'm still learning. . So instead I went with the safe bet of Le Grand Chypre.  Standard B&M performance which is cracking. If eucris is one then I'm gutted, love that stuff. 

This razor is a no-name effort, I actually stole it from the Mrs for the tags. She tried this when I convinced her to switch but she didn't get on with it and frankly neither do I.  It’s bloody awful, louder than a buzz saw but about as effective as a soggy sponge. On top of that the finish (unsurprisingly) is also awful, I wouldn't even PIF this on my worst enemy. 

Daily Challenge, Urrgh, take a video or tell you about my favourite wet shaving YouTube person and why they’re better than VisceralWatch. This was not a challenge I looked forward to regardless of the route I took.  Hardly any pictures of me exist, never mind videos, so youtube it was (maybe next year) though this in itself has its own barriers!  The biggest one, I don’t routinely watch wetshaving YouTube people (stars?), bugger.  The only reason I've been to YouTube was for honing advice, for this the main man Lynn Abrams being my pick. The videos just made sense, simple but also giving specifics allowing me to follow closely right from setting a bevel, actual honing through to refreshing.  

Now, why is he better than VisceralWatch, off the bat not a clue, the main problem being I have no idea who VisceralWatch is, HD Shaves? Think so from my reddit search. So to give a fair shout I had to go and watch….some time later...well that was an eye opener. He’s certainly reviewed a vast quantity of hardware and software, and of those I saw they were comprehensive. But why is Lynn Abrams better… sorry mate, that was the content I was after. Perhaps I've been living under a rock, I really am new to this particular corner of the internet.

Ah well, decent software but subpar finish, I’m looking forward to a better one tomorrow!

Hope everyone has a grand day.

Cheers

Marc

ROTY

#PhotoContest

Congratulations 🎉 you've been selected for the best photo contest 😊

Reason - "great clean aesthetic".

July 15, 2023 – Lather games day 15 – AKA who the hell has time to shoot a video anyways

• Brush: AP Shave Co Synthetic
• Razor: Gillette Tech
• Blade: Voskhod (1)
• Lather: Grooming Dept – Peach Chypre
• Post Shave: Ariana & Evans – peach & cognac

So this is the halfway mark, eh? On the move for the weekend with my lady – we’re off to a cottage with no wifi and spotty cel reception. That should be great for tomorrow. But first today we shave with Grooming Department’s Peach Chypre. Big thanks to u/OnionMiasma for repeatedly sending smushes my way. And not without fair warning if you look at the SOTD photo (I just love the wood grain of the table). True enough, just plain yuck. Had to finish with Peaches and Cognac just to make things worse. Or better. Still not sure. Normally I just wouldn’t shave while on the go but Lather Games and all…

No time for a video today although emo RayMoonie needs to make a return soon, I think. As far as wet tubers, u/VisceralWatch all the way! He gemnabled me for goodness sake! I also enjoy Latherhog and LatherTalk vids. More topic-oriented and less actual shaving.

#PhotoContest

July 15, 2023 – I have become death, destroyer of videos.

• Brush: Body Shop Synthetic #runt #smoll #ANCIENT
• Razor: EldrormR Industries MM24 #brassing
• Blade: GEM (2)
• Lather: Barrister and Mann – The Four Horsemen: Death
• Post Shave: House of Mammoth – Alive
• Fragrance: Maher Olfactive – Red Skies

So here we go. First parts first: I did a video. It needs to be cleaned and uploaded so I’ll update once I have time to get to my desktop. This pushed the boundaries of my desire for a sort of privacy. Interacting through text (even if many of you have my name and address from trades) acts like a mask. So the mask slips a little and I’m uncomfortable, but the point here is to get out of our comfort zone. It’s not a good video but I tried.

Edited: As promised here is the video. TBQH, it's painful even I couldn't watch all 8:37 of it and it's me. My demanded we watch 3 minutes then they got bored. Before any judge hits me with a negative point, I warned you! You can simply verify there is a video for the challenge.

On to the choices and #fof. So death is a chypre (yes I mispronounced it in the video.) the others, I’m not sure they haven’t become a new category. They’re built off a chypre accord, but Will didn’t call them chypre so… I didn’t take the chance. But I do want to use war “during” lather games. So next Saturday, leg day, gonna use war for shave 2 (non LG shave) to shave my face. So, I am a bit superstitious, so after slathering death all over my face 3 times, I countered it with Alive. Take that death! (Edited: according to our Chief Justice, Alive is also a chypre! So my superstition created a chypre trifecta. How's that for a feat of fragrance! " Red Skies is listed on Shawn’s website as a chypre so I went to it get back to the theme. Given its name comes from the old adage “red skies at morning sailor take warning…” it also ties into the overall theme of death and life I got going too.

After I turned off the camera I nicked myself 3 times. Twice under the nose (as I noted is giving me trouble with the MM24) and once during the cleanup pass with the tech, because I forgot to tighten the head (doh).

Today’s #photocontest is water. That is actual holy water. My wife, who isn’t particularly religious, grabbed that many years ago after a Christmas Mass, because she thought you were supposed to. I, who is religious can’t bring myself to throw it away, so I keep it in a drawer. A friend, who’s a priest, saw it and told me I can dump it onto dirt and that’s proper disposal, but it still seems weird. I did not use it to make lather either. But it goes nicely with the death and life theme.

I did a shout out to my fellow #ROTY in the video but will do one again here. I count about 15 of us remaining. Since we’re halfway there here’s a song “Shaving our hair” to the tune of “living on a prayer”

Tommy’s got his moar boar in hock.

Now he’s letting grow what he used to shave off

Ohh shave off

Gina wishes the beard would go away

When she cries in the night tommy whispers

“Baby it’s ok, I’ll shave today”

You’ve gotta load up with what you got

It doesn’t make a difference if you GUTL or not

We’ve got each soap and that’s on theme for now

We’ll give it a shot

Oh, we’re half way there,

Oh-oh shaving our hair

Your skin is raw, but we’ll make I swear

Oh-oh, shaving our hair.

(Edited Video above)

2023-07-15 C'est un chypre

• Brush: Yaqi - Metal Timberwolf
• Razor: Gillette Old Type 1919 #BRASSING
• Lather: Wet Shaving Products - Olympus
• Post Shave: Fine Accoutrements - Platinum
• Fragrance: Stirling Soap Co. - Executive Man
• Blade: Feather (4)

Natural brassing wear on the razor's handle. I don't want anyone to think I'd deliberately scrape the cap for this, because I know it looks like that.

Relevant Post-shave and Fragrance: The only thing more confusing than figuring out whether a soap/scent is a chypre is figuring out why somebody decided to name a family of scents after cheese. Or is it named after the goats themselves? Either way, both are stinky and smell nothing like these Aventus dupes in today's lineup.
Aventus is apparently a "fruity chypre," a description that I guess makes sense if we're talking about cheese, but not so much if we're talking about goats, so I guess it's the former.

Challenge Accepted:
What have you djudges gotten yourselves into? You know you're not going to want to watch a bunch of boring shave videos, I am nothing if not ~~pandering~~ ~~acquiescent~~ accomodating, so I condensed my shave video with the magic of time lapse. Come to think of it, I think I did pick up a whiff of cheese during the shave...

But also, I'm still going to make mention of Challenge^bis, i.e. "WetTubing," which frankly sounds like something you'd encounter at a water park. I'm only inferring it's related to YouTube. In that case, no YouTube shaver can ever hope to come close to u/Cadinsor. I don't understand why this thread isn't full of people praising u/Cadinsor. You all need to look up Michael Freedberg immediately.

#FOF
All of these products, being different (maybe? unless they're all pre-blends?) reproductions of the same scent, are similar enough that my nose can't discern them in any meaningful way. Altogether, it is a fresh scent, that is for sure. It is also undeniably fruity, but I don't care for that at all. I mean, it's fine, but it's not my cup of tea (unless it provides relief from a super-stanky civet).

Now, it's relevant to mention that, as I was figuring out my Games calendar a few weeks ago, my lying-around sample of Executive Man fell onto my concrete floor, seemingly destroying my only goat-cheese fragrance for today. However, there was plenty left in the little tube. Nonetheless, I later got a sample vial of the veritable Creed Aventus. While I haven't used it, there does seem to be something remarkable different about it, better, less in-your-face pineapple.

#photocontest
Photo: History (No, I'm not talking about the goofy Greek diorama, though I am quite proud of that)
I am, however, talking about the literal piece of history in the photo: the 104-year-old razor. I mean, the threshold is 20 years. There's plenty of junk that we all have lying around older than that, but at some point—maybe the centennial mark?—a thing ceases to be old junk and becomes a piece of history (purely coincidental tie-in).

Edit: I've been informed that it's Chypre, after the island of Cyprus, and not chèvre, like goats and goat cheese. They're, like, almost the same word, guys. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Jul. 15, 2023 - Baa Baa Grand Chypre

• Prep: CeraVe - Hydrating Facial Cleanser

• Brush: Stirling Soap Co. 2 Band Synthetic

• Razor: Blackland Era SB LVL 3

• Blade: Astra Green

• Lather: Barrister and Mann - Le Grand Chypre

• Post Shave: House of Mammoth - Alive Balm

• Fragrance: Imaginary Authors - The Soft Lawn

TBH I really don’t know what a Chypre is supposed to smell like and only realized that Alive is classified as a Chypre when looking up things for today. This makes me happy because now I have a matching aftershave for todays theme!

For the fragrance the scent doesn’t perfectly match but Chypre = Sheep, Sheep eat Grass, and Grass = Lawn. Boom on theme! Also I wanted something to tie into the Tennis theme for todays #photocontest #Sport picture!

Lots of incredible things to say about Stirling Soap today. I swapped out the brush I had set out for this synthetic from them. Like many of us, Stirling was the first full size tub of soap I purchased in the infancy of my wetshaving career. Their breadth of products while keeping incredible price and performance says a lot about the effort that Rod and Mandy put into their business! They care about this community so much that Rod was willing to take “repeated kicks to the groin” to make the MOAR BOAR brushes reality!

I have no interest in videoing myself shave for todays challenge. To begin with I shave how God intended us to : buck naked! And that’s a show that only one person has an admission ticket to so unfortunately y’all get left out.

But to satisfy the requirements of the challenge I must share my wettuber of choice. There are a ton of incredible options out there but I keep coming back to sgrdaddy’s channel. You can pretty much guarantee that he has reviewed the scent that you’re looking for and if you need encouragement to push that blade just one more shave he’s got it!

July 15, 2023 – LG 15: Sheep-Ruh

• Brush: Dogwood Coprolite B15 #COMPOSITE #CHONK
• Razor: Military Simplex #UNICORN
• Blade: Astra SP (Green) (9)
• Lather: Grooming Dept – Peach Chypre
• Post Shave: Barrister and Mann – Le Grand Chypre
• Fragrance: Rogue Perfumery – Chypre Siam

As I was figuring out my calendar I had several swap me Chypre. I have LGC, but needed BM another day. So, thanks to u/onionmiasma and u/tetriside who traded me some options. Normally, when something says “warning: terrible” on it, you avoid it in life, but this is LG after all, so that seemed like the reasonable choice. So thanks Onion, I guess? And a thanks to u/eructate for loaning the military simplex for #UNICORN. 40s 3 piece razor with metal head and plastic (maybe bakelite?) handle.

I don’t watch too many wetshaving videos, maybe the occasional scent review. I will say I appreciate how this day turned from bash on an influencer to appreciate someone, we need more positivity in the world. I do recall the first one I watched many moons ago was from u/iamsms, about how to properly lather. I figured I’d do some screen grabs, and showcase a sort of “who wore it best”. If you want to fast forward through a general video to adhere to todays challenge here you go.

I don’t claim to be a Chypre expert, but the gist is citrus top, labdanum (resinous) middle, and oakmoss base. Of course, this can then be taken several directions, enter peach Chypre. There is a touch of peach, but it is buried under a rather dirty patchouli, vetiver, mossy combo. I’d even venture to say it smells a bit like decaying fruit, like when something got left in the fruit bowl too long in the heat. As for LGC, I got it early when venturing into artisan work and it took a minute for me to appreciate it, but I love it. Quite citrusy and a bit floral on top, herby and resinous. Even a touch of light spice, Lastly, Rogue Perfumery’s Chypre Siam. Here, Manual Cross said he wanted to take the genre and, return it to its vintage roots, and use scents from Southeast Asia. Enter kaffir lime, ylang ylang, basil and lemongrass for brightness and citrus. Underneath, animalistic civet and leather are used in combination with the traditional moss base. About an hour or 2 after application, it’s mellowed a ton. Sort of a classy old grandpa smell. #FOF

As for #PHOTOCONTEST, went with games, as always need plenty of sheep in catan.

soap brands 15/30, post shave 15/30, frag 15/30, post/frag linked 15/30, software sponsors 8/13, hardware sponsors 2/2, razor hashtags 9/15, brush hashtags 8/15, photo contest 15/30, daily challenges 13/25, special challenges 2/5

July 15, 2023

• Brush: Sunsoaps Maple Walnut – 26mm Motherlode
• Razor: Chiseled Face - Legacy
• Blade: Wilkinson Sword
• Lather: Barrister and Mann – Le Grand Chypre
• Post Shave: Elysian Soap Shop – Patchouli Peach Splash
• Fragrance: Guerlain - Vetiver
• Music: Mai Yamane – Don’t Bother None

First things first – Thanks for u/worbx for the smush for today. I own a LOT of B&M, but I don’t have Will’s Chypre. Really appreciate you sharing this. I have an interview with Will Carius from Barrister and Mann, but we have a lot to unpack first…

Before I get to today, I need to set the stage. Yesterday, I posted a super cold ice bath shave for Frigid Friday and included a couple friendly digs at u/Marquis90. We both had the same idea to shave in a bathtub full of ice, and I had more ice, and less water in mine. I thought it’d be funny to tag him and let him know. THEN u/MrTangerinesky came in from the clouds and inserted his COMPLETELY WRONG opinion about which ice bath was more difficult. Honestly, I think some of the menthol he put on his balls somehow found it’s way up into his skull and turned his brain to mush. So today, I shaved in my bathtub. Again. In a Spite Shave, dedicated to u/MrTangerinesky, using a method he thought would be more difficult. Watch me do both and see which one I look more uncomfortable in.

After a brutal, frigid shave yesterday, today was an easy full bathtub shave with only one bag of ice, and more water, like u/MrTangerinesky thought would be difficult. Wrong on every count. The softness of a Motherlode knot and the smoothness of the CF Legacy and only one ice bag was like shaving on easy street for this video. Today was the perfect day to use Barrister & Mann as well. Big fan of a lot of what Will puts out and Le Grand Chypre is no different. It’s fresh, with a little floral earthy perfuminess to it and slightly fruity nature to it, which is why I went with Patchouli Peach from Elysian to finish the shave. It’s a little fruity, with a floral perfumy nature to it. Then to close out the scents, Vetiver from Guerlain to bring everything back down to Earth and compliment, yet tone down the fruit notes from the splash for a great #FOF day.

DISCLAIMER: Elysian Soap Shop sent me this sample size splash because I’m on my way to becoming a world famous shavefluencer. #dontforgettolikeandsubscribe

Daily #photocontest. Took a picture with a mobile phone in it.

As far as the challenge, I posted a video yesterday of the ice bath shave, and I’m posting a sequel video today for my Grand Chypre Spite Shave today, dedicated to u/MrTangerinesky. I spend about 90% of the time explaining just how wrong he is. Spite Shaving may be my new favorite way to shave! And look out u/VisceralWatch, I’m coming for you! Just wait until I hand out TWO stickers to everyone I meet that say, “I met Priusaurus and he gave me two stickers!”. You’re move, HDShaves. Still using the free face filter app (which barely works) because I still want to remain somewhat anonymous, even though half of you probably have my name and address by now. I figure most influencers use filters in their videos, why can’t I? Make sure to SMASH that like and subscribe button! And once we reach 100,000 subscribers, we have an AWESOME PRIZE PACK from our sponsors that I’ll send to one lucky subscriber!

PS – Thanks for (hopefully) being a good sport u/MrTangerinesky!

For the interview, I talked with this unknown artisan that call themselves: Barrister and Mann. Give them a shot, I think they may have a future in wetshaving. Okay… That was a joke! Get it? Because Will Carius is well known to everyone in the community. MOIMO, but Barrister and Mann makes the absolute best soap base in the business. There are a lot that are really, really excellent soaps out there, but Omnibus just does it for me. This community is what it is thanks to Will. His willingness to continuously improve and be willing to take risks is what makes B&M one of the best. I’m really happy that Will was willing to take part in this series. Thanks so much, u/BostonPhotoTourist, really appreciate it!

10 Questions with… Barrister and Mann

1) Why the 2nd “n” in Mann? Ever regret not really going for the gusto and making it “Mannn”?

It was just a stylistic device from the fact that I originally envisioned the line to be geared toward men. Point of fact that that that's still functionally true, hard though I have tried to shift it into a more unisex space over the years.

2) One thing I really admire about you is you aren’t afraid to try new things and experiment with scents. You’ve said you don’t want everyone to like every scent you make. Do you have any scent notes that you won’t work with?

I used to say synthetic amber/ambergris notes, but several of my more recent designs have incorporated Norlimbanol, and Lavender, Interrupted contains a decent quantity of the synthetic ambergris material Cetalox. So not anymore, I suppose.

3) I heard you say that your mother actually names most of your soaps. When do you decide that it’s your turn to name one?

It's really just whichever of us comes up with the idea that the two of us like more. She has named things like Nocturne, Adagio, Solstice, Dickens, etc. I've named things like Hallows, Leviathan, Beaudelaire, Seville, etc.

4) Has there been a scent release that stands out to you as unexpectantly successful, where it sold faster or far more than you expected? If so, which one?

Probably 42. I guess I didn't realize how popular Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy actually is, so the reception caught me a bit off guard. We've leaned into it in the years since, of course, but that first release was a bit of a surprise.

5) When I was researching questions to ask Brad Maggard, I stumbled across this comment you made about Colonial Drug in Cambridge, before you even made shaving soaps. Colonial Drug has since moved locations, but have you been back there since you’ve built Barrister & Mann? I'm envisioning you going in today, slamming your soap on the counter ala Matt Damon, and saying "How do you like them apples!"

Man, that thread is a blast from the past. I've only been in their new location twice, shortly after they moved, and was not further impressed.

6) When you aren’t using your own products, what software do like to shave with?

I still have a jar of tallow Tabac; I haven't tried the new vegetal version. Great soap. Other than that, House of Mammoth products are terrific, but I don't buy much in the way of shaving stuff anymore. I have it EVERYWHERE, so it takes something truly remarkable to catch my interest.

(INTERVIEW CONTINUES IN THE REPLY)

• Brush: Naked Armor Mahogany Wood Shaving Brush

• Razor: Gillette Travel Tech

• Blade: Bic Chrome Platinum

• Lather: Grooming Department - Chypre D'ananas

• Post Shave: Barrister and Mann - Passiflora

• Fragrance: Imaginary Authors - Sun Soaked

My theme for today's shave: Fruity Tooty

Pineapple chypre and other fruity smells. Still on the stag trip so I'm a bit wrecked but I will not miss my LG streak. #photocontest #FOF #ROTY

monkey smoking is BAD