Post 'Friday Lather Games SOTD Thread - Jul 28, 2023' of challenge 'SOTD photo scavenger hunt'

July 28, 2023 – El Cheapo

• Brush: Omega 40033 24mm
• Razor: Gillette Tech
• Blade: 7 O’Clock – Sharpedge (Yellow) (4)
• Lather: Arko – Arko
• Post Shave: Nivea – Sensitive Post Shave Balm
• Fragrance: Chatillon Lux – Agua Fresca

Cheap day! I will be honest, if I told myself I’d save money for it was only briefly. Before I bought my first razor I was actually concerned about getting started because the barrier to entry into wetshaving, before you even know if you can do it, is pretty high. (Starter sets make it easier but, unless you stumble into the sub first you may not find them. So you end up like me, buying a $27 Parker, then separately soaps and splashes in samples, which cost shipping, remembering you need a brush, paying more shipping. Then trying to figure out how blades work, shipping more.) I did some back of the napkin math to make sure I wouldn’t spend significantly more. That math was useless once I found the sub and thrill. Oh well. TBQH, I’ve probably still spent less than a new norelco costs over it’s (increasingly short) life cycle. And I’m starting to tamp down my fomo, and focus on using what I already have… Oh remote learning, gotta order that.

OK, well fine. But this still is less than some of my other hobbies (gaming, homebrew, hunting). And it’s less by… A lot. Pretty sure my den is less than my Xbox, nevermind the TV we got for it, the gamepass, new controllers…. Let’s not talk about how much I could spend on the hunting equipment if I wanted to.

So anyway, here’s my discount shave. Obviously Arko is the cheapest you can get. I planned on this early but didn't have any in my den, but u/loudmusicboy saved me from having to buy a whole tub or stick. Thanks! I didn’t find the smell horrible (but I’ve used war.) definitely medicinal. Brush is a $6 boar I got to try boars when I ordered But first an experiment. The razor is a post war tech. Based on some research they went for less than a dollar around the time this was made (mid to late 50s) which is less than $10 today. All the blades in my den basically cost the same. On a per shave basis I get a bit more shaves out of the yellows. This one in particular has been abused to hell, baby oil shaves 3 different razors. Left handed shaving. And it’s still going. Nivea balm is pretty cheap, certainly cheaper than artisan stuff and the Jack Black I have as well. About the frag. As mentioned I don’t have a lot of frags, and the Chatillon Lux discovery set is really well priced. 11 two ml samples for $25, at the time I bought it, making this the cheapest frag in my den. Even now it’s only $30. If you’re like me and don’t use a lot of frags, and want variety, you could almost survive on ordering this set over and over again. On a price/ml basis it’s the same as the full bottles basically and you aren’t tied to one scent. Though I might get some YRP or maybe unconditional surrender.

Speaking of frags my #fof is a little disjointed here. The Arko is as I said medicinal. Maybe a hint of lemon. I was stunned that it kinda worked with the soft unisex fruit in the Agua Fresca. But it did. I had a little trouble developing expectations for the Agua Fresca. As noted, I’m from the same area as Shawn and this is another scent where the inspiration just doesn’t match my experience. It’s supposedly inspired by Cherokee Street, but that area is known for Mexican culture and food. I was pretty sure a margarita frag was not sometime he’d do. Sure “fruity drinks” I guess, but it’s not really a Pina colada either. The bars of the central west end (heavily trafficked by college students) may have been a better narrative. (seeing as Landing was already taken for admiral.) But it’s a good scent, probably a bit too fruity to me.

For #photocontest here is gaming. My daughter insisted we use Tears of the kingdom since she’s playing that. So I obliged. I wanted to use “Sorry” which is like the theme of lather games. (“sorry honey about this choas,” sorry players I stole your bit, etc.)

OK #ROTY people, 2 more. Let’s do this!

Edited because I forgot to thank u/loudmusicboy.

July 28, 2023 – Lather games day 28 – AKA Why is my splash blue?

• Brush: Wilkinson sword – boar #MISTURA #RUNT
• Razor: GEM Micromatic Open Comb
• Blade: Personna GEM PTFE (15)
• Lather: Wilkinson Sword black bowl
• Post Shave: Booster barbershop classics – Polar ice

This is the cheapest shave that I could put together today. I bought this splash as part of a large lot of crap to get me started way back when, but only used it for the first time today. Wilkinson sword tub and brush were also from the very beginning of my journey when I knew not of anything proper. Boy have I come a long way. MMOC can be found really cheap on ebay and a PTFE GEM blade can last and last, so another economical solution. This one is already on shave 15. Overall it was a really shitty shave, but got the job done. Why is the aftershave blue? The world may never know…

#PhotoContest

2023-07-28 Arko Day

• Brush: Assured Men - Broosse Rasage [sic] #RUNT #HOLLOW
• Razor: Alshabab Original
• Lather: Arko - Arko
• Post Shave: Lucky Tiger - Aspen
• Fragrance: Old Spice - Swagger Body Spray

Frugal Friday: Shit's cheap, yo. I'm not pulling any of this "look at the price for a gross pack!" foolery, either (a gross is 144, for anyone unaware). No, these are just the regular, normal-quantity, non-deal prices for the stuff.

I actually didn't come into wetshaving with the idea of "I'll save so much money!" I had the goal of getting a better shave, which is important to me because trichotillomania, but I'll spare you from another tangent about that.

Relevant Post-Shave and Fragrance: As required by the challenge.

Challenge Accepted:

#FOF

Alshabab Razor and blade: $0.15 total
I got a couple of these, because it's not like it's gonna break the bank, and this cheap little razor is surprisingly decent—when it has a decent blade. This morning, after I opened the fresh package of the other razor, I learned that the first blade was not just a dud. This blade would be happier yanking hair out of my face than cutting them. It outright refused the denser hair on my upper lip and soul patch.

Assured Men "Broosse": $1.25
Why the hell did I see u/OnionMiasma's post? I visited a few Dollar Tree stores just to see if they had this piece of crap. When I did find it, I was... not thrilled. Yes, the "knot" popped out immediately. If I were more sane, I would have tossed it and used the $4 one I had found, instead. Nope, I expoxied that thing back together, like a dumbass. During the process, my finger got stabbed by something in the conical lump of glue holding the bristles-of-questionable-material together.

Arko: $2.99/75g ($.0399/g)
I got and tried Arko for the first time just before the Games. It was a mystery how rubbing the stick on your face and then lathering would even work, and I'm still not really sure. Especially with this terrible, horrible, egregious excuse for a brush. Holy shit. But I managed a pathetic lather. Another curiosity was the reported "urinal cake" smell. Yes. Urinal cake is correct.
And it's drying! Holy hell, my skin has never felt so dry, and I live next to the sun!

Lucky Tiger: $10.00/16oz ($.0338/mL)
To reiterate, this is the non-exceptional price. Sample prices are obviously inflated. I originally included this in an order as a candidate for one of my barbershop days, but I had that covered and then I realized the stuff is normally sold in a huge bottle at a low price.
Descriptions call it "cool," "classic and clean," and "barbershop classic." I get what I think is citrus off the top, but not much else. I might have expected a bit of floral, but I noticed none. There may have been some spiciness well-hidden under the citrus. Also, is that... iron? It is! Blood.

Old Spice Swagger: $16.00/106g ($.151/g)
"Hey now, ginopono, that's deodorant; it's gotta be specifically marketed as a fragrance!"
I had that concern, too, but nope! This isn't marketed as a deodorant or spray deodorant. The deodorant products are expressly different things. The price of the particular version that I have (notably not labeled as an "underarm spray") may be inflated as a result of it being older, unobtanium-esque, and even so it's by far the cheapest expressly-marketed-as-a-fragrance product in my possession.
The scent, which reviews say have changed since this bottle/can was made, is quite citrusy, I think. Which is surprising, because I quite like it, whereas I've convinced myself I don't like citrus. Is it also spicy? I'm honestly not sure. Sorry, ~~r/cowzilla3~~ u/AirBudRuler, I'm not familiar at all with Old Spice, so I don't know how this compares.

#photocontest
Photo: r/wicked_edge
I don't get the utter disdain that people express for that sub. It's a different place, sure, but I guess if you need to onanistically massage your sense of superiority, that's one way to do it.
"Set up a photo like [I] would in WE"? Okay, well that counts for every photo I set up for WS. I could literally put this on any photo, and it should count (hell, people here still put the same photos on both subs).
But I'll play along.
I'll approach this with the idea that I'm recreating the photos that I shared with WS when I first tried coming here. It was the Games two years ago, and the environment was what I can only describe as "aggressively exclusionary". That said, I'd like to point out that the following year's Games were much better; the good folks running the Games acknowledged this, and made a conscious and noticeable effort to make the Games more accessible. But hot damn, the Games of two years ago were hostile for a newcomer.
But I digress.
It seems appropriate for the cheapo stuff to be laid out on the side of my sink with harsh lighting, much like in those early photos of mine. But that itself doesn't put r/wicked_edge actually in the photo, as the contest wants. To acheive that, there's the sub itself pulled up in the back. This isn't the phone category today.

• Brush: Omega 10098

• Razor: Gillette Old Type

• Blade: Dorco ST-300

• Lather: Arko - Shaving Soap

• Post Shave: Aqua Velva - Classic Ice Blue

• Fragrance: Parfums Belcam - Nitro

Today's Theme: Frugal Friday - Arko, for the same reason everyone else picked arko. Because we're not sophisticated enough to use Derby shave sticks.

Today's Challenge: Frugal Friday - Alright so let's walk through this.

• Omega 10098 is a $10 boar brush, easily the cheapest brush I own.
• Gillette Old Type because inflation isn't real. Inflation can't hurt me. Now why don't you just get a job as a cashier and buy a house like your parents did. They're millionaires now and all you do is complain that things are expensive. Oh, you have a corporate job? And you rent from your parents? And they charge you 4x their 1980's-era mortgage payment for that rent? Well sheesh, maybe you shouldn't have taken out so much in college loans. Your dad paid his way through college by working at the campus book store part time.
• Dorco ST-300 is actually $5.50 for a 100-pack on Amazon right now, almost half the price of astra SP's. Buy now before prices go up or something https://www.amazon.com/Dorco-ST300-Platinum-Double-Blades/dp/B001MJSAJQ
• Arko - again, for the same reason everyone else picked arko. Because we missed out on La Toja thrill when prices were reasonable.
• Aqua Velva Classic Ice Blue, was a decant from /u/j33pguy13 he sent me a while back because I'd never tried AV. I wonder if we paid USPS more to ship this decant than it would have cost me to buy it at the store.
• And now, the pièce de résistance of my frugal friday shave - my fragrance.

I actually was planning to use Southern Witchcraft's Valley of Ashes. At $22 for a 30ml bottle it's one of the best deals in artisan fragrances. I'd had it planned out for weeks. This was going to be the one nice part of my shave today! But then, as I was going through my LG spreadsheet yesterday afternoon and reveling in the recent shitlisting of my matcha lather post, it dawned on me. I had pivoted to Tabac for dickhole day and gotten the cheapest Tabac Eau de Cologne I could find online in order to limit my losses.

$17.31 for 150ml of geriatric misery. and it was already used on a prior day of our blessed Lather Games.

I played myself.

I fell to my knees in an arby's. I drove around downtown Denver begging (thru texts) /u/USS-Spongebob family for cheap juice. I cried out to the heavens "DOES AXE BODY SPRAY COUNT AS A FRAGRANCE" in the lather games discord channel. But alas, I had only one option: I was compelled to return to Walmart. I had accidentally gotten rerouted to a nearby walmart of which I was previously unaware when road work blocked off the usual back entrance to my favorite King Soopers when I needed heavy whipping cream for my matcha lather the night before wildcard wednesday. So now I knew where I could get some cheap stuff. But what would I get? Well, as I waited for the non-functioning "call attendant" button to summon a Walmart employee to unlock the glass case that housed their collection of sub-$20 colognes and perfumes, I saw it. My savior. $7.98 for 100ml of something called Nitro that blatantly displayed on the box that it was a dupe of HUGO. I'd never smelled HUGO before, but the bottle looked blue, and the AV decant was also blue, so I sussed out a theme I could pivot to. Toilet bowl cleaner. God bless walmart, and god bless America.

My theme for today's shave: Office Bathrooms After They've Been Cleaned

Everyone is familiar with the Arko = urinal cake scent comparison. But have you considered that Aqua Velva and Nitro (the supposed HUGO dupe) both smell like that blue toilet bowl cleaning liquid that janitorial staff always leaves in the toilet bowls after they clean a stall? Well they do. So now I smell like a clean office bathroom. I'm not happy about it, but surprisingly my fiancee said I smell kind of good. I think she's just happy I didn't get to use Valley of Ashes. #photocontest #FOF #ROTY

Edit: I forgot to talk about music. In honor of the HUGO dupe called Nitro, I picked Dark Passion Play by Nightwish which is the first album the band released after they kicked out Tarja Turunen. Dark Passion Play is a cheap imitation of what Nightwish was with Tarja. I don't know if they ever found their identity with the new singer, but I will forever cherish the Tarja era of Nightwish.

July 28th 2023 - Lather Games Day 28

• Brush: Omega 11137
• Razor: GEM Featherweight
• Blade: GEM PTFE (15)
• Lather: Stirling - Weekend in Malibu
• Post Shave: Stirling - Weekend in Malibu
• Fragrance: Stirling - Lightish Red

Weekend in Malibu - $14.25 soap, $13.65 splash

GEM Featherweight: $5.00 at auction

Omega 11137 - $9.99

Stirling EdT - $18.95

GEM Blade - $0.45

Total $62.29 for my cheapest gear. Sticking with this stuff and not being seduced by the siren song of sundry soaps and splashes and surely you would see the sought-after promised land of Shaving Savings.

To investigate why Stirling remains the best value, I decided to take a page from u/Priusaurus' great interviews and query the soapmakers directly, and maybe see if anyone there would join me in a shave. I packed up my gear, typed Stirling Headquarters into Google Maps and headed out. Upon arrival at Lord Stirling's quarters I was not scared off by the sign that said "Not Open to Public" because I am no ordinary member of the public, I am a Lather Games participant and that status gets you special treatment, not unlike how only Olympic athletes are allowed in the Olympic Village. Unfortunately, nobody was home but since I still needed to shave I figured I would make the best of it and shave there anyway.

Of course, this meant shaving outside in the heat for a second day in a row since my failed attempt to do this yesterday by trying to convince Rod and others that Varen is a lavender soap (it's the second listed scent note!) met with well-deserved mockery and scrub status being bestowed upon me.

I set up my gear on the commemorative plaque outside for some #photocontest history action, and then started to face lather. I stopped to pop a lather selfie, having styled my hair in homage to u/chronnoisseur42O's great 'do, and got to work. I completed my first pass which was somewhat difficult without a mirror, especially my cheeks, went back to my brush and lathered up for a second pass. While all this was going on there was a light flow of traffic on the road behind me; hopefully between the curvy road and peaceful scenery they were too busy to notice the guy shaving in the grass. I got through my two passes as mosquitos chewed my legs, toweled off and put on some Weekend in Malibu splash. I then hit myself with a few sprays of Lightish Red, which for me is a very nostalgic scent because it is a dupe of Abercrombie and Fitch Fierce, which was my perfume of choice back in high school. Both Weekend in Malibu and Lightish Red have a fresh, aquatic citrusy feel, with lily of the valley and sandalwood in the background so not only was this shave frugal but it was a great combination of scents.

After my shave I figured I would do a little sightseeing, so I drove through a nearby covered bridge on my way to the Memorial Arch, where Stirling's name was engraved for what I can only assume is their contribution to frugal shaves.

Now if you'll indulge me while I dust off my history degree, I shaved in front of the house where Major General William Alexander, Lord Stirling, was headquartered during the cold and hungry winter of 1777 at Valley Forge.

William Alexander, Lord Stirling, was born in New York in 1727 to émigré Scottish parents and joined the New Jersey militia as a commissioned colonel during the Revolutionary War. He rose to prominence during the Battle of Long Island, when he led a rear-guard action that allowed the American army to avoid catastrophe and retreat safely, and was captured by the British. He was released in a prisoner swap and promoted to Major General after taking part in Washington's crossing of the Delaware River. This house is where he was headquartered (along with future president James Monroe) during the Continental Army's disastrous winter encampment of 1777-1778. Unfortunately Lord Stirling's drinking and diet led to his death from gout in 1783, just months before the Treaty of Paris ended the American Revolutionary War. Thanks for reading!

DQ'ed for anti British sentiment!

Jul. 28, 2023 - Cheap Cheap

• Prep: CeraVe - Hydrating Facial Cleanser

• Brush: Dreadnought Avenger

• Razor: GEM Junior

• Blade: GEM PTFE (1)

• Lather: Arko - Shave Stick

• Post Shave: T.N. Dickinson’s - Witch Hazel

• Fragrance: Mäurer & Wirtz - SIR Irish Moos

Todays shave sponsored by the letter “$” and the number “free.”

Todays daily challenge totally messed up my calendar earlier in the month because I originally had Moos EdT for Fougère Friday but realized it’s my cheapest per ml frag and had to save it for today.

Edit: forgot to say how awesome saving money is! As a father of two boys life is fucking expensive! So to take the chance and see how cheap this could be was refreshing. Now I’m never going to swap over to Arko full time because I love my smellz too much but it provided a perfectly serviceable shave! The brush on the other hand…total trash! I got less than what I paid for with it!

My pre shave is the only one I have so it’s my cheapest ✅

My brush I got for $3.75 and definitely overpaid for it ✅

My razor was hard to find an old MSRP for but I got it in a bundle of razors so it was the cheapest for me. Also the cheapest to buy right now. ✅

My blade is the only GEM blade I have. Also cost per shave is the lowest. $20/100 blades and easily get 30+ shaves from them. So cost is below $0.01 per shave. Compared to Astra Greens which are $7/100 and I get ~6 shaves per makes it right at $0.01 per shave. ✅

Arko is $2.99/75g stick or $1.13/1oz. Even cheaper than the gold standard of Stirling at $2.45/1oz! ✅

The Witch Hazel splash I get at Walmart and is $3.98/16oz bottle or $0.25/1oz! ✅

SIR Irish Moos I got at SmallFlower for $28.50/50ml. That puts it at $0.57/ml and everything else I have is at least $1.00/ml so cheapest by far! ✅

Todays #photocontest theme is ditches/trenches/holes in the ground. I took a fun interpretation of this and built a >!Hobbit Hole!<

July 28, 2023 – LG 28: Frugal Friday

• Brush: Maggard Synthetic
• Razor: Gillette Ball End Tech (user grade)
• Blade: Ladas (1)
• Lather: Arko – Shave Stick
• Post Shave: Suave – Skin Solutions Vitamin Revitalizing Lotion
• Fragrance: Beverley Hills Polo Club – Blaze Body Spray for Men

Shaved this morning, finally getting around to posting. Gotta keep it shortish and sweet today, as I’m off to the T Swift concert, cause I’m cool like that and a supportive partner.

Went for cheap all the things. Cheapest brush was my maggard synthetic (barely beating a couple boars) which helped kick off my dive into wetshaving. I have a cheap Amazon badger, but that’s was mostly cheap in quality but quite pricey in terms of the kit it came in in terms of performance. Ladas per maggard were cheapest blades. Went with a user grade tech. Software, arko stick, some suave lotion, and Beverley hills polo club body spray curtesy of an old student. More of that story in todays video., and a little tidbit on how each product is part of my wetshaving journey so far. Price breakdown below.

Brush: 11.95
Razor: originally ~.49. Inflation ~9.50. Purchased for like 4-6
Blade: Ladas, .75, or .15 each
Soap: arko stick, $3, or .04 per gram
AS: suave, $4.69 (nice), .00495 per mL
Frag: $10, or .11 per mL

So, all gear was about $35, but roughly $15.42 per shave assuming 2g soap and 2mL splash and frag. Judges, do I need to clarify these are linked by being cheap? FWIW they also all smell pretty meh.

For #FOF arko is like a citronella mosquito repellent urinal cake. Mine is special edition and unintentionally also soaked in lilac vegetal, giving it some extra rotting veg flair. Suave smells like generic lotion. The Beverley Hills Polo Club Blaze, according to wiki scents “Its Top notes are Cedar, Cardamom, Black Leather, Patchouli, Red Sage, Saffron, Lavender, Vervain, Red Grapefruit, Cranberry, Italian Lemon. Mid notes are Black Leather, Patchouli, Red Sage, Saffron, Lavender, Red Grapefruit, Cranberry, Italian Lemon, Cedar, Cardamom, Vervain and Base notes are Patchouli, Red Sage, Saffron, Black Leather, Red Grapefruit, Cranberry, Italian Lemon, Lavender, Vervain, Cedar, Cardamom.” In other words, it smells shittier than axe and is downright horrible. I like how top, mid, and base are all the same but just in different order, lol. Also, this specimen is the “body spray” and not EDT, though I can’t imagine anyone wanting either.

For #PHOTOCONTEST, went with the mighty airbudrule, cause he be dunking on these shitty products.

soap brands 28/30, post shave 28/30, frag 28/30, post/frag linked 28/30, software sponsors 13/13, hardware sponsors 2/2, razor hashtags 11/15, brush hashtags 10/15, photo contest 28/30, daily challenges 24/25, special challenges 4/5

July 28, 2023

• Brush: Assured for Men – 18mm Synthetic Shaving Brush #RUNT
• Razor: Assured for Men – Double Edge Safety Razor
• Blade: Assured for Men Double Edge Blades
• Lather: Luxury Men – Smooth Glide Shave Gel
• Post Shave: XtraCare – Fresh Scent After Shave
• Fragrance: Bod Man – Really Ripped Abs
• Music: Lil Dicky feat. Fetty Wap and Rich Homie Quan - Save Dat Money

Anyone that knows me, know I LOVE a good deal, so imagine my surprise when I went to the local Dollar Tree and discovered they have shaving gear! Like an idiot, I’ve been shelling out my hard-earned money to “artisans” for far too long. It’s about time I helped to open the eyes of r/wetshaving to the scam that is the hobby of shaving. We've all been duped and I wonder how deep this whole thing goes. Are our esteemed djudges in on this? Are all of you sock-puppet accounts for Big-Artisan-Soap?? Am I the only free thinker here???

At Dollar Tree, you can get a Double Edge Safety Razor AND 5 blades for the low price of $1.25. Is that cheaper than a Wolfman or a CF Legacy? Why, yes. Yes it is – I did the math twice to make sure.

What about a Shaving Brush? $1.25. Is that cheaper than a Declaration Grooming brush? Absolutely! And will this Assured for Men brand follow through on its commitments? Undoubtedly. Will DG? We know, the answer to that is unfortunately no.

For the Lather? $1.25 AND its aloe enriched! Does House of Mammoth put aloe his soaps? They absolutely do not! Why is this Ben guy trying to scam us! Is he cutting corners and skipping the aloe? And if we know he doesn’t have aloe, I think it’s reasonable to wonder… What else is he skimping out on?? The people need to know the truth!

For post-shave? You guessed it: $1.25! And it doesn’t have the bullshit snake-oil “skin food” that these so called “artisan brands” have! You know what my skin lacks? Mouths. If skin doesn’t have a mouth, how can it eat this so-called “skin-food”? I’M JUST ASKING QUESTIONS HERE PEOPLE!!

And finally, for the fragrance, I had to spend a bit more to acquire this. Dollar Tree didn’t have fragrances, so I drove to Dollar General and I hit the jackpot! I bought 3.4 ounces (100ml) of fragrance for $4.50 – or $0.045 cents per ml. That charlatan Shawn Maher is charging AT LEAST $120 FOR HALF AS MUCH – 50ml. That’s a whopping $2.40 per ml! Algebra was never my strong suit, but that’s like 787x what Bod Man charges. Sure, it’s possible a Maher Olfactive fragrance is slightly better… But 787 times better??? You do the math! Plus, according to their website, Bod Man is America’s #1 Men’s Fine Fragrance Brand. I can only imagine how many Golden Pears they’ve won. Must be tripping over them at Bod Man HQ!

So, all I’m saying is open your eyes and be willing to try new things. You may be surprised to find that there are products out there are aren’t artisan, but still get the job done just as good! Originally, I thought it’d be fun to shave outside my local Dollar Tree, but then I thought shaving in a more controlled environment would be more informative. Ultimately, I decided it’d be fun to write this and then shave with everything, on video, in my bathroom for my honest first reactions to this entire set-up. At the time of writing this, none of these have been opened yet and I haven’t smelled or sprayed anything at this point in time. It’s worth noting, that I picked this software because it was all blue. And I happen to like the color blue.

Click here for the first impression video.

You guys. Real talk. Gonna break character for a minute. I stopped recording and my face was on fire. And everything is irritated. I don’t like this feeling and I can’t pretend anymore. I’m legitimately afraid to shave with any of this stuff ever again. Oh, and this shit smells gross. While the splash actually wasn’t bad, it still a big #FOF fail. It smells bad, sad, and…. Really fucking sad. Seriously... But, to spin this: This may actually smell better than War or Peach Chypre…. So… I’m just saying DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH!! Poor u/OnionMiasma is being hunted for sending hazardous smells in the mail. That’s proof that you could do a lot worse than the scents of this set-up! This was sad, but not exactly offensive. OK. The Bod Man was kinda offensive... But... It was FRUGAL!!!

Also, very funny the packaging was the razor has a stainless steel handle, but the handle is very much plastic.

BTW – That shit I said about Declaration Grooming was absolutely true. I’m out on Scoot until he makes good on u/djundjila’s 2022 LG Prize.

For the #photocontest. Pets (alive or dead). I’m glad the category for pets includes the caveat that they can be dead. Because that’s what I’m including today! This tiny metal vial is a keychain, which has the partial remains of my first dog, Casper. When we had to put him down, we cremated him. My mom has the majority of is ashes in an urn at her house (which are to be buried with her when she dies). And my sister and I each got a little vial/keychain of his ashes. I carried this around on my keychain for years, but now, I just keep it in my desk drawer.

Just because I’m not using a traditional artisan shaving products or fragrances today, doesn’t mean I don’t have an interview! I was able to get Dan, the cashier from Dollar Tree, to answer some questions about the shaving products I found there. So thank you Dan, the cashier from Dollar Tree, for answering my questions and spending your day scanning hundreds of different items, which all cost $1.25!

10 Questions with… Dan, the cashier at Dollar Tree

1) What can you tell me about this safety razor?

It costs $1.25.

2) A dollar-twenty-five seems like a heck of a deal for a razor and 5 blades! Do you sell a lot of these?

I don’t think so…

3) This might be the best kept secret in all of wetshaving! Do you know the blades are more like Feather Blades or Nacets?

I guess you’ll have to try it to find out.

4) Good point. Blades are very subjective and vary from person to person. I shouldn’t have put you on the spot like that. Can we talk about the brush for a minute? Do you know what the hair fibers are made out of?

You kinda have a line forming behind you.

5) Of course! Do you know how much residual slickness this Luxury Men Smooth Glide Shave Gel offers between passes?

Residual what?

6) Nevermind. What scent notes are prominently featured in the shave gel?

The label says it’s aloe enriched.

7) Does aloe have a scent?

I don’t know, man. What are you asking all these questions?

8) It’s for this series I’m working on for the Lather Games and--

What’s the Lather Games?

9) It’s an internet shaving competition that I’m trying to win. Long story. But I ask the questions around here! What can you tell me about this aftershave splash?

It’s blue.

10) Beyond the color. Like, what does the smell remind you of? What’s the history of the scent-profile? How is the post shave feel??

Your total today is $5.31.