July 1, 2023
- Brush: AP Shave Co. 22mm Faux Horse w/ Ruby Ripple Handle #fauxfur
- Razor: Univilions #KAMISORI
- Blade: Artist Club (1)
- Lather: Zingari Man – The Master
- Post Shave: Zingari Man – The Master
- Fragrance: Chatillon Lux – Unconditional Surrender
So here we are the opening of lather games.
Today’s challenge, new stuff. Now it’s advice here not to change too many variables at once, and today throws that out the window for one…subpar shave.
New, never tried before razor style: Check
New brush with a knot I’ve never tried before: Check
Soap brand I’ve never tried before: Check. (I’ve only used Zingari bath soaps, lotions and post shaves.)
Post I’ve never tried before: Not check, but I’ve only used this once and I get a funny tingle form the cinnamon, so why not use it on a day I’m going to butcher myself.
Frag I’ve never tried before: Check. (We’ll get to that in a moment.)
Soap was a generous smush from u/straightshaversix sitting on my den for probably 6 months or more now. Loaded it into a tub and started swiriling.
Building my lather realized it wasn’t enough, went back and did it again, got a good lather and set to work. This kamisori was a PIF from u/loudmusic boy. He even included a blade. Now it’s been wrapped in foil to protect it from any kids who stumble into my office (and me when I reach in the box) so I don’t know if that affected the blade. We’ll see!
Now, as mentioned before I have a hand eye coordination issue that exacerbates when I’m doing fine detail work and nervous. I also have 2 protruding moles on my cheek and chin. (No pics no one wants to see a weird pic of my chin). This shave is..acceptable. Took like 5 passes and I feel raw, but I had 0 nicks or cuts, so a win. By pass five my hand was shaking quite a bit from nerves and exhaustion so I called it quits. Asked wife “do I look acceptable” she said “yeah, I guess?” So we’re off to a kid free breakfast.
Now the frag. I don’t normally wear frags every day, but this month is special so armed with a Chatillon Lux and Maher Olfactive discovery set (plus a few other things) I’m going to roll into #FOF and see what the hell happens. As many of you who’ve trade smushes with me know, I’m also born, raised and still in STL. So when I use Chatty Lux stuff, I’m going to throw in my own take, though often it won’t be something quite as ad copy ready as Shawn’s stuff.
Unconditional surrender is named after Pres. Grant, honestly expected more tobacco given…well Grant. And maybe some booze.
But it’s actually got a floral note and something musky underneath. Grant is of course well known here and much in the odd way STL is always in tension so was his rival Lee. Lee famously developed the riverfront that would become known as “Laclede’s Landing” during his time with the Union Engineers. Obviously though, there will be no Lee themed frag for good reasons.
There’s also a lesser known Union General Lyons who, upon hearing some folks were gonna storm the union arsenal and take the weapons to secede rode down and had himself a bit a battle. This battle is not as famous as many others in the history books, but had the traitors succeeded they would have had the weapons to open a new front in the war. So, there’s your brief and probably 90% correct military history lesson for the day.
Also throwing in to the #photocontest. In honor of u/cowzilla3, I read the rules and ain’t no rule that says I can’t use Photoshop’s generative AI to add a golden retriever to my photo. And damnit I needed an excuse to use that since I pay for photoshop.
Lastly shout out to all my fellow #ROTY participants. I’m not demanding unconditional surrender yet, but this will be a heated and friendly competition. (I wasn’t going to get through this with at least one joke about the frag name).
Looking forward to fun month internet friends.
Edited: forgot a tag damnit.
Edited again. Well I hope there posts are judged on final format because in my excitement I forgot to call out the internal theme. Obviously I dickhole set this shave but actually all 3 elements were scented by Shawn Maher.