u/MrTangerinesky's SOTDs for challenge 'Lather Games 2024'

Can I even post here?!?!

DAY 1 LATHER GAMES 2024! BONJOUR MES-AMIS!

• Prep: Water
• Brush: Muninn Woodworks - 24mm AP Shave Co Cashmere knot #COMPOSITE #FRANKENBRUSH
• Razor: L'Essor #FOREVERSAFETY
• Blade: L'essor
• Lather: Eleven Shaving - Lime and Basil
• Post Shave: Gentleman's Nod - Juniper Reverie
• Fragrance: Lalique - Encre Noire

In the first age, during the first day of shaving, when the lather started dripping, one stood, tormented by the burning sensation that is the embodiment of A&E. He chose the path of a anarchy, trolling and spite shaves. In his balkan crazyness he found no peace, and with a BBS face he strolled through reddit amonts heretics and spiteful people, so that he may find onions, dinasaurs who drive Priuses or other pitiful beings who have wronged him. He wore the banner of "The Order Of Stag", and those who tasted his spite shaves name him..... MrTangerineSky!

I'm back, but not in black! Man it feels good to be here, honestly the Lather Games are just something special for me, you wait patiently for THE CALENDAR, prepare and then it's just one whole month of crazyness, and YOU KNOW, that at the end of the month we'll all be like this! This year, I'm not gonna flap my yap, how I'm gonna win it, I'm gonna play the quiet game, slow and steady, but be solid as a rock! That doesn't mean I won't try to wreak havok, but I'll be smart and won't create any new rules for future LG! Very happy to see many familiar faces and many new ones!

Today is a new day, a new dawn(and Michael Bubble can sue my ass) and the general theme is "things you've never used"(my wording). Gonna break it down for each product and try to keep it fairly short(sorry judge who's reading). Before I do that, as much as it pains me to say, I want to say a great big THANK YOU, to u/OnionMiasma who sent this sample of Eleven Shaving, making it possible for my participation in this year's LG to be at full-value! Also Thanks to u/USS-SpongeBob and u/djundjila who helped me with the choice and approved the razor I used today.

Next part in additional comment cause of stupid reddit....

User goes the Michelle Obama route. Going high.

DAY 2 LATHER GAMES! AHOY MATEYS!!!

• Prep: Water
• Brush: Hand made wooden handle with Omega Proraso knot
• Razor: Timeless Ti 0.95 SB #CNC
• Blade: Nacet
• Lather: Nordic Shaving Company - Bay Rum
• Post Shave: Georgian - Bay Rum
• Fragrance: Issey Miyake - Nuit d’Issey

Later First! Challenge Shave!(Shave First! Challenge Later!)

If you're here, you're probably a bit nuts! What do I mean by that? To get ahead and achieve greatness in the LG, you can't JUST shave in the confinement of your own home, it's just not enough! So what did I do? Well I went to work and I shaved there! For musicians there is no Saturday or Sunday. Everyday can be a work day, and such was today. We had a nice long gap between the general rehearsal and the concert so I took my chance and shaved! Honestly it was a first for me and I quite enjoyed it, I was lucky cause everyone had already left quickly after the rehearsal so I had some peace and quiet!

Today's lather theme is "Bay Rum, Old Spice or Old Spice dupe, etc. etc. Everyone knows u/cowzilla3 and his "Great Spice off" where he goes into intricate detail about known and not so known soaps by artisans with the scent profile of Old Spice dupes. While I did not choose an Old Spice dupe, I just wanted to pay my respects to this man. I read his posts with great pleasure and know that I have a source of great knowledge when one day I want to find the truest of true Old Spice dupes.

A bit about the shave:

• Brush: Now this is a brush that a friend of mine has made from scratch. The handle is made from the wood Thuja and the knot is an Omega Proraso. It is a super broken in brush and feel great in the hand and on the face! Same guy has also forged his own Kamisori, I'm really envious of people like that!
• Razor: After yesterday's "Something New theme", which happened to be a very old razor. I decided to go with something modern for today and probably my favourite DE(also my 2022 LG prize) the Timeless Ti 0.95. I can try and wax poetics about it, but most of you have tried it and are very familiar with Timeless. It is a great piece of shaving hardware that performs as good as it looks. It's a perfect combination between depth of shave and gentleness on the face! I love it!
• Lather: I know that Nordic Shaving Company isn't the most popular manufacturer here, and there probably is a reason. Today I was reminded about something. I. HATE. COCONUT. SOAPS. Seriously, it wasn't terrible, but when compared with almost every American artisan, they just suck ass, big puffy lather that can't hold much lather.... Awful. Which is sad, cause the owner is a really great and generous guy and the scents while simple are very well done. Speaking of scents, I wouldn't say this is your typical Bay Rum scent, unlike most Bay Rums scents, this one isn't as spicy
• Post Shave: First time using an aftershave by the company Georgian! All I can say is that it's good skin food, great even and it's a typical well done Bay Rum(at least to my sniffer).

Comment with Daily Challenge continues bellow, I have no idea why Reddit does this.... I really hope this isn't a problem, please judges, tell me if this is ok. I never had this issue last year, and my posts aren't longer than last year.

DAY 3 LATHER GAMES! NO MOO!

• Prep: Water
• Brush: Wald Shaving - A1 #PREMIUMPLASTIC #SHD
• Razor: Blackland Razors - Vector SS
• Blade: Kai Captain Titan Mild
• Lather: Declaration Grooming - Fake Yellow Light
• Post Shave: Declaration Grooming - Fake Yellow Light splash
• Fragrance: Declaration Grooming - Fake Yellow Light EdP

I had a really crazy and annoying day, but nothing can stop me. Here I am!

Today's challenge is quite interesting. Why? Well, do you remember the boom of exotic tallow bases? Duck, Goat, Bear, Platypus, Whale? No? Well neither do I, cause I hadn't started with this hobby yet. I say interesting, because there was, or still is(Areffa has badger and bear tallow soaps), this mania for using tallow that isn't beef, and some people try to sell it like it'll do your taxes. BUY OUR BEAR TALLOW SOAP, IT'LL MOW YOUR LAWN FOR YOU. Man get outta here. I want UNICORN TALLOW soap.

But on the more serious side of things reading up on the topic, Bison tallow(which is what is used in the current DG base) is quite beneficial. Since I don't want to plagiarize and claim it as my own, I found an article on the benefits of Bison vs Vegan Tallow. And for those who are curious, HERE it is! And there might be some truth behind that, because DG Milksteak is one of my frontrunner bases.

Because of the fact that today's theme fit one of my most favourite soap scents and soap bases I decided to pair it up with my most beloved brush, a Wald with an A1 knot and the Blackland Vector. As one can imagine, when using their best(so to say) setup, the result of the shave is phenomenal! Which by itself doesn't do me any favors, because in a way you are left speechless, only thing you can say is "WOW!". I could probably go into detail how the razor gliding over the slick and shiny lather was a reminiscence of your hand caressing the back of a naked woman under satin sheets. But I digress

Quick emphasis on the brush. It's super expensive, I. REGRET. NOTHING. Really, I know it's an absurd price for a brush, but if ever arose the question, even at gunpoint "YOU HAVE TO CHOOSE ONE BRUSH", It'll be the Wald A1. My suggestion to future buyers, talk with Jannik and try to make a nice combo of colours, cause the ones he generally makes, while nice, I ain't paying that money for a basic monocolour brush with some white on the bottom.

Due to Reddit being a butthole, comment continues below as a reply...(I really gotta figure this out)

DAY 4 LATHER GAMES! I WAS MADE FOR LOVING YOU!

• Prep: Water
• Brush: Omega Roma - Colosseum 31mm synth
• Razor: Chiseled Face - Legacy AL
• Blade: Nacet
• Lather: Talent Soap Factory - Oktoberfest
• Post Shave: House of Mammoth - Smash
• Fragrance: Cartier - Declaration

Another late post, but from tomorrow, everything will be different! Today I devoted my day so that future LG post for me are in a way scheduled and I don't have to stay up very late!

So why did I choose what I chose today? Well!

Let's first start off with the razor, because the razor is the reason the soap came to me, but the soap is the reason I used the razor today! Razor was previously owned by u/Onionmiasma, and during a passaround he asked me if, after it ended, I would like it for myself. He proposed an offer I couldn't resist, and I caved.

Now the soap. Around December last year, while browsing ETSY, for interesting/new soaps artisans, a very interesting soap label caught my attention, turns out it was TSF. Very quickly an array of unique to blatantly strange scent choices for a shaving soap was upon my gaze. If anyone hasn't figured it out, I'm a sucker for unique/strange/innovative soap scents. I was stumped between two, the one used in today's shave and another one, which has a bacon scent, the only other one I've seen or heard of, other than WK(one day TSF's Bacon scented soap will be added to my collection). So since the soap fit the theme, somehow I wanted to add to the experience and use the Legacy that came together with the soap. So once again my life in the LG is saved by Onion.....

How does it smell you say?

Well, Onion gave it a sniff before sending it and was like "nah peace out", his description of the scent was to the extent of "Smells like an unfinished bottle of beer you opened yesterday and you're smelling it today". I myself agree with him to some degree, but there is a bit more, you can also find notes of yeast. In the end I enjoy the scent, and might do a whole month of daily shaves with it. Peeps in Bulgaria also fancied it and took some smushes to try out.

Now the base!

As far as I know, TSF, has a couple of bases. Matilda, something else(maybe), and this base. TSF describe the base of Oktoberfest as a "dual-lye vegan shave soap". I had a great time lathering it, very easy, intuitive and it provided for a great shave. The scent when lathered was quite decent and persistent. My only gripe is probably that after washing the face, there was this "squeaky" feeling of the skin, which leads me to believe the soap is a bit too harsh and washes away some important skin oils, but I could be wrong, I am not a chemist.

Fun Fact: Did you know that Oktoberfest in Germany is held in September? Why? Because the weather in October was usually already cooler and the days are significantly shorter, one let the Oktoberfest begin in September! One of the very few instances where the "effective" and "practical" labels that people give Germans is just not the case.

Comment continues bellow as a reply, thank you for the understanding!

DAY 5 LATHER GAMES! DRUGSTORE GO BRRR!

• Prep: Water
• Brush: Hand
• Razor: Men's Shave Club(Lidl)
• Blade: Nacet
• Lather: Nivea - Sensitive shaving cream
• Post Shave: Osage Rub
• Fragrance: Shirley May - Just Black

Now I know I said I'd have everything under control and I'd manage to post earlier, buuuuuut that was a lie, not so much a lie, more like shitty time management, but hey at least I bought a new pair of kicks today, so YAY!

DAILY THEME:

For the theme that is for the day of today that is Wednesday I tried to make everything with brands that you can find readily available at local drug stores, the Hand part especially, every shop/marker/drugstore I've ever been to has hands, it's the most common and readily available shaving gear there is. Osage Rub is probably the one that isn't that easily found, but somehow the scent matches the mood of Nivea, gives me some kind of Nostalgia of days gone, days past, days where I didn't shave.

The razor is a VERY interesting piece of ~~garbage~~ equipment. There was a promotion around Christmas(of course) of these razors in a shopping chain(Lidl) here in Bulgaria and me and the boys went out and got it. Took me about 4 months to use it, but I gotta give out props, this thing came with a very adequate piece of paper that had instructions on safety and how to use it, load the blade, etc. Right now the interesting part. When the day came and I decided to give it a go(even made a video of that, see 2:52 on how to open packaging of a razor). Put the blade in, immediately was amazed at how advanced the bottom plate was, I mean you could shift it to the left, you could shift it to the right. One might say I liked to move it move it! And make no mistake, this innovation of bottom plate shifting made for giving a type of slant gap between the blade and the bottom cap, GENIUS! After one chooses their setting of where the bottom plate should sit, comes the next surprise, when you screw the handle and tighten it. I tell you, there is a bigger chance of a dickless man having sex with a woman, than this razor shaving. Basically when tightened like any other razor, the blade just lays flat on the bottom plate. BUT, this was my mistake, I didn't know this was AN ADJUSTABLE RAZOR! YES FOLKS YOU READ RIGHT! This razor has the unique ability to let you choose the blade gap, because depending on how much you screw the handle the gap goes from 0.0 to 1.x. After a bit of adjusting I found my preferred gap and shaved. Was it rough? Yes. Did I get a decent result? Yes? Would I repeat? No.(today's an exception). I can definitely send it for a passaround here or on Discord, cause it's to say the least, INTERESTING and an EXPERIENCE!

Unlike some people, I didn't need to go to drug stores and shave in questionable sanitary enviorments, cause I was prepared. And I didn't forget, cause MrTangerinesky doesn't forget!(except when he does, but that doesn't happen).

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DAY 5 LATHER GAMES! NEVER TOO THIRSTY FOR WHISKEY!

• Prep: Water
• Brush: Chisel and Hound - Jungle Taper 26mm G5A #FAUXFUR
• Razor: Merkur Progress 500 #ADJUSTABLE
• Blade: Nacet
• Lather: First Line Shave/Black Mountain Shaving - Sutton Distilled
• Post Shave: First Line Shave/Black Mountain Shaving - Sutton Distilled splash
• Fragrance: First Line Shave/Black Mountain Shaving - Sutton Distilled EdP

You know what's fun? No not that.... What's really fun is you being almost done with your LG post, and your PC just dies.... Yup, fun times indeed. But even that cannot stop me!

Daily Shave:

For today's shave I chose this full trifecta of Sutton Distilled. As suggested by the name it is inspired by a distillery and it is a whiskey forward scent. I rarely try soaps that make me buy a full trifecta, but this was one of them! And the EdP is the creme de la creme. Really it's super good! I'm currently debating if I should leave the soap and splash in my den, but the EdP will never leave it, FOR SURE!

I see people here going nuts about Coffee, maaaan get the hell out of here and be original, coffee is overrated, nothing better than a good spirit. You ever heard of 20 year old coffee? No? You know why? Cause whiskey is better, whiskey is mature, it is for the sophisticated, you don't need a grinder, you don't need a roast, just a glass and good company!

I want to talk about a technique that is not widely spread, but I tell you it's damn good and effective! You guys know that when using an adjustable razor, people usually dial down the numbers when continuing to the next pass. Yes? Well I'm here to preach about the DIAL UP method. Let's say you do WTG on 3, then XTG on 5 and ATG on 7. You might say "But MrTangerinesky, the Progress doesn't go to 7!". Yes it doesn't, it goes to 13, that razor can be turned twice over and some, and the head is super stable and the tolerances are super tight!

The idea behind this is that you use mild settings to get the better part of the stubble or beard off and then when the passes that count for depth come you increase the gap so that you can get a very good BBS while your skin hasn't been stressed by large gaps in the previous passes!

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DAY 7 LATHER GAMES! GREETINGS FROM TURKEY!

• Prep: Water
• Brush: Yaqi - Moka handle 26mm Two Band Badger
• Razor: Gillette - British Rocket
• Blade: Nacet
• Lather: Le Pere Lucien - Vetiver
• Post Shave: Le Pere Lucien - Vetiver and beautiful things
• Fragrance: John Varvatos - Artisan Pure

Today I'm going to paint you a picture with words... or at least I'll try!

T'was the crack of dawn when all was still and calm, birds chirping their beautiful song and the sun ever so slightly showing up on the horizon. At the house of the Tangerine man from the sky, this was not the case, as his three alarm devices were hard at work to remove him from his slumber. The battle was hard, but in the end the alarms won and the Tangerine man was awaken.

Although he was a Tangerine man(albeit from the sky), today he was also a sad man. In the day that had passed, his mind had been troubled, scenes of reminiscence filled his mind of his ingenuity in previous Lather Games, but all for naught, cause no matter the effort he put into devising a good plan, he came up short.

But they say, that the new day brings new hope. Indeed, this was one of those moments. After a hard fought battle with his the thunderous alarms, his mind was clear and he knew what he had to do. It was simple. He must go and shave in Turkey! Turkey? But isn't that another country? Why of course dear reader, and that's the beauty of it, the man from the sky that is a Tangerine wanted to be the first person to travel to another country to shave for the Lather Games. Has it been done already? Maybe. Did he care? Never!

It was decided he could combine a shopping trip, something he had been putting off for a while, with a shaving trip. And so it began, he gathered his shave gear, went into his 1988 Toyota Corolla and set off for his neighbouring country. The day was calm and peaceful which reflected on how intense the traffic was(it wasn't). For his pleasant surprise the border was almost empty so he wasted very little time passing through, being ever so closer to fulfilling his mission.

As with many things, the Tangerine sky is an experienced man, it was not his first venture into Turkey so while accustomed to the scenery, he once again yearned to feel all those wonderful adventures, aromas and cultural experiences .

While entering the city, our protagonist started planning WHERE exactly he could perform his shave. His first thought was the central mosque, the he came to the conclusion, that if he proceeded with such a plan, he'd be killed, prosecuted, raped and then imprisoned. So that plan quickly fell to pieces and he gave it some rest, because he knew when the moment was right, he would act upon it.

Story continues below.

DAY 8 LATHER GAMES! MAGGARD RULZ!

• Prep: Water
• Brush: Chisel and Hound 26mm Boti Tuxedo knot
• Razor: Timeless - Aluminium
• Blade: Nacet
• Lather: Maggard Razors - Limes and Bergamot
• Post Shave: Zingari Man - Unscented vegan balm
• Fragrance: John Varvatos - Artisan

Let's start off with a video! Truckstop shave with surprise guest!(please excuse me, because I said it was a Boti Knight knot, when in fact it is a Boti Tuxedo knot)

Now as I mentioned in the forest video, shaving outside of the confinements of your home is the norm now, but that makes it even easier to have fun. Two years ago I did a truck stop shave in the middle of the night, today I repeated it, at the same place, but with an upgrade. See, last time I didn't know that there was a toilet/bathroom facility there that was open 24/7 and thus shaved outside next to my car, today I was sophisticated and shaved inside using a faucet and soaking up the sweet aroma of trucker's pee. Also I had a guest to keep me company.

So a little bit about the software and hardware. It was my first time using the Timeless Aluminium and once again Timeless do not disappoint. I think this is the third Timeless I've tried, the others being the Ti 0.95 and the Bronze 0.38. To my surprise I thought that the AL version would definitely be more efficient than the Bronze, but I was wrong. Still a very stellar two pass shave, nothing to moan about. Timeless have never had a miss for me and are probably the most consistent razor makers I've had the pleasure to use.

The soap, I rarely use Maggard soap, but every time I do, it is a very pleasant surprise at how good they are, super solid, great lather quality, easy to whip up. No complaints. And while I am not an avid fan of citrus based scents, they(Maggard) have really captured the essence of "Limes and Bergamot", fresh and stimulating.

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DAY 8 LATHER GAMES! MAN I HATE POP-QUIZES!

• Prep: Water
• Brush: Chisel and Hound Chocobolo 26mm Boti G5 knot
• Razor: No Name Kamisori AC shavette #KAMISORI
• Blade: KAI Captain Titan Mild
• Lather: Noble Otter - Barr Barr
• Post Shave: Southern Witchcrafts - Desairology
• Fragrance: Hermes - H24

First off I want to give a big shoutout to u/loudmusicboy. The first person to ever understand me in my opinion that Green Proraso smells like a Barbershop. Ever since I first smelled it, since it was my first cream/soap, till this day, that is the scent that evokes Barbershop images in my head. Thank you my friend! I am not alone!!!

As a matter of fact, after learning and sniffing what real barbershop scents are, I was quite puzzled because none of them sang to me "BARBERSHOP", I guess it has to do with the fact that there weren't any barbershops when I was a little tyke, guess their time had passed. There is a resurgence of Barbershop shops in the last few years, especially here in Bulgaria, but somehow comparing it to the olden times, seems they don't really hold a candle. One of the reasons I say this, is because I went to one of the most pristine ones in the capital, and I left.... Well look, I kept a picture of how my face was after they shaved me.... ABSURD

But thanks to this hobby and being introduced to quite a lot of Barbershop scent interpretations I got into the spirit, and now while not being able to judge which reminds me of my childhood, I can certainly appreciate the way in which it was made and how one differs from the others. To end this rant, Barbershop scents are like Johann Sebastian Bach's pieces, for every person you hear, you'll hear a different interpretation(please let me get a musical judge).

Now onto the real Barbershop scent of the day, third year in a row I am using BarrBarr by Noble Otter. I have no idea why it's always NO's barbershop itteration, but somehow it always fits the calendar best. In today's shave I probably got the best lather I've gotten with their soap which contributed to a more than excellent shave. Either it's me, or NO's soap makes a low profile lather, in the sense that it doesn't get voluminous and one should be careful not to drown it, but it had great cushion and superb slickness.

I have used a kamisori style shavette before, but if was a DE variant. I must say that the AC version is much more supreme. In general I find that all SE are better than DE, but that might be just my opinion. I did a two pass shave 1xWTG and 1xATG. Smooth DFS+ no complaints. The only thing I didn't really enjoy(and mind you this is due to inexperience) is that I am used to a traditional European style straight/shavette, which has a certain restriction on your movements. Here there is much more freedom and it made some of my strokes not as confident as I would have liked, but again this a ME issue, and it just means that more shaves with such an instrument should be had.

Another quick shoutout to SW and Desairology! THIS SCENT IS SIIIIIIIIIIIIICK! I think I have found my new favourite barbershop scent! JUST. SO. FUCKING. GOOD. And the way I paired it with H25 by Hermes, it was sublime! Amazing combo for me!

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DAY 10 LATHER GAMES! COLL/ABO/RATE

• Prep: Water
• Brush: Hand made resin pour with dried flowers inside, 22mm synth pure badger imitation
• Razor: Soluna
• Blade: Nacet
• Lather: Zingari Man - Mousse Illumine
• Post Shave: Zingari Man - Mousse Illumine
• Fragrance: Imaginary Authors - Cape Hearthache

Collaboration! What is collaboration? The pure etymology of the word means "to work together", and it's from Latin, so you know it's old. But how old, not more than 14 centuries. But what about before that? Was there no collaboration before it was called that? Of course there was, one does not start or stop existing purely because Latin doesn't exist(or has died). The biggest wonders of the world have been built because of collaboration, between people and hard work. The Great Pyramids, the Library of Alexandria, The Eiffel tower, The Stature of Liberty. Everything amazing that has happened in the world was due to collaboration!

Why am I saying all of this? Because my friends, all of history and mankind has led to this timeline and to this moment of time, the apogee of shaving culture, where artisans of titan proportions join forces and create immaculate, perfect products so that we the mere mortals can enjoy them! We are blessed!!

The collaboration between Zingari man and Rouge perfumery has created a very interesting and complex fragrance. The first time I took a whiff from the tub, I didn't like it. And now... I still don't like it, but wait there's more. I am not here to hate speech, because I have grown as a person. With the hundreds of soaps and perfumes gone through my nose I have had my horizons expanded. Even though Mousse Illumine is not to my liking, this time around I really appreciate the subtleties of the scent, while the bluntness of Artemisia and Cypress overwhelm you in the beginning you then are embraced by a hug of sweetness, finished by a mellow kiss of oakmoss. It is a very stellar fragrance! I paired it with Cape Hearthache, cause I wanted some fruits in there, and it turned out great.

I'm gonna talk juuuust a bit about the razor, cause this thing hits WAY above it's weight class. This razor is one of those olden razors where you use it and then you think "The fuck did I buy a xxx$ razor for?!?!?". I've tested this on a couple of days of growth and now on daily growth, it is a terminator in terms of stubble removal efficiency and with great easy, not tugging, no blade chatter, no nothing. I advise those who are curious, go get one, you'll thank me later, if not I'll buy it off you!

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DAY 11 LATHER GAMES! COLOUR COODRINATED? AIN'T NOBODY GOT TIME FOR THAT!

• Prep: Water
• Brush: Hand made wooden handle with synth knot
• Razor: Feather - AS-D2
• Blade: Feather
• Lather: Areffa Soap - The Gardener
• Post Shave: MacDuff's Soap Company - Spring Cabin
• Fragrance: Bvlgari - Aqva Amara

Ahhh spring is in the air and love has arrived! Or was it vise-versa? Can never really remember....

Anyways, today is my only fail of a challenge in the LG, no matter how I switched, turned, twisted and shouted I could not find a full tub for today's challenge, so I will gracefully skip this one, knowing full well that I will compensate with points from the judges from their evaluation of my immaculate posts(which due to reddit being an asshole gets split into two).

Fuck all of that, I ain't moaning no more, mainly cause I don't get paid enough, moaning's extra!!!!

So choosing the artisan for today's spot was a tough one, but in the end the lucky winner was Areffa soap. I saw many people use them on "Not Beef tallow" day, because they have like 4 bases, even badger. The one I used today(The Gardener) is with bear tallow. It performed well, but I was not blown away.

It is described by the manufacturer as "...a very interesting "wet soil" fragrance..." and here is the run down of the scent notes:

• Fragrance: earthy
• Top notes: jasmine, gardenia, rose
• Heart notes: wet soil, mud
• Base notes: wet soil, mud

Have you ever smelled Petrichor, by B&M? Well it's like that, but a bit less complex and not as strong.

So in the razor department, it was a special shave for me, cause today, the instrument I used(Feather AS-D2), was the first high end razor I had ever tried, and that was 3 years ago. Do you remember the feeling of being a small child, waiting for Christmas Day so you could get your present and be surprised. This razor, the first shave with it, that's how I felt! Back then my mind was blown at how good this razor was. And now, you may ask? Well I'm still really impressed. 70+ razors down the line, and it's a monster of an efficiency shaver. Of course the feeling isn't as strong as back then, but damn I be if this thing doesn't shave amazing. Yes, you are required to do a bit more of skin stretching than usual, or at all, but it gets you almost to a BBS shave. You cannot cut yourself with this thing, it's idiotproof! It puts it in the same category as the GameChanger. The boring category, not because the GC or this razor are boring, it's just that shaving with them is so easy that you can go into autopilot and forget that you're even shaving, thus killing the joy.

Daily Lather Themes: 11/30 * Daily Challenges: 10/30 * Hardware Scavenger Hunt: 9/20 * Hardware Vendor Points: 2/2 * Software Vendor Points: 6/16 * Software Vendor Bonus Point: 0/1 * 30 Different Soap Brands Point: 11/30 * 30 Different Soaps On Theme Bonus Point: 11/30 * 30 Different Post-Shaves Bonus Point: 11/30 * 30 Different Fragrances Bonus Point: 11/30

DAY 12 LATHER GAMES! CREAMY CREAM CREMMITY CREME!

• Prep: Water
• Brush: Simpson - Trafalgar T3
• Razor: Razorock - Game Changer 1.05
• Blade: Nacet
• Lather: Speick cream
• Post Shave: Brut - Oceana
• Fragrance: Krizia - Krizia Uomo

So I have a video for you today, BUT, before you watch it, I advise you read the text first, because the video will come naturally after the needed forplay is given.

Right, cream day, I already creamed myself seeing u/Priusaurus swallow that load on video, but I had still not shaven.

Many thoughts came through my mind, what should be MY theme of the day, and how can I spice things up? After some many hours of struggling my two brain cells to produce something I figured it out!

What is the thing that keeps mankind to fall behind on it's true potential as a species? You guessed it, McDonald's! Not just McDonald's itself, but the ice CREAM machine. Yes, that dreadful apparatus that never works, failing to bring joy to people. So I thought, fuck McDonald's I'm gonna go there, to the 31(24/7) McDonald's on the highway, have my damn cheesburger and shave in the bathroom, so that the establishment may know what is a good CREAMY lather. And maybe then it might get inspiration to fix the damn machines...

Low and behold my dismay and upset, that even though I've been there before and it was possible to dine in, now it was only a drive-through. I cursed the heavens, and Priusaurus(cause it's fun and a running joke). There wasn't anything left to do, I tried asking the beautiful cashier if I could enter, my reasoning, and heavily implied how much this will change humanity for the better and speed up the colonisation of Mars! She didn't have none of it. Barely seeing the road, from the eyes that were filled with bitter tears of disappointment, I parked in the parking and decided that I don't take shit from anyone. I said I would shave at McDonald's and that's what I will do, the parking of McDonalds is still considered part of McDonald's.

When you really think about how many people pee and go №2 outside, the world is one giant toilet, so in the end I did in fact, shave at the toilets of McDonald's!

Now you can go and watch the short video!(BONUS: There's a cat in there)

DAILY CHALLENGE:

Here's another VIDEO.

This one should actually be funny and amusing. My travel den is still the case, but I give a small tour of the house and how FUCKED it is at the moment, due to LG. Not much else to share to be honest, if you didn't watch the first one, you shouldn't miss out on this one.

Daily Lather Themes: 12/30

• Daily Challenges: 11/30
• Hardware Scavenger Hunt: 9/20
• Hardware Vendor Points: 2/2
• Software Vendor Points: 6/16
• Software Vendor Bonus Point: 0/1
• 30 Different Soap Brands Point: 12/30
• 30 Different Soaps On Theme Bonus Point: 12/30
• 30 Different Post-Shaves Bonus Point: 12/30
• 30 Different Fragrances Bonus Point: 12/30

shaved outside a McDonalds

shaved outside a McDonalds

DAY 13 LATHER GAMES! DUPE ME BABY ONE MORE TIME!

• Prep: Water
• Brush: Zenith - MOAR BOAR #SUBBROOSH #OLDWORLD
• Razor: MM24 #RUSTYBUTTRUSTY #MODERNGEM #FLIPTOP #STAINLESSLESS
• Blade: GEM carbon
• Lather: Chicago Grooming Co. - AG 1889
• Post Shave: Summer Break Soaps - Prom King
• Fragrance: Ted Lapidus - Lapidus Pour Homme

Right, Dupe Day! How will I stand out today? Well no shenanighans were planned, and there aren't any 31(24/7) KFC's I can shate at, so I'll just be solid. Also I'm hitting 6 hashtags today, almost 1/3 of the whole LG Scavenger Hunt requirement!

I know how I'll stannd out, I did something, that no one else thought of. Which is making all your gear a sub-exclusive! Recently Chicago Grooming made a sub exclusive, AG 1889, which is a Jicki dupe. And while planning I had a genius idea of making everything in today's shave something that is a sub exclusive.(except the EdP, cause I couldn't find Santa Noir, not that it would even fit). And this SOTD is gonna be something of a synopsis of those products!

Now. Dupes. I hate them. This is not a dig at CG, I'm talking in general. For me it's just lack of imagination. I mean there are so many unexplored teritories that you could go for. Just look at Talen Soap Factory, that guy has beer scented soap, donut scented soap, motherfucking bacon scented soap. I guess it is connected with the fact that it's a financial risk, but fuck it, better to be yourself and fail, that to try to appease to other, just for the $$ But as I say this(and you're gonna remark "Yeah right, of course!"), AG 1889 is the first dupe I like, it just doesn't smell annoying like all the other dupes, it's subtle it has a character that doesn't scream for attention from people who pass by.

For the soap I want to give a HUUUGE shoutout to u/OnionMiasma. This soap is a very special gift, which annoys me to this day. Onion(the guys who saved the LG for 80%, or more, of the people participating) while sending me his Legacy seems that he included this soap. He had previously asked me if I want to jump on the train, but I declined. Lo and behold when I open the package and I see this soap.... He said he wanted to do some good and make a gift, and I was speechless, also fuming cause I don't like gifts like that(sue me) ouf of the blue. But in the end I am very thankful indeed.

If you've never tried the Darkwing base, you're seriously missing out!! One of the best bases out there, and I cannot stress this enough, the most economic bases out there. Last year I used 14 grams for 30 shaves! And I wasn't skimping on it either, full 3 pass lather.

Carbon GEM blades. Why? Why do they exist?!?! I got a hold of a pack of 100(thanks to u/EldrormR) and it seems they are not what I expected. There is a whooooole sidestory to this, but I ain't explaining that, I'd need a whole new post. So these blades shave terrible, do not buy them, tugging and scraping, just horrible. Good thing is that now I have 100 blades for scraping whatever I want to get cleaned, which is not that bad. And the razor, if anyone hasn't had something done by Eld, you're missing out, the guy is GEM GURU and an amazing craftsman!

MOAR BOAR!

• Need I say anything more
• From the day you arrived at my door
• Life was not the same anymore
• I wanted to try you and explore
• To see how you spread around day four
• I did not know what I was in for
• You ate soap like a whore
• But you never made my face sore

DAILY CHALLENGE:

Honestly I felt pretty fucked when I read yesterday, what today's theme was, cause I couldn't have picked a harder label to draw. Thankfully I saw that I was not the only one to suffer, so at least that made me feel better.

Here is my attempt

I should note, no mathematical compasses or other instrumets were used making this, only brain power and ingenuity!

Daily Lather Themes: 13/30

• Daily Challenges: 12/30

• Hardware Scavenger Hunt: 15/20

• Hardware Vendor Points: 2/2
• Software Vendor Points: 7/16
• Software Vendor Bonus Point: 0/1
• 30 Different Soap Brands Point: 13/30
• 30 Different Soaps On Theme Bonus Point: 13/30
• 30 Different Post-Shaves Bonus Point: 13/30
• 30 Different Fragrances Bonus Point: 13/30

DAY 14 LATHER GAMES! STAAAAACK OOOOOON MEEEEE! STACK ON ME

• Prep: Water
• Brush: Omega 10049 #TOLL #HOLLOW
• Razor: Henson - AL13 Medium #RAINBOW
• Blade: Nacet
• Lather: Proraso - Green
• Post Shave: Proraso - Green Splash
• Fragrance: Captain Fawcett - Booze and Baccy

Today was a very special day for me, and it‘s why I am writing this post so late. Today I lost my virginity! That’s right I popped my cherry! It’s something that happens once in a lifetime so it’s a special moment I cherished. Thankfully I was with 5 close friends with whom I enjoyed the experience. We set the ground rules and in the beginning I was really awkward, but as the time passed I loosened up and it became quite enjoyable. The whole thing lasted around 7-8 hours. By the end we were all exhausted but it was all worth it. All of us liked it so much that we even talked about doing it again in the near future. To anyone who has never tried, I urge you. Dungeons&Dragons is a great experience and is a great way to spend your evening!

Now onto today’s topic. At this theme day last year, it all started, THE HOLY SPITE SHAVES, with me and u/Priusaurus. It was the beginning of something special, fun and exciting. I really have fond memories of last year's LG, and I hope around this time this year, I start to get more active and interact more.

So, for the first time in three years, I will not use Cryogen as the theme based soap, sad but that’s life. Something I did not consider last year, was how much to raise the bar, cause if you participate on an annual base, one should always try to improve. I see mentholated day as a way to punish myself, and last year, talking in front of the camera as I put Cryogen on my balls, is pretty hard to follow…. Well early in the morning I figured it out. Too bad I didn’t have time earlier in the day to do it, but I guess even late in the evening will suffice! There is this thing in Bulgaria, called Karmolis, it’s basically the equivalent of Cryogen in terms of strength of menthol. So what did I decide to do?

Well ladies and gentlemen, here is a VIDEO, of my stupidity for your entertainment!

And now the explanation. I decided to apply Karmolis to my whole body, wait for the effect to take place and then take a cold shower(water here is pretty cold), which as you know when you’ve used a mentholated product, the sensation of cold water amplifies. So yeah, shave under the cold shower blasting me, all while the cooling effect of Karmolis had set in with full force.

Let me tell you what I learned... IT FUCKING SUCKED!!! If I participate next year I have no idea what I'll do, BUT IT AIN'T GONNA BE THIS. To anyone crazily intrigued and curious to try, go on right ahead, but I think you'll be sharing my views. It's 86 F in my room at the moment, and I'm still shivering....

Challenge for the day:

HAVE YOU SEEN A 7 STACK!?!? The holy unheard of 7 stack? Well HERE it is(same picture as SOTD photo), pretty proud this year that I made such a big tower and that I didn’t break anything! Stacking day is awesome, one of my most favourite challenges of the LG. Simple, clear, and yet challenging!

Daily Lather Themes: 14/30

• Daily Challenges: 13/30
• Hardware Scavenger Hunt: 18/20
• Hardware Vendor Points: 2/2
• Software Vendor Points: 7/16
• Software Vendor Bonus Point: 0/1
• 30 Different Soap Brands Point: 14/30
• 30 Different Soaps On Theme Bonus Point: 14/30
• 30 Different Post-Shaves Bonus Point: 14/30
• 30 Different Fragrances Bonus Point: 14/30

OP freezes himself from tip to taint.

OP builds the mythical y-stack and also freezes himself from tip to taint.

DAY 15 LATHER GAMES! WOOOOTAAAAAAHHHH!

• Prep: Water
• Brush: Chisel and Hound Tupelo 26mm OUMO horse hair fan #HORSESASS
• Razor: Fatip OC
• Blade: Nacet
• Lather: Catie's Bubbles - Blugere
• Post Shave: Gentleman's Nod - Sidama
• Fragrance: Versace - Pour Homme

We're at the half point people. To those who might feel burnout, don't, be strong, you can do it, let the LG spirit give you energy and fuel you up for another 15 days!!!

Even though I lost my virginity(D&D) yesterday, I have yet to lose my "Kill Tub" virginity, but this year I have set myself on a goal to kill 3 tubs, AT LEAST!

December last year, after hearing all the hype around how amazing the Premium base of CB is, I pulled the trigger on a Blugere tub, KILLER SCENT! Now, the base TRULY is amazing, if you haven't tried it, GO AND BUY ONE, NOW! But this tub became my guinea pig to learn to tub load and face lather. So it saw some abuse, most notably the first use with the horse hair brush that was used today. I think it gobbled up around 40 grams(even Chris was like, DA FUQ), I loaded for a minute and I bloomed the soap beforehand. One could say "Why didn't you read something online about this stuff?". Well simply because I wanted to enjoy the whole progress of trial an error. So yeah, I think this tub has around 20 shaves on it. HERE is a pic of the tub, for anyone not wanting to watch the video.

This was also my first use of a Fatip OC and I really chose the wrong day to use it. It did surprisingly well given the circumstances and I would love to give it another go with some well hydrated lather. Speaking of lather....

Today's Challenge

Video of my pasty ass lather.

Thanks to this wonderful sub I have been able to forego my ego and learn to make good lather. The secret? Water, and lots of it. I pride myself now on making awesome lather. Could it be better? Maybe, I don't really know, but I always try to improve if I feel something is lacking. So it might not come to a surprise to anyone here, that I really don't like this challenge. Yes it isn't something to really moan about, but for me every aspect of wetshaving should be magical. And a good quality lather, knowing YOU yourself made that piece of art which will help the razor magically glide over your face and contribute to an amazing shave, is a MUST.

So given that context, I went pasty. As pasty as one could get. Seriously Elmer's glue got nothing on this lather. I completely shaked off any excess lather and swirled a couple of times, and then just painted and swirled just a bit, till you got the perfect consistency of whitewash. I basically used whitewash for today's shave, and it was tuggy and horrible. On the contrary, to what my prejudiced expectations were, the alum gave very little feedback.

Oh, and while rinsing the razor after the shave, I saw the the lather was SO DRY, that it was stuck between the teeth of the OC plate, and I couldn't wash it off, I had to use a brush to brush it away....

I think it would have just been better if I didn't use any soap at all and just used water. Judges, please if you keep this game for next year, at least re-name it to "YouTube lather day"

Daily Lather Themes: 15/30 * Daily Challenges: 14/30 * Hardware Scavenger Hunt: 19/20 * Hardware Vendor Points: 2/2 * Software Vendor Points: 8/16 * Software Vendor Bonus Point: 0/1 * 30 Different Soap Brands Point: 15/30 * 30 Different Soaps On Theme Bonus Point: 15/30 * 30 Different Post-Shaves Bonus Point: 15/30 * 30 Different Fragrances Bonus Point: 15/30

DAY 16 LATHER GAMES! HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!

• Prep: Water
• Brush: Semogue Hereditas 1305
• Razor: Valet Autostrop - VC1
• Blade: Valet
• Lather: Arko - Shaving soap stick
• Post Shave: Maurer & Wirtz - Tabac Original after shave lotion
• Fragrance: Dior - Fahrenheit

Happy father's day to everyone! Love you dad, thanks for being there for me!!

Now for today's shave, EVERYTHING in it is older than I am!

The Valet Autostrop, alongside with the Soluna, will definitely be one of my top contenders for "Retro July"(a shaving event we made in the Bulgarian FB group). What makes it interesting is that I have 10 carbon Feather blades, each one honed by a friend(that has been honing for 35 years and is a JNAT nut) on a different stones. So I think exploring how the different edges of the blades perform throughout the month of July will be exciting. I decided to do a shave with a vintage Valet blade, also honed on a stone(don't remember the name of it atm, it's written on the piece of paper of the blade), it performed quite well and gave me a smooth shave, although depth could have been better, it was a near ideal BBS.

Arko! Urinary puck? Naaaaah. Smell of childhood turking soap(DURU)? YUP! I like Akro, was a bit skeptical in the beginning, but as soon as I tried it I changed my mind and never looked back. Scent is perfectly ok, performance is great! Cheap, good lather, great longevity!

Tabac.... I still haven't used Tabac shaving soap, and it's probably cause of the smell. It's not that it's repulsive I just really dislike it. Tabac smells like an old soviet lady with an old leather bag that has had cheap perfume spilled inside of the bag many times... It's no for me dawg.

Shaves like these sometimes make me question WHY, did I purchase all that I have purchased, then I remember of course, WHY, but once again it proves that some of these really old soap manufacturers are just that darn good and that you can't beat consistency!

Daily Challenge

Now, this year I had to ask up until where should I shave both my legs, cause last year up to the knees was good, but was told that this year it's almost the whole leg, well as much as is needed to wear shorts and not see hair. That was a bit too much for me and I decided not to do it.

Little side track but very important. I know this is "See how the other half lives/shaves", but I don't need to shave my legs to understand that, furthermore I have done that already in previous years I know what it takes and I do appreciate what the ladies do. While we're on the topic of what ladies do, feminine beauty and standards are crazy high to maintain. Now what's important to know here, is that everytime I've had a girlfriend after the first 1-2 months when she gasps and says "Oh no I forgot to shave my legs", I tell her "I like you not because you shave your legs, but for who you are, I know how hard it is to maintain your beauty and believe me I'm ok if you have hairy legs, doesn't bother me a bit". After that conversation I get the biggest smile and hug back at me! So my appreciation of women is that I'm ok if they don't have the time to keep something maintaned or "perfect". Life is life, love is love.

Well don't think I didn't do anything stupid, then it wouldn't be interesting. I had thoughs of making the Daily challenge part of my post of how I shaved my third leg, but it seemed too boring, obvious. So I opted for another idea. Do you see this guy? Now I'm a fairly hairy dude, so just imagine the area of what those boxer briefs cover is shaved. That's right I shaved myself some boxer briefs, or at least I shaped it like that. Much better than shaving one leg up to the knee. Sadly I cannot share pics, cause of NSFW(A)(Not safe for work(anyone).

Daily Lather Themes: 16/30

• Daily Challenges: 14/30
• Hardware Scavenger Hunt: 19/20
• Hardware Vendor Points: 2/2
• Software Vendor Points: 8/16
• Software Vendor Bonus Point: 0/1
• 30 Different Soap Brands Point: 16/30
• 30 Different Soaps On Theme Bonus Point: 16/30
• 30 Different Post-Shaves Bonus Point: 16/30
• 30 Different Fragrances Bonus Point: 16/30

User shaves his body in the area and shape of his boxer briefs. Mercifully he does not share the NSFW picture.

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

DAY 18 LATHER GAMES! RIP IN PIECES!

• Prep: Water
• Brush: Zenith Handle 508AK SE
• Razor: Weck Hair Shaper #WECKONISTA
• Blade: Fromm
• Lather: Dr. Jon's - Flowers in the dark
• Post Shave: Ethos - Lavender Supreme Skin Food Splash
• Fragrance: Imaginary Authors - Fox in the flowerbed

Today I took a stab at u/tsrbike in the discord that his post from yesterday was so boring that I couldn't find anything to start a spite shave with it(he called me a chicken).

Well, today you'll get a very boring SOTD, as he said "They can't be all bangers".

I want to start off with the WECK, this is a gift from u/Onionmiasma, he sent it over around the end of last year, following all the hype around THE WECKONING that was AA. So I first tried this sucker in December, and let me tell you, this thing shaves beyond good. It is hands down the best shavette I've ever tried. Today I had the best shave of the whole LG so far. So smooth and amazing depth of shave to go along with it. As I've heard it is very important as to what type of blade you use. I have Personnas, but I have not tried them yet, but the Fromm blade is sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo good. People say that Kismets are the GOAT blade for the WECK. Haven't tried them yet, but I really can't fathom how much better it can get.

As for the soap theme, this soap is thanks for u/FrankieIVfingers, he was generous enough to send it as an addition to the wonderful tub of Mystic Water. Sadly I cannot say anything about Dr. Jon's, because by the time we discovered or gave Dr. Jon's the time of the day they went out of business. So it isn't something that brings back nostalgic memories.

For scent theme, today was MY Lavender day and I tried to mix things as best I could. Dr. Jon's has a very solid lavender scent, a no bullshit type of lavender, and that's why I decided to top it off with a fancy Ethos lavender, the two of which actually complemented each other quite well. I don't have a lavender EdP, but I thought that Fox in the flowerbed by IA was quite fitting, and to an extent it did, but for me the tulip note in that fragrance is a bit too strong.

I'm pretty happy how the photo turned out actually, cause of the name of the soap.

Daily Challenge

I went ahead yesterday and got a jump start on today's challenge. Here it is.

Why did I do this? Well becuase I've NEVER used W_E, I first stumbled upon this forum, then after some time learned about W_E, went there ONCE, saw how hectic it was and said, HEEEEELLL NAAAAAWWWW, and never returned. So I decided to create some content than rather sit here and say "Weeeell I got jack shit".

So I meme'd it up ahead of MEME day and it went better than expected, it turned out more of a r/ws thread than a r/w_e one.

There was one guy who was actually honest and provided great advice and patience, if only r/W_E was filled more with people like that.

Daily Lather Themes: 18/30 * Daily Challenges: 16/30 * 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: 18/30 * 30 Different Soaps On Theme Bonus Point: 18/30 * 30 Different Post-Shaves Bonus Point: 18/30 * 30 Different Fragrances Bonus Point: 18/30

DAY 19 LATHER GAMES! SLAVERY IS A BIG NO-NO!

• Prep: Water
• Brush: Chisel and Hound Pagoda with 26mm Motherlode
• Razor: Duxham Duplex shavette
• Blade: Durham Duplex
• Lather: House of Mammoth - Tobacconist
• Post Shave: House of Mammoth - Tobacconist splash
• Fragrance: House of Mammoth - Tobacconist EdP

Now since I am not a historian nor am I a native of the USA I cannot speak on the topic of slavery in the States. But I can share our own story of 500 years of Ottoman slavery, which has inadvertently changed our history as a nation.

Bulgaria is an old country, established, way back in 681. And it had 2 golden periods, as they are called by historians. That is up until the slavery of the Ottoman Empire took over at 1396, up until 1878.

During these five centuries, the Ottoman Empire tried to assimilate our nation as much as they could, repressing the Christian religion, destroying churches and inculcating the muslim religion and values.

There are many horrible things that happened during those years, but probably none is more horryfying than the "blood tax". Non-Muslims did not serve in the Sultan's army. The exception to this were some groups of the population with specific statute, usually used for auxiliary or rear services, and the infamous blood tax, also known as devşirme, where young Christian Bulgarian boys were taken from their families, enslaved and converted to Islam and later employed either in the Janissary military corps or the Ottoman administrative system. Many of these boys were sent back to slaughter their families, sometimes not even remembering who they were killing.

I apologize for the heavy topic in writing, I just found it fitting to share something from my culture that is not that popular and contributes to the theme, in a way.

Now, onto the shave. House of Mammoth was the winner of this year's sub battle for most preferred/liked artisan. For which I am extremely happy, I even voted for Mr. Ben, who is a great guy and makes one of my favourite soaps and scents! The thing that I like the most about Mr. Ben, is that he(like me, I know great minds think alike) hates dupes, or at least dupes being used in the world of wetshaving!

What about the Durham Duplex? I have modern blades for this sucker, that I have yet to try, but the original ones are doing a great job. I have to admit that I prefer the WECK, but still DD provides a great and soft shave, a real no-bullshit shave. And it looks metal AF! For some reason I am drawn to these old types of razors/shavettes!

Daily Challenge

I see that some people have been very ingenious with their use of the memes, embroiding them in their write ups, honestly I don't know if I am able to do that. So I present to you 40 memes I did for you: MEMES

But for those who do not want to go through them all, I'll share some I liked a lot. Some for my favourites like u/Priusaurus and u/tsrbike. Some about our favourite artisan. Some about pushing the boundaries in forums. Some that prove how awesome I am. Some about the unspoken truths that u/merikus knows all too well about!

I want to end with this statement. By default I win today's challenge, because I am a living, walking, spite shaving, butt freezing, car jacking, sock creaming, alum snorting meme!

Daily Lather Themes: 19/30

• Daily Challenges: 17/30
• Hardware Scavenger Hunt: 20/20
• Hardware Vendor Points: 2/2
• Software Vendor Points: 10/16
• Software Vendor Bonus Point: 0/1
• 30 Different Soap Brands Point: 19/30
• 30 Different Soaps On Theme Bonus Point: 19/30
• 30 Different Post-Shaves Bonus Point: 19/30
• 30 Different Fragrances Bonus Point: 19/30

Player provides a history of slavery in his country and 40 shaving memes.

DAY 20 LATHER GAMES! TOO! F-ING! COLD!

• Prep: Water
• Brush: Yaqi Panda 24mm
• Razor: Goodfellas smile Sintesi
• Blade: Nacet
• Lather: AA Shaving – Wapiti Soap
• Post Shave: MacDuff's Soap Company - Summer Cabin splash
• Fragrance: Imaginary Authors - Saint Julep

Shave+Daily Challenge

You know a MrTangerinesky post is going to be epic when it starts off with a VIDEO. You can watch it now or after reading, I have no idea which will be more entertaining.

Yesterday, when I saw what the daily challenge was I groaned a bit, cause for today I really didn't have the time or was feeling like shaving outside. My whole day was booked, so I left it for the evening....

Now any normal man would just go outside in the near park and do a shave or something like that, but noooooo I had to be fancy. So off I went to the mountains 30 miles above the capital to a place I've been there before.

My idea was this. Go to that place in the forest, there's a creek there(I called it a river in the video, sorry), go in the creek, submerge myself up to the neck and shave, hopefully record it.

Good plan? Right? Well on paper it seemed great. There was one thing I had forgotten... my irrational fear of the dark. The more I drove up the mountain, the more the realization set in, but it really cemented itself, when I stepped out of the car, it was way scarier than I expected it to be, mind you there is a camping site quite near so it's not like so it's not safe, but irrational fear is irrational fear. Nonetheless I mustered up the courage took the phone and shot what I shot.

What I didn't take a video of, cause I really couldn't figure out how or WHERE to put the camera, was 1 or 2 minutes which seemed like an eternity of me sitting in the shallow bed of a creek, feeling cold I had not felt before, in places I had not felt before and trying to do something that is shaving. My memory, due to the stress from the cold is fuzzy, but I remember dipping the brush in the water, swirling it frantically on my face and then doing a one pass shave and jumping out as quickly as possible, I have no idea how I had planned to submerge my whole body earlier during the day.

Oh yeah all of this happened almost in the dark, because I could not put the phone near me so that added great effect to the experience. I can just imagine if there was a commando somewhere with night vision, looking at a guy, sitting in a creek shaking, brush in one hand, razor in the other(I couldn't leave them anywhere, cause darkness), screaming how cold it is, probably would be pretty funny for the guy.

If nothing else I got a great SOTD picture!

Daily Lather Themes: 20/30

• Daily Challenges: 18/30
• Hardware Scavenger Hunt: 20/20
• Hardware Vendor Points: 2/2
• Software Vendor Points: 11/16
• Software Vendor Bonus Point: 0/1
• 30 Different Soap Brands Point: 20/30
• 30 Different Soaps On Theme Bonus Point: 20/30
• 30 Different Post-Shaves Bonus Point: 20/30
• 30 Different Fragrances Bonus Point: 20/30

DAY 21 LATHER GAMES! ME AND DJANOVSHAVING ON OUR MONTHLY SHAVE MEET-UP

• Prep: Water
• Brush: Hand made handle with badger knot
• Razor: OCMM
• Blade: GEM
• Lather: Wholly Kaw - Fougere Bouquet
• Post Shave: Wholly Kaw - Fougere Bouquet splash
• Fragrance: Imaginary Authors - Every Storm a Serenade

Today is a nice change of pace
in this crazy LG horse race
I like doing rhymes
For most of the times
I used Fougere to shave my face

What made today's shave really fun
Was because of how it was done
Or should I say where
Reader please beware
For I will always be the one

Our monthly shave meetup we had
Attending made me very glad
This was all well planned
You should understand
Not shaving home is out of fad

I did bring my trusty razor
Whose blades are sharp as a laser
Put soap on the brush
I was in a rush
The waitress my shave could amaze her

Sadly she did not see my shave
I did promise you I'd behave
With razor in hand
I took a firm stand
Once again my actions were brave

Now off to the restroom I did go
To put for the people a grand show
Those who were in there
Did not pay a fare
Shaving while I listen to pee flow

People asked me if I was alright
I explained that it was out of spite
Lending them the space
For washing their face
Hope I didn't give them a big fright

The shave went better than expected
There were no cuts to get infected
My face I did dry
Splash to face apply
My stuff I had to have collected

Back to the table I had return
Everyone's high respect I did earn
They joked and they laughed
We cheered with our draught
In the end the meet we did adjourn

Daily Lather Themes: 21/30

• Daily Challenges: 19/30
• Hardware Scavenger Hunt: 20/20
• Hardware Vendor Points: 2/2
• Software Vendor Points: 12/16
• Software Vendor Bonus Point: 0/1
• 30 Different Soap Brands Point: 21/30
• 30 Different Soaps On Theme Bonus Point: 21/30
• 30 Different Post-Shaves Bonus Point: 21/30
• 30 Different Fragrances Bonus Point: 21/30

OP meets up with another player, shaves in the restaurant bathroom, scares a patron, explains it's all for good fun, and then documents the entire event in limerick form.

OP meets up with another player, shaves in the restaurant bathroom, scares a patron, explains it's all for good fun, and then documents the entire event in limerick form.

DAY 22 LATHER GAMES! SPOOKY AUTUMN!

• Prep: Water
• Brush: Stirling Synthetic 2-Band Brush
• Razor: Filarmonica 14 Sub Cero 8/8 #STR8SNOB
• Blade: Filarmonica 14 Sub Cero 8/8
• Lather: Stirling Soap Co. - Ozark
• Post Shave: Stirling Soap Co. - Ozark splash
• Fragrance: Imaginary Authors - A city on fire

Now first things, first. Ozark by definition from Stirling is an Autumn scent, so it fits the theme.

Short horror story

Chunks of food were muddling his reflection while he continued to hurl his lunch over the railing, he knew he shouldn't have trusted that sea platter at the docks earlier.

• We're almost there Mr. Tangerine!! - exclaimed the captain

"Thank the Gods" he thought, his place was not on a boat, and why would it, no Tangerine should suffer the cruelty of the sea. Lifting up his head, in the distance he saw clearly the silhouette of an island. His sea sickness was quickly replaced by excitement of the awaiting expedition. Years of research had led him to this island, the mythical island of Tangashaknoquinoa. There resided a tribe of Tangerine people, deemed to be extinct.

• What do you think waits for us there? - Tangerine asked the captain.

The captain himself, an old and burly coconut, dark as bronze due to years of exposition to the sun scoffed and remarked:

• I couldn't care less sir, my job is to get you there and wait for you on this ship.

Mr. Tangerine man just shook his head and sighed, for he knew that the intricacies of his expedition were completely lost on the captain. Soon they had docked and set foon on the sandy beaches of the island.

• Are you going to come explore with me captain? - Tangerine asked
• Naaaah gonna stay here and bask in the glory of the sun!
• Suit yourself....

"Idiot" he thought to himself, knowing that this was a once in a lifetime chance. Tangerine started walkign towards the jungle to explore but remembered one more thing he wanted to ask the captain.

• Captain?
• Yeah?
• What should I do in case....

His sentence was interrupted by an arrow that whistled by him and landed straight between the Captain's eyes, dropping him dead on the spot. Shock filled Mr. Tangerine's body and as he turned to the direction of the arrow he saw what could only be described as horribly disfigured and tattooed tangerines, the native tribe of this island. Before he could utter a word they charged at Mr. Tangerine, his attempts at escaping, futile. He was quickly captured and incapacitated. Given the dire situation, Mr. Tangerine's profession did take over as he started to study with his eyes the people in front of him. They spoke a harsh language he had never heard of before. The tribe people looked so primitive, like ancestors of Mr. Tangerine.

• Hey, what will you do with me? - he interupted their conversation.

The leader of the pack kneeled down to Mr. Tangerine sky, looked him for a second and gave him a big whack on the head with his stick. "Shit" Mr. Tangerine thought, "this ain't going well" as the light faded and he lost conciousness.

Several hours later Mr. Tangerine awoke to a cacophony of sounds that consisted of incoherent yelling and loud tribal music. His head hurting and pulsating from the hit he took, he fixated his gaze on the scenery to see what was happening . It was clearly some kind of ritual ceremony, but for what, he did not know. In one of the corners he saw the captain, or what was left of him, they had took the top part of his head off and took every organ out, he was just a shell of what he used to be. Tangerine felt like puking again, but what shocked him and totaly made him freeze was the big poles in the ground next to the captain. On each poll there was the empty husk of a Tangerine, some looked like Mr.Tangerine, some looked like the tribe members. It dawned onto him, these Tangerines, they were Tangiballists, they ate their own kind, and that was the fate that awaited Mr. Tangerine. He started yelling and squirming, but to no avail, all he did was made the locals laugh. As soon as he made it know that he was a wake, the chief of the tribe walked over and grinned, with what teeth he had left. Bloodlust in his eyes and saliva dripping from his mouth, the tribal chief took out a dagger and started stabbing Mr. Tangerine. "No, this can't be it, it can't end like this, it must be a nighma...." his thoughts started fading, body going limp, in his last concious moments Mr. Tangerine heard the chief laugh and say one word, that filled his dying body with dread, he recognised that word....

"Scrub"

Daily Challenge

Now the daily challenge was exactly what I have written in the story. Since there were no pumpkins I decided to go with tangerines and be a cannibal/tangibal. It was way trickier to carve them out cause of how soft the skin was, but I managed, using a spoon, but for the faces I used a Feather(Valet) FHS-10 blade to make the eyes and mouths. Three is the lucky number so here is what I ended up with:

Side to side

And of course it would not be a LG post if there wasn't a STACKING photo. Have you ever seen a Tangerine o lanterns stacked on each other? No! You're welcome!

Daily Lather Themes: 22/30

• Daily Challenges: 20/30
• Hardware Scavenger Hunt: 20/20
• Hardware Vendor Points: 2/2
• Software Vendor Points: 13/16
• Software Vendor Bonus Point: 0/1
• 30 Different Soap Brands Point: 22/30
• 30 Different Soaps On Theme Bonus Point: 22/30
• 30 Different Post-Shaves Bonus Point: 22/30
• 30 Different Fragrances Bonus Point: 22/30

Bravo. User writes a story, and then carves his namesake fruit.

DAY 23 LATHER GAMES! MMMM COOKIES!

• Prep: Water
• Brush: DS Cosmetic 30mm tuxedo knot
• Razor: Rex Envoy
• Blade: Nacet
• Lather: Chiseled Face - Gemutlichkeit
• Post Shave: Macduff's Soap Company - Haunted Cabin
• Fragrance: Imaginary Authors - Memoirs of a trespasser

Once again you will be taken on a journey. And whether you start with THE VIDEO or you read the post first is up to you.

Now, I have a YouTube channel and at the current apartment I shoot my videos in the kitchen, so the daily challenge given for today was nothing special for me and I got to brainstorming. Going back in my mind, I recalled that in previous Lather Games, many things have been thought of and used, from spatulas, to mixing robots, etc. But today I think that once again my ingenuity got the better of me.

That's right folks, welcome to CookShaving with Mr. TangerineSky. I realised that no one has ever BAKED lather and used it to shave. In the video I stayed in character, but here, I will tell you exactly what happened. So I mixed my lather, used WAAAAY more soap than I usually do and then put the lather in a tray for muffins. I set it in the oven, put it on around 200 degrees(Celcius) and went for a smoke to wait 20 minutes, cause that's what I thought up of initially.

I went back, the kitchen smelled wonderful of cookies and other gourmand delightfulness, it was like I was baking for real. Lo and hehold when I opened the oven and saw NOTHING, the damn lather had disappeared... Where is u/Priusaurus when you need some lessons of thermodynamics. I realised I fucked up, but I wasn't gonna give up, I had set myself the task of shaving with baked lather and gosh darn it, I was gonna do so!

I re-lathered and just filled out one of the muffin slots to the top and did the same temperature for 3 minutes. I actually watched it and stopped before it started to disintegrate. The end result was such that a coconut soap maker would envy. The structure of the lather had become a big fluff, and all the water had gone to the bottom of the tray, genius I say!

I do have to admit that slapping this abomination of a lather on my face felt very nice and comforting, the smell was elevated, the temperature was very warm, I could even say, hot(almost burned my face in the beginning).

The shave actually went better than expected, I did a one pass, cause the lather was disintegrating and I don't think another pass would have been possible, but one pass ATG with the Rex Envoy was enough for a DFS! All in all I had a blast executing my idea and filming it! After all was said and done I was content and satisfied!

I'm glad you were with me tonight, and I hope to see you in another ShaveCooking with Mr. TangerineSky! Stay safe!

Daily Lather Themes: 23/30

• Daily Challenges: 21/30
• Hardware Scavenger Hunt: 20/20
• Hardware Vendor Points: 2/2
• Software Vendor Points: 13/16
• Software Vendor Bonus Point: 0/1
• 30 Different Soap Brands Point: 23/30
• 30 Different Soaps On Theme Bonus Point: 23/30
• 30 Different Post-Shaves Bonus Point: 23/30
• 30 Different Fragrances Bonus Point: 23/30

Player bakes his lather and shaves with it

DAY 24 LATHER GAMES! MUH PIFS!

• Prep: Water
• Brush: Yaqi Atlantis 24mm synth
• Razor: Goodfellas Smile Bayonetta
• Blade: Nacet
• Lather: Spearhead Shaving - Sea Spice Lime
• Post Shave: House of Mammoth - Z uncented splash
• Fragrance: Imaginary Authors - Sundrunk

This is probably gonna be a long one, hope at least it's fun to read. Sorry judge...

Right I'm gonna start off by saying a great big thanks to my friend u/djanovshaving for providing me with this sample of SSL, I was too lazy to label it so I just carved "SSL" with a knife on the cap. He really adores Spearhead, it's his favourite artisan together with Gentleman's Nod.

Today is the day that we celebrate PIF day and what a glorious day it is. The wetshaving community is one of the most generous communities I've come across, but more specifically this one. If it were not for this one, I would not have found my love for GEM's and SE razors in general and I would have not been able to experience what great bases B&M made before Omnibus! r/Wetshaving is just a pool of endless possibilities and chances to learn and find something new and interesting. I also want to thank the Bulgarian community that we have for their generosity and the opportunities I've had thanks to them!

Now the shave, it was my first time using the Bayoneta, and in general when speaking about wetshaving, I'm not a big fan of almost anything Italian. I've tried the Sintesi and the Valynor, the first is a copy of the Henson so it worked well, second one I found it to be more of a looker than a shaver. So I was hesitant to try the Bayonetta, but I was proved wrong, it gave me a great shave, a simple and easy to use razor, the only thing that I would fault it(and this maybe true for all brass razors, haven't tried that many), is that it didn't really glide too well on my face when going ATG. It like got stuck at some places on my face, I have no idea why. Because I chose SSL I decided to add a sea themed brush and because the brush was yellowish at the bottom I chose the Bayoneta, so that the colour and topic themes could intertwine.

Daily Challenge

• My king, My king!!! The scrubs are planing a coup to overthrow you!!!
• What!?!?!? WHY!?!?!
• They say they haven't gotten a new Sub Exclusive in like a week...
• I see... It's time...
• Sir you don't mean?!?
• Yes!
• But sir..
• GATHER THE WIZARDS NOW!!!

The king did not like to deal with the wizards of the Lather Table for they were deities surpassing time and space and the price to summon them put a huge dent in the crown's treasury, but there was no choice.

As soon as he heard that they had gathered in the Lather Hall he went to greet them and explain the situation, but when opening the door he was blinded for a second, due to their glorious stature. All of them were there Will Barristus of Mann, Ben House of Mammoth, Kyle and April Summers of Break, Scott Declaration of Grooming, Ron Chiseled of Face, Rod and Mandy Stir of Ling and everyone else a mere mortal could imagine.

When the king's vision returned to normal he opened his mouth to welcome the guests, but before he could speak he heard in his head:

• Get out of here scrub, we know why we're here, leave us be.
• BUT I AM THE KING!!!! YOU CANNOT SPEAK TO ME LIKE THIS!
• You're a scrub, GTFO!

The king felt a pushing sensation and was thrown out of the hall by a mysterious power and the doors closed in front of his face. The only thing he could do was press his ear on the doors and tried to listen to what was taking place, but it was hard due to all the arguing and could not understand which voice belonged to which wizard...

• What do these guys want, we gave them plenty of sub exclusives, we gave them Doritos, we gave them Christmas scents.
• Didn't they say it smelled like piss?
• Tomato Potato, we gave them everything they wished for and yet they want more... Does anyone know what their demands are?
• I think they're searching for something new and bold, never been done before?
• Hmmm new and bold.... I think I have an idea. Let's get the honorary wizard here!
• That pervert, really?
• Yup get the J33p Guy from Thrirteen.

Now J33p Guy from Thirteen was not an actual wizard but due to his ingenuity and creativeness for lather and wilingfulness to experiment, they had given him the title of honorary wizard.

And so they summoned him:

• Yooo whadup guys, why'd you summon me. You guys need some unobtanium?
• No J33p Guy of the Thirteen, we need your help to create a new scent for the sub exclusive, something bold, something exciting, something riveting!!!
• Ya man I gotchu, just make feet scented soap, them scrubs love feet! You make that and they'll be eating from the sole of your foot!!!

And that was how the Kingdom was saved. Foot scented soap, with a nice foot fetish label. The scrubs had been finally satisfied and their hunger for exclusive was satiated for years to come.

THE END

Now for my personal prefference, since I have a new flame in terms of base, Mystic Water. I think that would be an awesome sub exclusive with a personalized scent profile. I actually might even start that train going, we'll see how it fairs. Other than that, I don't know if Ron from CF has done a Sub Exclusive, but would love to see one!

If I had to be objective(if possible). Should(or when) there be a new sub exclusive I think it should be an artisan that isn't very popular and has very interesting views on scents, TSF comes to mind on a whim. Dunno, but would love to have something very interesting and different made.

Daily Lather Themes: 24/30

• Daily Challenges: 22/30
• Hardware Scavenger Hunt: 20/20
• Hardware Vendor Points: 2/2
• Software Vendor Points: 14/16
• Software Vendor Bonus Point: 0/1
• 30 Different Soap Brands Point: 24/30
• 30 Different Soaps On Theme Bonus Point: 24/30
• 30 Different Post-Shaves Bonus Point: 24/30
• 30 Different Fragrances Bonus Point: 24/30

DAY 25 LATHER GAMES! CHRISTMAS IS AWESOME!

• Prep: Water
• Brush: HLS synthethic 24mm
• Razor: Leaf razor
• Blade: Feather
• Lather: MacDuff's Soap Company - Christmas Cabin
• Post Shave: MacDuff's Soap Company - Christmas Cabin
• Fragrance: Afnan - Supremacy Incense

Many people have overdone the dress up in Santa costume and have Christmas shave. For me I can't really get in the spirit unless it's that the time of the year, especially when it's 90F in my apartment.

I will share with you a bit of my culture, how my family celebrates it, and what a traditional Christmas for us who are Eastern Orthodox is. Note, this is not how every Christian family here celebrated Christmas, there are slight variations to what I will share, so keep that in mind, but I will try to stick to the basics. Now, Christmas is a very sacred Holiday, together with Easter they are the two big ones for the whole year. While in most parts of the Western world, Christmas has taken the form of kindness, exchanging gifts and joyfulness, here it is much more spiritual. To be exact it is a family holiday where family gathers and really has an intimate celebration of the Holiday. I must specify, by family I mean close family, father, mother, kids, grandparents, and that's it. No uncles, cousins etc.

On Christmas Eve the whole family gathers for a dinner which commemorates the fasting period that started on the 15h of November. Which means that the dinner is entirely vegan, no meat and no dairy products. The number of trays must be either 7 or 9, to celebrate either the days of the week or the time that a pregnancy lasts. Before the dinner starts prayers must be said to thank God for his gracefulness. After prayers are done, the eldest of the family takes this thing(honestly I have no idea how it's called in English) puts some incense(usually frankincense), lights it up so it smokes and goes around the house to chase the evil spirits away.

One of the dishes that is a constant is Sarmi(plural, singular is Sarma), which consists of stuffed vine leaves, usually stuffed with rice and spices. When it is not during a religious fasting, Sarmi are traditionally made with rice and minced meat inside the vine leaves. Bean soup is also a very traditional dish for Christmas. Another important part of the dinner is the Pitka(a big round loaf of bread), which is baked on the same day and some families put a coin inside before putting it in the oven(a bit on this later). A similar principal to carving a turkey on Thanksgiving, the bread is broken into pieces by hand by the eldest of the family and serves each person a piece. It is said that whomever gets the coin from the Pitka will have a very prosperous next year! Pitka is usually dipped in savory and some enjoy it on it's own, some enjoy it with Sarmi, it depends on the person.

I'm going to leave you with a pagan tradition that has become(or was) a staple of Bulgarian culture. It is more common now in villages rather than big cities. The tradition in question is called Koleduvane or in English carolers. Here's a picture. On the morning of the 25th your house is visited by carolers. They roam from midnight on Christmas Eve until sunrise, but not later, because it is believed that their power is lost in the light. Christmas caroling is a ritual with pagan roots that was performed with pleasure by young men in more recent times.

The main task of carolers is to drive away the evil spirits that are believed to be present on December 25 and 12 days after. That is why the carolers sing with their whole throats, they hit the ground with their staffs and stomp the ground with their mocassins - to drive away the evil forces. The caroling is done only by men and boys who choose their leader in advance, also called king or stanenik.

Daily Challenge

Here's a video for y'all!

Now, had I been more prepared in the hat department I probably could have made something more interesting, I have some winter hats, but they're back in my hometown. This hat is my go-to Winter/Autumn/Spring(if it's still cold or raining) hat.

I didn't really know what to do with the hat, but then it hit me, like it usually does. Why not lather in the hat? Then I went a step further, since it's a Peaky Blinders type of hat, why not put a razor blade in it and try to shave with the hat?

Welp, that didn't really happen, I mean I tried, but the blade was flexing so much, that there was a huge chance of me just ripping a chunk of my face off. So I just put the hat back onto my head with lather in it. Also... Leaf is an awful shaver for me, for daily growth, I've experienced it before with this razor, and this shave, just confirmed it. For 3+ days it's fine, but for daily shaves it just sucks...

The challenge was a fresh one and if it continues to exist I think many shenanigans could be had with this challenge.

Daily Lather Themes: 25/30

• Daily Challenges: 23/30
• Hardware Scavenger Hunt: 20/20
• Hardware Vendor Points: 2/2
• Software Vendor Points: 14/16
• Software Vendor Bonus Point: 0/1
• 30 Different Soap Brands Point: 25/30
• 30 Different Soaps On Theme Bonus Point: 25/30
• 30 Different Post-Shaves Bonus Point: 25/30
• 30 Different Fragrances Bonus Point: 25/30

lathered in a hat

DAY 26 LATHER GAMES! WILDCARD INDEED

• Prep: Water
• Brush: Kapo(Karo) 22mm synth
• Razor: Goodfellas smile Impero OC razor
• Blade: Nacet
• Lather: Playing Cards - No. 976 grounded to dust and bits
• Post Shave: Ethos - Success skin food lotion
• Fragrance: Imaginary Authors - O, Unknown!

I had such a laugh today. Why? Well cause of the time difference. When I wake up and the new post of the day starts it's around 9 AM, and there(the States) it's midnight. Usually when I check, there are 1-2 posts at that time and that's all. This morning I opened and I was like, WTF, probably like 20 posts. Then I remembered why there was such a rush of posts on this day. Everyone is a scrub and isn't sure in themselves that someone else won't copy them.

After last year's upset for, where u/Onionmiasma, copied my idea(not on purpose, he didn't know what my idea was) of shaving with motor oil(which I did do on camera the previous year, unrelated to LG) and me being left in the dust, I said "fuck it" and left today's Wildcard Wednesday for the last moment. Yup, you read that right, I waited for inspiration THE DAY OF! And that was the right decision to take, because what was created today by me, is something that I KNOW nobody has done, neither today nor any previous LG years. I didn't even check what people used, that's how confident I am!

Here we gooooooo!

As I was walking back from work, admiring how wonderful the day was and realizing that the LG are almost over, something caught my eye on the sidepath. It was a deck of cards that had written on them "WILD CARDS". I thought "Wild Cards, what concidence, there must be a way to fit this in today's theme". I got back home and opened them, and there was an instructional card that read "WARNING CARDS CAN TALK". You can imagine how giddy with excitement I was for the fact I had stumbled upon magic cards. I quickly took one out and asked it what it could tell me. The card proclaimed in a monotnous voice "The earth is flat!"... I was shocked, very strange thing to say. I didn't like that so I crumpled it up and threw it away, took another one out it said "Incest is wincest!", I was floored, such a vile phrase. The third one just started saying something about Hitler, but I squished it in my hand before it could finish it's sentence, I didn't even want to know what it was. These truly were wild cards, but one thing was clear to me, they must be destroyed. So I took my blender and made them into dust particles.

Since this hobby carries the notion of eco friendliness and reducing plastic polution with cartriges I didn't want to just throw away the waste that was created from blending the cards. And since I do not have a compost, I said "You know what? Fuck it! I'm gonna shave with this!". That's right folks, I shaved with blended Wild Cards on Wildcard day!

Here is a VIDEO documentation of everything that happened today to get here!

VIDEO of me shaving with Wildcard lather on Wildcard day!

Daily Challenge

Now for brush maintenance I owe most of what I do or know to AnotherCutAbove. From the very beginning of my wetshaving journey, when I was watching wetshaving youtubers, he was probably the only guy I really liked and his lather inspired me to make mine better, cause he really did hydrate his lather.

I learned from him the trick that when you've washed your brush after shaving but are not sure if there is any soap in there, after shaking all the water out, just squeeze the bottom of the knot, and if you hear some scrunching sounds, that means that there is still lather in there. I use this trick to this day, I think I even used it yesterday. After I hear that the brush is scrunching I use hot water and rinse THOROUGLY until I am satisfied. After that I whip the ends of my brush on a towel, verticallly and horizontally, to get all that excess water out.

I've been using this method for more than 3 years and I have never had problems with any brush, no soap build-up, nothing. All my brushes are healthy!

Oh I do want to share something that I found out on my own. Have you seen synthethic brushes that when you look on top of the knot that there is a hole there in the middle? That happens from when you push too much on the knot, either on your face or in a bowl, though this is more common for bowl lathering. I found a way to fix it. You just take the brush, take a bowl, or a towel, or your hand in a cupped form, apply slight to medium pressure to the tips onto the chosen surface(important if should be a spherical surfacen, not flat) and do very small circular motions, about 100-200 rotations should do, check on your brush, the dent in the middle should have dissapered or be substantially reduced. Repeat this process until it is as good as new and in the future just be mindful of how much you press when lathering.

Daily Lather Themes: 26/30

• Daily Challenges: 24/30
• Hardware Scavenger Hunt: 20/20
• Hardware Vendor Points: 2/2
• Software Vendor Points: 14/16
• Software Vendor Bonus Point: 0/1
• 30 Different Soap Brands Point: 26/30
• 30 Different Soaps On Theme Bonus Point: 26/30
• 30 Different Post-Shaves Bonus Point: 26/30

User shaves with a blended up deck of cards.

User shaves with a deck of "wild cards" and really commits to the bit with a video and all.

DAY 27 LATHER GAMES! OVERLOAD DEEZ!

• Prep: Water
• Brush: OUMO BRUSH-Carry's collection 30mm G5A SHD
• Razor: Filarmonica 14 Medallon Taurino 7/8
• Blade: Filarmonica 14 Medallon Taurino 7/8
• Lather: Barrister and Mann - Fougere Gothique
• Post Shave: Barrister and Mann - Fougere Gothique splash
• Fragrance: Barrister and Mann - Fougere Gothique EdP

So that it's easy for the judges, here are the scent notes of FG so that they don't have to search for it:

• Open - Black Ashes, Bergamot, Lavender, Cedar
• Heart - Sandalwood, Geranium, Leather, Tuberose, Burning Wood
• Base - Mushroom, Oakmoss, Tonka, Vetiver, Smooth Musk, Balsam Fir Absolute

Leftie day, or non-dominant hand day. Believe me I did try to find someone who would shave me with their non dominant hand, but my friends were like "Nah fam, your crazy is your crazy to deal with, I ain't shaving you with neither my dominant nor my non dominant hand". I did consider going to the morgue and asking if they had any spare hands that I could use, but figured that it probably wouldn't end well.

To get me in the spirit of shaving with my left hand, I tried doing most things(that I usually do with my right) with my left. Some were awkward, some came quite naturally. I didn't expect that opening doors with my left hand could be so strange and foreign to me. Washing my teeth also wasn't that fun.

A decision was made that I will just repeat what I did my first LG, which to be fair was very brave. I say brave cause I had never used my left hand to shave with a straight. Well surely there's more to it? Well of course, I shaved for the first time using a straight with my left hand, while I was blindfolded.

While I could have repeated the mechanics of it, this year, I felt lazy, so I just closed the door to the bathroom and turned off the light, so I don't have to deal with any blindfolds making me feel uncomfortable.

To be honest it was ok, thankfully no cuts, the thing that stressed me out the most was that I don't damage the blade in the dark bathroom by hitting the faucet or sink with the edge of the razor. But it took me so long, one of the longest shaves I've had in the past year or more probably, around 40-50 minutes.

Everything was done with left hand, washing the face, lathering, rinsing the face etc. My right was almost constantly on the faucet just so that I could keep spatial awareness and not ding the damn razor.

I keep repeating not hitting the razor, cause this is my favourite straight, it shaves like a hot knife through butter. Just sublime, it will be my AA razor for this year, 100%. I chose this razor on purpose, because FG is kind of my favourite scent, they're in a big fight with Midnight Stag. And the brush was my first 5th gen brush that arrived in the midst of the first lather games and at that time quickly because my favourite brush.

If we discard the stress, the shave was pleasant, DFS at best, but more could be desired, I really wasn't feeling 100% confident.

Here are some left hand facts to make you ask "Why?":

• Nearly half of cats are left-handed.
• Lefties have their own day! August 13th.
• Of the last 15 U.S. presidents, seven have been left-handed, including Barack Obama, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush.
• Using chopsticks with both hands simultaneously invariably goes oddly and disappointingly unnoticed.
• Being left-handed increases the likelihood that you’ll get migraines.
• Oh and this

Daily Lather Themes: 27/30

• Daily Challenges: 25/30
• Hardware Scavenger Hunt: 20/20
• Hardware Vendor Points: 2/2
• Software Vendor Points: 15/16
• Software Vendor Bonus Point: 0/1
• 30 Different Soap Brands Point: 27/30
• 30 Different Soaps On Theme Bonus Point: 27/30
• 30 Different Post-Shaves Bonus Point: 27/30

DAY 28 LATHER GAMES! FRUTALITY!

• Prep: Water
• Brush: Studio Pro SB020 #RUNT #SMOLL
• Razor: Chinese no name razor
• Blade: Minora
• Lather: Kupa - shaving cream
• Post Shave: Zdrave - universal hydrating cream
• Fragrance: Shirley May - Darknet EdP

Last year I heard the judges talk on the podcast, about how some people went out of their way to buy some cheap stuff, which wasn't the point of this challenge. So for this year, it's stuff that I've had for some time and were not bought for the challenge itself. Also I could have done a 0$ shave, but that's also not interesting, cause one of everything needed that has been gifted to me at some point.

As is the theme that I'm trying to follow this year, today I went full frugal. Here is a summary of what I did today and what money I spent. Note that I could have not eaten or drank water at all, but that would be too scrub and requires not much effort, I've done it far too many times, just because I was lazy.

For food, there was a visit to the market and went straight to the discounted section. Got me some bread for 0.60$, some discounted Lyutenica(tomatoes, peppers and spices blended up to make a paste, it's amazing) for 2$. And that was the meal for the whole day done! Whole day for 2.50$. Hydration wasn't a problem, just drank the water from the tap, around 2 litres. Price for 1 cubic(1000 litres, that's how we measure it here) cold water is 3.30$(current currency exchange). So that's like 0.0066$ for hydration. And I should actually double that, cause that's how much I used for the shave.

Next we have showering. I used strictly cold water, and was very quick. My usage was 10 litres, so 0.033$. For the sake of frugality I didn't smoke, didn't use air conditioning, didn't use lights, didn't charge my phone.

Daily money spent comes to a total of 2.6462$. Not bad.

Let's get on with the shave.

Let's first show the prices of each item(misspelling for the bot):

• WATUUUUR: 0.0066$ (2 litres for the whole shave)
• RAZUUUUR: 0.35$

You may be wondering, what kind of razor this is, that only costs 0.35$. Well last year I wanted to use this razor, but I couldn't find it and thought I had thrown it away, early this year it was found in a drawer and I though "Oh I'm keeping this for the LG Frugal Day!". The story is that 3 years ago, while scrolling AliExpress I wanted to find the cheapest razor, and so I did, I just couldn't resist not to get it! The big upside to this razor is that it's basically made from tin or something like that. I say upside, because the top cap is so soft that one can bend and mold it to whatever shape he likes, he can make it shave more or less aggressive! In the end it shaves pretty badly, but it gets the job done. I think this razor can get easily 1000 shaves(if you clean it and disassemble it) or more before it gives out, but for the sake of conversation, let's say it lasts you one year of shaves, 365.

That makes it 0.00098630136$ per shave.

• BROOOOSH: 1.13$

This brush is the most hideous thing I've ever used, If I was told that this was the only brush that I could use for the rest of my life, I'd just not shave or use my hands. The bristles are as hard as steel and you can only lather in a bowl with this. Upside is that it's great for picking up soap from a triple milled puck. My honest opinion is that this is a forever brush, I don't think It would ever give out, judging by the way it was built. Soo let's give it 1000 uses just as a benchmark.

That makes it 0.00113$ per shave.

• BLAIIIID: 0.056$

I used a Gillette Minora, since it's the cheapest one I have. A pack of 10 is 0.56$ and so far I've been able to get around 15 shaves per blade, if I was sgrdddy I'd smash this category, but alas I am not.

That makes it 0.00373$ per shave.

• LADUUUUR: 1$

For cream/soap I usually use around a gram per shave. But since today is FF I was stingy AF. I used 0.2g of cream, just enough to make lather for one pass ATG. The tube is 100ml.

That makes it 0.002$ per shave.

• POSTSHAV: 3$

For postshave I had something else in mind, but it seems I have given it away and forgotten. So this cream was used instead. The size of the tub is 145g and I used 0.5g.

That makes it 0.015$ per shave.

• PARFUUUM: 4.40$

For the EdP I did 1 spray of the bottle. It is a 100ml bottle. Looked it up the internet, that approximately 8 sprays equate to a gram.

That makes it 0.0055$ per shave.

• GRAND TOTAL OF GEAR: 9.41$
• COST PER SHAVE: 0.04$(rounded up)
• Note: Everything has been weighed before and after use just to keep consistency with the numbers.

Daily Lather Themes: 28/30

• Daily Challenges: 28/30
• Hardware Scavenger Hunt: 20/20
• Hardware Vendor Points: 2/2
• Software Vendor Points: 15/16
• Software Vendor Bonus Point: 0/1
• 30 Different Soap Brands Point: 28/30
• 30 Different Soaps On Theme Bonus Point: 28/30
• 30 Different Post-Shaves Bonus Point: 28/30

DAY 29 LATHER GAMES! ALMOST THERE!

• Prep: Water
• Brush: Yaqi Barber Pole 22mm
• Razor: Razorock Lupo 0.72 AL
• Blade: Nacet
• Lather: Henri et Victoria - Duc de Santal
• Post Shave: Declaration Grooming - Chaotic Neutral
• Fragrance: John Varvatos - Oud

Sandalwood day! You know what that means? That’s right, I put on my sandals, put my bathing trunks and I went to…. the autoshop(car repair shop). In my hometown there is an autoshop, where I got to fix up my car, and the dudes there are so chill that you can sit in the shop, drink coffee, smoke cigarettes and talk smack all day with them, if they like you of course. Well I’m probably either lucky or as crazy as they are, so there is mutual respect and I go there at least once a week when I’m for a longer period in my hometown. I was in luck, because they also work on Saturdays till 1PM.

Yesterday, while wondering what could I do to stand out, a light bulb lit in my head, reminding me that I need to change my oil. A call was made and an hour was reserved. Off I went there, saying “hi” to everyone and throwing the banter around as usual, after which I approached the head honcho of the service and asked him “Hey man, listen, there’s this shaving competition, you don’t mind if I shave in here at the shop while you change my oil, would you?”, he laughed and exclaimed “Hahaha yeah man, no worries, you do you, it’s a slow day anyway so all is good”.

The guy who changes the oil and tires is one of my favourites there, he’s a metal head and appreciates music and the arts a lot. So I took a chair, set it up in such a way that it wouldn’t be a problem for him to go around and about and did my thing. He already knew I was a shave nut, he even offered if I wanted some oil to use as an aftershave, but I informed him that the day for such shenanigans had already passed, we still chuckled though.

Here's my car at the shop when all was said and done.

I have never shaved there even though I could have had the chance all these years past during the LG, but it never came to my mind to do it. So I had a great time shaving today. As for the gear, the AL Lupo did great, no complaints, splash gave nice fruitiness and the EdP solidified it with warmth, that was initially given by the Sandalwood.

Daily Challenge

Last year I wanted to do this, but didn't have the patience, this year I will follow through and it seems u/jwoods23 had the same idea. Let me tell you something... Going through 29 days of posts in one days is EXAUSTING....

P.S. - For the sake of how I am playing this year and not wanting to polish my own horn publically, I will not mention myself even once.

Due to this post becoming HUUUUUUGE and going over the limit, I will share with you who had the post of the day for each day of the lather games

DAY 30 LATHER GAMES! IT'S DONE...

• Prep: Water - San Pellegrino
• Brush: El Druida custom made brush with OUMO ST-1 25mm synth
• Razor: Golden OCMM
• Blade: GEM
• Lather: Summer Break Soaps - Valedictorian
• Post Shave: Summer Break Soaps - Valedictorian
• Fragrance: Antonio Puig - Agua Brava

Wow... At one point around the middle of the LG I thought there was no end, and here we are now, last day. I am content that I achieved what I set. Play a balanced yet consistent game through the whole month and other than covering the rules I wanted to do 30 different razors and 30 different brushes, and I did that.

Shave and shenanighans of the day

As most of you(if not all) know, SBS is a brand by Kyle and April, both of whom are in the world of education and their soaps are also connected with school themes. So I wrapped everything around that theme.

Valedictorian

What is a Valedictorian?

It is the student who has the highest marks in their class when they graduate from high school, college, or university, and who gives a speech at their graduation ceremony.

Do you know what they get as a prize? That's right they get a gold medal! Hense my Golden OCMM GEM razor!

Some people might consider Valedictorians as overachievers and tryhards! If we accept that is true, for a Valedictorian, there is no Saturday or Sunday, they are constantly thinking about school or studying or just how to get ahead in life. If school was opened on Sunday, they would attend it! While I was not a Valedictorian(nor will I ever be) I have always graduated with honors. For example 6 here is the max score you can get, I've always been 5.6.

My brain went to work, and it came up with the following:

Why not go to my first school where I studied up until Grade 8(13 years) and shave in the courtyard of the school. Before I did that, I talked with my mother, who worked there(is now retired) for 40+ years to talk with the dean if it's possible, and it was confirmed that it would not be a problem.

I got into my car and TRAVELLED to my first school. Here it is. 7 years of my life were spent here and a lot of emotions came back first love, first kiss, first F, first A, all the friends made along the way. Now this school had one of the largest courtyards in the city, but I was quite saddened to see that a portion of it was sectioned off, God knows why, and 1/4th of the place was no longer accessible. It saddened me because that's where I have my fondest memories and where we played the most. I chose a bench and did my thing, there was no one there so it was quite a peaceful shave. OCMM is one of the GOAT razors for me and provided for a smooth and deep shave, and SBS make great lather and scents, no complaints there. Valedictorian has to be my favourite.

We're not done yet. Valedictorians are figures to which other students look up to and get inspired to be better. One can say that they are teaching other people, whether it be directly or inderectly. I have a friend that has always been skeptical of classical wetshaving, even though I've ranted about the topic for houns on end. Today I wouldn't take no for an answer and I urged him to try it. Poor fella had no idea what I had enstored for him.

I picked up some nice basic gear for him to use and we had a long talk even before he started shaving. The basic "DO'S" and "DON'TS" of wetshaving. I monitored him during the process to see if he needed help and to give advice when needed. Here he is trying to make a lather and doing a decent job I might add. In the end he got a very nice DFS+ and was so enthusiastic of the whole thing he started asking me what stuff he should buy. I forgot to add that I did ask him if he was ok with sharing this picture here and he ok'ed it.

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED

Daily Challenge

I am from Bulgaria. One little detail I should note, since I wanted every part of my shave to be from a foreign country, I bought Italian water and used it for my shave.

• PREEEP: Italy
• BROOSH: Spain/China
• RAZUUR: U.S.A.
• BLEIID: U.S.A.
• LADUUR: U.S.A.
• POSTSHAV: U.S.A.
• FURGRANCE: Spain

No Valedictorian is complete without a speech at the end.

My fellow Lather Game participants. It has been an Honour to shave beside you this whole month. This year while different than last year, was packed full of intense posts and unique ideas. I applaud your ingenuity and tenacity. I want to give thanks to all my friends, for their support, and to all those who believed in me and were kind to me here. Special thanks go to everyone who organized and sponsored this whole event, without them there would be no LG. In the end it is not important who wins but the journey that we have all gone through together. Together, as a community!

Daily Lather Themes: 30/30

• Daily Challenges: 28/30
• Hardware Scavenger Hunt: 20/20
• Hardware Vendor Points: 2/2
• Software Vendor Points: 16/16
• Software Vendor Bonus Point: 1/1
• 30 Different Soap Brands Point: 30/30
• 30 Different Soaps On Theme Bonus Point: 30/30
• 30 Different Post-Shaves Bonus Point: 30/30

Lovely sendoff to the Games.