u/iamhonestlylying's SOTDs for challenge 'Rookie of the Year'

July 2, 2023

• Brush: Boti Stump Hybrid with 28mm Synthetic #COMPOSITE
• Razor: GEM 1912 #TWINS
• Blade: GEM Blade
• Lather: LA Shaving Soap Company – Vanilla, Eucalyptus, Mint
• Post Shave: Hawaiian Shaving Co – Pepamina Alani Splash
• Fragrance: Versace – Eros

Two days posting in a row! It’s so impressive to me that so many of you post every single day, whether there’s a Lather Games or not. At two days, I’m at my longest streak ever! Wahhhoooo! As Freddy Mercury would say: Don’t stop me now!

And my debut Lather Games is off to a roaring start. Thanks for u/jeffm54321, I’ve now realized there is a rookie side contest that I somehow missed the announcement of and didn’t include #ROTY in my post yesterday. Ooopsssss. Oh well. Can’t change the past and can only go up from here.

I used a vegan soap today from Los Angeles Shaving Soap Company. I guess vegan soaps are more rare, but I have a confession to make: it took me months of wetshaving before I realized that there was a big difference in the ingredients of shave soaps. Like, I knew every artisan had their own formulas or whatever, but I never put any thought into: is this soap made using dead animal fat? Literally had no idea that’s what tallow was until like 3 or 4 months ago. I guess I’m just blessed to start wetshaving now and not 15-20 years ago like a lot of the old-timers here. So yeah, I never had any preconceived idea that vegan soaps were bad or inferior or whatever. Hell, I’ve been using vegan shaving gel since I started shaving, so really, tallow lathers are more unique to my face! The hardest part of today for me was going back and looking the ingredient list of all the soaps I’ve acquired over the last 8 months to see what was vegan. Fortunately, this sample from LA Shaving Soap Company is Vegan.

The mint in this soap actually reminds me of toothpaste. Right off the sample, if I close my eyes, I’d swear I’m smelling Crest. When I shave with it, some of the vanilla and eucalyptus shows through, but not nearly enough to attract a koala bear. Mint is still the star of the show. For that reason, I went with a Splash from Hawaiian Shaving Company, called Pepamina Alani, which translates to Peppermint Orange. Aloha, my good people – I can speak Hawaiian. In my opinion, this is much more balanced. The peppermint still shows through, but the orange provides a really nice addition. Since I had mint on mint with the soap and splash, I had to use a fragrance that had mint listed in the scent notes, so I went with Versace Eros. There’s a lot of scent notes listed for Versace Eros, and quite honestly, I’m not sure I can actually smell the mint in it. To me, Eros smelled like a pretty standard, going-out-on-the-town cologne. Not bad as all, but I wouldn’t call it unique, by any stretch. Overall, I had a good shave. #FOF

I used one of a two GEM razors I have. Fortunately, I actually (unintentionally) have a set of twins. A couple months ago, I was at an antique shop and they had some of these 1912s, but since they were from different companies, I thought they were different. And they were like $5 each. As it turns out, Gem and Star made the same exact razor under each of their brands. Weird, but the world was a different place a hundred years ago.

July 29, 2023

• Brush: Boti – Stump 28mm Synthetic
• Razor: Blackland Blackbird
• Blade: Gillette Silver Blue
• Lather: Sir Henry’s – Black Tie LVS Soap
• Post Shave: Sir Henry’s – Black Tie LVS Splash
• Fragrance: Diesel – Only the Brave Street

I recently learned what sandalwood smells like and I enjoy it. It kinda smells like a lot of typical “masculine” fragrances. Like if something doesn’t smell manly enough, let’s throw some sandalwood in there to make it more tolerable for the masses. And that’s kind of the impression I get with Black Tie LVS. The LVS stands for Lavender, Vanilla, and Sandalwood. The lavender shows through right away and it is tied to Vanilla, but underneath that tasty floral sweetness is the sandalwood to turn the volume down a little bit. It’s a really nice scent the checks a lot of boxes and I think I can use something like this year round. I finished the shave with Diesel – Only The Brave Street because it’s woody and spicy, so I thought it would help bring out the sandalwood from the Black Tie LVS. And as it turned out, I picked up a stronger scent of vanilla in the cologne that I didn’t smell when I sprayed this tester before. Funny how I expected one thing, but when I layered this cologne on the splash, it seemed to almost change or morph into the aftershave I was wearing. #FOF

CHALLENGE

If u/Priusaurus doesn’t win, we riot, right? That is how this works, right??? I recognize I may be biased because he sent me smushes, but I don’t think so. The interviews were a great way to hear from the people that make the stuff we use, but he didn’t stop there. It seemed like every day he was shaving somewhere new or doing a new shtick. A lot of people did funny stuff and a lot of people were informative in their posts, but he was a great mix of everything. I looked forward to his antics and the content of his posts. I can’t say that for anyone else.

For #FOF: I have a feeling it’s not me. This was my first Lather Games and I was in way over my head here. I saw the challenge and figured there was no harm in trying it, but it seems like the consensus is u/RedMosquitoMM is gonna win. Based on the post of his that I’ve seen, that seems about right.

For #ROTY: I haven’t been paying attention at all. Sorry team. I missed the ROTY announcement before the Lather Games started and never looked back.

For #photocontest: u/gcgallant has had some great pics.