July 19, 2023
- Brush: awesomesocks.club June 2023 Crew
- Razor: Gem MMOC
- Blade: Personna GEM PTFE
- Lather: Derby – Lemon
- Post Shave: Stirling Soap Co. – Glacial, Lemon Chill
- Fragrance: American Perfumer – Lockdown
Yesterday, the judges asked us to torture them with our gross photos. Today, the tables have turned. Whoever came up with this idea should be banned from not just the sub, but from the act of wet shaving forever.
If I have to use a sock to lather and write about it/take photos, it seems like an apt opportunity to let people know about awesomesocks.club (shoutout to r/nerdfighters). It’s a monthly sock subscription where you get a pair of socks every month, designed by an independent artist, where all profits go to charity, specifically to help build healthcare systems in impoverished communities.
This is a great sock. However. A sock, no matter how great a sock, is not a great lathering tool. I knew I would need more cream than usual, so I dumped a bunch in my Timeless shaving bowl. This stuff is cheap, and I rarely ever use it, so I should have used more. This was the first mistake. Second mistake was to try to use the sock as a sock puppet, which created a terrible lather. Honestly, I don’t know if I can even legally call this a lather. I took the sock off my hand, wrung it out, and folded/bunched it up to try to create the shape of a brush. This was the best choice I could have made. Don’t get me wrong – the lather still sucked. But it was better than before, and it gave me just enough for one pass. So I grabbed the MMOC, because there was no way I was making another batch of lather. As u/RedMosquitoMM pointed out, putting it on your face (or for me, my head) with a brush is the way to go. The sock just soaks it up. I squeezed everything out of the sock, grabbed my Stirling Lil Brudder, and got a lackluster layer of soap on my head. The rest of the shave was…fine.
Lemon all the way down. Well, all the way until the parfum. Derby is straight lemon. Splash is straight lemon plus too much menthol (I can still feel it between my fingers). Lockdown, created by Mark Sage, was a wonderful surprise gift (sample) that was included in my last u/AmericanPerfumer order. It’s exactly the type of frag I love. The notes are listed as: lime, fig leaves, pink pepper, cardamom, cascarilla, elemi, ginger, myrrh, smoky incense, weeping cypress, jasmine, ylang ylang, labdanum, sandalwood, civet, musk. This all comes together perfectly. I feel like it pairs with the citrusy shave well, and gives me some balance and complexity after the lemon bomb. The incense and musky, amber notes aren’t what I would initially think to pair with lemon, but it really does work quite wonderfully. #FOF
P.S. Please don’t bring this challenge back next year. Please.
[edited due to typo]