u/djundjila's SOTDs for challenge 'SOTD photo scavenger hunt 2024'

Ahoy, Lather Games!

• Brush: Order of the Midnight Animals — Midnight Kraken #FAUXFUR
• Razor: Böker S.S. Paris Wins
• Lather: Old Spice — Original
• Post Shave: Old Spice — Original
• Fragrance: Spearhead Shaving Company Seaforth! - Spiced

I didn't take any risks with the theme this time, and relevance of the post and fragrance are that they are spicy fragrances.

This day is really u/Cowzilla3 and TGSO appreciation day, but it was also a very welcome opportunity to use my Midnight Kraken brush and Böker boat razor.

Good shave today, and the Old Spice cream (a gift from u/Semaj3000 when we met in Oxford two years ago) creates a decent lather, but the scent is very different from the splash (sweeter, less cinnamon).

To honour our reigning champion, u/Priusaurus, I want to recall a few highlights of his stellar run last year. He automated lathering, seduced the djudges with his hot mating dance, fought Skynet, shaved on a sidewalk/restaurant terrace, shaved in a fucking ice bath, did it again (!) out of spite, developed an interesting witch hunting technique, shaved with a butt plug, and managed one of the most dignified sign-off shaves in lather games history. Truly an inspiration, and I can't wait to see what our champion has in store this year.

Today's sponsor Noble Otter's Thé Noir et Vanille was one of my earliest love-at-first-sniff wetshaving fragrances, and Barrbarr, Firefighter, and Two Kings are still among my favourites.

Oh, and #photocontest for boats!

Where's the Beef?

• Brush: Chisel and Hound - Intrepid (26 mm Zenith boar knot at 53 mm loft) #COMPOSITE #FRANKENBRUSH
• Razor: Above the Tie - Calypso R1 #CNC #RAINBOW
• Blade: Feather - new Hi-Stainless
• Lather: YRFCE - Yard Raised Fresh Chicken Eggs
• Post Shave: Barrister and Mann - Roam
• Osma: Osma - Osma
• Fragrance: House of Mammoth - Shire 2

Happy YRFCE day! Three years ago, u/pppork revived this mythical chicken tallow soap and published the best documentary in wetshaving history. Definitely worth a watch if you haven't had the pleasure!

The chicken tallow makes this perfectly on theme, and the relevant post shave and fragrance through-line here lies in three different versions of grassy scents of nature: YRFCE has notes of grass, dry hay, and vetiver. Not exactly clean, but light and subtle. Roam is the exact opposite: Wet grass, earth, smoke, dirt. This is the scent of a camp site that smelled like YRFCE three rainy days ago. When the weather turns good again and the land dries again cleaner, that's when it smells like Shire: violets and fresh air (= warm hay to my nose, but that's a side note), fresh vetiver. I like these happy roller coaster fragrance progressions that tell a #FOF story. I'm really looking forward to the Roam 2 splash, because the balm in the Covid era finger balm tub starts looking a bit sus.

Great shave with the blue AtT. It's a good razor, it's just not very exciting. As a result it doesn't tend to get a lot of use. Not sure why I find it boring, but I do.

For the #Photocontest, I first planned to do the Bird theme (obviously), but then I got in the mood of doing Fill the frame instead because I enjoy the perspective and calm a closeup gives, the details and imperfections revealed, the tricks of depth-of-field, the visceral experience of one's size, and, of course, the tiny bokeh balls.

The chicken with its piercing look is a fun subject for closeups, even getting very close. I also experimented with a shorter focal length macro lens, but it was a bit over the top.

Today's Sponsor Wholly Kaw is the maker of controversial Entropy Man, one of my all time favourite scents in ~~cough syrup~~ wetshaving, and for that alone I'll be forever a fan ♥.

K.I.S.S.

• Brush: Rubberset 400 (unnumbered, with a 26 mm Zenith knot at 63 mm loft) #HOLLOW #TOLL
• Razor: EldrormR Industries GEM Division - MM24 #FLIPTOP #MODERNGEM #RUSTYBUTTRUSTY
• Blade: Personna - GEM PTFE
• Lather: Nordic Shaving Company - Coffee
• Post Shave: Stirling Soap Co. - Orange Chill
• Fragrance: Acqua di Parma - Blu Mediterraneo Arancia di Capri

Theme: Coffee note. ✅
Relevant post & frag: Orange (single note, OJ after coffee) ✅
Challenge: Spearhead 20.1 is my favourite dead base, Stirling mutton my favourite current base. ✅
#Photocontest: Bokeh balls ✅
Keeping it simple ✅

Canned Shave Goop

• Brush: Omega - 11047 Mixed Midget Badger and Boar #MISTURA
• Razor: Merkur - Futur #ZAMAC
• Blade: Derby Premium
• Lather: Palmolive - Classic
• Post Shave: Pitralon - Swiss version
• Fragrance: Mäurer & Wirtz - Tabac Original Craftsman
• Bowl: Shaving Suribachi Bowl Teak by Steve Woodhead

Theme and post+frag relevance: The Palmolive stick is from a clearance sale at the nearest pharmacy three years ago. Pitralon and and Craftsman are from the two nearest department stores. All software on is theme.

Challenge: I normally face rub and face lather shaving sticks, so today I bowl rubbed and bowl lathered it. The rough kushi-no-me pattern in my suribachi bowl makes this a breeze, so I have accidentally found a very functional, albeit entirely unnecessary, method of shave stick usage. u/Merikus should extend the GUTL, there is new science on the matter, and 27 steps are no longer sufficient.

The mixed midget did its thing. Really a surprisingly good toy sized brush. I had a fantastic BBS shave with the Futur on level 5 (for the fifth day of LG). This loud, chattery SOB is big, slippery, and its blade clamp mechanism is a mere suggestion to the blade not to wander off too far. My point is that it has no business giving me good shaves, but there it is.

#photocontest: u/pppork sent me these handy razor head protector chickens, perfect for the bird theme.

Thirsty Thursday

• Brush: Αλφα T400 tribute #RESURRECTIONBRUSH
• Razor: Darwin - Hollow Ground #ADJUSTABLE #FOREVERSAFETY #STAINLESSLESS
• Lather: Smitten Soapery - Big Daddy
• Post Shave: Zingari Man - The Duo
• Fragrance: Stirling Soap Co. – Sandalwood

Zingari Software sponsor point: Smitten Soapery is a Zingari brand that seems to get revived every once in a while. I wanted to support Heather selling soap under a different name, so I got all four scents. Vote with my wallet, so-to-speak.

Theme, post & frag relevance: This soap is bourbon and sandalwood scented, boozily within theme. I wonder whether it was the starting point for The Duo which also features Bourbon and Sandalwood, but adds a few more scent notes. Both the lather and splash have a very creamy sandalwood note, and Stirling's drier Sandalwood frag leads the progression out of the gourmand category, bookending the theme. The drink is done, time to head back to the bar.

Challenge: I remain puzzled by the wettubing genre, so this challenge is always tricky for me. I mean, I enjoy u/VisceralWatch's videos and watch them regularly, but that's because I'm interested in what my friend has to say rather than my urge to consume wetshaving video content (and because he – conveniently – sends me reminders when a new video drops because he knows that I don't subscribe to anything on youtube and would miss them otherwise). But this year is diffenent! I actually do have a non-VisceralWatch wettuber I watch regularly, and it's our very own u/GcGallant who has started honing straightrazors on video. Go check out his content, he is much more knowledgeable about razor maintentance than VisceralWatch.

#photocontest: The modern resurrection brush next to the antique shiny Darwin Hollow Ground is a sprinkle of colour in this Black and White tableau. I hope it's still in the spirit of the theme that I got rid of only most of the colour.

The red accentuates the B&W. Makes it interesting.

Vetiver You Want

• Brush: Frank Shaving - FR 0929 Pure Badger Shaving Brush 20 mm × 47 mm #WEDONTNEEDNOSTINKINGBADGERS #SMOLL #RUNT
• Razor: Star - Cadet #TWINS
• Razor: Ever Ready - 1912
• Blade: Personna GEM PTFE
• Lather: Saponificio Varesino - Desert Vetiver
• Post Shave: Stirling Soap Co. - Vetiver
• Fragrance: The Scottish Fine Soaps Company – Vetiver & Sandalwood

I like vetiver. I like it fresh and with citrus, I like it smoky, earthy and dank, and I like it woody-spicy. Today, I'm using one of each of these versions.

Theme justification: Desert Vetiver is a clean scent with a spicy citrus opening on a solid base of vetiver. It's a dupe of Eau Intense Vétiver by Terre d'Hermès and a staple in our household. Both my wife and I love this fragrance (dupe and original).

Post & frag relevance: Stirling Vetiver is a dank, earthy vetiver. I've never smelled Eufros Vetiver de Haití, but Stirling Vetiver smells like u/VisceralWatch describes Vetiver de Haití. This is a stark contrast with the fresh Desert Vetiver, but prepares the ground for a warmer, woodier vetiver in SFSC's Vetiver and Sandalwood. The Stirling toner was a gift from u/Semaj3000, and the frag from my sister in law.

Speaking of whom, during LG 2021, I decided I had to try GEM razors, and there was this Semaj fellow with a "SE Cultist" flair so I asked him where to start. He recommended looking for a 1912-style GEM and suggested looking at French eBay where they are readily available under the Star brand, and that's how I ended up buying this pretty Star Cadet. Both Semaj and VisceralWatch still had razor thrill back then and quickly asked me to find some for them too, and this is how our first group chat got the title "Star Cadets". It was soon renamed to "GEMs of Wisdom: Finding Serenity in Austerity planning committee" when u/EldrormR joined and we planned the first MMOC(MM) challenge in August of 2021. This challenge in turn led to the first iteration of RoboDjudge, a simple bot for tracking participation in AA challenges with a truly horrific Reddit message-based user interface. It would later grow into the Djudge Portal you are now using to check the djudges' work.

Challenge: It is consensus that starting with an ATG pass is a bad idea. It seems so obvious that we don't tend to question it. But why? If the lather is slick, the blade is sharp, why would it matter? I believe it's superstition and I'm curious to see how others feel about it following today's challenge. Star Cadet on the left side of my face, Ever Ready 1912 on the right. Both with fresh GEM blades. One pass ATG, easy peasy. Not as close as I'd like, but not bad.

The Frank Shaving brush is thoroughly unimpressive and since that's how it's priced, there is no surprise there. It does a passable job.

#photocontest: Did you know that vetiver is a grass?