July 3, 2023 – Almonday * Brush: Paladin Chief 26mm Satin Juma Smoke
Razor: Blackland Blackbird Ti
Blade: Personna Lab Blue (?)
Lather: Captain’s Choice - Italia
Post Shave: House of Mammoth – Smash Splash * Coffee: Kirkland Signature – Summit Roast * Music: Led Zepplin – Stairway to Heaven It was nice to get back to my usual shave hardware today and be in familiar territory for a more straightforward shave.

The Lather: Honestly, I’m not a big fan of the Captain’s Choice base. The base is chunky out of the sample and the texture is off-putting right out the gate. It lathers up relatively easy, but I find it neither exceptionally slick nor well cushioning. It’s good enough for a decent shave, but why settle.

Scent (Theme): You can’t help but be smacked in the face with the scent of almonds when shaving with Italia. It is, in fact, the only scent note listed on the Captains Choice site. I happen to actually like the scent of almonds and my kids love this scent.

After Shave (Theme): So I took some time to think about what aftershave to pair with the almond scent as I don’t have a strictly almond option. For me, I only really eat almonds while having a cocktail. So Smash seemed like a perfect fit. It has the boozy properties that just make me feel like I’m lounging with a drink and snack.

Challenge: This was perhaps the trickiest part of the day for me as I know very little about u/RedMosquitoMM. I delved into the last 3 months of his SOTD’s and came up with a 3 prong approach to an appropriate way to honor him, a trifecta of honor if you will. * Coffee: Now I don’t drink coffee, but in every SOTD RedMosquitoMM posts his daily coffee. So I fired up whatever my wife had and did my best to make it enjoyable. I faired ok and was wide awake for the shave. * Music: This was an easy one. It takes me a fair amount of time to shave so I picked the longest song I knew. Stairway to Heaven carried me through the shave and it’s an awesome song to boot. * Blade: Looking at his posts I was in awe of the number of uses he gets from a blade. I think my personal best is around 5, but he’s putting in up to 50 uses. So I dug through my used blade pile and found myself a random, old, used Personna Lab Blue so I could get the full RedMosquitoMM experience.

#ROTY