July 2, 2023 - Cheers!

• Brush: Böker -Synthetic #COMPOSITE
• Razor: Razorock – Eco
• Blade: Permasharp (3)
• Lather: Henri et Victoria – Absinthe
• Post Shave: Epsilon – Scottish Spirit
• Fragrance: Polo – Blue

Cheers
Santé
Sláinte
Kanpai
Prost
Salud
Skâl
Saúde
Cin Cin
Kāmau
Noroc
I Sveikata
Наздраве!
Gesondheit

FOF

As my Softwares sub-theme was Drinks and booze, starting with the awesome Absinthe. Its very dominant in Anise, which is also common in a lot of liquor around central europe and even to middle east, namely Ouzo, Raki, Sambuca and many others. Anise smells very similar to licorice to a lot of people and thats why this soap is in my collection. I love the scent and it fits the cooler summer days very well. Next on my bar tour through my shaving den is u/Teufelskraft Epsilon Scottish spirit aftershave. Its dominant in whiskey notes. Woods, smoke and spices like clove, cinnamon and again anise are among its notes. Slàinte mhath! All is rounded up with patchouli to make it wearable. I did not get much of the sweeter spices, but alot of the woody patchouli notes. Suddently my bar tour takes me from the greek shores with Ouzo to an english upper middle class club. We leave the linen shorts in the suitcase and dress up to fit in among striking men. To find a booze fragrance is not an easy task, so i watched out for fragrances with ingredients which would fit into a nice drink. We stay in the english club, but switch drinks to a spicy Gin-Tonic. Polo blue starts boozy in the first seconds, then is dominant in cucumber, which is a possible ingredient in a Gin-Tonic. Once we took a few sips, we get curious about other ways to drink Gin. Its the last one for the night. Polo blue offers me herbs like Basil, also known as the Gin basil smash. It’s time to leave the bar now. Whats left is a maskuline scent thats not too dominant, not exciting, but great for your day to day life.

July 3, 2023

• Brush: Böker -Synthetic
• Razor: Blackland Era #CNC
• Blade: Astra SP (Green) (2)
• Lather: Cella Crema de Barba (Red)
• Post Shave: Southern Witchcrafts – Boonana
• Fragrance: Diesel – Spirit of the brave intense

#FOF

Dear u/RedMosquitoMM,

I know we did not have the best time in the past. For over a year i am mocking you, because you do not like Sea Spiced Lime. You have to understand me. Just like Helga Pataki, I wanted your attention. Speaking of ‘Hey Arnold!’. While he has a football head, you are blessed with the nose of Grenouille, George R R Martins ability to work with words, all trapped in the body of a college Footballer. I bet when you read our SOTDs, you can see that we try to copy your style of putting reaction pictures and memes down our texts. But we peasants lack the ability to describe scents as wide and detailed as you did. Forgive us. For me your posts did not stand out to me like other latheriors. You kept your dignity during the games and did not get lost in shaving with cum. You kept a high entertaining and engaging quality through the whole games.
Today, I tried to impress you by using Cella -RED. Halve your name is written on the soap! I also used the Blackland Era. I think you got one, too. Becausse the soap was new to me, I used my Böker synthetic. Its as reliable, as you posting a SOTD. I had high hopes for the soap. r/wicked_edge goes crazy about its slickness. Well, wicked_edge sure has its own problems, but now it was competing with Highland base and DG soap. I must say, that if I were on a budget, I would agree with the “hype”. The soap kept some of its promise. The blackland Era worked wonderful today. I am still not sure if its that efficient, or the Astra blade works so well for me. Although there was almost no blade feel, the result spoke for its own. I had a fantastic shave and am smooth like a pickup line.
To catch your interest in me, I wanted to use really sweet scents today. Who does not like sweets, and maybe today I can be your candy? At least, I wanted to make the colleagues in the office crave sweets. I wanted them to saliva over chocolate, candy and gummy bears. I wanted to see how they plunder the kitchen and look for something with sugar.

I failed HARD! While the Cella had great amaretto and marzipan notes, which might fit well to a Tiramisu cake, the aftershave killed my plan. Who would have thought that a “gothic couple”, who dedicated their brand to death and decay would not produce a cloying banana scent? I did not! At least it could have been a ripe banana, exuding the scent of past fruitiness and maybe nurishing a cute ape. Boonana has some babana to it, but the bourbon, tobacco and musk make it wearable for everyone who is not J33pguy13. Last try. Diesel- Spirit of the brave intense. The internet says its too sweet. Perfect for my plan. NOT!!! Its just warm vanilla. Its so boring and the longevity is garbage. I am sorry I failed you.

No Homo!

July 4, 2023

• Brush: Maggard Badger #WEDONTNEEDNOSTINKINGBADGERS
• Razor: GEM – Star #TWINS
• Blade: Personna GEM PTFE (1)
• Lather: E&S Rasage Traditionnel – O’Vert
• Post Shave: E&S Rasage Traditionell – O’ Vert
• Fragrance: Roberto Cavalli – Uomo

Difference between science and screwing around

Me: “Welcome to our new episode of Mythbusters – Lathergames edition. Today, we have a special guest. Let me introduce you to Mr. Science Link”
Mr. Link: “Ha,zig,yeah!”
Me: “We have an international audience, would you please switch to english?”
Mr. Link: “Okay”
Me: “We have seen a lot of Posts regarding GEM razors. Their reputation speaks of hard to use and unintuitive handling, which will be rewarded if mastered. Another myth we want to crush is that the maggards badger is not suited for samples and precision lathering. Mr Link, what will we use today?”
Mr. Link: “As you mentioned, we will use the Maggards no name badger brush. We will precision lather today. We also need to use a Gem. u/Teufelskraft send us a GEM Star to try today. Thanks to him. We will also use a sample from him called O`Vert as soap and aftershave to be on theme.”
Me: “But then we dickhole. Isn’t that bad?”
Mr. Link: “I have read your post yesterday. I dont think you consider a dick to be that bad!”
Me: “Let us start. I dressed in a bathrobe, because it looks a bit like a gown.”
Mr. Link: “I want one too!”
We will first soak the brush while we brush teeth. Mr Link, can you stop the time?”
Mr. Link: “You took 16 seconds to load your toothbrush and 86 seconds to wet your face and clean your mouth. That means we soaked the brush for 4 minutes and 32 seconds as we germans brush teeth for exactly 3:00. Did I mention that it’s unnecessary to soak a badger?”
Me: “I just like to soak my brushes wet.”
Mr. Link: “I also like things to be soaking wet, just like Yo Mama” Me: “We will now swing the brush to get the water out. 4 times should be enough to get it damp.”
Mr. Link: “Why did we soak it, when we use it damp?”
Me: “Because Cosmobarber said so.”
Mr. Link: “BeCaUsE CoSmOBaRbEr SaId So”
Me: “He was lathergames champion, and who are you?”
Mr Link: “I am the hero of time, and i see that you are wasting my time.”
Me: “Lets start to build some lather for 30 seconds and see how it goes… The brush swallowed all lather. We need more water”
Mr. Link:”MMMHHHH, feels so good to be right NSFW)”
Me: “We will add 8 ml of water and try to get some lather for 30 more seconds. Mr. Link, can you tell us about the waterquality here?”
Mr. Link: “14,8 dH”
Me: “Mr. Link, can you put that into perspective for our readers?”
Mr. Link: “Yes. Imagine you have a tea party than you do not need to serve crackers. How is the lather going?”
Me: “Its shaveable, but wont be great.”
Mr. Link: “I know.”
Me: “Why did you not say anything?”
Mr. Link: “You need to learn. Add more water!”
Me: “Thats what Cosmo would do too.”
Mr. Link: “Sigh!”
Me: “Lather is better, but we can get better. Add 12 more ml. It looks pretts good now. Mr. Link, what do you think about the brush and its clip?”
Mr. Link: “Looks sus to me”
Me: “I agree. But let’s give it a shot.”
Mr. Link: “Don’t bleed to death.”
Me: “Teufelskraft told me to hold the cap really flat to the face. Let’s see. It works damn well. I can barely see any hair on the razor but the result is fantastic, even for a first shave.”
Mr. Link: “You learned from the best.”
Me: “But the comb prevents me to get my mustache area clean.”
Mr. Link: “Then grow a mustache and stop looking like a baby.”
Me: “I ‘ ll look like a hipster if I do that and I don’t like them.”
Mr. Link: “You listen to synthwave and wetshave. You are a hipster!”
Me: “How much soap did we use according to our scale?”
Mr. Link: “Both scales are out of battery. In what kind of household do you live?”
Me: “At least I do not live in a trea with a cow. What do we say about the scent?”

FOF

Mr. Link: “It’s as grassy as it can get. It got heavy notes of fresh mowed grass in it. Before it overwhelms you, it turns earthy and moss comes out. The scent is as green as my armor.”
Me: “What will we combine it with?”
Mr. Link: “As grassy notes are rare in your fragrance collection, I bought you some Roberto Cavalli Uomo. Do not get confused by the scent description. Woody, oriental? Give it a try and you will see. Maybe you get an idea why i picked it for today.”
Me: “Mr. Link this smells interessting. It got woody notes, yes but its very floral.”
Mr. Link: “Correct. Black violet. Interestingly, although its a head accord, it stays very long and you will get it for a long time. It also got woody and honey notes, which are also on theme. Due to to violet it starts almost feminine. Give it a few hours and its a dark floral scent thats interesting to wear. You are now twice on theme. You have grassy and floral parts in your shave.”

FOF end

Me: “Mr. Link, anything else you want to add?”
Mr. Link: “Yes. Two things. 1. Nothing burned, not even your skin fromthe aftershave. Nothing exploded.”
Me: “But look at the Myths. We proved that GEMs are awesome and busted the myth that we can’t lather samples with the maggards brush.”
Mr. Link: “Because you are a morron. For how long are you wetshaving?”
Me: “Three years maybe?”
Mr. Link: “Disgraceful”
Me: “You wanted to say a second thing?”
Mr Link: “Are you aware that you are talking to a puppet for an hour now?”

July 5, 2023

• Brush: Isana – Synthetic #Ancient
• Razor: Razorock- Eco
• Blade: Permasharp (4)
• Lather: Palmolive – Classic
• Post Shave: Balea Men – Ultra sensitive aftershave balm
• Fragrance: Armani – Code

This day is always a walk down the memory lane. Little Marquis (well, not so little, probably 1,90m tall), had to figure out how to shave. My parents are divorced, and my dad was not there for my first shave. But i learned from him that you need a brush and some cream. His choice of cream was Palmolive. I got a cheap synthetic from our local drug store and started to face lather with the cream. I had no idea how the final result should look like, if my lather was good. What I liked was, that I used the same product as my dad and it had that distinctive smell that reminded me of mornings in his flat, where I sat close to the sink, brushing my teeth, while he shaved. Whenever I use Palmolive I think back to those days. Except today. I dont know for how long I have that Palmolive cream now. This tube… I remember I had it in 2019 when I had my last cartridge shave. And I am pretty sure, that the tube was already years old back then. The brush is also the same one I bought with 16 with its original hair. Its sitting in the dark of our bathroom cupboard for years now. When I lathered everything up, it did not have that simple, but fresh smell of Palmolive. It was like dirty water, like a wet dog. I played a bit around with the amount of water to get a good lather. It was more difficult than I remember, or I had little to none claims what I wanted from a lather. I just knew that I can trust the brand. Used the Razorock Eco today as it feels closest to a cardridge razor to me. In the end, I still had a great shave. The lather quality was good and it did not leave me with that squeaky soapy feeling. As aftershave I bought this balm on the weekend. I wanted to be on theme and use something mass produced. Something my dad would also use. He has sensitive skin and avoids alcohol in his products now (but I remember that he sprayed perfume right into his face). I also decided to listen to Genesis during the shave, as he had a CD in his car and still talks about them and Pink Floyd. The aftershave was okay. Felt a bit like my cheap moisturizer cream.

FOF

As Fragrance I wanted to use somethng my dad could also use. It should be somethig mainstream. Thats why I came up with Armani code but after I used it, I realized that I chose the wrong fragrance. I thought about Baldessarini. I wanted to use a scent made for men in their best age. What I got was some scent that seemed to be popular in the ‘Fuckboy’ community during my time where I wore One Million. Both target audience were boys who just finished school and went to their first club nights and hoped to be successfull with the other gender. But although Armani Code is among those mainstream schents, its not bad per se. I find it very difficult to distinguish whats in there, but it is sweet and makes you feel very comfortable. I guess I should have bought that more than 10 years ago. Can totally see that this fragrance would have gotten some compliments. Its for the more reserved boys. Those who aspire to be a gentleman, but know that they are young and have things to learn. I am looking forward to show the scent to my gf. I think she will like it.

Daily Challenge: Our challenge is to create our perfect scent. Let me ask a question first! For what occasion? Let me ellaborate. Just yesterday, we had spring day. There are scents that are seasonal, some are not even made for our type. Like the Armani Code I used today, I am growing out of it, but I ll be using fragrances this month that make you look forward to age. I like to mix and match things to the weather, modd/ energy level, and activity I ll be doing that day.
Lets get into more detail for this challenge.
There are days where I am on the office, hacking on my keyboard and maybe having a meeting. I ll also go to the kitchen to eat some food. So the perfect office scent needs to be non offensive but I also want to have a good presence. For that I choose citrus and bergamot as head not, leading to cedarwood, a little vetiver and musk. Lets call that scent “Corpo”
But I also like to go out, eat some ice in the sun, drink beer in the old town, sit by the river, do a barbeque. For that I need something that lifts my mood up. I want Lime, Yuzu, a hint of vanilla and ginger. I want to be a Surf Ninja
Next, I am ofter attending Magic the gathering tournaments. On one of my first tournaments, I had really bad draws for 3 matches ina row and lost every match. Then I started to eat licorice and my hands were bonkers. I won the next three matches. Since then I have a ritual to infuse my body with licorice before a tournament. Licorice tea, licorice honey, licorice soap and aftershave. On the tournament I eat Anise candy and more licorice. It gives luck, so do I believe. Thats why I need a soap for that occasion. Anise in the front, fading to licorice. I think that should be enough. Maybe some cedarwood and patchoulli, but thats optional. Lets call it Luck in your hands.
Last, I go to the gym about 4 to 5 times per week. There I need motivation. I pump myself up by listening to metal. My playlist consists of songs with keywords like ‘blood’, ‘iron’, ‘kill’, ‘steel’. Here I want toxic masculinity in a bottle. I want leather, smoke, gunpowder, hot iron, blood, ash. We could name it Manowar.
And god damn, we need this as a fragrance.

July 6, 2023 – I am an idiot

• Brush: Böker – Synthetic
• Razor: Valet Autostrop
• Blade: Feather – FHS-10 (2)
• Lather: Southern Witchcrafts – Gravefruit
• Post Shave: Southern Witchcrafts – Gravefruit II
• Fragrance: Southern Witchcrafts – Gravefruit II

FOF

Daily challenge:
First I have to thank u/Teufelskraft for supporting me again with this trifecta. Fragrances of our beloved artisans are either hard to get, or super expensive in europe. My first challenge is in fact two challenges combined. I wanted to shave outside, but also in the kitchen. So either, I shave on the balcony and put a few plates and my grill there to make it more kitchen like, or I open the kitchen window to let the outside come in. I decided to do the later. If you wonder about the perspective, I chose to shave on the floor lying flat. Next I needed lather challenges. The obvious one was to add some ice. The next one was knee lathering. Maybe I ll be successfull this year? No. I cant reach my knee while lying flat on the floor. Damn. As you can see on the pictures, I was already running into problems and I havent even done the first swirl. The ice froze to my brush. I tried to pull the ice cube out, but it would have destroyed my brush. I started to panic. Don’t worry. Just wait till it melts. But you need to get to work, so work with the things you have. I chose to shave and lather with my non dominant hand. Compliments to Southern witchcrafts, that even with ice and a motorical handicapped morron, I was till getting something that was close to lather. The icecube fell out of the brush while I did that. What a relief. On the new to you day, I have used this razor and not again, so maybe we can also count it as new to you? The trifecta was new to me, although I am not unfamiliar with SW. I ll let the djudges decide. Unfortunately this is just a Valet Autostrop and not Rolls, because I wanted the #skindonor achievement. Ohh, before I forget it. As I could not knee lather, I tried armpit lathering. The runny mess, called lather did not change much. Damn ice in lather. Who comes up with these things? You may have noticed, that I am wearing a kitchen apron? Well, I wore it last year when i build my barbershop. Can we count that in? Since it’s stacking day, my setup looked like the following: Setup. In the bowl above my head, there is a wash cloth to get the used lather off my face between the passes. Keep in mind that I cant get up, as we are flat shaving. The bowl above that was there to clean my razor. It was pretty difficult to do that, as I did not know when my razor was in the water. Wait! Why am I wearing a hat? That had been a challenge too. But not in the last LG. This thing screams: I am a tourist. Lets do the first pass. I only get earthy notes from the soap. The grave in Gravefruit is the perfect name for it. Am I even smelling soap, or my armpit? We will never find out. As I am flat on the floor, I can only look towards the ceiling. No mirror, just audio feedback. The Valet was loud! #butterthetoast unlocked. I placed the razor on my stomach, reached behind me into bowl 1 and cleaned my face off lather. On the second pass with watery airbubbles, I realized that the combination of floor and head is annoying. You can not stretch your neck. As I could not see what I am shaving, if I am shaving at all or doing a massacre, I went with what i heard and scrapped off hair by hair until the razor got silent. Time for a photo finish. Do you remember the stacking challenge we had last year? Stacking samples is pretty difficult, but I thought it’s funny if I stack things on myself. There are also sexy feet in the background. Does that count as Den Tour? Last year it did. Turns out that the shave was okay. Of course it was not super close and I had slight irritations, but I guess I own that to the sub. Yesterday you had your worst shave in years with Barbasol, while I got something decent from Palmolive. Today was my turn to shave mediocre at best.

The aftershave was night and day compared to the soap. It was Grapefruit up front with a tiny bit of earth. The fragrance was much more interessting to me. It started off with boath these scents dominant. Then settled down and after an hour you can better distinguish them. Even later it got … werid. In the first sniff it was dominant in Vanilla. The range of the fragrance had shrunk to skin closeness by now. In a second whiff, the fragrance was soapy, bit grapefruit and bit of dark earth. I liked the scent much more at this stage. The earth played wonderfull with the sweet accords.

Edit: I am an idiot. Stacking challenge! Not stack challenges!

July 7, 2023

• Brush: Böker – Synthetic
• Razor: Blackland Era
• Blade: Astra SP (Green) (3)
• Lather: Abbate y La Mantia – Vulcano
• Post Shave: Barrister and Mann – The Full Measure of Man
• Fragrance: Bulgari – Man
• Music: James Brown - It's a man's world

FOF

Daily Challenge: My opponent is on the play (he starts the game). I have to face a scruffy beard he cheated into play (played a card without paying its required ressources). My turn starts. I equip (keyword in magic) my Blackland Era with an Astra blade. I think thats the line of play I have to take now (sequencing my cards in a certain order). With my Böker synthetic, I try to whip up a creamy lather. My opponent counters it (a card has no effect before it enters the play area). Scruffy beard and runny lather. Not the best combination. Lets see what my deck is capable off. The Era is a trustworthy clock. Even with the runny lather, I have a clock on board (a card where both players are aware will win the game in X turns if nothing happens). Turn by turn I go WTG, XTG and ATG and win game 1. The beard is gone with a tiny bit of stubble on difficult areas left. Still I am amazed by the blackland Era. Lets review what happened. My goal was to use a spicy soap. Can it get spicier than chilly? If you are in doubt, my beloved anise is also on the scent notes of Volcano. All combined with carnation forms a pretty nice combo of fresh spiciness. Note that till this week i though carnation meant: “burned”.

Lets get to game 2: My opponent starts with the Full measure of men combo. I can only concede as the fresh tobacco flowers attack my nostrills, all backed up by the sweet and spicy mouse de saxe. Altough my GF hates to smell the combo, I liked it more and more the more I use it. By now, it smells like a candy you would eat while sitting at the chimneyfire in a leather seat while you are sipping on Rum or whiskey.

Last game: I sideboard against what I saw (during games you may change up to 15 cards in your deck) and can play a bulgari man. He controls the whole boardstate with notes of white wood. It also has a nice freshness to it. According to the scent pyramid, its because of bergamote, but I cant smell it. During the game, I also get notes of herbs, probably the violet and amber or pear. The scent does not change during the day. From the start its fresh, crisp and clear. A great scent for colder autumn days.

As you might know or have guessed, during Corona my friends a colleague and me got into Magic the gathering , the mother of all collectible cardgames again. It helped us to stay sane as we could meet in a small circle and play the cards we grew up with as teens. By a colleague I got into tournament magic, which turns out to be very expensive. There was a point where I ordered cards for around 250€ and swore to myself that I have to go to tournaments now. 1.5 years later my deck is worth around 2000$ and i have been in the top 8 of local bigger tournaments two times. Everyone knows what I play, but I try to mix things up from time to time. As magic is looking back on 30 years of history, there were cards that were just too strong. The company wizards of the coast formulated a list of cards that will never get a reprint. Still people have and play those cards. I knew of them and wanted to play that format, since my favorite combo card is on that reserved list. So at one point I had to look for cards that were last printed in 1995 and had to be in an okay condition or else they would not be legal for tournaments. A lot of people on these tournaments have the cards for decades or put some real money in it to get them. Of course there is a lot of slang in magic, but I want to present you some things that I hope you will easily understand.

Bolt the Bird: People use Bird of paradise to accelerate their gameplan or fix their ressources. The other player often disrupt that with a lightning bolt
Black lotus: Probably magics most famous card as its the most expensive one. A tournament legal one starts at 9500€ currently. The thing is that there are barely any tournaments anymore where you can play that card as its often forbidden to play it. I think that there are maybe 4 tournaments per year in whole europe where you can play it
Death and taxes: A decktype consisting of a lot of white creatures. It comes from the saying: “There are only a few things certain in life. Death, taxes and a mono white deck on a magic tournament”.
Nic fit: The internet does not forgett. Someone came up with a deckname “nice fit”, but had a typo. The deck is called that way till today.
Cheerios: A deck that plays a lot of things with 0 somewhere on their cards. 0 looks like cheerios.
There are a whole lot decks named after food: Fruity / cocoa pebbles, strawberry cheesecake/ parfait /shortcake, full english breakfast, cephalid breakfast, count chocula, Oops all spells (oops all berries)
The Rock: Another deck named after the actor and wrestler because he often referred to himself and his millions of fans.
Stax: The deck was named $T4KS, an acronym for “The Four Thousand Dollar Solution”
Tin- Fins: Deck named after a restaurant in a show
Johnny: Combo Player
Timmy: Strong creature or player that wants to play big strong stuff
Weenie: small tiny creature
Dork: A creature you play just for it's effect, not combat relevance
chump: often used with chump block. A creature looses a combat but protects you
Aristocrats: A deck type where you sacrifice your own things and benefit from it

My todays sub-theme was “man”. I could swear that Volcano had a different marketing when I bought it. It highlighted masculinity. Now I only find a quote about doubt and security on volcanos. Because of the artwork on the label of a nacked greek men forging something, I think my theme idea still holds. Full measure of men has the theme right in its name. How did Anise and freshness play together with dark chocolate like candy aftershave? Better than I had imagined. It added a freshness to it. Anise in the soap is even an ingredient in Mousse de Saxe, so i learned today. The fragrance fitted my theme by name, but the scent was not that well matching. I highlighted the freshness of the fragrance and the combination of soap and aftershave, but the way they achieve this is just different. The white woods in ‘man’ do not match with the wood notes in ‘men’. They do not collide, but just do not fit together.

July 8, 2023 - like ice in the sunshine

• Brush: Maggards – purple handle 2 band badger
• Razor: Razorock – Eco
• Blade: Permasharp (5)
• Lather: Maggard Razors – Orange Menthol
• Post Shave: Summer Break Soaps – Bell Ringer
• Fragrance: Hermes – Terre d’Hermes

#FOF

35 dry degrees outside. A fantastic day to appreciate Maggards, who enable me to make this lathergames possible at a reasonable price. While we have good shops in Europe, Maggards prices and selection is unmatched. For last years lather games, I bought a sample of orange menthol. Originally i planned to use it more during sample september, but had so many handwritten labeled soaps that had priority to get rid off.
Today, I could use the soap again and paired it with the brush I bought last year from my LG price. I wanted to have something permanent that could always remind me of the shenanigans we had last year.
With ease I got a nice creamy lather, despite this huge lather swallowing brush. Although the badger hair is no named, it has soft tips, but don’t put medium pressure on it or it will become unformortable.
The soap is pretty straight forward with its scent. Orange and menthol. In combination they remind me of the ice you see in my SOTD picture. As a teen trapped in an adult body, I eat it less now, but they were a key part of my childhood.
With 5 uses, the permasharp blade is becoming scratchy. Around my adams apple were 3 red dots, here and there are non BBS spots. Permasharp… a marketing gag.
To continue my orange themed day, I used Bell ringer. Would you agree this is a gourmand scent? Maybe we should let the DQT vote for it, because I want to drink the aftershave whenever I smell it. It’s sweet orange liqeur to me.
Last on my journey through my orange plantation, I went with Terre d’Hermes.
This scent is more complex than the other ones I had today. We start with bright orange, and vetiver. After a while it gets herbal. Cilantro? Basil? Nothing like that in the scent pyramid, just rose leafes. Everything comes than together to the earty, woody combination with orange. I am not old enough for this fragrance, but its one of those ones where I am looking forward to mature and wear it.

Daily Challenge:
I am amazed that we have people in the sub, who frequent the daily chalenge thread day by day and are helpfull to new users or other frequent ones. I like that the thread sometimes becomes a troll thread with stupid ideas and we make small announcements formulated as questions.
It’s rare that a question is left unanswered. If its unanswered, then its very likely historic special knowledge, like when I needed help to determine the model of my Valet razor. In the manners of todays funny posts, I want to be part of it. On a more serious note

July 9, 2023 – Bulletproof coffee

• Brush: Mühle – Silvertip badger with resin handle
• Razor: Blackland Era
• Blade: Astra SP (Green) (4)
• Lather: Black Ship Grooming – Captain Joe
• Post Shave: WestMan – Mazagran
• Fragrance: Hugo – Reversed

Daily Challenge: First thing you have to do in the morning, is to get up and take a cold shower. Do not hesitate! Dont stand there and wait till you are ready. weak peope react, strong people anticipate. Will it be cold? Yes. Will it hurt? Yes. Will you make sqeeking sounds? Depends on your type, but yes. Why do I do it very day? I force myself to be uncomfortable. If you get used to beeing uncomfortable, you are unstoppable. Damusi delayed? Another artisan joining the unoptainium list? Missed DG brush drop? Who cares? You do not! Do you know why? Because this morning, there under the shower, where Siberias cold whiplash beat its icy claws into your back and you looked death right in the eye… Not today.
The second thing I do, is to go to the kitchen, make some tea for me and coffee for my girlfriend. While everything brews, I start to build my daily lather. You need to be efficient in your life, you do not want to waste time. Precision lathering, GUTL, face lathering, FMF?!!! Forget it!
We live in a modern, technology society. Make use of the tools mankind developped to make your life easier. Nobody gets a medal for living on hard mode. How long does it take to build your lather 45- 60 seconds? More? I ‘ll show you how to get great lather in less than 15 seconds.
Do you know what that means? Every day we shave, I am saving 45 seconds of my time. Thats 315 seconds per week, 1350 seconds per month, 16.000 seconds per year. In 10 years thats about 4.5 hours time I saved. Do you know what you could do in that time?
You start with a full spoon of soap. You think that’s too much? You got to think big if you want to accomplish something in your life.
See, your lather is like your life. You need a good foundation. Thats the soap base. You need a vision! How does your perfect lather look like? Visualize it! And lastly, you need a plan. Hydrate the plan, ehh the soap.
While the tea brews, I shave as fast as I can. No need to leave the kitchen. Where you are right now, is exactly where you should be. . Need a mirror? No you don’t need one. Use your senses. What do you smell, what do you hear, what do you feel? You can do it, I believe in you. Bring your significant other the coffee you just made, step into the bathroom and get some aftershave. Does it burn? Maybe. Things do not always go as expected. Again. React, or anticipate. Embrace the moment, embrace the scent. Apply some fragrance to your wrists so you do not go nose blind. Take something energizing. Now you are ready to be successfull.

FOF

Coffee soaps are a novelty to me. I knew the lathergames would push my den development to this scent once ( I can’t stop talking that way…). It’s not that I do not like the smell of coffee, but there have been more fascinating scents to me. Blackship grooming is a new soap to me and my biggest soap purchase for this years LG. The soap is super soft. I had to look if it’s soap or creme. My Palmolive is more dense than this. But I like the small coffee bean in it. The scent is pretty sweat for coffee and closer to iced coffee powder. I also get a bit of rum from it. A coffee soap for people who are not used to drink coffee. u/Teufelskraft also lend me this aftershave. I did not check the lid and had almost the whole bottle in my palms. Damn. The aftershave matches the soap pretty well. Mazagran seems to be a coffee from portugal with rum, sugar, lemon and mint. As fragrance I chose Huge Reversed, more for its marketing and our theme. Since we use coffee to feel energized and fresh, I chose a refreshing fragrance. Hugo claims to have revolutionized freshness with this. I doubt it, but its simply good. Its forward citrus with wood. In my collection, I have a few of these combinations, but this one is way more citrus than others I have used. Unfortunately there is not much depth in this scent. It also does not really develop into something. Citrus looses its spotlight, but stays on stage as a background character, while wood plays a bigger role.

A final note to myself. I did my shave on speedrun mode, but am pretty happy with the result. The area where the cheekbones end has a little invisible and barely feelable stubble. The soap burned me a little bit. Still, both the soap and aftershave feel well. I have to revisit the soap again without shenanigans. Since my gf is on vacation, shaving in the kitchen was nothing special. Just Marquis doing weird things again. She supported me last year, so I expect her to know how crazy the games can get. Still she shakes her head pretty regularly.

July 10, 2023 A song about a soap

• Brush: r/wetshaving Zentih MOAR BOAR 31mm #OLDWORLD #CHONK
• Razor: Razorock – Eco
• Blade: Permasharp (1)
• Lather: Stirling Soap Co. – Boat Drinks
• Post Shave: Barrister and Mann – Reserve Waves
• Fragrance: Jill Sander – Sun men

Ohh, Boat drinks,
r/wetshaving ordered boat drinks,
scent scores on the summer scale,
Everything seems to be right.

#FOF
Did you know the song is about a soap? Ahem, the soap is about a song? Stirlings writes: “Our goal was to capture the essence of this intoxicating tune and we think we’ve done just that.” I thought by tune they meant the imagination of a carribean summer cruise they want to evoke with it. Turns out there is a real tune to the soap. And its label got a parrot, because Fans of Jimmy Buffet are called Parrotheads. Well, i am too young to know much about Jimmy Buffet. I guess I heard his name in sitcoms where they make comparisons to him, for example in ‘married with children’.
Boat drinks is about beeing homesick. Buffets songs are about island escapism and alcohol, so I got told.
What do we find in the soap? Months ago I would have said cherry, but now I think its lots of banana with frangipani and rum. Maybe this is not my type of drink, but as a soap I enjoy it. I was a bit out of practice with the brush, but had a good lather. With a fresh blade I am getting good shaves again with the Eco.
My sub-theme today is more derived from the names. Sun, waves, boat drinks. A wonderfull holiday combination. Unfortunately, its all broken by the aftershave. Its scent does not match the rest of my setup. Too much lavender brings this composition in a herbalous and dark direction.
The fragrance of Jill sander is fitting well to the soap. In a creamy composition we smell a warm combination of bergamot, cedarwood and again frangipani. I guess the later is responsible for the creamy scent.

My setup, besides the orange fragrance is a warm up to tomorrows challenge.

Daily Challenge:

I used Dalle2 with the prompt: “A parrot drinking a cocktail on a surfboard”. Then I started to draw it with a pen and put my own ideas to it. It’s my alternative label for “Boat drinks”.
To be honest, I think on the current label the parrot makes the phteven meme face.

July 11, 2023 – Hot(pink) Summer

• Brush: AP Shave Co Synthetic
• Razor: Valet Autostrop
• Blade: Feather – FHS-10 (3)
• Lather: Noble Otter – Neon Sun
• Post Shave: Noble Otter – Neon Sun Balm
• Fragrance: Bruno Banani – Pure Woman

Pink is just my color. Whenever I can, I set my color choice to pink. Be it in my disco shower, LED light on my gaming PC or keyboard, my card sleeves. Oftentimes, I can still provoke a reaction by choosing pink colors. I am on a mission. Since the movie Alfie I got the courage to embrace pink in my live.

I am also in love with synthwave and the whole aesthetics around it. The music, the style, neon lights, Anemoia. Anemoia? “a nostalgic sense of longing for a past you yourself have never lived”. As a kid of the 90s, I grew up with some 80s music and movies. They formed me and I have very early memories about traveling to east europe with Pet Shop Boys or Michael Jackson playing on the radio.
The synthwave genre captures that decade and breathes fresh air into it. Neon Sun, hits these aesthetics very well. I knew I had to get it, when I saw the label.
To me, Neon Sun is the dirty brother of sea spiced lime. Fresh lime and bergamot beam me into the 80s summer. I see pictures of GTA – Vice city in my head, where I drive around with a motorcycle, dressed in a hawai shirt. Then patchoulli and musk step from the back to the front. Gone is the Hawai shirt. We need a leather jacket, we need pomade, we need huge sunglasses. I am cool like John Travolta in Grease.
The aftershave is more forward in the citric notes and it feels awesome. My face is nourished for hours. Unfortunately, I had some trouble with the Valet. It has a very wide angle where it is able to cut hair, but that does not mean it is the most efficient angle. I guess, you could also shave (scrape off is the better word) in a 90° angle. There were some spots of hair left and they drive me nuts during the day.
Color matching a brush to the Noble Otter label is not that difficult. With my Maggards brush and this wonderfull one I got from u/Teufelskraft, I can scratch that off.
The biggest problem was to find a full sized fragrance, that matches pink. Good luck finding a pink male fragrance. We found Joop Homme, which smells like fancy mouthwash. 40 bucks for a stupid fragrance just to take a pic.
A boy got to do, what a boy got to do. I took my girlfriends perfume. Dynamic and feminine is written on the packaging. Or in my words: girly cotton candy. Marketing gets even worse: forbidden mysterious awakens the sensuality in a lady. For the girl who likes to seduce, like an angle playing with the fire. The striking pink bottle resembles the silhouette of a woman and ignites full passion.
The scent does not develop much. A bit freshness fades away to a little bit of warmth, but everything is sweet. I can just describe it as girly.

But here we are. A pink themed SOTD. I love that the Valet inlays color matches my SOTD too.
#FOF
#photocontest

July 12, 2023 - Black and white

• Brush: Muhle Badger
• Razor: Razorock – Eco
• Blade: Permasharp (2)
• Lather: Extro Cosmesi – Liquirizia & Magnolia
• Post Shave: Extro Cosmesi – Liquirizia & Magnolia
• Fragrance: CK – Everyone

#FOF
Daily challenge:

Let’s talk about face vs bowl lathering. I know, I know. Shaving is a hobby where your miles vary a lot. Not everyone makes the same experience. Still I have a number of thoughts that I want to formulate and have a healthy discussion with myself.
I usually bowl lather and after this day of face lathering, I won’t change my routine, although I had fantastic lather and a wonderfull shave.
The lathering process starts before I open my sample or full sized tub. It starts with soaking the brush. Not all brushes require soaking, but boar for example do. So when using a boar brush, you will very likely have a bowl at hand? Why not use it for bowl lather later?
Lets continue. Lets say we use a full sized tub. We can get some lather from it and go right onto our face. Point for face lathering, except… I come to that later. But what if we want to use a sample? I remeber my first shaves with samples where I tried to load from the tiny tub. So you are forced to take out a gram of soap and start to lather it elsewhere. From last years LG, I also tried to build lather on my knee. Wet brush, gram of soap and my knee. It does not work at all. I conclude that you can not take each soap and lather it directly on your face. You need a starting point. For example your bowl.
Next we managed to get some proto lather, either in our bowl or on our face. It will probably need more water. What I do is, to make one hand wet and let some water drip into my lather in the bowl. You could do the same with your brush, but somewhat it felt more difficult to control. Is it really a good advice to newcomers to let them face lather where we have more points of failure?
Here I see the benefits of GUTL. As discussed in my post from last year, GUTL works, because we have a control device (face or bowl) to determine the portion of water. If our bowl lather is too wet, we mix it with the face lather and have a good middleground, which will be very likely some great lather.
In the manual of this Mühle brush, it is recommended to massage the lather into the beard for up to 3 minutes. Thats a point for face lathering. I feel like it takes more time, or it’s just the process that applies the lather in a more effective manner to the beard. Great point for face lathering. I want to highlight u/Madflava81’s post, where he determines the best lather method by the soap base. From my experience, it seems difficult to get a great lather with a DG soap with face lathering. It needs water, it needs time. What happens between the passes? With your bowl its easy. Just put the brush in. What do we do when face lathering? I could put it somewhere on the sink or under my mirror on that plank. But today I used a very small brush. The soap would have run down and caused more space to clean after the shave. What I had to do was to put my brush into my soap container: Avoiding a cleanup. That woudl not work with a sample. It would not work with a bigger brush and normal sized tub, but then I might have luck and put the brush standing without distributing lather everywhere. And all of this can be concluded with YMMV.

Liquiriza Magnolia is my magic tournament soap, as I believe that licorice gives me luck. Cocos Nucifera (Coconut)Oil, is its third ingredient and indeed gives an easy to lather flufficity of 9/10.
Flufficity is the innofficial unit to measure the fluffiness of an object. In my second choice SOTD picture you see some of the licorice the soap is made with. Amarelli is italys oldest licorice seller. The licorice is very strong and I often compare it to 99% bitter chocolate. You have to get used to it and consume it in very small amounts. It’s great when I crave something sweet but don’t want to eat a lot of sweets. A piece of that black gold satisfies my desire for sweets.
There is also a rumor of the so called licorice aequator. It means that south of that geographic line, people do not like licorice. For example in bavaria, south of germany, you are just not able to buy licorice. In north germany and higher to scandinavia, people become more and more crazy about it. In Sweden they have it as icecream and liquer. They also prefer the more salty ones, also called salmiak.
A counterpoint to that licorice aequator is italy. Its south, but I ate licorice icecream there and they have Amarelli.
The soap starts with a great portion of that licorice and the magnolia is in the background (where it belongs). The aftershave on the other hand has some of that sweet artificial red melon scent in it. Its more floral and burns a lot. You need another moisturizer after this aftershave. My choice of fragrance was determined, in yesterdays fashion, by the color. My SOTD is almost black and white. Unfortunately this is the worst fragrance I had this month. It lasts as long as a teenage boy while passing his V-card. And it smells like cloister. Arko the fragrance, but in expensive.
Thank god it was gone in seconds and I could enjoy the Liquirizia Magnolia

July 13, 2023

• Brush: Böker – Synthetic
• Razor: Valet Autostrop
• Blade: Feather – FHS-10 (4)
• Lather: Zingari – The Royal
• Post Shave: Hags – Aftermath
• Fragrance: Zadig & Voltaire – This is him

#FOF

Incense and patchoulli are very rare in my den, but I got the royal from Maggards for these games.
Although I often had trouble with Zingari soap and precision lathering it, I got more confidence in my skill since my last try. I started my lathering like in the manual. Pretty dry almond sized soap and damp brush. After a few seconds I added water slowly and bam! I had wonderfull Zingari lather. It does not take much water, from my experience.
Leather and incense are easy to spot when lathered. Honestly, I was afraid it might sting in my nose. Who smelled Cuero Oscuro knows that leather scents can do that and incense gave some people a headache when we went to church in school. But Shawn (excuse me for taking the liberty of calling him by his first name), wouldn’t be himself if he did not care about it. The spices and wine (I would not be able to name it blind) avoid the sting in the nose. It clearly has Shawn Mahers handwriting and lines up with his work of Electric Mayhem and Black Watch. Shaving wise, I had my ups and downs with the razor again. Difficulties to find the right angle, where it shaves (at all). My neck is not as clean shaven as I would like it to be. The geometry of the razor makes it impossible to shave directly under the nose, no matter how I pull my skin or make silly faces. But I chose it, since it was made in Great Britain and matches my song choice later.
The aftershave was pretty simple. It starts with bergamot and slight incense notes. The bergamot is overwhelming it, though. It takes time for the incense to develop and be present.
The fragrance has incense as a heart note, but only after 5 hours on my skin, I could find it once.
It’s commented as a hit under the radar in german perfume forums. Yes, it is different, but not really my thing. For my nose, this is too unisex, almost feminine. The notes of vanilla, grapefruit, pepper and sandalwood fade into each other, that its ingredients look interchangeable. How would I picture someone who fits this perfume? Maybe the art or fashion student. Wearing a lot of black, skinny jeans, glasses and a bit too long hair with a skinny body. Thats just not me.

Daily Challenge:

You probably know that I am a huge fan of the synthwave genre and want to highlight an artist here (not again the midnight).
Ollie Wride – Victoria Why did I pick that song? I have a few songs (well, basically the whole genre where there are vocals in the songs) running on repeat. My job was to connect one of those songs to the soap, not vice versa.
England had a Queen Victoria, who had the longest reign before Queen Elisabeth took that record for herself.
And a Queen is royal. Royal -> Queen -> Victoria.

July 14, 2023 – Freeze! I said freeze!

• Brush: Ap. shave Co. – purple Haze
• Razor: Razorock – Eco
• Blade: Permasharp (3)
• Lather: Summer Break Soaps – Rope Swing
• Post Shave: Summer Break Soaps – Rope Swing
• Fragrance: Davidoff – Cool water wave
• Song to hype myself up: Amon Amarth - Embrace the endless ocean (Metal)

I knew this day would come. In anticipation of this challenge, I trained myself one year.
After last years frigid friday, it became clear to me that I have to go lower.
I started my work in home office before 7 in the morning so I could sneak outside at 8 when stores open. Not many people around at this time.
Here I was looking for something that would top my shave in comparison to last year.
Weeks before I scouted the fridges if they have it. Yes, they do.
When I am already in the store, lets get some breakfast, something for my 3pn coffee and cake and some sweet milk for my escalation gaming friday.
The crushed ice is in a box to keep it cool, while I walk home.
My girlfriend already made me a nice tub of cold water. Mmhhh, just the way I enjoy it. No better way to start into the day. I take cold showers for a few years now(except my head). Since the start of the Ukraine war, I only use warm water to make tea.
soaking my brush
I lathered outside the tub. On my way to the store, I became a bit anxious, back at home I was hyped and was looking forward to freeze myself off.
4 kg of crushed ice in my bathtub
Mr. Ice bath Link giving me a judging look
“Why doesn’t he wear his hat?”, asked my girlfriend
“It will get wet” said Mr. ice bath Link
“But the ducks still have their hats?”
“They are ducks! The can swim with their head above the water”
After we cleared that up it was time to get to business!

Even 4 kg of ice cooled the water down by a good amount. Hurry up!
The following pictures show me in bath shorts!!! NSFW!!!
Lather into my face
Ohh, Marquis is really enjoying the scent of rope swing. He closed his eyes, so he can focus even more on that nice dandelion ozone. Hrm
Scent becomes more and more enjoyable
Starting with an ATG shave. I have never done it, but thought about it often. Why do we do the first 3 passes, although they never leave us clean? Thanks lather games to give me the opportunity to explore.
ATG as first pass picture proof You can see some 7 o clock shadow as beard.
Going ATG from the start is so enjoyable
First pass done. The legs are getting numb. At least they do not feel that cold anymore. Did it hurt to start ATG? I don't know. I feel like in the Major Pain movie and I cant feel my face
Well, if only I don’t have to get that lather out of my face.
Deep dive. I took my hands off later, but then had some ice water run into my nose.
To do the dive, I had to tug my legs , as I do not fit in this tub. Thanks mom
So the legs were exposed to fresh warmer air. When they got back into the water for the second pass, I felt the cold of my bath again.
I want to get out. But Lathergames rules are two passes (except for u/airbudruler). Speed lather for the second pass. It’s runny crap. As a mirror I used the shower head like last year
My brain seemed to be freezing, as I did a WTG pass now. Out, out out! How was the WS-23 in the soap with the cool water? I felt nothing. When everything is that cold, you barely feel the cooling agent.
After I got dry and applied the aftershave, I was able to feel the cool breeze from it. Got back to my desk and felt slightly nauseous. Thats what the r/coldshowers talked about. It might happen. After afew hours it was gone. The shave was not good. It looks clean enough, but does not meet my standards. The aftershave was more heavy on the dandelion, and less on the woody parts in it.
Did I mention we have a LG tub kill?

FOF

Because of the theme I went with Davidoff Cool water waves. I heard there are a million successors to davidoff cool water. This one is my jam. Fruity and bitter grapefruit with maritime notes fade down to a over fresh evergreen notes to classic sandalwood and patchoulli.

July 15, 2023 – Think big!

• Brush: Maggards – purple handle 2 band badger #WEDONTNEEDNOSTINKINGBADGERS
• Razor: Blackland Era
• Blade: Astra SP (Green) (1)
• Lather: Barrister and Mann – Le Grand Chypre
• Post Shave: Barrister and Mann – Le Grand Chypre
• Fragrance: Issey Miyake – L’eau D’issey

It took me some time to find a few Chypre soaps, but in the end, I will probably go with the classic like the whole sub.
Daily Challenge:
Le GRAND shave

For those too bored to watch the video, I took a whole sample of Barrister & Mann and lathered it up in a huge “cereal bowl”. During my passes, I crack a few dirty jokes.

I ll be on a wedding in a few hours and wanted to take the most fool proof razor. Unfortunately the video made me nervous and I wanted to keep it short. In the end, I have some irritations on my neck. After the first pass, my skin felt good enough to go, but I am chasing BBS skin that glows.

#FOF
Le Grand Chypre is often called “Cola” shaving soap. I never tried the soap but used the aftershave a lot of times. It’s true, the soap has a cola vibe. The aftershave does not have that and is more heavy on the citrus front. L’eau D’issey is pretty complex and I did not have something similar this month. It starts with yuzu, almost sour, but there is also a spiciness that combined with the yuzu makes me think that we have way more mediteranian herbs. In the beginning it is not that fresh as its marketing would suggest. Minute by minute the Sandalwood becomes more preasant. All in all, I would have expected the fragrance to become heavy or earthy. It does not. Although its againa citrus and wood combination, this one is something different. All its ingredients stay present. Like there is no head and basic note. After an hour, the yuzu is still there and evokes a nice freshness. I guess I am confusing. Lets sum it up with: This fragrance is something special. Something is going on here.

July 16, 2023 – Bogus

• Brush: Holzleute – Silvertip badger
• Razor: Custom designed 6/8 Böker with bog oak scale and french head #STR8SNOB #ALLNATURAL
• Lather: Moon Soaps – Union
• Post Shave: Stirling Soap Co. – Barbershop
• Fragrance: Versace – Eros Flame

Barbershop day is nonesense. We celebrate a barbershop, that has very likely worse products than we use, to get a shave thats worse than what we could do, with a scent that is not at all defined. We top it off, by shaving ourselfes. I can’t avoid to think of Ron Swanson. We would look the same the minute we enter a barbershop. But just like last year we have this theme. Thank god it’s sunday and barbershops are closed today. How cocky would it be to go there and show them my clean shaven face, smelling fabulous and giving them a lecture that they should get some Seville and stop using Arko.

For all the things I listed, that are wrong with the barbershop day, I wanted to make at least one thing right. I did not wanted to shave myself. Would you go to a restaurant and cook your own meal? No.
But before the u/airbudruler gets up for standing ovations, we need to read the rules which clearly say: “You have to shave yourself”. To avoid a mod with a nervous finger on the DQ button, I still had to shave myself.

Barbershops here prefer shavette shaves. They can change the blade after every customer for hygenie reasons. But I woudl prefer a shave with a straigh razor, for style reasons. This weekend my razors came back from honing service. God, did I miss them. Did anybody notice that for over two weeks, I had no straight razor shave?
Anyway. As a brush I used my Holzleute badger brush. It still has some animal funk in it and needs more break in phase, but my beard length matched the brushes feeling.
The lather was not the best. I have a sample of the soap from last year LG. The soap looks dry and crumbling. Went to the living room, sat on a chair and let my gf shave me. I shaved my little brother once, and although I thought that I am proficient with these razors, my hands were shaking as I was nervous and the angle was so different. My gf often shaves the back of my neck with my straight razors, so she has little experience. I told her to do the pass as she likes to. WTG, ATG, XTG, doen’t matter. Do whats comfortable and maneageble. She started with XTG, but stopped after one cheek. The long nails from yesterdays wedding get in her way, she is afraid to chop my face off, she is afraid to break the razor. I get all of these arguments.
Here ends the part of my airbudruling and we continue with the games obeying its rules.

#FOF
I realized that I am out of practice with my straight razors. The lather denisity was also not good enough. With a straight, its even more important how good your lather is. Union has a very mild cooling. Forgott it had that. The scent is more towards Seville direction and a take on 50s Barbershop scent. Powdery, citrus, sandalwood and bay.
To stay on theme I used Stirlings very vanilla barbershop balm. Thats more my barbershop style scent.
About my choice of fragrance, I need to tell a tiny story. I worked in a different city some years ago. We had a colleague from turkey and went to some turkish restaurants from time to time. As we got there we passed a little barbershop and every time we did that he told us about the one time he was there after work on a friday evening. The place was full of testosterone bombing “gentleman”, who got ready for their firday night club hunting. He told us that he learned a lot during his visit there.
I assume that the clientele has a few fragrances they like to use and I assume that Versace Eros is among them.
Flame starts with heavy mandarine and a citric freshness. After a bit of time it fits the barbershop theme very well (like arse on bucket, as we say in germany). Powdery sweetness, but still a bit of citrus, like it cant decide if it wants to fit Stirling or Red house farms barbershop, or rather Moon soaps and Barrister and Mann barbershop. It fits both.

Daily Challenge:

Let’s start with some LG meme.
Friggid friday
no scrub
let's continue the mocking u/priusaurus

July 17, 2023 – Osma is Illuminati substance to control minds

• Brush: Böker – Synthetic
• Razor: Boker King cutter
• Lather: Declaration Grooming – Cerberus
• Post Shave: Declaration Grooming – Cerberus
• Fragrance: House of Mammoth – Voices

I still remember the hype about this release. It was more crazy than the second coming of Jesus. Sold within a minute. Some people got a refund of their aftershave, as it was already sold out. But there was a second batch. I had an alarm clock to get the release and buy the shirt (lovely shirt).

FOF

Dg makes awesome soap base and the scent is fantastic. Stone fruit, sandalwood and raisins blend together to a make me want to sit down with some dark chocolate in my leather chair in front off the chimnes, read a book and talk to my dad about cars. The aftershave is pretty similar and gave me a heartly welcome as I got on my motorcycle and put my helmet on. Inside the helmet, I could enjoy the scent of Cerberus once again. The shave was okay. I had little irritation on my neck and not the closest shave. I am still out of practice with my straights. As fragrance I used Voices today, as its a collaboration between podcatsers and a soap artisan. In my opinion, thats a great fit. I bought the soap on my motorcycle trip through east europe. 1200 km to get some HoM fragrance. Would do again. Bought it in 7scents (name of the shop) and it fits the shops theme so well. The shop is filled with more niche perfumes. Voices does barely develop its scent, and thats great. You have that mango sticky rice and the sensation of tropical heat. I have no idea how the later is possible, but its there and stays like that for hours. After around 6 hours, the damp tropic sensation fades away and I am left with a fenomenal mango wood aroma. So good. I hope my nose gets more used to the fragrance and I ll enjoy it more in august.

Daily Challenge:
Do not use Osma. Be warned! In 1776 Adam Weishaupt founded the order of the illuminati in germany . His original plan included age of enlighnenment typical anti church ideas. Later they wrote in their general statutes: “The order of the day, is to put an end to the machinations of the purveyors of injustice, to control them without dominating them.” The Illuminati stopped recruiting students and expanded their circle to include the powerful and rich, for example in the Masonic lodge. One of them was Adolph Freiherr Knigge. Today his name is synonymous with good manners in all of germany. How could you control the masses, he asked himself? His idea was to start by daily rituals. See, you can miss a lecture, you can miss your secret society meeting, but you will likely not skip to be well groomed. Unfortunately, Knigge did not find a way to truly control people. But the Illuminati do not think in years, rather in generations and lifetimes. Knigge chose to lay the foundation for his idea. He wrote a book about the bahavior among humans and chose to be the name of good manners. That book was almost put on the index by the vatican in 1820. By that time, the Illuminati had already infiltrated the spiritual powerhouses and could prevent that. More than 100 years later, Italy and Germany build an alliance in second world war. With inhumane cruel secret forbidden experiments they accelerated the knowledge about medicine and anatomy. Officially, the Illuminati were gone by that time. But we know better. A secret society with such prominent members, would not die. Via the documentation of the military doctors, the Illuminati found the substance that should bring them closer to control the masses, without dominating them. Alum! But why would people use salt on wounds? In the thirty year long war, it was a common torture to put salt on peoples feet and let goats lick that off. Their raw tongues opened the skin and the salt would add unbearable pain. Knigge paved the way! You should always be well groomed. The Illuminati, now in possession of Alum just had to find a good marketing. Like a good drug dealer knows, make the celebrities addicted and use the trickle down effect. Osma alum, the only luxury alum was born. You want proove? I ll give you proof. It’s right here, among us. Have you ever mentioned alum in presence of u/merikus without him answering like a robot? You can almost hear his eyes fade out while he says it. The ultimate marketing gag from the Illuminati. And for their devilish plan, they found the perfect stage. OUR lathergames. Year by year Osma gets promoted. Of course merikus would make free commercial for Osma. He IS an Illuminati! Need more proof? Did you know that Merikus recently bought a few squares of soil and is now harvesting plants? Why would you do that? Because he knows the rich and super powerfull will accelerate our economy into the great reset. Like the psycho historics of the Foundation sci fi books would predict, the first years after the great reset will lead to unrests among societies. When currencys and whole countries collapse, its better to have some land and be able to feed yourself with own grewn food. Case closed

July 18, 2023, Death or Glory

• Brush: Böker – Synthetic
• Razor: Böker – Elite Carbon 2.0
• Lather: Dr. Jon’s – Death or Glory
• Post Shave: Southern Witchcrafts – Samhain
• Fragrance: Trussardi - Uomo

Halloween is a hit or miss day in Germany. Although clubs often offer free entry if you come in a costume, you can still be one of 6 dressed up people and look like a fool.
Cool thing is, that the day after Halloween is a public holiday, so there are lots of parties.

Death or glory is unobtainium since a few weeks. I got a smush by u/worbx. Informations about the soap are scarce, now that it is discontinued. What I found out is that it was a Halloween release in 2020 and “Death or Glory (Dracula)” or that it is vampire approved. To sum it up, I guess I am on theme.
The soap was easy to lather. The roses in the soap are a bit sweet to me. I am very proud that I got the “blood” note in the soap. Blood scent is very close to the scent of iron. Now I am thinking about the scene in Planet Terror, when that one guy is looking for the missing ingredient for the perfect barbecue sauce, only to find out after a huge carnage, that the salt in blood is the missing piece to glory.

I liked todays challenge for scientific reasons and was thrown back to my first straight razor shaves. Back then i prepared myself with some videos and remember that one advice is to not clean the razor in the sink, as you might hurt the edge when you swing the razor. Thats why it was recommended to wipe off the lather in a kitchen tissue. Scientifically, I am curious how effective each pass is. Now I got the answer:
WTG
XTG
ATG
Pass by pass, the hair that is shaven off gets shorter. An exception was a spot at the chin in the ATG pass. You can see the hair in the front of my lather mess, but these hair pieces are “dry”.

Summing it up, I am back in the straight razor game. The elite Carbon 2.0 looks a bit like a scythe, which is my best fit to celebrate the dark season on a sunny day.

Back on theme with the Samhain aftershave, which celebrates a Gaelic festival at the end of harvest season. Almost gourmand like notes of bourbon, tobacco and vanilla touch my skin. All notes together remind me of christmas cake or cookies.

#FOF

Linking all my software together, I wanted to celebrate Halloween, celebrate Samhain and finish it off with a “dark”scent. Trussardi Uomo is said to be of that kind.
Uomo is labeled as a woody fougere. Woody notes are on theme today too. Unfortunately, this fragrance makes me feel old. It is dark, it is woody and I get the direction of a fougere. Fougeres are not like a hit or miss for me, but something I have to be in the mood for. Today I was not in the mood and the fragrance is not a good match for me.

July 19, 2023 – please kill me
Sock: Tommy Hilfiger - white sneaker socks * Razor: Custom designed Böker with bog oak scale and french head
Lather: Proraso – Sandalwood cream
Post Shave: Chiseled Face – Midnight Stag balm
Fragrance: Dior – Sauvage
Music:* [Arctic monkeys - Knee socks] (https://youtu.be/lyO-Sveg6a8)
#FOF

When I read todays challenge, I got excited at first. Juhu, Marquis can be silly again. Also, as my sub theme for today is “questionable scents”, what fits better than using a sock for lathering?

Dub di dub di du, I enter the bathroom. Did not want to wake up my girlfriend by looking through my sock collection so I picked a nice (dirty) sock I wore on the weekend or god nows when.
I do a nice SOTD picture and soak my sock. I soak all brushes, so why not soak my sock?

Daily Challenge and soap:
The first questionable scent is Proraso Red. I got it from u/djundjila last lather games and put that thing in quarantine. My girlfriend usually refers to stinky soaps as “Stag number 5”. I believe she erased all memory of Proraso red, as she never talked about it again. I still believe djundjila tricked me and mixed djunior snot with used wet tissue extract and vaseline, labeled it with Proraso red and send it to me. Back then there was no reason to do so, because I started the mocking when the games started. So maybe it was just djundilas shenanigans. But he agrees that Red is smelling bad. HE! That man has an extra fridge with stinky cheese!
So when DJ and me agree that Red is so bad, why is it questionable? Becase I often read on W_E that people love it. WTF?! Is W_E completely lost? Is it a regional thing like with american chocolate smelling like puke to europeans, because of the butter acid?
Let’s lather that baby snot poo soap.
Put a great amount of the sample on my wet sock and started rubbing. Barely anything. After a while I felt a little lather inside the sock. Maybe thats enough?
Let’s squeeze it…
Dear djudges: I am not here to kink shame. Yesterday was odd, but okay. Now this?
You want to watch me put lather jizz on my face? (I cant remember what I did with it. probably put it on my face and forgott about it)
Whats your idea for next week? ”Draw us a picture of dwarfs dressed in nothing but gladiator helmets and capes jumping into wedding cakes”
I got my brush out and with the last halve gram of the soap sample, I made some lather (if you can proraso call that). For a second, I thought that I might exagerate Prorasos scent. Then it hit me. The used baby wipe smell. To go with the challenge as far as possible, I used my dirty sock to apply the lather to my face.
Decide for yourself what your favorite is.
I felt the lather wandering inside the sock and barely going on y face. After the second pass there was barely any lather left for a third pass. I quit. I dont want to continue this shitty shave. There is so much stublle left, I dont want to touch my face today. Had to leave the bathroom to park my motorcycle so my gf could take her car. Thats why I did not use the aftershave imediately after the shave. I felt my skin go dry and stretching. #bestcreamever.
My morning was ruined. I just want to go to bed, sleep till tomorrow and hope to have a good shave again.

Aftershave:
Everyone here knows the Stag cult and everyone knows that a lot of people do not like the scent. Perfect for my questionable scent theme. Stag grew on me and the aftershave performance is awesome. That motoroil dirty car workshop scent. Reminds me of the time I worked in a car rental and drove to another workshop who was specialized on changing tires.

Fragrance:
Diors bestseller questionable? It got its reputation here. See, you cant take public transport without 3 people wearing Sauvage. It’s success is also its curse.
I have to admit, that it has the freshest bergamot I ever smelled. Patchoulli and vetiver, with lavender and a bit of pepper make this wearable and so approachable. In other words: it smells like biceps curls in the sqaut rack. Like that consultant with bleached teeth, who only talks about soccer or work. It’s the fragrance for the male basic bitch.

Have a great day and enjoy the games.

I am not a fan of lavender, but here it tones down the spicy and sweet scent very well. Infinity is “kind maskuline”. Miro infinity is a contrast to Excursion and I am not able to see that they are dupes of the same fragrance.
We are back on theme and have a dupe of La nuit de L’Homme itself.
Fragrance:

This will be the scent that I ll wear, when I am walking the beaches on sunset in italy in white linen pants.
Musk and patchoulli in that concentration make me look forward to times when I am married and have our first vacation without kids.
O’Selvaggio is a dupe of EAU Sauvage, the calabrian bergamot heavy start from more than 30 years ago. A bit sad, that I was not able to get a dupe of the YSL scent, but I am going with another dupe today.
Aftershave:

Unfortunately, I had bad lather today and could not enjoy the scent to its fullest.
It also has a mild spiciness from cardamom and coumarin.
Excursion is heavyier on the bergamot side, without beeing to citric like Neon Sun would be.
Excursion is “inspired by” Yves St. Laurent La nuit de L’Homme and listed as a dupe on the thristy badger site. But with a lot of focus, I finally had a great shave.
Zero slickness
On the second and third pass , my lather got aerie.
The audio feedback was so laud, I was glad we had after 6 am or the neighbours would have called the cops.
When your lather is crap, you have to focus on your technique. More like dry shaving! Wetshaving? I used very little water and ended up with some substance that was more like the white paste we used i primary school art class.
As the brush has pretty huge loft, I often have trouble to get the lather that I want.
My brush soaked while I brushed my teeth. The brush itself is probably a dupe of a Yaki (purple haze?).
Brush and shave:

But challenge is challenge and 0.22 points are a lot. Let me shave clean once again, please! This morning, I woke up with 3 days of beard growth. Crappy lather again? I was not looking forward to todays challenge.

#FOF

• Fragrance: Miro – Infinity
• Post Shave: Extro Cosmesi – O’Selvaggio
• Lather: Chicago Grooming Co. (Formerly Oleo Soapworks) – Excursion
• Razor: Custom designed Böker with bog oak scale and french head
• Brush: Maggards – purple handle 2 band badger

Dry shaving games 20, 2023, Memento shave

July 21, 2023- Fougere friday mania

• Brush: Böker – Synthetic
• Razor: Böker – King cutter
• Lather: Wholly Kaw – Fougere Mania
• Post Shave: Arinae & Evans – Amber Rose
• Fragrance: Versace – Dylan Blue

First, let us be thankful for a challenge that does not consists of creating crap lather and choose our own style.

#FOF

I do not understand Fougere. What do B&M Fern and Fougere Gothique have in common? And now Fougere Mania. My expectation was that this scent family would have something in common. It's ingredients, or direction of ingredients, for example tonka bean and vanilla might be interchangeable. Maybe the direction they are going to is the same, but it's very difficult for me to find their common trait.
Huge edit: After dinner, I was rested and curiosity sparks in. It's easy to say, that I do not understand fougeres, but the way we play these games is a journey of discoveries. We measured temperature of water and it's amount, some shaved with ice water, tried new ways to lather, shaved with the non dominant hand and got hands on experience with unknown soft and hardware. Let's continue this spirit.
Google is out. Long live chatGPT.
ChatGPT describes fougeres as a Fragrance family with fresh or herbaceous top notes, floral and or spicy woody heart and earthy green base. Interesting. But my chatgpt answer sparked new questions. What is the contrast to a Chypre(even more vague for me) and are there fragrances that break with the tradition of heat, heart and base notes for olfactory reasons? To cut things short, a Chypre also has the three accords, some are similar to a fougere but take a different spot. So, do fragrances exist that break with those three accords? Lazy me had an "ahh", of course" moment. Gourmant scents, for example. They don't want to start with fruit loops and end with patchouli musk.

Soap:
As I was looking for Fougere samples on Maggards, I found Fougere Mania. The label spoke to me. It does not look that cool, rather spicy and oriental. Let’s give it a try, whoch brings me to my daily challenge:
I might have a stroke
Fougere mania smells just
like boonana soap

At first I thought that my brush or my mug is not clean, but I left the sample lid open during my hoemoffice and its really similar to Boonana. Is it the neroli, musk and tonka bean / vanilla combination? I am confused.
Wholly Kaw is rarely used in my den. The reason is that I got a sample of Cuero Oscuro, which is not an every day soap. The new coconut release looks promising though.
The lack of experience showed in the lather quality. It was good, but I am certain that it can be better.
Let’s review it in September. My shave left some closeness around the chin area.

Aftershave:
I expected the soap to be more floral, thats why I matched it with “Amber Rose”. As Fougere Mania is kind of sweet and amber rose, well, floral, this was not the best match.
There is not much to say about the aftershave scent. The name says everything you need to know. I like its post shave feel and its scent. It’s not grandma like, as rose scents can be.

Fragrance:
Versace Dylan blue is a woody fougere, although none of its classic fougere notes are present.
I get lots of bergamot with patchoulli and musk. Pretty unoffensive. Everyone can wear it, you won’t be wrong, but you will also never be right with it. It stays very long on the skin though and after 11 hours I can still smell it on my wrist, where the scent reminds me sligtly of Fougere gothique. Whats left is a combination of grapefruit, incense and musk, made sweet with something else (most likely the labeled tonka bean).

July 22, 2023 – Regretting leg shave?

• Brush: Ap. shave Co. – purple Haze
• Razor: Otto Busch, Weltmeister – Wiener Schaber
• Lather: House of Mammoth – Mood Indigo
• Post Shave: House of Mammoth – Mood Indigo
• Fragrance: Imaginary Authors – In love with everything

Razor:
The razor translates to “Worldchampion – Vienne scrapper” and is a lending from u/Teufelskraft.
When I got it, it was as dull as a spoon. Ever tried to shave with a spoon? As I knew we would have this challenge, I knew I wanted to do it with a straight, but not one of my freshly honed Bökers. I took my coticule and honed the razor as well as I could in 12 minutes.
With u/djundjila, we talked about the razor on Discord. When I started the shave, The razor was able to shave armhair, but I did not expect the shave to be super comfortable. I was well aware that I had to shave a huge area with lots of long hair. When newtothis said we should take 2 blades, I was confirmed in my decision.

Brush:
Because of the color, I love to use this brush with Mood indigo. I ll probably use it in AA with Mood Indigo. It has the most backbone in my collection without beeing uncomfortable.

#Fof
Soap:
Mood indigo, he smokey blueberry jazzclub feeling melted to soap and shipped to the wetshaving community. I love this scent for late evening shaves, but we have things to do.

Face shave:
Yes, I had one day stubble, so I had to shave my face. At first pass, I was not sure if the razor feels that good, or doesnt cut at all. How can it be that smooth? That feeling passed at the end of the first pass. The shave became uncomfortable, but close enough to go outside. Now I have to rely on the

Aftershave:
HoM aftershaves are new to me. Mood indigo is heavier on the blueberry than on the soap. It felt good to use it and by the time of writing my skin had a bit time to rest.

Leg shave: Thank you for reading so far. Or maybe you skipped to this section. I dont know.

Things I learned:
1. Straight razors work pretty well for leg shaves. My thesis is confirmed
2. with such a huge area I have to shave, I lost concentration quite often. You can count on my cuts, that I lost concentration 5 times.
3. Lather quality is not as important as with face shaves
4. Its fun to massage the lather into the area you want to shave. You can put way more pressure on the brush
5. My back hurts. Sitting on the edge of the bathtub was not the best for my herniated disc. I have no idea how to make it better.
6. Knees are difficult to shave, but not the endboss. Close to the ankle is most difficult when hair hides in a hollow.
7. There are parts I can not see on my own. GF had to help
8. I dont want to do this again
9. Pants feel disgusting. There is no protecting hair layer.
10. My legs do not look that bad or skinny when shaven
11. I found scars I had forgotten about
12. My legs are still tanned and not an optical illusion made by a bunch of wolf hair

Stupid ideas I tried
If you are not able to read it: I tried to shave “Lather games” into my leg hair

Collected all hair I shaved off. Your choice if you want to see it. Be warned!
Not safe for LIFE Chewbacca costume

Safe to watch again:
Aftermath in ballett pose

Fragrance:

In love with everything sparked my curiosity like no other IA scent. The logo is cool, the theme is awesome, the scent notes of raspberry (berry theme!) and vanilla sound lovely.
Got this tester from my trip to Budapest. Finally I was able to look and test IA scents!
Unfortunately, this is “unisex” and suits my GF better than me. When it settles down, I get a bit of sandalwood and punch (drink).

@djundjila: get a Weltmeister.

Edit: I HATE WEARING PANTS NOW!!!

July 23, 2023 – Spark joy day

• Brush: DG 14/ Dowgood Handcraft – Sonder release
• Razor: Böker – Elite Carbon 2.0
• Lather: Spearhead Shaving Company – Seaforth! Sea Spice Lime
• Post Shave: Spearhead Shaving Company – Seaforth! Sea Spice Lime
• Fragrance: Yves saint laurent – Y

Lather audit. I put a lot of pressure on myself today. As I recently won the DG brush, I wanted to test it, and today is the first day I was able to do so. No lather challenge, except: “Try to make the best lather you can.” Maybe I am boring, or do not udnerstand this challenge. Is this the r/wetshaving pendant to r/roastme?
More importantly I was afraid of u/Phteven_j. What if he sees my lather and goes full ”Taken” mode?

#FOF
Soap:
The soap choice was pretty easy for me. Whenever I give people a den tour, as we have guests over, at some point I ll pick SSL. It is refreshing, inoffensive, but there is more depth to it than just lime. Spicy pepper, the sea spray taking you to a holiday at the beach. Unfortunately this soap is not yet available in the Highland base, but the 20.1 base does not need to hide.

Shave:
I was curious about the brush, and will focus on it, as it is new to me and DB brushes are always in the top 3 worldwide. Once soaked, I could watch how it swallowed the lather like watching a pipette pulling liquid. In my f2 mug, you can barely see any of the soap thats too dry. After lathering in my f1 mug and put the brush to my face, it was a completely new experience to me. Lots of backbone, but without beeing scratchy, without too much backbone and stiffness that make it difficult to lather my face and force me to “paint” the lather. So good.
Wait? f1, f2? What?
For my lather audit, I used the successor of u/Merikus GUTL method, the fmf method, to get even better lather.
To keep things short, we add a third mug, with to dry soap to the GUTL method and then iterate between the mugs and face as we need it.
result in the mug, result on face
Once the lather was done, the rest of the shave was no effort and fun.

Aftershave:
I did not want to clash scents and went again with SSL for reasons you read above. Lucky for us europeans, there is a toner without alcohol that we can buy from Maggards.

Fragrance:
My GF recommended me that fragrance because of Insta where it was praised at a scent that would make her “eat me up”(?). With bergamot and citrus we have a classic start, which then goes over geranium and woody accords. As I learned a few days ago, a classic fougere.
There is also some ginger and incense in it to make it a bit spicy and… the incense gives it a mysterious vibe. There is a bit to explore in the scent and I should not write down a quick first impression. Minute by minute it pulls me in and gets interessting with its combination of freshness, woody spice and the well placed incense.

July 24, 2023 – I choose you

• Brush: DG 14/ Dowgood Handcraft – Sonder release
• Razor: Blackland Era
• Blade: Astra SP (Green) (2)
• Lather: Saponificio Varesino – Manna di Sicilia
• Post Shave: Southern Witchcrafts – Desairology
• Fragrance: Trussardi- A way for him

I tried to get as many items from other users into my shave as possible. The brush was a PIF from u/Phteven_j . The razor is borrowed from u/hairykopite.
u/MrTangerinesky PIFed me the soap. For the soap there is a little story. The OG Post
As you see on the comments, nobody realized the challenge existed. We had a few people who did the Stag challenge, as well as my headless horsemen challenge, but I was the only one who used the hashtag. To this day, the hashtag is saved in my autocomplete August came to an end, and MrTangerinesky started a chat with me about the gift card, informing me, that I was the only contestant. If there is no competition, winning is little fun, so I declined the gift card politely.
Daily Challenge:
But MrTangerinesky is a man who keeps his word. He proved that publicly by forming walnut shaped icecubes with cryogen on video, insulting me till my stomach hurt and I made my username all honor.
He insisted on giving me the gift card. As an old colleague, who bought a boat while drunk, without having a drivers licence for boats, drivers license for trailers, from money he got by selling a car, he won, said it: “Thats money which fell from the sky. Lets go stupid”, I decided to buy expensive soap.

#FOF
Soap:
Manna di sicilia was my choice. It sounded like a classic scent that I could wear every day. Orange andfresh bergamot, rose and tobacco, as well as patchoulli with cedarwood sounded like a banger.
In my opinion, Noble otters Neon sun is the american answer to this scent. I have both in my collection and could use the aftershave interchangeable. The soaps performance is something that needs a few extra words. It lathers easily, gives good slickness and is vegan. Well, we have that in a lot of artisans we buy from regularly. But SV puts the cherry on top, by having the soap tripple milled and each scent has its own base with its unique skin properties. If my skin is dry, this soap is my go to choice and within 1-2 days, I can see progress. In the manual of the soap (yes, the soap has one), they write that you should bloom the soap and use a badger. I did that. With such a good set up, it's difficult to have a bad shave.

Aftershave:
I started with a classic scent, I continue with one. Desairology, is my favortite scent for day to day life. Its always a great choice. Sandwalwood, musk and burned sage lay a great base for a masculine scent. Lavender, vanilla and oakmoss make it a classic.

Fragrance:
“A way for him”. I thought it would fit my theme of classic masculine fragrances well. nfortunately, that was a miss. A way for him has some accords that sound more like marketing to me (solar and air!!!).
This fragrance is oriental sweet and smells cheap. Maybe I ll give it my 14 year old brother to wear. Maybe I ll give it my 10 year old brother and he torches something with it. We’ll see.

Continue the daily challenge:
MrTangerinesky keeps his words! I love the way he play the a thergames. You give him a theme and he will find a crazy way to reformulate it. Thats what I want to see here in the games.
I can only imagine what a night in vegas would be like with him. Maybe after our first beer, we would drive to the police station and get in arrest, to keep us and the city safe. I expect the officers to roll the red carpet out for him, greeting him with a handshake. But once we arrived in the cell, we will probably try to get out, but drunk.

u/glink48: my latherbuddy. I can’t remember how we started, but it’s a lucky coincidence that we come up by a theme for the next day and shave accoridingly. Hope he will get back to germany with his Race car and I ll try to keep at your tail with my bike.

u/worbx: I know nothing about this guy. He flies completely under the radar here. But when I see his username, it’s always a generous PIF to provide the r/wetshaving world with samples. maybe he is the drug dealer my mom always warned me about, just sending free soap and getting us hooked. Who knows?

u/Teufelskraft:
Seriously. Last games and this games would not have been possible without you. Your generosity is unmatched, and I miss you on the sub.

July 25, 2023

• Brush: Holzleute – Silvertip badger
• Razor: Böker – King cutter
• Lather: Red House Farm – 9 Days up Nort’
• Post Shave: Southern Witchcrafts – Druantia
• Fragrance: Roberto Cavalli – Paradise found

Dear diary,

today the ~~bullies~~ djudges made me shave with my non dominant hand. They told me to give me 0.22 points if I do so. You know that I love my points and do a lot of things to get them.
The other contestants and me, we are like Gollum, like the guy from trainspotting, we can’t stop thinking about points and shitpositing.

#FOF
Soap:
Remember the peaceful times without djudges? When we went fishing with our dad. Waking up in the dark, too young to read the clock. Driving to a pond in the cold. The first hours of the day, we stayed in the car. Sleeping, playing Game Boy. Then later going out and walking through the nearby Forrest, the snow cracking under our oversized boots. 9 days up north is the essence of that winter forrest poured into soap. Since it is so (snow) woody, it matches the only brush with a visible wooden handle. Our holzleute badger.
We lack experienced with the brush and the soap, but after a minute, we had good lather to start this shave.

Shave:
Horrible. Awfull. I did not capture that shave on video like last year for the djudges to record my suffering. (Dear djudge, you don't have to watch the video as it's from last year, but it explains my troubles visually, maybe you want to see me suffer. You do you)
This year, I used a smaller razor, but the problems stay the same. I can’t go with the grain on my right cheek, so we started XTG. But we can not go ATG on my right neck and vice versa. I did three passes with double XTG on my right cheek, started ATG on my left neck and was waiting for the blade to flip over and give me a really deep cut into my chin. At certain spots, I had to push the blade over my skin. Somehow I dodged to joker myself. I did a fourth pass and shaved some stubble on my neck with my dominant hand. If I would not have done that, I would have gone mad whenever I touched my face.
God damn, I am so full of anger at this shave. I thought we were done with the shitty shaves? NO!

Aftershave:
Druantia was listed in last years calender as a winter scent. In my opinion it is not explicitly wintery, but as the djudges say, I will follow and thank you for this pairing idea.
The wet moss fits the forrest of 9 days up north very well.

Fragrance:
Paradise found is sweet green with pepper notes. It reminds me of a cake we often eat here on christmas markets and can buy a lot in the supermarkets from october on. This christmas cake belongs to winter like snow.

July 26, 2023 - let's get wild

• Prep: Icecold shower
• Brush: Mühle Silvertip badger with fine resin handle
• Razor: Custom designed Böker 6/8 with bog oak scale and French head
• Lather: Ariana & Evans - Vanille de Tabac
• Post Shave: Ariana & Evans - Vanille de Tabac
• Fragrance: Tom Ford - Tobacco Vanille

#FOF What would lather games be, without my favorite scent? I know, I know. A&E is one of the wetshaving villains and still, almost everyone has a soap from him and praises at least one of his scents or the base.

I bought the soap, because I wanted some vanilla for me sweet tooth, but did not know or care that it was a dupe. It opened me up to a whole new price range of fragrances and this soap haunted me like Marylin by B&M does today, with the difference that I have Tobacco vanille, while Marylin is unobtainium here. But I am drifting off.

This is my "lonely island" setup. The brush and razor were a present from my gf and have emotional value. The soap scent is just perfect for me. Sweet, but not too sweet thanks to the tabac. Such a simple composition, yet so effective. Yes, I know that the combination was copied to oblivion and abolsute boredom, but it has a special place in my heart.
With a setup like this, I could only get a phenomenal shave. I enjoyed every pass, every stroke. A&E aftershave is also pretty good and makes my skin glow. Lovely.

Matching it with a fragrance was easy mode. Tom Fords Tobacco vanille put tears into my eyes the first time I got my hands on it. Such a well done composition.

Daily Challenge:
I am so thankfull to have a girlfriend who understands or supports me with this weird hobby. In conclusion, my shave gear is stored in a cupboard in the living room. Currently it it shares its space on the right side with our liquer collectioon or bar goodies.
Lets get into detail:
Stag statue, samples and aftershave
Around the mighty statue of the Stag, I collect my labeled samples, aftershaves, SE razor and two straight razors that are below 5/8.
Soaps, Fragrances, honing gear and blades
I like the soap labels and put them on display here. Unfortunately I have to stack them.
Hardware
Top right shelf has all my brushes and straight razors as well as my Tequilla and Mezcal with matching bar loot. The cupboards lower right has no shave gear (yet). I do not want to expand, my gf does not want me to expand my gear there, but she expects that it will happen soon. Till october, I want to get rid of two soaps and generate more space. Lets see.

July 27, 2023 – Mort, Morty, Motimoron

• Brush: Ap. shave Co. – purple Haze
• Razor: Böker – Elite Carbon 2.0
• Lather: Catie’s Bubbles – Purple Grapefruit
• Post Shave: Hags – Animalized
• Fragrance: Miro – Cabal

#Fof

Soap and shave:
Bad timing for a wonderfull challenge.
Germanys weather forecast is a big middle finger towards me. Not only am I feeling sick, no, its raining the whole day.
During lunchtime, the rain stopped. I took that opportunity, grabbed my stuff and went outside. I had stropped my razor at home. Luckily, I have a small park in front of my door. With the rain stopping, all dog owners went outside with me. Since a dog jumped into my kinder wagon when I was a child, I am not a dog person, but in recent years my fear went away mostly. What I was kind of a fraid is dog owners questioning me, what I am doing in the park with lather on my face. But first things first.
I was looking for a good spot. Close to a music school, I found a place with lots of public banks. Although the spot was quite open, the rain made people avoid coming close. Who would sit on a wet bank? I had some company today. Mort, Morty, Mortimer, Mortimoron, GarlicMiasma, MrMortysky and Djungoosia.
u/OnionMiasma, because I cant stop calling them Morty now.
I placed my umbrella on the bank in case it would rain again. Two liters of Gym water were with me. I soaked my brush in it and started lathering. Did I mention that I do not like the scent of lavender. My mom used it for everything. Headache? Lavender on forehead. Can’t sleep? Lavender on top of shirt. Pimple? Drown it in lavender.
Caties Bubbles has added some nice grapefreuit to make the scent bearable for me. With some pasty lather I started my shave. Again, I had no mirror , no selfie mode or whatever. Just a weird dude in a park, shaving by memory. My chin area was too risky and I left a few spots here. The rest of the shave went surprisingly well. In the distance was a dog owner, but I think he did not see me. But there was a dad with his son. Good for me, the son was more interessted in the Mortys, than in me, so the dad did not have to explain anything. Last Christmas, I got a leather bag for a straight razor. That came in handy today.
Aftershave:
The aftershave was quite nice. Had a good portion of sweetness to it. There was some lavender in it but overthrown by the other stuff.

Fragrance:

Miro Cabal is a dupe of Le Male and has lavender as a heart note. Its sweet, with a littl bit of spice with a mild woodyness. Probably a scent for darker days or later hours, but I like it. Did not expect Le Male to be that good.

July 28, 2023

• Brush: Isana – Synthetic
• Razor: Plastic shavette
• Blade: Permasharp (1)
• Lather: The Goodfellas’ Smile – Chronos
• Post Shave: The Goodfellas’ Smile – Shibusa 2
• Fragrance: Davidoff – Adventure

Saving money does not always make sense. Today was the question of how low can we go by quality and be satisfied.

#FOF

Brush:
You have seen it on my drugstore day. The brush I leanred to shave with. No idea what I payed for, but today a similar one goes for 3.79€. When I press the hair, it does not go back into its former shape on its own. Quality + time.

Soap:
With a price of 109.5€ per liter this is the cheapest soap I own.
The next cheapest is Stirling with a price of 111.47€ per liter.
Chronos is a vegan soap, and I heard its on the bring of beeing artisan and not for the mass market.
Its performance is lacking a bit. While it is easy to lather, I miss the slickness and protection. Scent wise this is like modern barbershop owned by middle eastern guys I frequently go to for a heaircut. Citrus with Pineapple, Ozone and sea water fade to patchoulli and musk. This soap was my entry into artisan soap and started my collection. I rarely use it today.

Razor:
I bought this razor in a turkish barbershop as the owner found out that straight razors fascinated me. I payed 10€ for it with a few blades and was likely ripped off. I used Permasharp blades which cost 4 cent per blade.

Shave:
Little slickness, no protection, a cheap shavette. I expect a bloodbath. With all my morning focus, I was able to get a very close shave, but the gore massacre did not take place. Yes, there was blood. But just tiny nics around the mouth.

Aftershave:
Shibusa 2 is my cheapest splash with 139€ per liter.
Its next contender is Saponifico Bignoli with over 150€ per liter.
The aftershave is a dupe of Aqua di Parma with notes of almond, anise, and white musk.
If it would not be that drying for the skin, I would like it way more. It burns a lot.

Fragrance:
Had to wash of my first fragrance when I found out that my favorite everyday fragrance is pretty cheap by now.
Davidoff – Adventure can be bought for below 19€ for 100 ml. Thats pretty good news to me.
I got curious about the fragrance when the commercial with Ewan Mcgregor aired in Tv. He drives a motorcycle through mountains and rivers there. Pretty cool for 19 year old Marquis.
The scent notes are nothing special Citric start with some pepper for spiciness ends with cedarwood (my favorite wood scent) and musk. Can’t go wrong with it.

Was it good to save so much money… Yes. The shave was better than expected, but a bit too much away from what I want a shave to be like. With some different hardware, a nice brush, a real razor, this might be okay.

July 29, 2023 – Woody saturday

• Brush: Holzleute – Silvertip badger
• Razor: Custom designed Böker with bog oak scale and french head
• Lather: Captain’s Choice – Sandalwood
• Post Shave: Spearhead – Black Watch
• Fragrance: Boss – Bottled

#FOF

I decided to match evrything I could with the wood and or sandalwood theme. The brush has a wooden handle and translates to “woodpeople”. My Böker is the only razor with a wood scale (leaving out the new Koraat).

Soap:
In my first maggards order, I got a A&E soap with sandalwood and oud. The soap back then had a creamy sweet sandalwood. That’s why this soap confused me a bit and reminded me of u/djundjila djunior snot Proraso red cream. Captains choice is almost medicinical. When lathered, the wood aspect gets more prominent, but also a more balsamic, almost mediteranean vibe. Did not know that sandalwood can be that different. The lather was…. if the lather would be a ship, I would be a landlubber.
There were more visible bubbles than in caties bubbles stock. Once on the face, the lather collapsed. I did not have huge expectations about the soap, but this was really underwhelming.

Shave:
I enjoyed the razor like no day before. It went as smooth over my skin as the soap allowed it. All in all, i got good shave out of it, but at no moment was I confident about what I was doing. While that beautiful shaped metal scratched off hair, making sounds like buttered toast, I thought to myself: “We have a damn nice hobby.”

Aftershave:
My first use of the aftershave. It’s more sweeter than the soap, more plum, more jasmine, but still a banger. I did the right choice to order it for the lathergames and further shaves. Because of the Sandalwood in the ingredients, I paired it for today, although I am not able to extract these notes among the other ones.

Fragrance:
Boss bottled was a sample I got way ahead of the games and only tried it once, but surprised me. Sweet apple notes fade to something spicy. After a few hours, I smell a little bit of sweetness, like cinnamon and mild woody notes, like vetiver and probably a slightly creamy sandalwood note.

Daily challenge:

Photocontest:
I looked at way too few pictures, but u/Chronossieur420 and u/gcgallant stood out. But my vote goes to u/gcgallant.

Rookie of the year:
u/pridetwo will probably make it with u/tsrblke second place. I hope they will keep our sub and hobby faithfull.

FOF:
Although u/red_mosquitoMM’s posts are tldr for me, even a blind person sees his talent. Only one who could make it up with him would be Will from B&M.

LG Winner:
u/priusaurus. He announced it in his first post and I would laugh a lot if he gets second place. While his first posts had good quality and was inventive with the interviews, it got repetitive. Thats not how I want to play the games. Thats not what I enjoy about the games. I want madness. I want shitpostings. I want drama. I want people to go crazy and innovative. The podcast would never be successful if we have boomers and u/J33pguy13 rave over quality posts: “The way he describes the use of lavender in the soap was so thoughtfull. I could really picture myself having a picnic in a lavender field”. Bla Bla.
But finally priusaurus pulled himself up and stepped in u/Djundjila’s footsteps and brought everything to the table. The spite posts with u/MrTangerinesky only pushed him forward, while still keeping up quality.

July 30, 2023 – Alpha and Omega

• Brush: r/wetshaving Zentih MOAR BOAR 31mm🇮🇹
• Razor: Valet Autostro🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿
• Blade: Feather – FHS-10 (5)🇯🇵
• Lather: Mickey Lee Soapworks – The Kraken🇺🇸
• Post Shave: E&S Rasage Traditionell – Equinoxe🇫🇷
• Fragrance: Jean Paul Gaultier – Scandal🇪🇸

And so it ends. The lather games are over, long live the lather games.

Daily Challenge included:
Soap:
A little bit of flex here. u/Djundjila provided me with a sample of unobtainium MLS – Kraken last year.
Made in the US, it lathered pretty easy, although I prefer my lather more dense. The soap scent is not that much for me. Aquatic patchoulli. It fits the name and theme, and although I have a thing for giant sea creatures, this one is not my thing.

Shave:
The italian Zenith, never felt so good. After all the shaves I had with it, it is very soft by now. Maybe not suited for samples with its loft size. The Valet from great Britain was my razor from first day (thats why I called my shave Alpha and Omega). Unfortunately, the japanese blades had seen better days. The shave did not feel comfortable, I have some stublle left. Not my standards.

Aftershave:
The french Equinox is a nice classic masculine fougere aftershave. Bergamot as a head note, jasmin and rose followed by musk, moss, sandalwood and amber. In my opinion, this is nothing special, but works fine for every day, especially in the office.

Fragrance:
Scandal is made in Spain. It is really sweet and often compared to One million, which I wore a lot in my early twenties. A small vetiver note is also there, probably to avoid little teens to drink that sweet juice.
I wear Scandal quite frequently, and it does not develop much during the day. It is my go to fragrance for warmer days.

#FOF
There is no link between my scents. I am mainly focused on the world traveler daily challenge than to have a great match here.

Extra:
Nobody asked for it, but I want to review the lathergames and reminisce.
Before the games started, we read on discord that a lot of high stakes players would not attend the games or do not go full throttle into them. Djundjila joined the djudges, RedMosquitoMM was hit by holiday season like many others. I was afraid the games would be boring and die.
In the first days, I felt confirmed. Was it a bad choice to make RedMosquito a LG winner? I saw a lot of people trying to copy his style. Quality posts filled with memes to support the written word and make the post more entertaining.
After the first week, I felt a bit like an outcast. There were few of those madness dipshit posts, and I read a lot of posts, especially in the first week. Finally frigid friday happened, and from then on I was not the only one to do unnecessary nonesense, I was outclassed from others. The lather games were exactly what I wanted them to be like. We had a great podcast with lots of posts mentioned.
To be honest, I hoped my posts would be covered a bit more. I feel like I started the frigid friday escalation with Priusaurus. Nobody mentioned my “F*** PAA” and other Memento Tatoos on duppleganger day. I guess I had a lot of misfortune with my djudges for my best days. But what happened is history. I see it as a sign. Marquis… it’s time to grow up. These games and your motorcycle travel were the climax of your egoistic year.
My plan was to reach the top 10, but it’s realy hard to stay creative every day. Nonetherless, I won a DG brush, which feels like second place. It’s okay to leave the games with a nice 25 bucks gift card and get a Blackland razor. That brings me to my next point. The challenges. I loved the themes, I loved the challenges. Dear Djudges. You did a great job. The themes left a lot of creativity open and I hope not halve of the cast was disquallified during hippy dippy baloney day. Especially music day was great. We had so many opportunitys and soaps to choose from.
Die to the challenges, I got to explore wetshaving and answer some long lost questions about it. Why do we start WTG? How good is a GEM? And many more.
Knowing the next days challenge beforehand made my daily schedule so much easier. I shave before 7am in the morning. By 8 in the morning the post for the day comes online (german time). By knowing what the challenge is, I could already act accordingly. Last year, I had to shave after work and then prepare my post. Last thing I want to make clear is, that this is the first games where we do not have TTS at hand and I for my side had some battles with the new database. I am very certain that two times my aftershave was missed in the markdown and after I clicked “edit” “save”, it was there. In the beginning of the games, I hoped to reach 3 consecutive days without talking to a djudge about something that went wrong in my post. In the middle of the second week, there was no need to talk to djudges anymore. I also loved the transparency the portal gave us and hope it did not overwhelm the djudged to fix our tiny errors.

Thanks everyone for these awesome games.
u/onionmiasma and u/Priusaurus are already planning shenanigans for next year with me. I got some idea for frigid friday to end the discussion of the coolest shaver once and for all.