LG SOTD 04Jun2024
- Brush: Yaqi Ever-hopeful - 24mm cat whiskers synthetic #RESURRECTIONBRUSH
- Razor: Karve - Bison (Blue) #RAINBOW
- Blade: Wizamet - Super Iridium (2)
- Lather: Barrister and Mann - Lavender
- Bowl: CaYuen - Dark Nebula, large
- Post Shave: Barrister and Mann - Shave Balm, Lavender
Happy Tuesday, beautiful people! Welcome to the fourth shave of the 2024 Lather Games. Today's theme is "K.I.S.S.” where we shave with a soap that markets itself with but a single note. I have a few soaps that could have qualified but only one I wanted to use: BaM’s amazeballs Lavender. Every time I use this soap the first thought is this smells incredible… quickly followed by questioning how, out of all the shave soaps BaM made, this was discontinued. One true note or not, this is a lavender unlike any other I’ve smelled, and it ruins every other lavender for me.
The razor, my #RAINBOW entry, is Karve’s most recent razor, the Bison in anodized blue aluminum. The Bison is a Henson AL13 with some pizazz. That’s good. The Bison also very much mimics the best selling Henson version, the mild or + aggression. That’s not so good for me. Hoping a more aggressive version is released.
The brush is my #RESURRECTIONBRUSH entry. It is from a line of Ever-ready tributes that Yaqi has oh so slyly named Ever-hopeful. It features their new cat’s whiskers knot in 24mm. I got a 26mm (shave two’s Caramel handle) and this 24mm with the knot and, for now, the smaller knot is preferable.
I haven’t used the Bison much but I do like the razor’s design - the partially hollowed handle is particularly nicely done. It’s only real flaw is the aggression needs bumped a notch. This would not work for daily shaving. I doubt the shave is visually different from what any of my three regular razors would leave, but the feel (remaining stubble) is distinctly different. This razor would need to be a two-pass shave for me and that’s something I only do on the weekend occasionally. Nonetheless, I enjoyed the shave a lot, it’s a nimble razor.
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Today’s shave was using Barrister and Mann’s Omnibus base. Bases determine all but the fragrance of your shave and we are the beneficiaries of years of competition.
The base wars are never ending. There are hundreds of soap bases out there, far more soaps than any one of us could hope to sample efficiently. So we rely on the so-called wisdom of the crowd for guidance on what to try as we seek to find the base to rule all bases. It's a competition seemingly without end. As one artisan withdraws from the fray, another decides they should be sapponifying fats into shave soap. Artisans that have carved out a space for themselves return to the lab and release new iterations of soap bases in pursuit of shaving perfection and driving their competition before them.
The fallen bases that have graced my face are Talbot Shaving and Dr. Jon's representing entire discontinued brands. I've also used A&E's first gen Kaizen and Barrister and Mann's Excelsior, Soft Heart, and Reserve bases. The only one I miss in any way is BaM's Excelsior. Excelsior is a great base, better than the majority of in production soap bases, that's how mad of a lad Will is. That leads me to my favorite in production base, BaM's Omnibus, the only base worthy of replacing Excelsior. Omnibus is somehow an improvement over Excelsior, it's been made all but idiot proof, and equals or exceeds performance of any other soap I've tried. And if Omnibus should somehow fall, HoM's Tusk isn't far behind it.
Enjoy your day