June 14, 2024 – Let it goooooooo!
- Brush: Omega Mixed Midget
- Razor: Gillette Superspeed
- Blade: 7 O’Clock – Sharpedge (Yellow) (3)
- Lather: Chiseled Face – Cryogen
- Post Shave: Chiseled Face – Cryogen
- Fragrance: House of Mammoth – Uitwaaien
“Freeze!” Today’s command from our shaving cops. Ok fine, I’ll do that. Now there will be people getting ice filled baths, or shaving in their freezer, but let’s play this straight. Last year I commented I had never used cryogen so u/onionmiasma said “take mine!” As in he just sent it with something else he was sending me. So, I guess I’ll use it. But that’s not all, I want the full experience, so I picked up some cryogen splash from Maggard’s since they sell samples. It’s 90 something today so lets see if we can chill to the point of beating the heat. To extend the ~~pain~~ experience, I’m going to use the Mixed Midget brush and face lather. It’s tiny this is going to take a bit of time.
On to the lather. The first thing I notice is this isn’t as bad as I expected. Then I notice my eyes starting to water. I realize the tears are not from the cold but from the intense menthol smell running up to my eyes. Like an Onion (heh) causing me to cry as I cut it. As I add more water the cooling sensation gets more intense. This soap is thirstier than my other CF stuff. Probably the menthol.
After what seems like forever to lather, I finally start to shave. I…can’t feel the razor. This makes finding the angle hard, but the superspeed is sorta mindless anyway.
Pass 2 is weird, the brush feels like poking myself with ice crystals as I go. I think I feel menthol crystals coming out of solution.
By pass 3 I want to be done, but I have extra lather. When this happens I usually engage in some u/itchypooter type shaving because I like a clean chest under the collar. So here we go! Surprisingly…no cooling sensation.
Ok, onto the splash, now it’s a Maggard’s sample so it came in a sprayer, spray it on my hands and…WTF I can’t feel my hands now? (Note: I’m typing 40 minutes later and my hands are still tingly). OK put it on my face…huh no effect, probably because the soap already chilled my face to maximum…WTF IS THAT OH GOD IT STINGS. Apparently, the splash has a delay of about a minute before it sets in. Whelp, I still have half a sample of soap and 12ml of splash left…guess I’ll use it at some point.
For #fof, while these are all samples (and that’s a connection) but I wanted to match scents too. Or at least build to a better scent. Cryogen was quite hard to pair with, I get a sort of medicinal minty smell from it. That is: menthol. It’s sorta like mouthwash. So I decided to pair with HoM Uitwaaien, which has a subtle mint note, but also elements of a cool breeze by the ocean. The hope here is to play off the chill, rather than fight it. What ended up happening was the drift wood note came through and actually complimented the minty/menthol note. I do feel like I’m walking on an old pier up by the shore on a winter day.
For #photocontest, let’s do water, or rather ice. I have a fancy fridge that makes ice balls, which seem perfect for today. And since it was the stacking challenge I managed (after much trying some assistance from melting) to get the razor on top of the ice ball near the top of my stack. Again, since everything was small I used a small brush too. Turns out getting the ice to stay on the brush is hard. Ice is slippery!
Edited to quickly add, my kids tried to help with the challenge. They got about 3 high but couldn't manage the razor (blade out for this challenge obviously).