June 15, 2024 - Near Death Experience

FOF

• Brush: Yaqi Cola 22mm Synthetic
• Razor: Game Changer .68P
• Blade: Gillette Nacet
• Lather: Mäurer & Wirtz - Tabac Original (Tallow)
• Post Shave: Thayers Facial Toner - Unscented
• Fragrance: Mäurer & Wirtz - Tabac Man EdT

Today’s Theme:

This was almost a coin toss for which soap was closest to death. A few weeks ago, it may have been a four way race, but I refilled Rawr and Barrbarr. So it was down to Sonder and Tabac. Using my well calibrated eyeball, I decided that Tabac was the closest. Plus I already have a second tub of Sonder that I got for August. Yesterday I almost killed the tub of Sonder anyway in my tower collapse yesterday. The lid is broken, but still kind of functional. For the post shave it was down to Thayers. Either cucumber or unscented are the lowest. Putting them together, unscented won by about 1/4” or ~6mm. For the fragrance it was tricky again. My most used full size bottles are Tabac Original and Tabac Man. Since original is 100ml bottle and Man is 50ml, I went for Man.

Today’s Challenge:

Why? Just why would anyone shave with a pasty lather? Soap needs water to be slick. Slick lets the razor glide over the skin. On Youtube you see a fair amount of dry lather, but a thick dry lather looks better on video than slippery, drippy soap suds. When I make my lather, I’d rather get it a little too wet than a bit dry. Visually, I want it to be like the ribbon stage in cooking. You can make a trail in it, but it will self level fairly quickly. To get the pastiest lather I could, I barely wet the brush, and started whipping that soap like I hated it. Really it’s more like I hated my face. What I ended up with was a thick foam like over whipped egg whites. Kind of like the dry foam left after breaking a meringue. The shave was awful. On my face it was sticky. This kind of lather protects the whiskers more than the skin. The razor dragged through the mess, and not sure how successful it really was. This paste of a lather managed to pack itself tightly into the razor. This was just a gummy mess of a shave. -5/10. Now the post shave was delightful. Since Thayers is one of the best bargains in post shaves, I gave myself a couple healthy splashes to sooth my irritated face.

Feats of Fragrance:

Really the theme took out most of the choice away from me. Tabac is a fairly divisive scent. You either love it or hate it. I love it. The powdery funkiness is ok by me. Like u/cowzilla3 would say about Old Spice, Tabac itself is practically a scent note. Sure you can find descriptions saying it has lavender and citrus, but you need a super nose to break anything out distinctly. Now Thayers Unscented does not add to the mix, but if they were closer to death, rose petal or lavender would pair well with Tabac. That’s mostly what I used before I got a bowling pin full of the aftershave. The Tabac fragrances let more notes materialize, but still my nose has trouble picking up a single thing. Tabac Man gives me kind of a lemony, green, powdery impression. I like it, but maybe you think my opinion is suspect since I like Tabac. Some people liked the Four Horsemen scents. YMMV.

Pictures have been added.