July 9, 2023 - Tea Time
- Brush: Rubberset 49-3 #ANCIENT #TOLL
- Razor: Razorock Eco #RAINBOW
- Blade: Crown Half DE
- Lather: MacDuffs Soap Company - Royal Earl Grey
- Post Shave: Barrister and Mann - Cheshire Splash
- Fragrance: Maher Olfactive - Sun Soaked
- Tea: Harney and Sons - Earl Grey Supreme
#FOF
Today’s Theme:
Earl Grey is my favorite type of tea. The fragrant bergamot and black tea is a fantastic combo. I got the MacDuffs Royal Earl Grey in a PIF last year. I also got the splash, but I have other plans for that. Barrister and Mann’s Cheshire is one of my favorite scents. I hope the EdP is available sometime. Not sure if it has been offered in an EdP before, but fingers crossed it comes out sometime in the future. I don’t have an Earl Grey fragrance, but I found tea scents in a couple of my samples.
Today’s Challenge:
Pics in the albums linked above. This is my second time shaving in the kitchen. Last year I wasn’t as comfortable using the microwave or stove for a mirror, so I used a handheld mirror last year. This year I wanted to really embrace both the fragrance theme and challenge using more kitchen things. First, I got together my mise en place. I brewed a small pot of Harney and Sons Earl Grey Supreme, and got ready to shave. Luckily the relatives visiting stayed out of the kitchen. I wanted to make my lather using the scrub brush, but knew I didn’t want that brush on my face. While I started the lather, I gave this ancient brush a soak. I measured out a half teaspoon of lather, and put it in a mixing bowl. I hydrated with a splash of the Earl Grey tea. I started trying to build a lather, but the soap just got picked up by the bristles and got stuck at the base of the brush head. When you have a problem making lather, more soap and more tea. It didn’t work this time. I used the measuring spoon to scrape out as much soap as I could from the brush. Out came the Rubberset 49-3. That tall loft and kind of whippy bristles started quickly making a thick base lather. More Earl Grey to the mix. Then some more again, and kept adding water until I got the soft creamy latherI wanted. With the dark soap and using tea to hydrate gave me a lather that looked a bit like pancake batter. After a hard failure with the plastic scrub brush, I had successfully made my lather. Normally I make my lather in a small cereal bowl from IKEA, but this mixing bowl, with too much soap, rapidly built up enough lather to shave my whole body.
Ok, time to shave. I had wet my face while I was building the lather, and for such a stiff and brittle feeling brush when dry, full of lather it was very soft and flexible. It had a very nice feel, and I kind of understand now why a barber would use such a tall loft. I got this Hulk green Eco last year. It has a crazy amount of exposure on the blade, but the gap to the safety bar is pretty small. It is the loudest razor, other than a GEM, that I have ever used. Shave quality was not great. Maybe it is the cheap Crown half blades I got with the razor It could be the big exposure allows a bit of flex in the blade. Probably why I don’t use it more. The ergonomics are closer to a GEM, so the feel of shaving felt normal. The feedback quieted down by my final pass. The quality of the shave was pretty meh. My face though feels great. I think the MacDuffs base is really good and so is the Barrister and Mann splash.
Today’s Fragrance:
I don’t have a fragrance that is an Earl Grey, so I started going through the descriptions of my samples to find a complimentary scent. I first found a scent with tea, but it really fit a day later this month. Back to the list I found what I wanted. It has chamomile, black currant bud, and orange bigarade in the scents. Perfect compliments to a tea. I used to get a black current tea for an iced tea. The bigarade is a sour orange, so it really brings out the bergamot. The first scent I got was the orange. It really added to my Earl Grey. Later I got the Texas cedar and I think the amber. It works very well with both the soap and splash. I’m quite pleased with the result. I got my daughter to tell me what everything smelled like to her. The soap smelled fruity, the splash she said “Ew, it smells like tea”, and the fragrance smelled like cinnamon. With her success rate in the past, I was surprised she thought Cheshire smelled like tea. There are three citrus scents in the soap, so she actually got 2 out of 3. Her nose is doing a bit better today.
Haiku #9
I love Earl Grey tea,
Bergamot is good for you,
And it smells great too.