LG SOTD 05Jun2024
- Brush: N/A - we don’t need no stinking brushes.
- Razor: Gillette - Fusion 5 ProGlide
- Blade: Gillette - Fusion 5
- Lather: Gillette - Fusion ProGlide Sensitive Gel + Skincare
- Bowl: N/A - we don’t need bowls where we’re going
- Post Shave: Aqua Velva - Classic Ice Blue Cooling After Shave
Happy hump day, beautiful people! Welcome to the fifth shave of the 2024 Lather Games. Today's theme is "Canned Shave Goop” where we shave with, you guessed it, canned goo available locally.
I have skipped the versions of this theme in previous Lather Games - didn’t want to debase my precious face with such inferior products, but it’s been over three years since I last used the goo, so not only am I going to use the goo, going to go for the full experience.
For today’s shave using a selection of goods purchased at the nearby Target. The razor and gel were here, my wife and daughter both use them. Added the Aqua Velva to the den for the challenge to give it that extra authentic touch.
The razor is Gillette’s Fusion 5 ProGlide, a cartridge razor I’ve never tried. Borrowed a Fusion 5 handle from my wife and will shave using a fresh basic Fusion 5 cartridge.
Lather is the Gillette ProGlide gel, a product I used to use regularly. I’m a little confused regarding the daily challenge, “Reverse Lather Routine”. Though I am a bowl latherer usually, this doesn’t seem like reversing so much as totally changing it up. No brush, no bowl, just some gel squirted into the palms and rubbed over the face until evenly coated and worked in. Is that face lathering? I’ll let the judges decide, but while I could have used a brush just because, that would have hurt the purity of revisiting the mass produced drugstore experience.
The post shave Aqua Velva is also new to me. Growing up it was all Afta all the time with my dad and I never ventured beyond. By the time I was a depraved shave junkie I was buying the hard stuff like BaM and HoM. I figured this was a good excuse to try something that’s been around more than a century 👴🏻
The shave was banal, that’s the best word for it. Immediately brought me back to what nudged me to look into DE razors. Lather was perfectly adequate and no more. Wetted the razor after every few inches to compensate for the sludge of canned goo. Functional, no discomfort, but no glide to speak of, just this slow pace of “dragging” the cartridge head over my face. The resulting shave was good, no complaints on the results, but found no joy in the actual shaving.
The Aqua Velva was the most surprising element. Was expecting something in the aquatic zone of scents and instead this is much more vegetal and has notes that remind me of that lingering note in Vespers and FMOM more than whatever it was my brain was expecting. The “cooling” was more of a slow burning on my jaw but experience was otherwise not unpleasant though not enough to convert me. This is going into the “strategic reserve” box after today.
Enjoy your day, a weekend approaches