LG SOTD Jun 18 2024 - That is not dead which can eternal lie
#photocontest
Theme: A bucket (of blood)
- Brush: Alpha - Outlaw 28mm G5 knot #PREMIUMPLASTIC #SHD #TOLL
- Razor: Merkur - Futur #ADJUSTABLE #FLIPTOP
- Blade: Feather - New Hi-Stainless
- Lather: Maol Grooming & Talbot Shaving - Heliopteris - Artisan Shave Soap - sample
- Post Shave: Dr. Jon's - 8th Dimension - Aftershave tonic
- Fragrance: JMD Jean Michel Duriez - L'illusiomagiste - Sample
WARNING WARNING WARNING
As solicited by the Lather Games rulers, this post contain mentions and depictions of cuts that go beyond safe hair removal. The following includes, but is no way limited to, NSFW and potentially triggering texts and pics.
Reader discretion is advised
If you feel urges of “purging” or cutting your skin, please take note of the following resources, and consider talking to a qualified health professional.
https://www.nhs.uk/mental-health/conditions/skin-picking-disorder/https://www.nhs.uk/mental-health/feelings-symptoms-behaviours/behaviours/self-harm/getting-help/
TODAY'S THEME
My tribute to some shaving and fragrance companies that are no longer in business:
- The soap is signed Maol Grooming and Talbot Shaving, two artisans who often collaborated on great soap + AS offerings
- Dr. Jon's, whose 8th dimension AS was released as a limited edition for 2019 Black Friday
- Jean-Michel Duriez, a French perfumer who launched his own brand after decades of working for big international houses, made it to the 2018 Perfume Guide by Luca Turin & Tanya Sanchez, and was announced as shutting down in 2021
TODAY'S SPECIAL CHALLENGE
I have no beef with anyone on r/wicked_edge.
I am not familiar enough with the posting style that I seem to be asked to mimic.
But "mama raised no quitter": today I am here to fully comply to the judges requests.
I understand that the goal is get the best shave ever with the most badass gear I have. No compromises.
You wanted Feather? Sure: got a brand new one, sharp as a scalpel.
And I picked my Merkur Futur, the Face Mauler.
Shaving is all about aggressiveness + efficiency.
What's better than Japanese medical technology combined with German heavy metal engineering?
So, forward to the objective. DFS?
You didn't say "amateur day challenge".
Today I'm gonna shave until there's no more sound feedback from my razor.
The Futur & new Feather combo provides that special toast bread scraping sound that I had previously felt only with my MM24.
After the first pass WTG, I got just a couple of red spots, as inferred in this pic.
But I remember some WetTuber guy saying that it's ok to get cut.
Must persevere!
After nineteen other passes (especially on my left side, where hair seems to be a bit more rebellious), I got the cleanest shave since I've been born. I know that in the past I objected to be asked to share pics of my shaved body parts, but I now understand, gotta be proud of accomplishments such as today's.
As requested, here's the evidence.
THE SCENTS
No dickholing today, but an effort to provide kind of an olfactory memorial.
The ceremony begins with the Heliopteris, a solar and clean fougère inspired by Ancient Egypt suggestions, and with notes that seem to care about reflecting the North African theme(Egyptian geranium, Egyptian coriander, Atlas cedar).
Helios, the sun, may appear to die at the end of each day, but its death is not eternal: a new dawn, a new day, a new life are waiting.
We then leap to the AS, an audacious 1980s throwback to the 8th dimension: since its creation, it was a Scent from Beyond, seducing the nose with a warm wood accord, but shocking the skin with a mentholated cooling effect. Totally different style and experience with respect to Heliopteris, but the overwhelming woods have no trouble making you forget the sunny fern of the lather.
Finally, another woody sensation - this one by a French perfumer who was tired of the "quick explosiveness" of commercial fragrances, and wanted to create scents that were mostly about the drydown.
L'illusiomagiste is the kind of cedar-vetiver accord with a hint of citrus that I can easily fall in love. This is not the first time that I wear it, and today I am still loving it. However, more often than not, I become maddened by "undying" drydowns.
After a long time smelling the same notes, my brains starts to impatiently ask for something different, more mobile, more lively.
The idea of something ending is discomforting, but at the same time, we are even more scared by the prospect of being in the presence of an undying creature?
#FOF
Note to the curious: if you travel to Italy and are up to a visit off the beaten path, check out the old anatomical wax models in museums such as La Specola in Florence. Also check out the website of the University of Cagliari collection of waxworks by Clemente Susini, where you may recognize someone familiar.
#ROTY