SOTD by u/tsrblke

August 1, 2024 – Austerity

• Brush: Stirling “Less Boar” 28mm x 46mm
• Razor: Schick Injector
• Blade: Schick Injector (1)
• Lather: House of Mammoth – Smash
• Post Shave: House of Mammoth – Smash (Splash)
• Post Shave: House of Mammoth – Smash (Balm)
• Fragrance: Creed – Aventus Cologne

We open today, as is appropriate with me begging for mercy from u/mammoth_don. Apparently there is some discussion if Nightmare mode requires only 1 post in total, or that your posts only be of one type. Frankly I need balm, and I’d like to participate in $mammothmafia, but there was a second reason I chose this setup. See smash and I have a complicated history. I was very excited for it. I liked what Will was saying about its creation, I loved Ben’s work! It’d be great. As I was new to wet shaving at the time, and better then about spacing out purchases, my wife got it for my Christmas present. So, it sat, unopened in a closet after she bought it in October. Meanwhile, my samples of the 4 Horseman came in and I thought “I don’t really understand Will’s work, oh shit, maybe Smash won’t be good!” But I knew I loved Ben’s stuff, I had also aquired Alive at this point, my favotire scent in wetshaving. So, I continued to have thrill.

Then…Covid hit me. Second bout I got, but this one took away my sense of smell, entirely. Just gone, couldn’t even smell War. It happened 2 weeks before Christmas. I couldn’t smell anything when I opened my present. It was disappointing (I also got this bottle of Aventus Colonge that year from my sister-in-law. I compensated by passing around other soaps for my family to smell for fun.

When my smell came back it was wrong, I was blind to a lot of things, notably, most of the scent make up of…bourbon. Including, especially, vanilla. So when I opened Smash, I got…cherries? That’s it. The extent of it. Cherry cough syrup. I put it away.

Eventually my smell came back a bit more (it’s still unbalanced even 3 years later and occasionally I can’t smell or taste anything in my glass of bourbon). Smash still smelt wrong. When Ben did his Black Friday sale, I grabbed the splash at 50% off because why not, and decided I was going to use AA to try and reset my nose (there’s mixed research on this, whether exposure to missing smells and thoughts of memory can “reset” or not. It seems the answer is no, but some evidendence supported the idea. It’s also entirely harmless so why not try.) The intent was to use it in 3 of the 4 forms (I don’t own the EdT) to basically provide extreme stimulus. I’m already getting more peach off the splash, so there’s hope.

In any case, if this use of 2 posts DQ’s me from the mafia, I’ll probably still continue?

Regardless of this, $rawhoggin means my Stirling Brush has finally come out. The SOTD pic has the brush in the box, but here’s a fuller album of the unboxing and a comparison to my Moar Boar. I told u/EldrormR, I held on to this since they launched in Feb to use it now. Zenith Brushes are easy to break in, it’s fairly soft, but I still had to reload after pass 1. I did 25 seconds (I usually do 15) and it looked fine, but it was not. I’ll up to 45 next time. Also, new boars don’t splay very much. It will change though.

Edit $discord

**[August 1, 2024 – Austerity](https://i.imgur.com/rpOiaHr.jpg)**

* **Brush:** Stirling “Less Boar” 28mm x 46mm
* **Razor:** Schick Injector
* **Blade:** Schick Injector (1)
* **Lather:** House of Mammoth – Smash
* **Post Shave:** House of Mammoth – Smash (Splash)
* **Post Shave:** House of Mammoth – Smash (Balm)
* **Fragrance:** Creed – Aventus Cologne

We open today, as is appropriate with me begging for mercy from u/mammoth_don. Apparently there is some discussion if Nightmare mode requires only 1 post in total, or that your posts only be of one type. Frankly I need balm, and I’d like to participate in $mammothmafia, but there was a second reason I chose this setup.
See smash and I have a complicated history. I was very excited for it. I liked what Will was saying about its creation, I loved Ben’s work! It’d be great. As I was new to wet shaving at the time, and better then about spacing out purchases, my wife got it for my Christmas present. So, it sat, unopened in a closet after she bought it in October.
Meanwhile, my samples of the 4 Horseman came in and I thought “I don’t really understand Will’s work, oh shit, maybe Smash won’t be good!” But I knew I loved Ben’s stuff, I had also aquired Alive at this point, my favotire scent in wetshaving. So, I continued to have thrill.

Then…Covid hit me. Second bout I got, but this one took away my sense of smell, entirely. Just gone, couldn’t even smell War. It happened 2 weeks before Christmas. I couldn’t smell anything when I opened my present. It was disappointing (I also got this bottle of Aventus Colonge that year from my sister-in-law. I compensated by passing around other soaps for my family to smell for fun.

When my smell came back it was wrong, I was blind to a lot of things, notably, most of the scent make up of…bourbon. Including, especially, vanilla. So when I opened Smash, I got…cherries? That’s it. The extent of it. Cherry cough syrup. I put it away.


Eventually my smell came back a bit more (it’s still unbalanced even 3 years later and occasionally I can’t smell or taste anything in my glass of bourbon). Smash still smelt wrong. When Ben did his Black Friday sale, I grabbed the splash at 50% off because why not, and decided I was going to use AA to try and reset my nose (there’s mixed research on this, whether exposure to missing smells and thoughts of memory can “reset” or not. It seems the answer is no, but some evidendence supported the idea. It’s also entirely harmless so why not try.) The intent was to use it in 3 of the 4 forms (I don’t own the EdT) to basically provide extreme stimulus. I’m already getting more peach off the splash, so there’s hope.

In any case, if this use of 2 posts DQ’s me from the mafia, I’ll probably still continue?

Regardless of this, $rawhoggin means my Stirling Brush has finally come out. The SOTD pic has the brush in the box, but here’s a [fuller album of the unboxing and a comparison to my Moar Boar.](https://imgur.com/a/CoLugUF) I told u/EldrormR, I held on to this since they launched in Feb to use it now. Zenith Brushes are easy to break in, it’s fairly soft, but I still had to reload after pass 1. I did 25 seconds (I usually do 15) and it looked fine, but it was not. I’ll up to 45 next time. Also, new boars don’t splay very much. It will change though.

Edit $discord