PAA Starling Gem & Doppelganger black label soap pass around

The package arrived at my PO Box Thursday but unfortunately I've been out of town this week for work. I was able to picked up earlier today and I'll give them a try starting tomorrow.

I've had some good shaves this week. Once I get Nh wet shaver address I'll get it heading his way.

I dropped the razor and soap in the mail this morning. Nh wet shaver should have it in a few days. When I have a couple of minutes I'll try and put some thoughts down on my shaves.

Well I wanted to share my thoughts on the pass around last week, but December got in the way. I’m sure everyone can relate. Right now I’m sitting at my in-laws waiting for dinner. Finally a slow moment where I can start to put my thoughts down.

The soap

I have some pretty hard water. I’ve found that soaps will ether whip up with little effort or take ridiculous time to get an ok lather. The new CK6 formula is definitely the first. The brush loaded in about 10 seconds and I got more then enough lather for multible passes. The soap is a great performer and one of the best vegan soaps I've used. The scent was present but not over powering.

The razor

The main reason I signed up for the pass around was the chance to try the Sterling SE razor. I don't have a lot of exposure with SE razors. So far I've only used a vintage 1912 that I picked up a few months ago.

Between the two plates I preferred the straight bar over the open comb. The Straight bar felt like a smother shave. That being said I never did get close to a BBS shave with either one. Granted again I only have limited experience with a SE. I liked the simple design look of the razor. It's got a elegant and sleek look to it. If I had one complaint it would be about loading the blade. I found it a bit difficult to build the razor in my hand without feeling like I was going to loose the blade.

Thank you andrewjs18 and CaD314 for the chance to try out these two great items.

The PAA Starling Razor and Doppelganger Black Label shaving soap is in my possession!  Nh wet shaversent it to me and I picked it up from my P.O. Box yesterday on my way into work.  I'm leaving work here shortly and hope to see what the soap and razor are all about in a couple of hours.  I will report back here my initial impressions!

First of all I would like to thank CaD314 for being so generous to provide the PAA Starling Razor and the PAA Doppelganger Black Label shaving soap for this passaround!  I would also like to thank andrewjs18 for letting us play along and getting this whole thing rolling!

I'm going to talk about the soap first, because I did a quick palm lather when I got home last night to see what I was dealing with here.  I really was very impressed with that lather!  I used a RazoRock BC Silvertip Plissoft shaving brush.  This CK6 shaving soap formula is just impressive.  It loaded into the brush super easy and lathered with ease as well.  I didn't break the lather, but I did push a lot of water into the lather.  It was thick, slick, and shiny lather!  I did shave with CK6 soap too.  The lather for my shave was really good, but I think it will be even better when I get it dialed in better.  I ended up loading up too much soap and the lather ended up a little thicker and denser than what I prefer when using a Gem blade.  But, even with the lather thick and dense it was still plenty slick with lots of protection.  I really think I kept adding water the lather would be a touch thinner and insanely slick.  This soap could be pushed a lot farther.  Post-shave feel is excellent too.  I did use a separate moisturizer about an hour after the shave, but that really isn't a reflection on the shaving soap.  With my skin and northeastern winter, I need to moisturize twice a day regardless of what I'm using for my shave.  

I can't forget scent.  Scent is so subjective and I've never actually smelled Sauvage by Christian Dior.  That said, this soap smells really great to me out of the tub and the scent seemed to bloom for me as I lathered.  The scent of this soap is right in my wheelhouse.

Now for the PAA Starling.  I used the closed comb base plate and a GEM Super Stainless Blade(PTFE.)  I really didn't have much trouble with the shave.  Both GEM-style blades and injector blades work really well on my beard, so it wasn't a huge surprise that the shave was fairly comfortable.  Now, I'm going to buck the curve here for this passaround.  While the shave was fairly mild with very little blade feel, I didn't have a lot of trouble finding the correct shave angle and it seemed pretty effective on the whiskers.  My whiskers are coarse, grow parallel to the skin(especially on my neck,) and are particularly resistant to softening up for the shave.  So, I was surprised and impressed with the DFS that was achieved with this razor without any discomfort or  irritation.

Please note that this was after my first shave with the CK6 soap and PAA Starling razor.  I wrote this last Friday, saved it to draft, and thought I already posted my thoughts.  I've used both several times more, but will comment more soon as I get ready to move them on down to the next lucky contestant.

The PAA Starling and Doppelganger Black Label shaving soap have been sent to Paolo Eleven. I thought I would give some final thoughts.

The PAA Starling GEM-style razor seemed to work well for me. I have had good luck with SE razors in the past, so it wasn't a complete shock to me. I used the same GEM(Personna) Super Stainless PTFE blade for all of my shaves the week that the razor was in my possession. I used the safety bar base plate for the first shave. The open comb base plate worked better for me. The shaves were smooth with very little blade feel. The razor just wiped off the whiskers with the accompanying soap. This is what surprised me in the shaves. I almost always experience some resistance or tugging during the shave regardless of soap, blade, or razor. Not usually uncomfortable, but I can feel the whiskers being cut, especially on the first pass. One thing that I didn't like was the "blade stops" on the front edge corners of the base plates come to pretty sharp points. I don't think they need to be so sharp. There needs to be some guards there for the corners of the blade, but I don't think they need to be that sharp. The blade is actually held in position by the notches on the side of the blade and the backing in the slot of top cap and base plate sandwiching the blade. I found the handle of the Starling very comfortable with good knurling to provide a positive grip even with the slick soap.

Now for the Doppelganger Black Label CK6 shaving soap. Wow! I'm not a true tallow snob, but the majority of the soaps that I use are tallow. I definitely don't feel like this PAA soap is missing anything without tallow. The soap was extremely easy to load into the brush. A good lather seemed to form very quickly. The lather quality was excellent! Thick, dense, shiny goodness. This soap can take a lot of water if you want to push it, but it also seems to to me to have a very wide water band. The soap had excellent technical performance in my moderately hard water all through that wide water band. I shaved with very thick, dense lather. I shaved with lather that was a bit more thinned out with water. It didn't seem to matter. This soap was slick and protective regardless. I pulled the lather from my brush after the shave and applied to my face while started cleaning up. It just felt good on my face. Luxurious!

Now I'm curious to find out what Paolo's impressions are of the razor and the soap!

My turn.

I've had a full 3 shaves and several "playing with lather" palm types this week.

Douglas certainly has a winner here.  I had been wanting to try the CK6 formula since it's debut.

Without any surprises, this formula is as good as anyone's.  Fast loading, handles tons of water, slickness, creaminess, denseness all in spades.  Post shave is equally stellar.  I intentionally left off any aftershave and didn't have any drying issues.

Though I don't know the original Sauvage, this scent is exceptional.  A very well rounded cologne scent that I'd bet would be hard to find any off-putting qualities for anyone.



Overall this soap is spectacular!  



As for the razor:

I have to preface by saying I'm generally not a fan of GEM blades, open combs, nor single edge razors.

The build on it is quite nice.  Clean lines and knurling.  Nothing looks cheap.  I like the colors.  I equally like seeing the comb options.  

I'm a huge fan of aluminum for razors.  The light weight is ideal for me.  It's a far easier and more nimble shave.  The weight of the Starling is awesome.



Overall this razor is not for me, but it has little to do with the razor itself.  


Thank you for letting me participate!

bump. last call to get in on this pass around before Paolo sends the stuff back to me.

I’m late to the party, but I was wondering if this is still going on. Haven’t tried either item.