Bandit Special Edition - Beaver WoodWright & Dr. Jon's Joint Venture
Dr. Jon's - Bandit | Kent V8 (vintage) | 1976 Gillette Black Handle Super-Speed | Treet Platinum Super Stainless (2) | Beaver WoodWright - Bandit
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Dr. Jon's and Beaver WoodWright recently launched their joint venture special edition "Bandit" Soap and After Shave Collection. Given I'm a sucker for both special/limited editions as well as packaging, this was a no-brainer.
This was the first time I'd ever used Dr. Jon's. First off, for those that don't know, this is a super soft croap. I would say it's just as soft as RazoRock's Santa Maria Del Fiore. You could reasonably scoop a dap from the tin and use it like a cream if you were so inclined. I went ahead and loaded from the puck and added water to the Kent badger knot early in the game as I would expect to do with such a soft croap. Bandit does not produce a dense lather by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, it looks poor. It's not watery, but rather it holds the water quite well. This yields a thin, but uber slick lather. I didn't think I'd failed on the build and decided this must be what a Dr. Jon's soap is. So, I cautiously proceeded with the shave. I can't tell you how surprised I was to find that despite the rather anemic appearance, Bandit was quite protective, and the glide was amazing. I did the usual WTG/XTG/ATG passes. A couple clean-up swipes to my parietal region gave me a very nice BBS. (I was able to use my left hand on the left side, for those keeping track. Progress!). The residual slickness allowed me to do the clean-up swipes with just a wet palm. This is probably the slickest soap I've ever used. I would imagine straight shavers in particular would appreciate Dr. Jon's. I will be exploring more of Dr. Jon's soaps as a result of this shave. A caveat is that this may not be the right soap for someone just embarking upon wet shaving as it's actually a terrible example of how a lather is traditionally supposed to look. If any of my other soaps' lathers looked like this, there would be zero protection and slickness. However, I'm gathering this is characteristic of Dr. Jon's, and the result is a performance that would probably stand up to the top 5% of my artisan soaps.
Now on to the scent. Initially, Bandit provided a rather bold magnolia with hints of musk. This is one of the rare cases in which the scent off the puck is pretty close to what you're going to get during the shave. Early into the first pass, I began to notice hay and finally new warm leather. I would imagine this is how Bandit's Trans Am smelled after Carrie spent the day in it. It's quite floral, but has enough leather to keep it masculine if not unisex.
Fortunately, Beaver WoodWright's paired Bandit After Shave duplicates the soap's scent perfectly. Four hours out, the splash has settled down to warm magnolia and leather.
Post shave feel has left my skin feeling soft and nourished. Bandit is a winner!
Beaver WoodWright was responsible for the packaging, and it's reminiscent of their winter limited edition Jolly Roger packaging. The box showcases both Dr. Jon's and Beaver WoodWright's prominent logos, complementary label logos mirroring the actual products, as well as bold lettering in what appears to be close to the "Good Times" font that Pontiac liked to use in it's last generation vehicles. Jason Kincaid's label art on Dr. Jon's soap is as slick as the soap inside the tin. Kincaid did a perfect job reproducing the screamin' chicken in the style and paint scheme of Bandit's '77 Trans Am. If you're familiar with Dr. Jon's soaps, you've seen Kincaid's work as he's designed most of their current labels. Beaver WoodWright's After Shave label was designed by Stacey Kelly of Pixel Initiative. The theme for the labels is shared, but the styles are just different enough to set them apart as unique artisans.
This is another welcomed sharing of talents to bring this community a product that is greater than it's parts. Well done, Beaver WoodWright and Dr. Jon's!
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