What soap/cream did you use today?

Soap Commander / Honor

8/19/42

We live in a time of shaving greatness.  So many fantastic choices for pre and post shaving products.  So many exceptional choices for soaps.  A veritable cornucopia of vendors to choose from.  And to think that not yet a decade ago we had but a very few options. (Most of those options were, and still are, very good performers).  But here’s the deal, with all those options comes a tendency for variation.  This mornings shave was a testament to that.  I like Mystic Waters performance.  Truly I do.  She was producing low structure, nourishing lather long before many of us discovered the world of super-fatted soaps.  Way back in the day I had a puck of Poggio dei Pini and wow did that soap take me on a trip.  It smelled of pine and dry shrubs and heat.  It put me in a saddle in august working up towards the head of Stinson Creek.  Up on the Ridge between Clyde and Stinson, where the north side is tree covered and the south side is blue sage.  I can yet hear the locusts buzzing and smell the dust kicked up by my horse.  The soap was great and grand and nostalgic, so when I finished it I bought another and…..rats!  The pine and dry brush seem to still be lurking but mostly I get flowers.  It’s like some town girl threw her rope and caught a ridge riding cowboy, took him to town, washed him up, threw away his Stetson, and put him in a flat brimmed ball cap and sneakers.  Sold his horse and pickup and now he drives a Prius (no offense intended) and generally harnessed his wildness.  Leather is replaced with flannel and his domestication is complete.  Darn! Rats! Sweet mother of meat!  I get it.  Our makers are small.  Their ingredients sometimes are unavailable.  There will be variations between batches.  Sometimes the scent is overhauled to gain more mass appeal.  But that doesn’t change the fact that my former soap has been “trotted to town”.  I have it in a window sill with the lid off praying that the cowboy inside will shake off his fetters, chuck the boutonnière, don his chaps and fork a horse headed to the high-up.

LOL.  Before I retired and left California, we used to call that car the Pious.

CRSW Bergamot & Bay

MdC Fougere...again

Taylor of Old Bond Street Sandalwood

Martin de Candre - Thu°Rose

Apparently I can't wait for the weekend, so I am a day early! It happens.

Crema da Barba (Santa Maria Novella) Tabacco Toscano, eucalyptus
Shave 5 ・ 214 g left

I woke up this morning without a beard. Even though eighteen hours had passed since I last put down my razor, my chin was still cotton-ball smooth. This wasn't just astonishing, it was unnerving. You may recall how on another thread I mentioned that I had abandoned my quest for the baby-butt-smooth shave. It just wasn’t worth the irritation. But here I was, still flat on my back enjoying the cool morning air with one of the most remarkable shaves I’ve had in years, and it was completely unintended. It sort of frightened me. How did this happen? 

For yesterday’s shearing I used my wimpiest razor, a Merkur 42C. It's a nice, shiny piece of metal, but to be honest, it usually leaves me feeling thistly, even after a couple passes. What to do? On a whim and perhaps out of desperation, I took a final swipe with a Bic disposable razor, the Twin Select. What!!!!! A cheap, plastic disposable! I know what you’re thinking. Bouki has really lost it. He’s denied the faith and gone after strange razors. 

But eighteen hours later I was still feeling as smooth as an eight ball. I know this Bic is a featherweight piece of fluff. I know it's uneconomical. And I know it's eventually bound for the landfill. But even in the face of unassailable arguments like these, I still couldn't help myself. And after a couple hours, with just the very tips of my beard barely poking through the skin, I picked it up again and enjoyed another faultless two-pass shave.

It's now half way through the afternoon, and I'm sitting here reading an essay on Galileo. As I ponder the verities of the universe the power of dogma, I can't help help but stroke my chin. It's the scholarly thing to do. No bumps, no nicks, no itch, no barbs. Nothing but bliss. Yeah, maybe it's a trash razor made for milquetoasts and namby-pambies, but right now all I can say about this Bic is eppur si rade!
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Razor Bic Twin Select Disposable ・ Brush Phoenix Shaving Peregrino ・ Hoard 17,682 g (-43 g)

   

Thu°Rose°Day

In a big hurry today - 2 pass with no real time to compose a nice image. But good news as Mr. Doug discovered a really nice rose forward soap from an artisan on Etsy. I really can't discern the accord difference with this and Soap Commander Love! The lather is different however. It is not a low profile tallow fatty lather, rather a tall cushion dominant vegan product: perfect for today's requisite quick shave. It kept me safe from nicks and rash ; and I smell goot. Big thanks Mr. Doug. BTW, I did not shave with the Glock 48, but it is with me every waking second of my day.

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