20.07.2024 - Pungent Banana!

• Prep: cold water
• Razor: Leaf Thorn
• Blade: Derby Premium half DE
• Brush: TGS Galaxy 26 mm
• Lather: Southern Witchcrafts - Boonana
• Post Shave: Southern Witchcrafts - Boonana AS; Natura Siberica ASB gel; sunscreen
• Fragrance: Extro - Caffé EdT

Head shave and beard contouring. 1 pass plus cleanup on the dome.

So since our inaugural BVWSC-shave had to be postponed, I thought it'd be a good opportunity to use another banana scent before trying Don José.
Boonana is unfortunately one that I despise. The release was a real hypefest back then and everyone except me seemed to praise the soap... Well, time to find out if my mind has changed. Spoiler alert: no, it hasn't.
Boonana is the scent equivalent to rotten banana peels. It smells kinda like when you used to be a school kid and forgot to take out a banana from your lunchbox in the summer holidays, then find it again after six weeks. It's a pungent banana smell. I definitely don't get the comparison to Samhain, SWs Magnum Opus IMHO. While Samhain is a delightfully wicked take on Pumpkin Spice Latte, this here is just decomposing banana. Ugh! The typical SW properties are thankfully still there, so you have a top notch vegan soap base and a great alcohol free aftershave... But I'd rather use bangers like Samhain, Necromantic, GraveFruit 2, Valley of Ashes or the sadly discontinued Pomona than this organic waste smell. Worst SW scent together with the rightfully discontinued Tres Matres IMHO. I'm just grateful that I'll catch less flak for my opinion this time than back in the day on Reddit (it's actually nice that everyone here is mature enough to know that one can respectfully disagree and a negative opinion is not a direct insult to the artisan).
Basically I tried to cover up the pungent banana with coffee smell by an Extro EdT and went grocery shopping smelling like a hipster coffee shop. No wonder I had most of the lanes to myself...

So yeah, after reading this essay of a SOTD you can guess that I am very excited for AYLM Don José and what a kind of write-up I'm capable of. I promise a honest first impression review!

Sounds great, congrats on the new mountain bike! It surely helps to have one hobby that's physically demanding to stay active. Having great bike trails near you helps too. My bicycle is older than me (so over thirty years!) but still ok to ride around shorter tracks for conditioning.

Reading your post made me want to get back into something more active/"sporty" again; jogging isn't my strong suit thanks to joint issues but hiking might be a contender. Due to my knee problems I fear that my old love for strength sports will be solely limited to a spectator role.

I think/hope no one forgets DJ, as he's the "founding father" of this instance. You're still doing a very great job in managing this instance though!

Definitely a huge thanks to you and the others keeping the Lemmy instance up and running! Due to the "Reddit banning 3rd party apps shit show" last year, I was totally lost where to go. Mastodon simply wasn't the same with the strict character limit... Lemmy felt much more familiar from the first day on! Even though our wetshaving instance is small and cozy, sometimes a place to post your SOTD and ramble about your favourite scents is all you need 🥳

27.05.2024

• Prep: head and face wash; moisturiser
• Razor: Leaf Thorn (Fig)
• Blade: Derby Premium half DE
• Brush: Omega Roma Colosseo 31 mm
• Lather: WestMan - MazaGran
• Post Shave: Westman MazaGran ASB

1 pass head shave at night (in my time zone at least). Good shave.

As I mentioned yesterday, I started reading American Psycho and apart from the shaving brush passage that stood out to me, Bateman also applies moisturiser before he shaves as some kind of pre-shave. Just out of curiosity, I tried this today - the results aren't really convincing me to do this again. It wasn't bad, but there was just no positive effect to be felt from this.

Something else I tried out that I saw in a video by YouTuber Baldcafe is starting my head shave from the back of the head. I already tried this for 2 pass shaves, but today was the first time I actually started this way. Well, I can see his reasoning: the worst part is behind you after that (pun intended) since the sides and top of the head are a walk in the park for experienced head shavers. OTOH, I generally like to give the coarser hair around my crown a bit more time to be softened up by my lather. But well, you'll never know if you don't try out some things.

MazaGran is a delightful gourmand scent that smells like a noble coffee house. I'm glad to have a matching set of it and the WestMan base is very agreeable for my sensitive scalp.

Oh, I understand. There's been worse said to me and said by me to others during friendly banter. Just wanted to remark that I genuinely find your posts and comments well-written and can't imagine your spoken word to be worse. Simple text-based communication is not that well suited to convey such hidden compliments. No ill intent towards your friends from my side ✌🏻

No worries, sometimes it's hard to remember how many soaps of a particular genre you've got 😉
Btw I thought I'd try to help with finding a manufacturing date for your straight razor in some german resources, but no luck. One archived german eBay listing had a 5/8 Wüsthof as "made between 1960-70" but such seller's are a unreliable source for that.

SOTD 11.01.2024

• Prep: warm water
• Razor: Pearl Blaze w/ RazoRock bamboo handle
• Blade: Rapira Platinum Lux
• Brush: AP Shave Co. 30 mm Tuxedo Fan w/ black & clear handle
• Lather: Southern Witchcrafts - Gravefruit II (scent by Shawn Maher)
• Post Shave: Thayer's Aloe Vera toner; Stirling Orange Chill ASB
• Fragrance: Coach - Platinum EdP sample

So today seems to be collab day. The only soap that I have that fits the bill is GF2 by SW. The scent for it was developed by Shawn Maher so that's as good of a collab I can get.

Gravefruit II reminded me of warmer days, a very welcome reminiscence to summer during a very cold period. Today we had -13°C in the morning and everything was covered in ice. Tomorrow it's supposed to be a bit milder, but more icy surfaces.

One pass head shave. The Blaze with the stainless steel Bamboo style handle works good for head shaving, the grooves on the handle are really nice. However, despite the fresh RPL blade, my shave wasn't as close as usual. But good enough for nursing school tomorrow.

This EdP sample, while pleasant, is sadly again something that doesn't seem very interesting to me. Nothing really stands out. No complaints but also no compliments on it either.

Thank you. Next year will definitely be better, I have a positive feeling 😎

SOTD 19.12.2023 - Celebratory shave

• Prep: warm water
• Razor: Stando Perun
• Blade: BIC Chrome Platinum
• Brush: TGS Galaxy 26 mm
• Lather: Noble Otter - Neon Sun
• Post Shave: Dick Johnson's "God Spray", Aloe Vera moisturiser

A 1-pass celebratory head shave. Today two of my final orders for this year arrived and apart from general grooming products I finally got Neon Sun by Noble Otter.

Off the tub, I immediately was hooked on the scent. This could very well make it to my list of all-time Favs. I don't like pure citrus scents, but combined with some "darker" ingredients like patchouli and musk it's really great. I was really excited when the scent got more pronounced once it was lathered up - this is why I enjoy wetshaving, unique scents with great artwork! The tub art is even holographic in some parts, reminding me of trading cards of my youth. It performed as great as any other NO soap I own. One use of the styptic pencil as shaving and coughing don't mix well...

The thing to celebrate? Today I had a call from my new nursing home that the contract is finally ready. So immediately after my early shift, I drove there to sign everything. Everything went well - I even know how I'll work in January! Now I finally have a written contract and an additional feeling of safety. It seems like everything today took a turn for the best outcome. Celebrating such an important new career step with an awesome new soap was just the icing on the cake!

SOTD 17.12.2023

• Prep: warm water
• Razor: Greencult GC 2.0 IV; Headblade S4 Lunar Eclipse
• Blade: Voskhod; HB 2
• Brush: AP Shave Co. 30 mm Tuxedo Fan w/ black & clear handle
• Lather: Declaration Grooming - Unscented soap
• Post Shave: Thayer's Aloe Vera toner; Aloe Vera moisturiser gel

Long time no post from me. Looking back, I realised I forgot to post a SOTD I did with gel and the Headblade. But things happen!

So anyway, today I did one pass with the safety razor WTG and the next with the Headblade ATG. Headshave only - I currently rock some stubble with my moustache again and have grown to like it. The good thing about this style is that I can easily go back to clean shaven around the stache and have it back in just 2-3 days. I probably really need to relegate the HB as a body shaver only - it irritates my skin more than the most aggressive GC plate.

First week of my internship at a place for disabled parents with children is already over; it's better than I imagined but still not my cup of tea. The nursing/medical part is very tiny, most of my work there consists of helping the disabled people care for themselves and their kids, playing/interacting with the children and doing housework. It's a weird mix of being an OT, educator and household help. Tomorrow a hard week will start for me: 5 early shifts at the internship place, 2 late shifts at my current nursing home over the weekend. But I'll manage that somehow.

No, just XTG. The skin on my face is very picky with blades - it seems like the guard on these Feathers doesn't even exist for me. I also have the unfortunate habit of using too much pressure with light aluminum razors, especially when I'm in a hurry 🤔

Thank you very much! This sub/instance already feels very familiar to what I'm used to.