SAFETY Razor Shave of the Day (SOTD)

[120inna55]

Barrister and Mann | Vespers
Phoenix Shaving | The Starcraft | Roswell Hybrid Synth
The New Improved Schick Injector Razor | Personna 74

Vespers introduces Barrister and Mann's new soap base, Excelsior.  I'm a fan of their prior white label base as well as current bases, Glissant and Barrister's Reserve.  This is my first use of the base, so I will try to restrain my excitement, but this is clearly an improvement to already outstanding bases and instantly a top-level soap.  Excelsior seems to be an amalgamation of all the best attributes of the aforementioned bases, but it accomplishes them in swift, more intuitive fashion.  A 30-second load of the well-saturated Roswell Synth knot immediately yields what appears to be proto-lather, but ultimately this is the end-stage consistency of the lathered soap.  There is no big bubble stage as it moves instantly from slurry to butter within seconds.  This dense, creamy whipped butter lather holds to a low profile strata that simply paints on.  That's not to say it lacks volume, but rather a controlled lather that's ready for work immediately. While some of us seem to enjoy working the lather, Excelsior tops out right away. The result is a hyper-white pearly luster.  It accepts a fair bit of water, but it doesn't demand it.  The resultant superb glide is at least on par with any other top shelf soap I've been using.  The post shave is equally outstanding and natural, leaving my skin feeling soft and well hydrated.  Excelsior is a legitimate contender for top performer.

In terms of fragrance, Vespers is deceptively complex in true Barrister and Mann fashion.  Opening innocently enough as a rather uncomplicated gourmand by way of a light, fruity tartness with edges of peppery spice, the soap essentially ends there as there's no room to develop the remainder of this expansive fragrance. It was at this point I felt Vespers was filling the template of last year's subtle "Promises", requiring revisits to fully appreciate the intricacies. However, the splash is critical to this story, and if you like it, stick around for the EdT.  The cheerful tart-berried spicy gourmand gradually acquires sweetness and depth simultaneously, abandoning the initial frivolity for something a bit more reticent and somber.  In the brief transition, the fresh berries are replaced by a dark fleshy plum-like fruit that's baked and then aged just short of fermentation.  At this point the fragrance is devoid of any remnant of the initial gourmand, but rather a full-on, elegant fougère with vintage Brut genetics, amassing oiled leather and muted rose as the dry down plateaus.  Despite its meager intro, the EdT crescendos nicely and easily persists a good 10 hours, unfolding precisely as the splash does, but with more warmth and woodiness in the dry down.

Once again, Barrister and Mann comes through with a unique fragrance in Vespers. Beginning as a whimsically festive gourmand before ushering in an ambitious, yet elegant fougère is classic Barrister and Mann fragrance storytelling.  Couple that with a stellar new base, and you have yet another essential holiday seasonal set.

[120inna55]

Southern Witchcrafts | Alchemist
Leo Frilot Tru-Stone Copper Matrix | AP Shave Co. SynBad 30mm
The New Improved Schick Injector Razor | Personna 74

[120inna55]

Barrister and Mann | Leviathan
Phoenix Shaving | The Starcraft | Roswell Hybrid Synth
The New Improved Schick Injector Razor | Personna 74

[120inna55]

Declaration Grooming | Sellout
Leo Frilot Tru-Stone Hallows | AP Shave Co. SilkSmoke 28mm
Ever-Ready SE | Gem PTFE
Creed | Aventus (16D01)

[120inna55]

Catie's Bubbles | Vintage for S.E.R.F.
Ever-Ready 100T | Elite Razor Manchurian   
Radio 1912 | Gem PTFE

I haven't used my Radio in a while, but it just seemed to be the right tool for the inaugural use of Vintage, a group 3-part set for the S.E.R.F (Single-Edge Razor Fans) Facebook group. The full set includes Catie's Bubbles' Luxury Cream Soap, Before and After Splash, and Eau de Parfum, all of which could be purchased separately.

Catie's Bubbles is my first love in artisan shaving soap post-shave.  It was the first soap to introduce me to jojoba and what it means in terms of healthy supple skin. As a head-shaver, this is an especially important aspect to wet shaving, and Catie's Bubbles always leaves my skin feeling like slick glass for about 4 hours.

Vintage's documented scent notes are: citrus, geranium, cedarwood, suede, musks, and amber.  There's really nothing extraordinary in that profile, and newcomers may even assume that given its target is a group, it was meant to be a safe crowd pleaser.  However, those of us who are privy to the Cullenary arts, knew there would be much more to this.  The brain behind the likes of 322, Confiant, V, and Quatre Cent Vingt doesn't do pedestrian.

Forget off-the-tub dry scent assessments.  You'll learn nothing of this fragrance until you hit it with a damp brush. Vintage offers an off-label kick-off that completely took me buy surprise. I almost feel like a spoiler alert is warranted here in that I hate to ruin the magic that you'll experience upon initial lather. It opens with vivid image of an industrial era by way of brief but specific valve oil.  Some may associate this with the clean fresh "3-IN-ONE" oil or tapping oil.  I associate it with the fragrance of my trumpet valves when they're warmed up.  To others, it may lend to a pre-plastic age or even a steampunk-ish vibe, with a flinty, metallic note.  I'm spending a lot of time describing this single aspect, when in reality, despite its impact, it's quite brief.  This note's native sweetness naturally carries over to the sharp, bright citrus. When the lather is fully formed, the accord acquires more depth and warmth with thoughtful use of musk and woody resin to round this out to a truly elegant fragrance.  And that's just the soap. In many cases, the soap base blunts the full vision of complex fragrances such as this.  However, Vintage unfolds nicely, even within this often stifling medium.  The splash---and more so the EdP---certainly broaden the spectrum thereby unveiling the complementary details and an unabridged muse that is Vintage.  The EdP is still detectable 10 hours out, maintaining a rich and robust woody resin base lifted by a well-controlled musk.

Not since Barrister and Mann's "Promises" have I experienced a fragrance that evokes such a specific memory.  Vintage is without question much more interesting than its profile suggests.  It may yet be a sleeper, but I suspect as others experience this, the demand will direct Catie's Bubbles back to the well.

[120inna55]

Barrister and Mann | Promises
Cadman-Beau | Synthetic
The New Improved Schick Injector Razor | Personna 74

[120inna55]

Phoenix Shaving | Kiritimati (CK-6)
APShaveCo. Elegant Emerald | SynBad 24mm
The New Improved Schick Injector Razor | Personna 74

[120inna55]

Grooming Dept | Earl Grey Gelato (Mallard Base)
APShaveCo. Elegant Emerald | SynBad 24mm
The New Improved Schick Injector Razor | Personna 74

Grooming Dept hadn't been high on my list of soaps to try because---agree or not---soaps that have matching splashes are more attractive to me.  Certainly, this self-imposed restriction has resulted in my missing out on a few good soaps.  When you pair that with the relatively scant availability of Grooming Dept products, it was unlikely I would be picking up a tub anytime soon.  West Coast Shaving changed that.  The readily available stock, free shipping, and ease of ordering made the $23 for 4 oz. price tag a bit more palatable.  I ordered After The Fire from WCS, and then I commented on a Grooming Dept Instagram post indicating I'd made my first purchase of one of their soaps.  Soon after my post, Grooming Dept contacted me via direct message and asked which soap I ordered.  Then they offered to send me a tub of Earl Grey Gelato in their Mallard soap base.  I was initially hesitant to accept the generous offer as I try to avoid making a habit of using free products and then touting their wonderful qualities.  That said, Grooming Dept never once asked me to speak publicly about my experience but rather seemed genuinely interested in hearing my feedback directly, thus an exception was made.

In addition to the usual suspects, the highlights of ingredients in the Mallard base include duck fat, goat milk, babassu oil, cupuacu butter, kokum butter, meadowfoam oil, jojoba oil, and kaolin clay (I'll include the unabridged list following this writing).  That's an impressive list, and as such has the potential to be a good soap.  Absent any data to support my theory, I suspect the source of tallow used has less to do with the product's performance than do the ratios and technique employed by the artisan, so I've wondered if the recent surge in duck fat bases hasn't been overplayed.  Regardless, upon first use, Grooming Dept has me.

The dry product in the tub looks like formed rubber and is a light sandstone color. I honestly expected it to return to its form after pressing in with my thumb, but the appearance is deceptive, and it acts as many soft soaps leaving a dent with minimal crumbling. With the exception of a couple tiny caverns made by escaping bubbles, the surface is smooth and solid in appearance and has retracted from the wall of the tub as it cures. 

The documented scent notes of Earl Grey Gelato are "Earl Grey Tea, Lemon Gelato, and Waffle Cone". The fragrance off the tub is one of the lightest I've ever smelled.  I simply could not detect much fragrance at all.  I test lathered the night before and once again proved dry product scent assessments can't be trusted.  A wonderful creamy and slightly sweet lemon fragrance quite boldly filled the bathroom.  As I continued to play with lather, a warm muted vanilla crept in.  The black tea note was also understated but made a late appearance nonetheless.

While it's a good practice to test lather a soap that's new to you, this is one of those bases in which I would say it's essential to understanding the limits of the soap.  It has a fair amount of thirst, and much like PAA's CK-6 base, it functions at an adequate level even when it's not optimized.  If you stop there, you may very well miss out on the most important aspect of the base, namely the slickness.  However, the addition of more water transforms it into what it's intended to be.  I found it difficult to drown this lather as it kept accepting more and more water.  If you employ this method, the sweet spot is readily evident and a  creamy, lustrous lather is forthcoming.  It  actually looks as if it will drip off your brush, but it doesn't.  If you'll note in my SOTD picture, there are peaks in the lather.  The only way I could get it to do that was to underwater it.  The second image is an optimized lather.  To borrow a comparison often used by the great Jason Rudman, it looks like room temperature sour cream.

In real-world use, this lather is nothing short of spectacular.  It's not just a pretty lather but a work horse, providing everything one expects from a top artisanal soap, demonstrating remarkable density, off-the-charts primary slickness as well as equally extraordinary residual slickness. The post shave is among the highest performers as well.  Even for a head-shave, a post product was completely unnecessary, but if you're looking for a scent complement, Catie's Bubbles' Confiant would pair nicely and pulls this out of gourmand territory.  Alternatively, for the Earl Grey push, Barrister and Mann's Cheshire would do in a pinch.  For evaluation purposes, I skipped a post product and have no regrets.

In my opinion, Grooming Dept earns a spot among the elite artisans at least in terms of this duck fat base.  While I belabored the need to explore its water limits, it's not a difficult product to lather.  The warm, mellow, lemon-vanilla and black tea fragrance of Earl Grey Gelato is fresh and unique, so I'll be keeping this generous gift from Grooming Dept.  Hopefully, I'll eventually get around to trying my purchased tub of After The Fire that utilizes Grooming Dept's Special Edition base which includes beef tallow in addition to duck fat.

Ingredients: Stearic Acid, Aloe Vera, Water, Potassium Hydroxide, Duck Fat, Babassu Oil, Castor Oil, Cupuacu Butter, Kokum Butter, Meadowfoam Oil, Jojoba Oil, Abyssinian Oil, Fragrance, Silk Peptides, Glycerin, Sunflower Lecithin, Goat Milk, Sucrose Cocoate, Carnauba wax, Kaolin Clay, Calendula Extract, Sodium Citrate, Sodium Lactate and Vitamin E.

[120inna55]

Grooming Dept | After The Fire
APShaveCo. Elegant Emerald | SynBad 24mm
The New Improved Schick Injector Razor | Personna 74

[120inna55]

Mammoth Soaps | Hygge
Phoenix Shaving | The Starcraft | Roswell Hybrid Synth
The New Improved Schick Injector Razor | Personna 74

Mammoth had been somewhat of a mystery to me for a while.  Some of the testers, apparently having gone through numerous soap iterations, seem to have become fans which only furthered my desire to try it. Due to life happening the morning of the Hygge drop, I missed out.  Jason Rudman passed this set on to me because he's just really a great guy.

Hygge accepts a moderate amount of water, but it can be broken if you push it.  I recommend test lathering before putting it into practice in order to gather a good understanding of its limits.  That's not to say it's not intuitive, as it doesn't take much experimentation to dial it in.  With my hard water, the resulting lather is certainly dense but not particularly voluminous and has a lustrous sheen. First-pass slickness is above average as is residual slickness. The luxurious post-shave is the most impressive aspect of this soap, leaving behind soft, supple, natural feeling skin.

Hygge's fragrance when lathered is light, opening with sweet, sharp, and mildly powdery spiced orange that swells throughout the shave. It acquires a cold crushed coniferous bitterness at its peak before descending to a warm resinous accord.

The splash is obligatory given the excellent post-shave offered by the soap.  While it's alcohol-based, it is necessary to agitate it just prior to application as there are undissolved particulates.  Again it's difficult to assess the splash's effectiveness as there was no irritation to begin with. The scent is similar to the soap except for a brief initial musky green aloe that would have clashed had it persisted.  Otherwise, the festive sweet orange is more prominent and sharper with less powder than the soap.  After about an hour, the citrus burns off leaving a warm and understated resin with lightly sweet highlights.  After approximately 3 hours, I lost track of the fragrance altogether.

Mammoth Soaps has made a fine introduction with this public release. While boasting a performance that surpasses many freshman offerings, it's still just out of reach of the most elite artisans.  Hygge's restrained festive fragrance is spot-on for Winter wear but far from being weighty or novel.  I certainly look forward to future releases.

[120inna55]

Phoenix and Beau | Star Noir
Cadman-Beau | Synthetic
Phoenix Shaving | Ascension Double Open Comb (316L Stainless Steel)
Treet Platinum Super Stainless Steel

I've commented on Phoenix and Beau's tallow soap base performance several times, essentially asserting it does all things well.  The base is very similar in all aspects to Barrister and Mann's white label right down to the thirst. If you don't give this soap the water it needs, you will completely miss out on what it has to offer. That having been well established, I'll keep the forthcoming comments limited to my fragrance impressions. 

Star Noir is Phoenix and Beau's nod to David Bowie's signature 1990s fragrance, Minotaure from house Paloma Picasso.  Never having experienced Minotaure, I can't speak to the accuracy, but it's my understanding this is more of an homage as opposed to an outright dupe.  Additionally, in my limited research, I discovered that while Minotaure is still in production, it's suffered from reformulation from the original 1992 Cosmair distribution.  I really do wish I knew which one Star Noir points to, because given how much I enjoy this Star Noir fragrance, I would definitely pick up the EdT, vintage or otherwise.

Star Noir opens with a bold vegetal musk of green crushed herbs with subtle bitter citrus peering through.  As the first pass begins to wrap up, a rich and warm resin, woody lavender, and amber takes hold.  During the final lather, Star Noir gets even more complex with the contrast of peculiar aldehydes against heavy woody florals.

The Post Shave Lotion unfolds similarly, but the heart unveils a more distinct ylang ylang and modest amount of patchouli folded into the persistent resinous crushed herbs and woods.  The dry down imparts what begins as an understated powdery base but actually gains steam to become what feels like a second wind of an altogether different fragrance stepping into a more traditional barbershop realm.  I simply must get my hands on the splash because I feel like it would last longer.  As it is, the balm is detectable for close to 4 hours.

I missed Star Noir last year, so I'm quite pleased to have received another chance at it.  I've become a pretty big fan of Phoenix and Beau's products as they're quite consistent in offering the complete package of style, function, and class.  In my opinion, they very much need a US e-commerce stockist, so more Westerners can have a shot at them.

Addendum:  I simply can't leave this SOTD without mentioning my experience with the PAA Ascension SS.  I've shared my impressions previously, but I continue to be impressed with this razor, especially as a head-shaver.  It's no secret I'm a single-edge razor enthusiast, and honestly nothing can top the performance of my prized Schick F-types, but until now, only the Schick could give me a flawless glass-slick head shave with a single against-the-grain pass.  I've gotten into such a habit of doing a single ATG pass on my head in light of the Schick's abilities, I did it with muscle memory today when using the Ascension.  The result was nothing less than spectacular.  I've tried this numerous times with other razors, and they all require additional passes to achieve "BBS". Now, I have a second razor that can do it in a single pass.

[120inna55]

Australian Private Reserve | Fenchurch
Phoenix Shaving | The Starcraft | Roswell Hybrid Synth
The New Improved Schick Injector Razor | Personna 74

This past year, I've been afforded the opportunity to not only try old stand-by artisans' upgraded soap formulas, but also some outstanding new-to-me artisans. Much like West Coast Shaving introduced me to Grooming Dept, Maggard Razors made it easy to procure an otherwise difficult to obtain Australian Private Reserve. Jason Rudman's recent review of Fenchurch motivated me to place an order.

I played around with this lather the day preceding the actual shave to determine how it responds to my hard water.  I found loading fairly dry with hydration on the back end works best for me.  This method proved the most effective way to get a consistent no-brainer lather.  In this respect the Australian Private Reserve "F2" beef tallow base loads and reconstitutes very similarly to that of Declaration Grooming's Bison Tallow base.  APR F2 has a relatively wide water tolerance, but it performs best when hydrated like average tallow bases as opposed to taking it to the drowning stage necessary for Grooming Dept Mallard, Barrister's Reserve, or Phoenix and Beau.  The resulting lather is high-end density but low profile. It will not blow up into a voluminous or fluffy Hollywood lather.  When optimized, it paints on like glistening cream and floats the blade as if it were oil.  Residual slickness is such that a wet blade can safely revisit areas devoid of visible lather, but it rinses clean.  Post-shave is also high-end, leaving soft supple well-hydrated skin.

The fragrance of Fenchurch is unlike anything I've ever experienced, and the documented notes are dizzying.  On paper, this should be too sweet to be in my wheelhouse, but the masterful perfumery displayed in Fenchurch makes this an addictive accord for me.  I won't presume to claim I can identify the individual notes as it's just far too complex. That is not to say it's convoluted, however.  The soap is lovely warm sweet tobacco, vanilla and powder, but the splash medium unveils the realized fragrance.  Fenchurch opens with what I perceive as liquored overripe black cherries and soft tobacco flower.  This phase alone is amazing and I lamented its departure.  The middle offers up hints of leather without actually being leathery, and this is accompanied by fresh earthy uncured tobacco playing off the preexisting tobacco flower. Somewhere late in this stage the fragrance becomes thicker by way of conservative musks sustaining the leather and powder. The dry down actually continues to echo the former notes but with a warmth and foundation of resinous florals and beautiful vanilla.  I found myself compulsively revisiting the bottle long after the splash lifted.  With the help of a fellow wet shaver, I now have a bottle of the Eau de Parfum en route.  This is a must-have fragrance for me.

I apparently stumbled upon Australian Private Reserve at its pinnacle with the "F2" base.  Never having experienced it's prior bases, I can't speak to how it has upgraded.  As it is, there's very little room for improvement, but the high-level perfumery exhibited by Fenchurch is the reason to import this product.

[120inna55]

Phoenix Shaving | Magi
Phoenix Shaving | The Starcraft | Roswell Hybrid Synth
Phoenix Shaving - Ascension DOC SS | Triad - Rolling Hex SS
Treet Platinum Super Stainless Steel

[120inna55]

The Holy Black for The Club | Decadence
Leo Frilot Tru-Stone Copper Matrix | AP Shave Co. SynBad 30mm
The New Improved Schick Injector Razor | Personna 74

[120inna55]

Phoenix Shaving | Gondolier
Rubberset 200-4 | Omega Boar
The New Improved Schick Injector Razor | Personna 74