Shaving Whilst Travelling

Greetings all!

I write this brief article from my hotel room at the Birmingham Hilton Metropole.  Why am I here?  Well, it's for a conference dedicated to the service desk industry, and how to make it brilliant.  But I digress.

Whilst I am away, I still want to shave, so the dilemma is "what on earth does one take to shave whilst travelling?"  I say dilemma, it is more torture.  Whilst I am essentially a creature of habit, I crave variety in my shave.

Last summer whilst on a short break in Wales, I took a "one size fits all" shaving kit, and it worked well.  I took my Merkur 39C, Proraso Green Soap, Wilkinson Sword Brush, balms, creams, alum and a melamine cereal bowl to lather with a cornucopia of items I've since forgotten.  Fast forward to this week and I wanted something less bulky over all.  So what to take?

I think it is important to consider that you don't want your shave experience to suffer, so take what works well.  If you can, leave your lovely ceramic bowls and scuttles behind, and face lather.  Bring one quality soap that leaves your skin in a very happy place, that way you may not need a balm or lotion to finish.  Do bring a small brush and a single razor, but multiple blades.  A synthetic brush is ideal for travel as it is quicker drying.  By considering your shaving equipment carefully, you can limit your baggage to a manageable level (I had a single bag to take with me, limited in space).  

I have taken with me:

Merkur 39C
Astra Superior Platinum Blades
Phoenix & Beau Citra Royale
Body Shop Synthetic Brush

And that is it.  My shave is great, my skin feels superb and my overnight bag still has space for anything I want to bring back with me.  Next time you travel, think critically about your shave, you may surprise yourself about what you truly need.

REVIEW - Faena Mastic Tree Shave Soap

WHAT IS IT, AND WHAT DOES IT DO?
Faena 'Mastic Tree' - 100% vegetable soap.  If I need to tell you what a shave soap does, well, I think we need to start at the beginning!

APPLICATION METHOD AND DESCRIPTION:
It's simple.  I choose not to bloom the soap as it is very soft (I moulded the puck with my thumb to fit the pot without any issue at all), a quick 10-15 seconds load on the brush and away to the bowl we go.  Once built, I tend to lightly swirl on my face, then paint to get it even.

SCENT:
The scent to me was the original drawing point to the soap.  I had never heard of, nor smelled a mastic tree in my life.  This of course piqued my interests, aroused my suspicions as to what it could smell like.  Well, when it arrived, I had no expectation, so opened the pot and took a long slow inhale.  I was very pleasantly surprised to find a fresh, heady scent, reminiscent of a herb garden (think rosemary) with a hint of cut grass.  All together a very inviting, summery scent that could quite literally be found if you were to shave in your herb garden.  Very subtle when lathered and on the face.

LATHERABILITY:
With a quick 10-15 second load on my Body Shop synthetic brush, I got an copious amount of pre lather, thick and chewy in texture.  In the bowl, it took a reasonable amount of water to make a yoghurty lather that was almost bereft of bubbles from the outset.  A very pleasant soap to lather.

 
PERFORMANCE:
I had high expectations from the naming of the product (Premium Handmade Shaving Soap), and for the most part, I agree.  The lather is rich and creamy, providing more than adequate cushion against the blade.  In terms of glide, the performance is not bad at all, very similar (if not identical) performance to other all vegetable soaps I own.  It could use a little more glide, but it is not lacking, as the shave is performed without issue.

When a preshave oil (in this case olive oil) was used, the glide was perfect, nothing to note that could deduct points so to speak.

POST SHAVE:
This is one of the most important factors for me in a soap, particularly on days where I don't want to wear a fragrance.  I found that with the Faena, I didn't get the best post shave finish (when using the soap on its own), I got a mild amount of dryness/tightness after the shave.  I get this with just about all vegetable based soaps, and some of the cheaper tallow soaps.  Granted, I can negate this dryness with some balm, but it's worth noting that there must be something causing the dryness (comparable to that I get with Palmolive Sticks).  I suspect it could do with either some more glycerin or another ingredient to enhance the post shave feel.

When used in conjunction with a simple preshave oil, the post shave finish is absolutely spot on, cannot fault in any way the feeling on the skin.  It seems perfectly at home with a simple olive oil rub prior to lathering, in keeping with the Greek origin, my olive oil was of Greek origin.  Lovely stuff.

CONCLUSIVE COMMENTS:
Well, it's an unusual position I find myself in.  I love the scent, I love the lather and in shave performance.  I'm not 100% certain on the post shave finish, given what I know is out there.  I'm not put off mind, as I know I can rectify the finish with a little balm or use of a preshave oil, so that one downside is a bit of a moot point.  Would I buy it again?  I would, as the scent is wonderful for summer or an evening shave, very fresh and the performance is good overall.

REVIEW - RazoRock 'Bazooka' Double Edged Razor

WHAT IS IT, AND WHAT DOES IT DO?
RazoRock Bazooka DE Razor

It is a double edged safety razor, that shaves your boat race.

DESCRIPTION:
Bazooka by name, Bazooka by nature.  You can understand why it inherited the name it has when you first lay eyes on the razor.  It is one huge hunk of metal.  It is a heavy piece of metal too.

The handle is a solid stainless steel beast, nicely knurled and very solid.  It adds some heft to the razor, allowing it to tip the scales at 5.6 ounces.  It is not a long handle, rather it allows the razor overall to stand at a not so lofty 3 11/32 inches.  The steel is polished in non knurled areas, and has a slightly rounded base.

Size comparison here, against my Merkur 39C (top) and an Edwin Jagger DE89 variant (bottom):

The head is of a closed comb design, and appears to be a plated pot metal, probably zamak.  It is etched with the RazoRock logo on the top cap.  Whilst the plating and overall finish of the two head pieces isn't up there with the likes of Edwin Jagger, Muhle and Merkur, it is not bad.  The cap allows for reasonable blade alignment, nothing that would detract from the quality of the shave.

CONCLUSIVE COMMENTS:
I was looking for a razor that was different from my slant, but emulated one of the properties I loved about a Mongoose, the hefty weight.  This razor delivers in that department well!  It is a joy to hold and a joy to shave with.  The weight of the razor allows you to shave well with no pressure.  It has a good amount of blade exposure, enough so that the blade almost sings as it slices through your whiskers.  I first thought the short stature of the razor would present a problem, but I am glad to say it was not to be.  Did it blow me away in any way?  Well yes it did, the quality of the shave was superb.  A fresh Astra Superior Stainless blade allowed for a close, but drama free shave.  In one pass, it gets closer than my slantbar razor, not something I expected from what has to be considered a budget razor.  Budget you say?  Yes.  It comes in for less than twenty Imperial Credits of the Realm.  For a solid, quality stainless steel handle, and a nice shaving head, you'd expect to pay more.

REVIEW - RazoRock 'The Monster' 26mm Plissoft Brush

WHAT IS IT, AND WHAT DOES IT DO?

RazoRock 'Monster' 26mm Plissoft Brush.  It is a brush for lathering shaving software.

APPLICATION METHOD AND DESCRIPTION:
I'll start with the description.  It is a substantial bit of kit.  Solid, well made and well presented.  It arrived in a RazoRock branded box, which looks classy.  

When you take the brush out of the box, you immediately notice two things.  The size and the weight.  It is a heavy brush in comparison to my Omega 48 and Body Shop Synthetic.  It is also large, very large.  It dwarfs my Body Shop Synthetic in knot size and heft.  It is rubbing shoulders in terms of size with the Omega as can be seen below.

The knot itself is very dense, and very soft.  It has immensely soft tips, with a sensible amount of backbone to the bristles.  The handle is a solid resin affair, very hefty, nicely polished and patterned with what appears to be a wood grain effect.

I find it best to dampen the brush lightly then load accordingly, adding water to achieve the desired lather as opposed to starting with it overly wet.

CONCLUSIVE COMMENTS:
Well, this is interesting.  I've enjoyed using large brushes and I've enjoyed using smaller brushes.  My first impression beyond size and weight was just how soft the tips are.  They make my other synthetics seem scritchy in comparison.  It is a very pleasant brush to apply to your face if you like soft brushes.  If you like the scritch of a boar or lower grade badger, this may not be the brush for you.  If you like holding a substantial handle, this will be right up your alley.  To coin my initial SOTD using this brush, it rips a hole in both the soap and the space/time continuum!

It is a very capable bowl lathering brush, whipping up oodles of lather from creams, croaps and hard soaps alike.  It is also at home face lathering.  I must say, I prefer using it to bowl lather, but that's all personal preference.

Did I mention the price yet?  No.  Well, it can be had from Shaving Station for a very reasonable £17.49.  Bargain?  Oh yes, of a monstrous size!