REVIEW - Phoenix & Beau 'Spitfire' Soap

WHAT IS IT, AND WHAT DOES IT DO?
Phoenix & Beau Spitfire - A tallow shaving soap with the apparent ability to bend time.

APPLICATION METHOD AND DESCRIPTION:

SCENT:
When the soap was announced, I almost anticipated the profile as it was delivered.  I expected leather, and tobacco, but not so much the gin (juniper).  It makes perfect sense, the sharpness penetrates the smooth leather to bring balance to the profile.  The tobacco is almost a supporting scent to my nose, acting as a mixer if you will.  All in all, it evokes the true spirit that must have existed in the squadrons of pilots who so bravely piloted Reginald Mitchell's masterpiece (Reginald Mitchell is a local hero around these parts, Stoke on Trent).  This is top draw scent profiling, I can see EXACTLY what Kerry was aiming for here.  One thing to note, like many soaps that are a great blend of fragrances, face lathering changes how you perceive them.  Try it, I personally love how it changes this scent, bringing to me, more tobacco to the front.

LATHERABILITY:
I tested this soap with various brushes in both the bowl and on my face, and find this soap to be on par with the rest of the P&B range.  Easy to load, easy to build, and almost foolproof.  It doesn't take long at all to get a bowl or face full of rich, dense lather at all.  Top marks yet again Kerry, guard this soap recipe with your life!

PERFORMANCE:
Excuse the Uncle Albert moment here, but during the war, you needed an airplane that could do it all, and do it all well.  During a shave, you need that too.  This soap (as I've come to expect from P&B) delivers in spades in terms of slickness and in cushion.  The soap allows the blade to glide across the face with almost reckless abandon, it is that good.  I wouldn't of course recommend complacency when using any soap, but you get that level of reassurance that when you're feeling the results of the mess hall from the night before, Spitfire will guide you through the dogfight and safely out the other side.

POST SHAVE:
When you have a great shave, you feel good, and when your skin feels good post shave, you feel even better.  Here we have a soap that delivers that feel, gives that glorious finish that really shouldn't be possible given what your skin has been through. 

CONCLUSIVE COMMENTS:
We traditional wet shavers enjoy our shave.  We enjoy not only the act of shaving, but the ritual and experience that come along with it.  There is an experience to be had here that is very different from other soaps.  Whilst some soaps have the ability to evoke powerful memories, this soap appears to have the ability to bend the space/time continuum.  You're transported to a time gone by when men were men, when you stared death in the face and radioed back to base to 'cancel two late lunches', when Britain was truly Great.  The soap itself is fantastic, the scent nostalgic, the experience?  Magical. 

REVIEW - Phoenix & Beau TSR Limited Edition 'Obsidian'

WHAT IS IT, AND WHAT DOES IT DO?
Phoenix & Beau 'TSR Limited Edition' Obsidian - It is a shave soap that invokes ancient Gods...

APPLICATION METHOD AND DESCRIPTION:
As I've come to find with all Phoenix & Beau soaps, it is a moderately soft soap, which means it loads very easily, so a shortish load (brush dependent) and you're golden.

SCENT:
I inhaled slowly from the tub and got a hit of the dirty, wet vetiver, with a hint of sweetness that I suspect was the frankincense coming through, with the almost fern like oakmoss hitting you last.  Very primal scents.  I proceeded to make a lather in the bowl with The Monster, and quickly found that the lather is of typical P&B excellence.  The scent changes in the bowl, mellowing if you will, becoming more balanced.  Upon the face, the earthiness strikes you first and foremost, with an image of smoky fire being conjoured as the complex scents dance their mystical way up your nose. 

What struck me as I'd finished the shave was the scent changed again.  Any remains of the scent left on my skin warmed to provide a woody, almost musky aroma.  A very pleasant, but unexpected twist to the dark tale of Obsidian.

A simply stunning profile of scents here, make no mistake.  I'll use this one sparingly so as not to run out...either that or I shall have to cross Kerry's palm with mucho silver and make offerings to various deities to obtain more!

LATHERABILITY:
As briefly mentioned earlier, the whole range of P&B soaps are incredibly easy to lather.  They are fairly soft soaps, so even the softest of bristles won't fail to take plenty of product.  Again, P&B is thirsty soap, so ample water is needed during the build once you've created your proto lather which is nice and elastic.  Even the greenest of wet shavers won't fail to get a good lather with this soap.

PERFORMANCE:
Unlike the moniker of this soap, there is plenty of cushion on hand with this soap, ideal for sharper blades.  When it comes to slickness, you'll find it here in abundance.  Put it this way, you thought a politicians shoulders were slick given what slides off them, they haven't got a patch on P&B soap lather!  I've found the overall shave performance quite simply sublime throughout, from the first pass with heavy growth, right down to the ATG pass in my trouble spots.  Nay a hair of drama.  Perfect.

POST SHAVE:
You'll have noticed by now from reading my reviews, that Post Shave Finish is one of my primary factors when considering a soap purchase.  Given the base soap is the great P&B tallow formula, I knew up front I was in for a treat, and I was not mistaken.  As a pleasant afternote, the warmer woody scents developed once I'd rinsed and dried my face, always a nice touch.

CONCLUSIVE COMMENTS:
I think Kerry and I need to have a 'Godfather' type moment, where I sit him down and make him an offer he can't refuse to make more of this soap (sadly a limited edition run of 50 tubs).  This is quite simply exquisite.  The imagery the name and scents invoke are quite spellbinding.  As a younger gentleman (33), previously I wouldn't have thought the scent profile would have been my particular brand of single malt so to speak, but I was captivated by the promised profile.  The performance cannot be questioned, Phoenix & Beau soaps sit atop the podium for me in every way, Obsidian is no exception.

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!

Shave of the Day - A Memorial Shave

Welcome to Sorrell Shaves

Today is a hard day for me, as it marks the sixth anniversary of the day we lost my dad.  He was a great man, who taught me many things, one of which was shaving.

 

I started out at a tender young age, finding whatever razors were around at the time (usually BIC disposables, the horrible orange plastic things) and hacking away at the fuzz emanating from my young face.  When my dad cottoned on, he taught me the ways.  I started out with what I recall being a Gillette Red Tip, only to migrate to a Gillette Sensor Excel, a Gillette Mach 3 and on occasion when I was out of blades, my dads Wilkinson Sword Quattro.

That brings me on to todays shave.  With six years passing, I'd not been able to bring myself to use my dads razor, but it is something left to me and it is something he'd want me to do.  So, with that in mind, this last week I set about obtaining the things I needed to replicate a typical shave of my dads.  I had his razor handle (Wilkinson Sword Quattro), and his old brush (another Wilkinson Sword brush).  He was a regular user of either L'Occitane Cade soap or the Wilkinson Blue Bowl soap.  I had also been left his old L'Occitane bowl but this was beyond use due to corrosion, so I purchased a replacement.  Sadly, the Cade soap has been discontinued, but I had a Wilkinson Blue Bowl soap in my collection already.  I simply put the puck in the L'Occitane bowl, an acceptable hybrid of items.  I purchased Quattro Titanium blades for the first time, £7 for four cartridges!  I remembered well his use of two splashes as I grew up, Brut and Old Spice.  I had the Old Spice in my cupboard too.  I added the Phoenix & Beau Balm as I know he would have sung it's praises highly.

With that, I prepared in my usual manner with a hot towel whilst the brush soaked.  I loaded the brush heavily on the puck as I was going to face lather today.  I took the time to lather whilst I contemplated the vast amount of happy memories, and it felt like my dad was standing there with me, like the first time he showed me how to lather.  I took the razor to my face, and found that the shave passed quickly and without drama.  I performed a two pass shave as my dad taught when I was a youngster, first with, then against the grain.  The razor gave a very good shave, close and smooth.  I did have to load the brush again for the second pass, but this is typical of the small knotted brush.  Once the shave was finished, I performed my cold towel session, then finished with the balm and splash.  A good shave was had today, it was a nice way to remember my dad on this hard day.

Hot Towel, Wilkinson Sword Blue Bowl Soap, Wilkinson Sword Boar, Wilkinson Sword Quattro, Wilkinson Sword Quattro Titanium (1), Cold Towel, Phoenix & Beau Balm, Old Spice