Schaf White Lava Purifying Scrub

Second of my Schaf reviews. A facial scrub is a pretty important part of the wet shave routine. I’ve mentioned on here before that I like two scrubs on hand: one a ‘heavy duty’ scrub, which I’ll only use once a week to really refresh my face before shaving, and a more ‘lightweight’ scrub which I’ll use 2 – 3 other times a week. The Schaf scrub certainly falls into the second category, it is a lightweight scrub, but it is certainly a scrub which gets the job done.

The exfoliating agents are ‘white lava particles’ and ground apricot seed. You can feel them working right away, they both provide a really nice grit to them that means you don’t have to work too much to get a good scrub from it. One of the first things that I noticed about the scrub, which is a theme with the Schaf products, is that there’s very little scent to the scrub at all. In my quest for ‘no scent’ men’s cosmetics, this certainly fits the bill.

The scrub does its job. It exfoliates, rather gently, and prepares the face for a shave while the solution cleans your face. Many scrubs I’ve used leave your face feeling slightly tingly or zippy (you know what I mean with zippy), which can really wake you up in the morning – this scrub doesn’t. This isn’t a complaint, but if you’re looking for a scrub with a “pow!” to it, this isn’t it. On the flip side, that means that this is really the scrub for people with sensitive skin – I would certainly add it to any sensitive skin shaving routine.

There is one thing, and one thing only, that prevents me from giving this a full 5/5: the bottle is annoying. Every time I’ve used this, I’m standing there, I flip open the cap to the bottle, give it a squeeze…. nothing happens. Shake it up, squeeze again… nothing happens. Repeat. On squeezeshake four or five I get a great gob of the stuff in my hands – often more than needed. Now, this isn’t anything to do with the quality of the scrub itself, which is great, but perhaps the engineers over at Schaf could work on a bottle that doesn’t do this. Anyway, that’s my pedantic gripe.

Schaf white lava purifying scrub

Schaf scrub: 4.5/5 (on account of the bottle)

tl;dr: great lightweight scrub, would be excellent for those with sensitive skin

Until next time, be kind to animals.

Taylor of Old Bond Street Rose Bowl

Alright, let’s talk about shaving cream.  As I’ve mentioned, ad nasuem, my skin tends towards the sensitive side.  Many, many of the wet shave brands out there have a ‘sensitive’ line, or sensitive products, but when I first started wet shaving, many sites around the internet recommended rose shaving cream for the sensitive skin.  I’ve gotten a handful of rose creams, and I’ll slowly review them all, but let me just put this out there: the Taylor of Old Bond Street Rose Bowl is, so far, the best cream I’ve ever shaved with.

When you first open the bowl, you’ll notice two things – a dull pink colour, and a faint smell of roses.  Now, the first.  I’m gonna be honest and say when I thought of rose bowls, I was hesitant to try them right away – the idea of covering my face in a pink lather every day did not appeal to me.  This had nothing to do with the colour pink – many of the other varieties of shave cream come coloured, and the idea of lathering my face in a colour of any kind didn’t appeal to me.  If this is a worry of yours, discard it – it whips up into a white lather.  Second, if you’re a regular reader of this blog (any of you out there?) you’ll note I rail against scents all the time.  Not the case here – the faint smell of roses is faint, and, frankly, delightful.  As you lather up the cream it gives a gentile  floral aroma, which is very nice.  If no scent is what you’re looking for, though, this might not be the cream for you.

The TOOB Rose Bowl whips up a nice lather in no time at all.  It takes only a few turns of the brush to start forming a lather, and you get a nice lather very quickly.  It is also one of the easiest creams I’ve ever worked with to lather. It builds a lather very easily and quickly.  It’s got a great consistency, makes nice peaks and an airy cream.  It applies smoothly and uniformly to the face, without bumps.

The shave experience is great.  It creates a nice pillowy lather that really shields the face.  I rarely nick myself with TOOB cream.  While a few nicks and cuts are going to be part of the wet shave experience – even the most seasoned veteran will nick himself from time to time – this cream creates a great protective barrier.

I really enjoy this shave cream.  While I have others I’m testing out, the Rose Bowl has yet to be displaced as my daily shave cream.  It’s really quite enjoyable.

Taylor of Old Bond Street Rose Bowl

 

Taylor of Old Bond Street Rose Shaving Cream: 5/5

tl;dr: fantastic shave cream, my go-to cream. Great cushion, light scent.

eShave Fragrance Free Pre-Shave Oil

No, you don’t update your blog regularly anymore.

The pre-shave is a really important part of the whole shave process.  It softens your whiskers and smooths the skin, helping the razor glide over your skin easier, and makes for a closer and better shave.  I’ve used a few pre-shave treatments in the time I’ve been wet-shaving, and the eShave oil is near the top of my list.

The eShave oil comes in a variety of different scents, but I’ve gone with the scent free, as I don’t particularly like a lot of scent.  The 2 ounce bottle may not seem like a lot, but it goes a long way – you only need a very little oil every time you shave, so the bottle will go a long way.  At retail around $20 for the bottle, that makes it a fairly good deal.

I really like the eShave oil.  It glides on very smoothly, and applies evenly to the face without a lot of effort.  It’s oily (duh), but isn’t so viscous that its dripping all over you and hard to deal with.  It coats my stubble and skin just fine, and makes for a smooth shave.  I have had almost no nicks or cuts using the eShave oil – although, that’s not a scientific finding, as my shaving technique is improving leaps and bounds since I started this blog.

If you shave with a shaving soap, as I sometimes do (although not as much as a shaving cream), besides oiling your face, you can put a drop of the oil into the soap bowl, to help whip up a nice lather that will apply on your face.  While I have a few other pre-shave products I use, I found one of the best uses for the eShave oil was to add to my shaving soap – I strongly recommend using that.

Is the eShave oil the only pre-shave treatment I use?  No.  Buuuuuut that’s because I have a few in my possession and I flip between them on a whim.  I would say that it is my go-to pre-shave treatment, and currently my favourite.  If I reduced down to just one pre-shave, it would certainly be this.

 

eShave pre-shave oil: 5/5

tl;dr: a really excellent pre-shave treatment, suitable for all types of shaving.  A welcome addition to any wet shavers shaving kit.

Until next time (which I hope to return to regular postings), be kind to animals

Proraso White Soap

Proraso, which I’ve reviewed before, is all vegan – so if you’re looking for good vegan shaving products, check them out.  As I mentioned before, my pre-classic wet shave days, I was shaving with a cartridge razor and Proraso white foam, so the shift over to Proraso white soap seemed to be a pretty good, and safe, lateral move.

The Proraso white line is designed for those with sensitive skin.  The white soap is “green tea and oatmeal” which, I guess is good for sensitive skin?  I don’t know.  Well, to start, it was great on my face.  It’s quite nice, its very gentle, and has a nice smell to it.  The scent isn’t overwhelming, but it is present.  I can’t say it smells like green tea or oatmeal, but it’s quite nice.

The soap is nice and even, and didn’t create any uneven bumps or lumps, which I hear some soap does (although I don’t have experience with that).  The soap feels … soapy …. on the skin – it isn’t as thick or foamy as a shaving cream, but it does cover the face nicely.  It leaves your skin feeling clean, and doesn’t either dry out or irritate the skin, so that’s nice.

There’s one downside to the soap – it doesn’t create as much of a thick lather as a shaving cream does.  It takes more effort than I initially expected to create a good lather.  This has meant, on a few times, I have nicked or cut my face when shaving – which hasn’t happened when I’ve shaved with shaving cream.  To be fair, I could work a bit harder to make a thick lather, but who wants to put that much effort in when cream does the job better.

Now.  Proraso white soap retails for around $10 both online and in brick-and-mortar stores, and lasts a pretty long time.  It’s great value for money, and does make a decent shave.  For a few months it was my daily shave, and I now have a tub of the soap kicking around, and still shave with it from time to time.

 

Proraso White

 

Proraso White Soap: 4/5.

tl;dr: a very good and affordable shaving soap that gets the job done, even with a bit of thin lather.

Until next time, be kind to animals.

Muhle Silvertip Synthetic Brush

I was going to start with reviewing some shaving soap or shaving creams, but one of my friends asked about synthetic shaving brushes, so I’ll start with the Muhle synthetic brush I use.  Now, when I first started wet shaving, I walked to the local drug store, picked a $10 synthetic brush off the shelf, and started using it.  It was awful.  It scratched at my face, it dropped bristles all the time, and didn’t apply an even lather.  Many of my wet shaving friends suggested I track down a badger hair brush.

I tried to find an ethically sourced badger hair brush.  I figured there must be one out there.  A great deal of research found one or two companies that claimed their badger hair brushes were “ethical,” but didn’t explain what that I meant.  I was immediately suspicious.  So, a little more digging on the interwebs.  It seems that “ethical” means “Chinese peasants consider badgers a menace, so they kill them for food and sell their pelts to Europeans.”  Uhhh, by no measure is that vegan, and I would argue it’s not at all ethical.

I decided to bite the bullet and invest in a synthetic brush.  Now, I got a medium Muhle silvertip fibre brush, and it cost me $71.50 for the brush.  I can see why people would balk at that price – that’s totally understandable.  Consider this: if you were shopping for a badger hair brush, and you were getting it from one of the well-known brush companies (Muhle, Edwin Jager, etc), you’ll be spending well over $100 – probably over $200.  So, the brush is cost effective.

Wow is it a good brush.  Just wow.  Worth every dollar I spent.  Let’s start with the craftsmanship: the brush is very solidly built.  I’ve been using it for months, and it has not dropped a single bristle (do we use bristles for synthetic brushes?  Is that a thing we can do?), and the knot has stayed together. The handle feels very solid in your hand and provides a nice grasp.  It is constructed excellently, no complaints here.

The brush holds water excellently – I have no frame to compare it to a badger brush, but the brush holds enough water to create a very nice lather very quickly.  The brush holds your cream and distributes it quite nicely across your face.  It’s nice and flexible so you can really whip up those concentric circles on your face.  All in all an excellent brush.  I strongly recommend it.

An excellent vegan shaving brush

 

If you already know how to wet shave, you can stop reading here.  I’m going to give some tips on how to create a good lather below.

First, prep the brush.  The best way to do this is to fill your shaving mug (you have a shaving mug, right?) with hot water, drop the brush in the mug, and have a shower, letting it soak up water.  If you don’t have a shaving mug, you can use any mug you have kicking around (protip: empty the coffee out first).  I suppose you could just fill your sink with hot water and drop the brush into it.  Now, most days, I shave at the gym, so these options aren’t really available to me, so I run hot water over it for twenty to thirty seconds.

After it soaks up water, you want it to not be dripping.  Take the brush out, give it a few quick shakes so it’s not dropping water anymore.  Now, whip up your shaving cream or soap in your bowl / mug, and lather up.

When you’re done shaving, you want to rinse out the brush so it doesn’t have shaving products in it anymore.  If you’re shaving at home, hang it from your brush stand to dry.  You want your brush to dry so it doesn’t smell all musty – it also extends the life of the brush.  If you’re like me, and you don’t frequently shave at home, this presents a problem.  I give my brush a good squeeze and a few shakes (hur hur), and then wrap it in a paper towel and jam it in my shaving kit.  When I get home, I take it out and air dry it until the next morning.  This seems to work for me.

Last thing.  Returning to the Muhle brush – it is an excellent brush, and I have no intention of replacing it anytime soon.  But, if you’re shopping around for a brush, Edwin Jagger makes synthetics as well, and they’re very well respected.  I’ve not tried them, though, so I have nothing to say about them.

Muhle Silvertip Synthetic Shaving Brush: 5/5.  My go-to, every day shaving brush.

tl;dr: this brush is an excellent brush, very well crafted, holds water well, makes a wonderful lather. No complaints here.

Until next time, be kind to animals.

The Whys and Hows of the Wet Shave

Most of the products I will be reviewing on this blog will be classic shaving products.  I use a single-blade safety razor, which is refereed to online as either “DE shaving” (for double edge), “Wet Shaving,” “Traditional Shaving,” etc.  It essentially means ‘shaving without a cartridge razor.’  Because I’ll be reviewing these products, I thought it would be helpful to start with a post on why you should switch to traditional wet shaving.  More importantly, perhaps, I thought I’d provide a “how-to” wet shave.  Now, there are plenty of places on line for a how-to, but I found when I switched, it was hard to get all sorts of tips in one place.  This will be a place where I can offer some tips, but by now means is it exhaustive.

I’ll also talk about a Merkur razor I use, so there’s some sort of review here.

Why wet shave?  I think this is a good place to start, as some people may not be convinced right off the bat.  There are, as far as I can tell, three big reasons – they are at least my reasons.

First, it’s cheaper.  A single razor blade, which will last upwards of a month, if not beyond, costs a few cents.  Depending on how often you change your blade, and what blades you use, you’ll spend between $7 and $10 per year on razor blades.  Much better than the cost of a pack of cartridges.  Shaving cream is also, ounce for ounce (or ml for ml) cheaper than shaving foam in a can, and will last a longer time.  I guess reason one-and-a-half is that shaving cream has a lot less ingredients than shaving foam, and they tend to be natural, non-chemical ingredients.  So that’s probably good.

I want to add a caveat to the ‘it’s cheaper.’  You’ll have to lay out some money at the start in order to get set up.  A razor will cost you money.  A shaving brush will cost you money.  In some cases, a significant amount of money.  But, the will last way, way longer than a shitty plastic razor.  You may have to spend money on a shaving mug as well.  In the long run, though, you’ll shave money with the wet shave.

Second, it provides a much closer shave.  These commercials that say “three blades for a closer shave!” “five blades for a closer shave!” are lying to you.  They just are.  If you learn how to wet shave, and get the technique down, you will have a ‘baby bottom smooth’ shave every single time you shave.  It’s the closest shave I’ve ever had, and is quite lovely.

Third, it doesn’t irritate the skin as much.  When you’re shaving with a cartridge razor, you’re dragging, what, two? three? five? strips of sharpened metal across your skin?  That’s not going to be good for your skin.  This is why men hate shaving – the cartridge razors tug and pull at your beard, multiple blades irritate your skin.  Ugh.  It’s awful.  Switching to wet shaving is much better for anybody who wants to have a nicer feeling shave; its especially better for those with sensitive skin.

Okay.  Part two.  How to Wet Shave.

Step One.  Have a shower or wash your face.  This ensures that your beard is soft and warm, which also assists in opening the pores in your face – this dramatically reduces the chance of razor burn.

Step Two.  Use a pre-shave oil or gel.  It makes the shave easier, adds some lubricant to the face to help the razor glide across the skin, and protects the skin from nicks.

Step Three.  Apply shaving cream or soap with a brush.  Using a brush lifts the whiskers off the face, which makes for a closer shave and reduces razor burn.  It also exfoliates the skin, which is nice.  When you use the brush, you want to swirl it on, moving the brush in circles.  Make sure you get a nice lather – you don’t want to be able to see skin through your cream.

Step Four, the shave.  Always, always, always shave with the grain of your beard.  This ensures a close shave, and it also prevents nicks and razor burn.  You want to go for beard reduction, not beard elimination.  Shave in slow passes, trying to shave across an inch of face with each pass.

A few things to note.  The weight of the razor alone will be enough to shave with.  When you first move from a cartridge razor, this is really hard to get used to.  With a cartridge razor, you have to apply pressure to pull the plastic razor across your face.  If you do this with your new metal razor, you’re going to cut your face to shreds.  I found the best tip to help with this is to simply hold the razor with the thumb and index finger.  This will help you from adding additional pressure.  You’ll also want all the movement to come from your shoulder, not from your wrist.

Finding the right shaving angle is also key.  Too shallow of an angle and you’re not going to cut any of your whiskers.  To deep and you’ll cut into your face, or give yourself razor burn.  Hold the razor so the head of the razor (ie no blade) is touching your cheek.  The handle should be parallel to the floor.  Slowly lower the handle towards your cheek until you first feel the razor against your skin.  The handle of the razor should be at around a 30 degree angle to your cheek.  This is the ideal shaving angle.  Now, with a cartridge, the razor will automatically adjust to your face, meaning you don’t need to keep the angle.  With your new razor, yeah, you’ll need to keep that angle up.  Go slow.  You can keep the angle and get a nice shave.

Step Four Point Five.  Re-lather your face and repeat step four.  Because you’re reducing your beard, and not eliminating it, it takes a few passes to completely shave.  I tend to shave my cheeks twice and my neck three times.  Most online advice says shave three times.  If you do this, you’ll have an incredibly close and nice shave.  It feels great.

Step Five.  Rinse your face with very cold water.  Man does this wake you up and feel refreshing.  Splash cold water on your face.  This helps close your pores.

Step Six.  Deal with your nicks.  You’re probably going to have a few nicks in your face.  Even the most accomplished wet shaver will occasionally cut himself.  Keep a styptic pencil or some alum on hand to quickly close those cuts.

Step Seven.  Use an aftershave.  Aftershaves sooth the skin, help close the pores, and help keep your skin clean.

Okay.  That may seem overwhelming, but trust me, it’s going to be worth it.  You’ll feel great, you’ll save money, and your face will be really, really smooth.

Let’s review something!

I really like Merkur razors, as do a few of my pals, but there are plenty of options.  I’m currently using a Merkur 15C.

 

Merkur 15C

It is solidly constructed, that’s for sure.  Very nice German steel, so it will last for years – if not decades.  It’s very easy to change the blade – the handle unscrews from the top of the blade very easily.  The screwing mechanism stays in place, so it doesn’t ever feel like the razor will fall apart on you.   The razor is really good for sensitive skin.  The comb means you’re protected from slashing at your face and giving yourself razor burn, and you can feel the blade nicely on your skin.

Not a lot more to say about this product, actually.  It’s a very good razor to start with, and excellent if you have sensitive skin.  $40.00 is a great price for it, especially because Merkur is tried and true – it can be a life-long razor.

Merkur 15C: 5/5, my daily go-to razor.

A real product review Tuesday – I promise!