Razor: Merkur 37c
Blade: Permasharp
Brush: DS Cosmetic Synthetic
Soap: Wholly Kaw Jamestown Gentleman
Aftershave: Wholly Kaw Jamestown Gentleman Spash
I picked up a few new-to-me items in a bit of a den swap recently. I traded a few things that weren’t getting any use for a few things that I thought would be interesting to try. This Wholly Kaw set (in Tallow base) was one of the sets I picked up.
The scent on this is described as “A masculine scent with the fresh and clean notes of bergamot, lavender and neroli, light florals, sweet powdery notes, musk, amber, precious wood and tobacco flower notes.” To my nose, the description was off. I get a powdery floural scent. The musk, amber and wood notes are taken over by the floural notes. It’s not really a scent for me. Scent strength was just a touch over medium. If you like a slightly floural scent, this may work fine for you.
I can say the performance was decent enough. It does feel a bit dated compared to their newer Tallow with milk base that I’ve tried. It loads quiet easily and lathered quite well, even with this DS Cosmetic brush which is NOT my favourite brush. I love the look of it but the knot just feels fake and cheap. A little more patience and I was able to get a nice rich lather. Slickness was really good, so good I had trouble holding the razor. (The Merkur handle really could use some deeper knurling). Residual slickness was also good. Post-shave is where you can really tell the difference from the newer base, skin is left feeling a touch dry on this one.
I finished up with the matching splash. The scent on this was a good match but to my nose not quite identical. The floral notes were a bit softer, which was actually quite nice. A good quick burn from the alcohol base but nothing overwhelming. Not my favourite shave, but still hard to argue with the result, a DFS.
