Razor: Yaqi DE
Blade: Feather (5th use)
Brush: Rubberset Cashmere Synthetic
Soap: St. James of London Mandarin & Patchouli Cream
Aftershave: Fine Accoutrements Italian Citrus
A quick #samplesaturday shave before we pack up to hit the road for a little Christmas shopping and a showing of the Grinch. I grabbed this sample from St. James of London, London Mandarin & Patchouli. These little sample pouches are fantastic, toss in the old dopp bag for quick travel.
The scent itself if quite nice. I’m a sucker for a Patchouli scent so I was fairly confident I’d be a fan. It opens up nice and bright citrus from the mandarin but quickly reveals the earthy patchouli, slightly softened by the opening. Scent strength is middle of the road, not to strong but pronounced enough to know its there. I find the cream lathered very easily. Very similar to Dr. Harris and TOBS creams. No problem getting a nice dense lather. Much like those other product lines I also find slickness, cushion and postshave to be just average. Not something I would pick up normally with an aggressive razor or a straight. Post shave is quite nice though.
For the razor I dropped my feather in this Yaqi razor head I had on hand. It has been in the den for a while but I’ve only used it a couple times. First impression wasnt great for sure, and today I’d say about the same. I’m not a fan of this razor head. I find it has a larger blade gap than I like, it is a bit aggressive and has a lot of blade feel. Combined with the closed comb/curved head design I find I cant get the angle I like without it feeling sluggish doing passes. I feel like I’m either too steep of an angle causing a lot of blade feel or I’m trying to drag the head pulling lather rather than gliding on the face. I just don’t get a comfortable experience. What I can say is that I ended up with a 3 pass, no cut no wheeper, BBS shave. I’ll have to give this another go with an uberslick lather and see if it changes my opinion because its hard to complain about a BBS shave.
I finished the shave off with Fine Accoutrements Italian Citrus. This homage to Acqua di Parma Colonia is nice and bright citrus. It brought back all the bright notes from the St. James soap. A great pairing.
