Razor: Wade & Butcher 13/16″ Near Wedge
Brush: Rubbertset 43-3 24mm 2 Band Fan Knot (restored by Reyes Restores)
Soap: Mike’s Natural Soaps
Other: Barrister and Mann Terrorade Cooling Additive, Rumble 59 Schmiere Limited Edition Lucky No 7 Pomade, Zoha Aroma Mafioso EDT
There has been one item I have wanted since I started wet shaving… a Rubberset barber style 43-3 shaving brush. I’ve always loved the look of this brush. Natural wood handle, tall and thin with the jet black top and the name inset in a classic style. I have been on the hunt for one for quite some time and came across one in serviceable shape on E-Bay. The wood was worn down a bit but the lettering was still in fantastic shape so I decided to pull the trigger. Upon receiving it, I knew it needed a bit more TLC to bring it back to life. I knew just the guy, JR Reyes from Reyes Restores. I’ve known JR for a while now and he has been super helpful in getting me set up to do a few restores of my own. Knowing this was a holy grail brush for me, I wanted to send it to him to work his magic on instead of risking screwing it up myself. A few days ago, I got this mail call and couldn’t be more pleased. The brush looks absolutely stunning. It came back without knot (as per my direction) but the socket prepped, levelled and ready to go. Handle was cleaned up, re-finished and the lettering was all brought back to life. I dropped this 24mm 2 band into it and I’m still in awe of how this classic came out. I can’t thank you enough JR.
For the software I opted for my own take on Coconut Creeper. For those that aren’t familiar, Coconut Creeper was a release from The Holy Black. They do amazing marketing and packaging but I’ve always been left wanting by the performance. That combined with the high price they demand and the limited availability, I’ve always stayed away from their releases. I do love a good chill and a great coconut scent so I just pulled that vibe off with other artisan products I love. First I lathered up this Coconut shave soap from Mike’s Natural Soaps. You rarely hear from them but Mike makes a really good soap. This is a really nice raw coconut scent with a creamy vanilla base. It loads and lathers easily and you get a really great performing lather. Great cushion and slickness and post shave is good enough that you don’t need a post shave. Not having a Coconut splash I opted to skip one today. For the cooling aspect I added about 5 drops of Terrorade to the lather while I was working it. Terrorade is an artificial coolant released from Barrister and Mann. This gives you a cooling of a menthol with none of the mint scent and instead of that immediate punch of burning cold, you get that slow build to chill. It creeps up on you (that is why Holy Black calls their cooling soaps creepers). I’ve been mostly using these drops mixed with splash but I think they actually work even better mixed in lather. By the time your 3 pass shave is done you have that nice cooling with none of the offending menthol scent. I really dig it.
I was chatting with Dave Cali last night on Instagram last night and he kind of inspired this shave. If you don’t know Dave you should check him out on Instagram and Youtube. He does some great content talking about shaving, beard and hair products and fragrances. He is a stand up dude and his reviews are awesome. With that in mind, I wanted to pair this shave up with both a hair product and a fragrance. The hair product was a no brainer. I’ve been really digging my Schmiere cherry pomade so I grabbed another, this offering in Coconut scent. This particular pomade has a Petrolatum base and was very easy to use. The subtle coconut scent was the perfect touch.
The fragrance, Mafioso from Zoha Aroma is a dupe of Xerjoff Don. While not a coconut scent it has notes of Gun Powder, Cuban Tobacco, Whiskey, Molasses, and Spun Sugar. It has a wonderful boozy sweetness that really worked with that sweet coconut vibe.
An awesome shave today. Smelling like an absolute boss. All for now – J
