Razor: DS Cosmetic DS-D8 on a RazoRock barber pole handle
Blade: Feather
Brush: Yaqi 24mm High Mountain Silvertip
Soap: Viking Soap Fjord
Aftershave: Clubman Pinaud Reserve Gent’s Gin
Other: Thirsty Badger lather bowl, Jaguar Pace EDT
Thursday, man this week is flying by, probably because I’m enjoying a week off work. I had a good batch of holidays sitting unused because, well, covid, so I figured I could use the break. I’ve been pretty much chilling at home and enjoying the stay-cation. Today I wanted sometime bright and fresh to suit my mood. This is the setup I picked.
I picked up this Viking Soap a short time ago as I wanted a soap to match the Armani Acqua Di Gio fragrance I have. The description says it is loosely based on that fragrance. In smelling it I’d say it is fairly bang on as far as soap fragrances can go. It is fresh, bright and aquatic. Scent strength is on the stronger side of medium which I really appreciate for this style of scent. It has been quite some time since I last tried a Viking soap so this vegan base was an interesting den addition. It doesn’t blow you away with rich creamy lather performance but it does load and lather very easily, has decent slickness (lathered and residual) and didn’t dry me out on the post shave. More than adequate and no complaints.
I’ve really been reaching for this DS Cosmetic DS-D8 razor a lot lately. This is apparently very close to the RazoRock game changer but with a scalloped top cap and a .70 blade gap. I’ve never used that razor but I’m becoming a big fan of this one. It is mild enough that I can get away with tricky areas on my skin I can’t do with other razors (ATG under my nose for example) but still efficient enough I can get BBS on a 3 pass shave. I even dropped a feather blade in this today which has a tendency to tear me up and had no issues at all.
For an aftershave today I grabbed this Gent’s Gin splash from the Reserve line of Clubman aftershaves. I grabbed a few of the reserve splashes a while back to fill a shopping cart. This splash is interesting to me but I’m not sure it is a win or not. Off the top it is a bright citrus which I really like but then it hits that juniper note and I’m totally turned off. Finally it rounds out and you get more of the cedar and I enjoy it again. If it stuck around at this point I’d probably be good to go but it then fades out fast and the skin performance on this isn’t much. So I’ll leave this one at interesting and see if my opinion changes as I use it a bit more.
Since the splash was gone in a flash, I pulled a frag today. The easy choice would have been matching with Aqua Di Gio but I’ve really been enjoying the Jaguar Pace of late. This is an easy pull out of the shower, it smells like a really clean and slightly peppery shower gel. It carries close to the skin for quite a while but isn’t a monster performer past the first 30 minutes or so. Honestly for this profile of fragrance, that is damn near perfect and always a versatile choice.
A great shave today, but honestly, are there any bad shaves when on vacation?
All for now – J
