Razor: ALE 9/8″ 1/2 hollow
Brush: Copper Hat Synthetic
Soap: Arsenal Grooming Beach Goer
Other: Thirsty Badger lather bowl
Along with this beautiful ALE razor (on it’s second use) I did add a few other things to the den this week. I came across this new artisan, Arsenal Grooming, while doing some Instagram browsing. The labels instantly caught my eye (take note artisans…. packaging matters). I love this vintage/retro inspired look they have going on. So many of them spoke to me so I just had to place an order. By the sounds of things, I was the first one to order something North of the border.
I grabbed two soaps (the artisan tossed in a third for being an early adopter North of the border, yay!) and this is the one that instantly jumped out at me from the tub. Birds of Paradise, Coconut Blossom, Bergamot, Tuberose, Labdanum, Orange, Pear, Amber, and Suede are the notes. This has blended wonderfully into a perfect summer scent. (yeah, its -40°C and just dumped several inches of snow, but I break a rule every now and then) The label on the front really points out the notes you pick up the most: orange, coconut and pear. The scent pops like a perfect blend of the three. Scent strength is on the lighter side of medium, which is pretty much standard for all citrus/summer soaps to my nose.
The soap itself is a fairly simple tallow/coconut oil/stearic acid base, a fairly hard soap. It loads and lathers quite easily and is on the thirsty side for sure. Surprisingly, for a simple base, this performed quite well. The lather was higher volume and structure and had a rich buttery feel to it. Cushion was excellent, slickness lathered and residual were very good. No issues with the straight razor at all. Where the base could use a bit of improvement was on the post shave, which was average. I wouldn’t say it was drying but I wouldn’t skip a post shave, especially in this weather. Unfortunately they don’t have any matching post shave products… yet, they say that is on the way. For now I opted for an unscented balm to fill the gap. I’m hoping I’ll be able to get a matching splash in the near future.
Had a great shave today, no complaints and I can already feel myself getting more comfortable with the ALE razor. That is a great sign because I really like showing it off 🙂
All for now – J
