Razor: Haward Safety Razor
Blade: Gillette Nacet
Brush: Oz Shaving Synthetic
Soap: Catie’s Bubbles Le Marché du Rasage
Aftershave: Catie’s Bubbles Le Marché du Rasage
Other: Thirsty Badger lather bowl
In wet shaving, it is easy to get pulled in by the new and fancy products being released. Upgraded soap bases with exotic butters, milks, tallows and oils. Stunning labels with a fully developed story line for the product, all things that grab your attention. In the wake, you forget some of the other artisans with really great product. Catie’s Bubbles is one of those artisans for me. It had been quite a while since I used a CB product, so long that I forgot how good it can be. I picked this set up in a trade as I was looking to add a good aquatic scent to the den and this one fit the bill. I’m sure glad I did.
Catie’s Bubbles is a fantastic performing soap base. It is incredibly easy to lather, I hit this with a damp brush and the lather just exploded off the tub. Scent on this is mid strong off the puck and stays that way thru the lather. As I mentioned above, this set is an aquatic scent blending two popular aquatic scents (I believe Davidoff Cool Water and Acqua di Gio) over a base of Oakmoss. It is a really nice take, not quite as bright as the two aquatics, but still a very nice blend. As such it would pair well with either of those colognes. Cushion is excellent, slickness (residual and lathered) is very good and I found the post shave to also be very good. Given the scent on this, you could wear this pretty much anywhere at anytime. The matching aftershave also performs very well. This is a skin rich formula with a very subtle amount of alcohol. I got a great post shave feel today, an outstanding shave.
Of course my SOTD wouldn’t be complete without mentioning this new, stunning brush I picked up from Oz Shaving. I love the look of it and it is very comfortable. I ordered it without a knot as I had a couple of these brown synthetic knots from Maggards en route. This particular handle took a 24mm knot. I typically would have set this a touch deeper but I didn’t really want to re-work the knot hole and I figured it would give me a bit different feel from the other 24mm’s I have. It is slightly floppy but still has decent backbone and performed like a champ. I’m a huge fan of this knot (I have used it in another reknot that I will be showcasing in a future SOTD). My only knock on this handle is the lack of a maker coin, I really like having that to identify who did all the hard work.
All for now – J
