Razor: Razorock SLOC 2.0
Blade: Voskhod
Brush: Sloyd Synthetic
Soap: Ariana & Evans Uno
Aftershave: Ariana & Evans Uno Splash
Day 5 of #7DaysofBarbershop. A barbershop week wouldn’t be complete without an appearance of one of my favourite soapmakers, Ariana & Evans/The Club. You might be thinking the go to barbershop from A&E would be Barbiere Sofisticato and you wouldn’t be wrong, I have it, it’s wonderful. But today I opted to go a different route using A&E Uno.
Uno is a collaboration between A&E and Grey Matter Parfums. Scent notes on this are bergamot, vetiver, leather, geranium, lavender, patchouli, and cedar. This is a fantastic cologne take on a barbershop. Gone is the anise from the some of my earlier barbershops. This has a nice initial citrus brightness, a touch of floral and a grassy/earthiness over that solid cedar base. This is so good it could easily be a signature scent.
Anyone that has followed this blog knows how I feel about the A&E/Club base. Both the soap and aftershave bases are elite level good. It scores high on all the areas of cushion, slickness and post shave. The one thing to note is that A&E/Club soaps almost always bring scent strength to the table, so if you like the strong scents, add some of their products to your den today.
I did want to talk about the razor today a bit. I’ve always been a big fan of the Yaqi Mellon (same razor as the Razorock SLOC), it is probably the razor I use the most. When I noticed Razorock had released a new CNC version of this razor, I had to have it. I received it a short time ago and have now used it for several shaves. Honestly, it is a bit of a let down for me, it shaves nothing like the original SLOC/Mellon. The head of the razor is 6066 Aluminum and the handle is 316L Stainless Steel. Given the material differences, the balance is all wonky. I need to avoid aluminum razors as the light weight always gives me issues. The head itself is on the aggressive side and with the weight, I find it difficult to get a comfortable close shave with it. I find I’m either putting too much pressure and getting irritation, or not enough and not getting a close shave. And while the CNC and polish work on the bomb tip handle is stunning, the razor head isn’t quite as nice on the finishing. It’s too bad as I think the Mellon/OG SLOC head is a fantastic performer. I’d love to see that same geometry design in a full stainless razor.
Oh well, you can’t win them all…… but I will keep trying 🙂 Catch you later – J