Razor: Fatip Piccolo Special Edition
Blade: Gillette Rubie
Brush: Paul Daniel Synthetic
Soap: The Club The City (Never Sleeps)
Aftershave: The Club The City (Never Sleeps) splash
Other: Thirsty Badger lather bowl
A bit late today posting my morning shave but it was such a good one I didn’t want to skip the post…..
First off, how about that brush? I recently look a lathe class at our local maker space (https://saskatoonmakerspace.com). Paul was my instructor for the class. I enjoyed getting reacquainted with the machine and the tools and was able to turn a nice little bowl from my class. After the class, as often the case, I got to talking about shaving. We talked about old school razors, straights and shaving brushes. He was quite interested in the shaving brushes and thinking about trying to make a few to test the waters for an upcoming craft show he is taking part off. Luckily I had a selection of knots I had picked up for testing and re-knotting of vintage brushes. I offered them to him to give it a try. I said instead of paying me for the knots, just make me a brush. I gave him a knot, a loft, and no other direction. What you see pictured is the result. This beauty is a piece of Manitoba maple. The slightly enlarged bulb handle makes it quite comfortable to hold and lather with. The shape would be great for the folks with large paws. The Yaqi synthetic knot set here is a 24mm that has a nice balance of softness and backbone. If I was to buy it again in the future though, I would opt for a 26+mm knot next time. For a first go, this is a fantastic brush and I really hope Paul keeps up with it. If you are on Instagram, give him a follow and see what he is up to.
The soap and splash today was The City from The Club. This is one of the offerings from Peter’s pin up series. It is currently only available to members of the club but he said this one will eventually be available to the Ariana & Evans side of the house. For the artwork, this was easily my favourite in the series. I initially balked at picking it up, scent notes of Sandalwood & Oud just didn’t seem that interesting or different than what I have in my den. At some point this popped up as a trade option from one of the CWS members so I decided to make a deal and give it a go. Man am I glad I did. This scent is fantastic. It is the perfect balance of Sandalwood and Oud. The Sandalwood is a blend of a couple Sandalwood scents (Tunisian & Arabian) which gives it a nice balance of sweetness and earthiness. It isn’t your typical Art of Shaving style Sandalwood. The Oud is described as similar to that of Cambodian Oud, rich and luxurious. Since acquiring this recently I have already used it 6-7 times which is saying a lot if you’ve seen the variety in my den.
I paired it up with the matching splash. Performance on this is great with a nice post shave feel. Scent strength on this and the soap are mid strong and it will carry with you for a while. The scent itself is very versatile. It isn’t overwhelming that would overpower at the office, but it is still sophisticated enough for an evening out or a date night. And given the sandalwood note you would be able to pair this with a lot of different things. I always recommend getting a versatile sandalwood scent in your den but this one is that on an elevated scale. I highly recommend picking a set up if you have the chance. This one is worth getting a Club membership for, it’s that damn good. And to think, I almost passed it up as uninteresting. Thank goodness for fancy labels 😉
