Razor: Haward Safety Razor
Blade: Feather Platinum
Brush: Aloha Shaving 26mm 3-Band Finest
Soap: Ariana & Evans Cherry Pie
Not too long ago I was lucky enough to be the recipient of a free tub of Cherry Pie created by Ariana & Evans. I was super stoked about this one as I’m a big fan of cherry. When the soap arrived I have to say I was not disappointed. This is a banger of a scent. It offers notes of Cherry, Rum, Oud, Marzipan, Tonka, Brown Sugar. With those notes, you might be thinking this is a very sweet scent but I’d say while it is a touch sweet, that isn’t the central focus of the scent. The cherry is easily the star here, it jumps off the tub with a bright and somewhat tart natural cherry scent. It isn’t fake or artificial like you would get in something like licorice. That bright cherry sits over a bit of a subtle baked cookie sweetness and a boozy yet slightly dark oud base. It is really well done. The scent is for sure on the stronger side of medium. Performance is fantastic, K2e is a fantastic base and while I still have a place in my heart for the pre-Kaizen base, this has taken over as my favourite A&E base. Well done Peter & Co.
The brush is another star in this shave. Recently my friend Ken (aka Shave326, aka Aloha Shaving) started turning brushes. Ken has been very supportive of our company and so I really wanted to add a brush of his to my den. There were also some blanks I had been eyeing up on Etsy (one that matched a razor I had scaled by LatherMeWhiskers) so I reached out to see if Ken wanted to try making a brush handle out of them. I ordered a couple of blanks, sent them his way and said, give it a go… if they don’t work, no worries. When they landed, he immediately went to work. I was very impressed with the care that went into them. These blanks were a bit different than what Ken had been turning thus far but he took up the challenge, learned what he needed to do to stabilize/finish them and the end result is just fantastic. I left the shapes up to him and they definitely are his style. The shape he has chosen is very comfortable in the hand. When Ken completed he offered to send them (you’ll see the second one highlighted in a future SOTD) right away or I could wait for his coin. That was a no-brainer, wait. I said I either wanted coin number 1 or coin number 69. He never did tell me which I got :p The coins took a while to arrive with him but I must say the brushes were worth the wait. I had a couple of knots (this 26mm Boti and a 26mm Cashmere Synthetic for the other) that just worked out perfectly for the handles. I predict seeing these two in the future.
A fantastic shave today. Thanks to Ken for hooking me up with the brushes and thanks to the friend that PIFed me the soap. I appreciate both of you. That is one of the best parts of this hobby, the fantastic people in it.
All for now – J
