Shave Of The Week - 21st Nov '10

So thanks this week to Ryan on B&B for helping me pick out this weeks shave. I was looking for something luxurious and feminine and he made all the right choices!
Here's the set-up:

- Mama Bear's Pearberry Shaving Soap

- Badger and Blade Limited Edition 2006 Finest Silvertip Badger Brush

- Wade and Butcher straight with cameo-style scales

- Vintage paddle strop 

Okay while typing this I just realised that the soap is not the scent Ryan suggested for me - sorry Ryan!

Firstly a bit about the brush. I won this as part of a competition on B&B and it came with a matching DE razor. It's a lovely brush and the handle is stunning but this was my first time using it and I just couldn't get a good lather from it. I'm sure this is just due to my inexperience with the brush but it just goes to show how different brushes take different techniques. The bristles are incredibly soft and seem to have no backbone to them at all which I found tricky to get used to . I didn't want to be applying too much pressure but they just smushed down on my leg while I was trying to build the lather. I should note that I leg-lather. This means that I load the brush with soap or cream and then swirl it on my leg, creating my lather directly on my skin. This is opposed to bowl-lathering; where the lather is built in a bowl and then just spread on the skin. I must try bowl lathering with this brush until I get it figured out. I couldn't work out if I was using too little product or too much water. The lather seemed runny and thin yet I've used this soap before and had no problems with it so I'm lead to believe that it's the brush that's causing me problems. I got a poor lather worked up this week but the shave was still fairly close and smooth. Not very cushioned though and I could feel the blade drag a tiny bit in parts.

As for the soap - I love this smell. It's sweet and fruity and sort of like candy but not overly sickly either. The scent doesn't last very long and while, as I mentioned, this soap normally gives me a good lather, this week it just wasn't happening.

The straight is lovely and it is shaaaa-aaarp! It was honed by ShavedZombie (a member on B&B) and this is the sharpest straight I own I think. Wade and Butcher are a well known and well loved make of straight and the quality of the steel is top-notch. Feeling my legs now 12 hours after shaving and they are still smooth with zero hints of stubble. I also love the scales on this straight. Here's a picture that shows some of the detail of the scales as well as the bottom of the brush:

So though the lather was poor the shave was luxurious and contained some wonderful things. Once I have perfected using this brush I think it will become a favourite and maybe it just needs a bit of re-breaking in. I also tried again to shave under my arms with a straight (why I keep trying is beyond me but I guess I'm just a stubborn glutton for punishment!). Anyway I actually got a okayish half-ass job done of it but it's safe to say that shaving under your arm, using your wrong hand, with a large sharp piece of metal is not advised. I got a little nick under there unsurprisingly! Don't try this at home!

- BE