Shave Of The Week - 7th Nov '10

So it'd be wrong to say this SOTW (Shave Of The Week) is made up but some of my least favourite things, but rather it's made up of things that I don't use very often and prefer less to other types. Mainly I'm talking about using a boar brush instead of badger and a cream instead of a soap.
So here's the set-up:

- Gillette Flare-tip razor replated in rose gold

- Boar brush (not one of the higher end ones admittedly but a good worker)

- "Wilks" blades

- Taylor Of Old Bond Street (commonly referred to as TOBS) Eton College Collection Shave Cream

I'm not a boar kind of gal. Some guys love them as the bristles are stiffer and more exfoliating, but I just can't get used to them no matter how much I try. With badgers I know how much water each of my brushes will hold and therefore how much needs to be added to get a good lather, but boars just don't hold water terribly well so the ratios are all different. Using this brush is fine. I've used it many times before and it does the job but there's not the luxury in it that badger provides in my opinion. 

To top that off I decided to use a cream this week. Again, not something I generally do as I like soaps better and man, I sure picked one MANLY smelling cream to use! I'd never used it before but had picked a few TOBS creams up on uber-sale a while back. The lather itself is good and abundant and the scent is one of the strongest I've found.  'Hurrah' you might think, ' You only just mentioned a few posts ago how you love strong scents!', and indeed while sitting here typing I can still smell it on myself. Which is a bad thing. I smell like I've dosed myself in men's aftershave.  Not entirely replusive aftershave I might add (it's no "sex panther" anyway!) but there's nothing I could even vaguely describe as unisex about the scent. Looking at the back of the tube I get no hints as to what the smell is and my nose isn't trained to pick out the notes in it. However the terms "Eton College" and "gentlemen" do seem to fit the scent well. And I'd rather not choke my work mates by trying to mask it with perfume so I will shortly be going into work smelling like a refined gentleman. Oh joy. At least the lather was nice and heavy and cushioning to use.

Onto the razor. This is one beautiful razor and the picture above doesn't do it justice. It's got a fair bit of weight to it which is a little more than is fully comfortable in my hand but it's still a cinch to use and combined with the wilk blade it gave a close irritation-free shave. In fact combine these two with a badger brush and something that doesn't leave me questioning my gender everytime I close my eyes, and it's be a great set-up!

- BE