And To All A Good Night!

Sorry it's a little late but I hope everyone is well and having lots of festive fun wherever you are and whatever you celebrate!

(apologies to Paulo Rocker for editing his wonderful illustration!)

- BE

Shave Of The Week - 19th Dec '10

Well I had a shave of the week all lined up for this week but then lo and behold I get this wonderful little package in the mail from my friend Randy on B&B. I was so excited to try it I had to give it a go!

Here's the set-up:

- Schick Adjustable Injector
- Injector Blades
- Cremo Cream


I had never tried an injector before and was curious to see what they were all about. I hadn't read too much about them to be honest and so when it arrives I had no clue how to go about loading one. I'm sure plenty of people will laugh at the fact I spent a good 5 minutes trying to figure it out sticking that little metal part of the blade holder into anywhere I thought it could go on the razor and trying to work out which way around it went! The smarter shaver would have just gone on YouTube and found this handy video by Mantic59 but I like a bit of a challenge. Still for those of you curious here's a funny little video showing you how it's done:

So once I had it loaded up, into the bathroom I went. You'll notice them was no brush in my set up and that's because Cremo is a brushless cream. Now again I have no idea if I was using it right or not but I figured I'd just work out this week's shave as I went along! So I took a blob of the Cremo and rubbed it on my leg, thinking it'd burst into lather. It didn't. It was more like spreading a slightly thick lotion onto my wet skin. I was a little unnerved by the lack of visible lather thinking that this essentially translucent thin layer of cream on my skin (was it even really there?) would provide zero protection. I was very wrong. It seemed to provide great protection and my legs felt lovely and smooth and moisturised afterwards. I was very surprised. I had to use quite a bit as I wasn't sure how much was needed or how much was going on as I had nothing to visually compare it too. I might try a little less next time I use this cream. As for the razor. It was GREAT! I almost felt like I was cheating as it was so similar to using a cartridge razor that I didn't even have to think about the shave at all. The "be vigilant" part of my normal routine went out the window and I could daydream away without having to think about angle or pressure.

This is an adjustable razor and I set it to what I believe is the least aggressive setting (the number dial is no longer on the razor so I couldn't tell other than turning it and watching the plate move). I found that my normal long single strokes up the leg weren't really working and instead used shorter multiple "buffing" passed up the leg which is why I felt it was so similar to a shaving with a cartridge. In saying that I didn't have to go over the same areas over and over or anything. Using short strokes and working upwards (against the grain as I always do) I got an incredibly silky smooth and irritation-free shave quickly and without the need for more than a couple of touch ups to get missed areas. Even going over the knee was super-easy, and that's normally one of the tricky areas as any DE woman will tell you (or any straight razor using woman, but they're a rarer breed. You need to set out traps of chocolate and a nice shiny custom made worked frameback razor in order to catch one of these!).

Were the injector blades more readily available I could see this becoming my go-to razor when I'm in a hurry. For now though I'll save the blade and see if I can buy them in bulk somewhere. As always next week will be a new shave for a new week but I can see me returning to this one again very shortly to see how it performs with a more "traditional" lather.

- BE

Shave Of The Fortnight! - 12th Dec '10

It's been a hectic two weeks and apologies for being so quiet. I had a funeral to go to and some visitors from Dublin. So, to give myself and my legs a nice treat considering the damage done in the last SOTW I used a nice safe bet for this fortnight to right my shavely wrongs.

Here's the set-up:

- Gentlemen's Best "Signature Series" shaving cream

- Gillette 7 O'clock blades

- Badger brush

- Gillette Super Speed razor 

I love everything about this set up. The brush is great and so reliable regardless of if I'm using a soap or a cream. This cream is also great, it's quite thick and I actually use it like I would a soft soap. I just load my brush in the container and then leg lather. The lather is great and so, so slick with a lovely mild smell that is neither overpowering, nor does it linger on. The lather is easy to create and doesn't require any extra water than normal. Just wet the brush, load the brush and lather onto wet skin and it's the perfect balance. The razor is a great weight and requires no guess work or extra attention in terms of pressure or aggressiveness. And the blades are an old reliable of mine. They are one of the first blades I ever used and they still hold up well against anything I've tried to date. Though I find the yellow 7 O'clocks to possibly be slightly better, I still think the green are consistently of great sharpness and quality. 

I barely even felt this shave, it was nice and smooth and easy and my skin thanks me for it.

This coming week I'll be trying a new soap and a new style of razor and blade so it'll be a complete change of things - wish me luck!

- BE

Baby It's Cold Outside

Brrrrr!
So we've been having an unusual cold snap over here. Normally we'll get a little snow or frost in December but it seems like Mr. Frost is making an early visit and has decided to set up camp for a while. It's hitting -8 at night and right now it's -4. Combine that with the fact that I'm by the coast, and that's some freeztastic conditions right there. However it also looks so pretty! Everything all dusted in white and beautiful morning mists. I took this photo on my way to college a couple of days ago before the snow really hit. It's right around the corner from my house:

So what has this got to do with shaving? Well, as mentioned in my last SOTW, it gets very cold in my bathroom as the window doesn't close properly. I've duct-tapped it up so it's not as bad but it's still chilly and this leads to goosebumps. Shaving + goosebumps =  irritation. I've been itching like crazy all week as a result of the bad shave last week, and while I do think it was the bad blades fault, it being colder than a polar bear's nose in my bathroom sure doesn't help the process. I've been trying to let the skin on my legs settle and stop itching before I shave again. For those of you who are curious, here's a picture of how badly flared up my skin was after the bad shave: ITCHY!

I'm still not sure how to best heat up the bathroom before I shave. I put the heat on 30 mins before I plan on going in there and I take a nice hot shower first but once I step out from under the stream to lather up I can feel the cold (my friends will tell you that I'm always cold. Even in the summer I'm wearing a coat while everyone else is in t-shirts. Right now I'm in my room, with the heat on, wearing a fluffy dressing gown over all of my clothes and my hands still feel like blocks of ice!). Any ideas you readers may have would be greatly appreciated before I doom myself to itchy cold shaves for the winter!

- BE