Video Requests!

Hello all my blog reading folk! I hope that soon I will have some video watching folk too as I'm getting ready to start making some shaving for women related videos... exciting no?
On YouTube there are TONS of videos about shaving for men, some of the best videos come from "shaving guru" Mantic59 and I can recommend then for people getting started. They also teach the basics such as learning lather building etc. You can find a link to his YouTube channel in my links section on the right hand side of this page.
So I figured as male shaving is pretty much covered why not create some videos that are female specific? The reviews and things I do on here will still continue but this is just a little side project also that's a bit more specialised. Hopefully I can integrate the two together.
I have a few ideas in mind of things to cover but I wanted to open this up to suggestions from my readers. What would you like to see me create a video about? While I was browsing Youtube I came across this cute little video and thought I'd post it here - Enjoy:

- BE

Product Review: Williams Mug Shaving Soap

Ah Williams. I was requested by a friend to use this and to share my findings as this is a product that (playfully) divides the shaving community on B&B. Some people love it, some people hate it. So how did I find it...?

Well I figured to give it a good run I'd have a 'Week of Williams'. This means getting 3 full leg shaves out of it which is usually a good indicator of it's performance. Firstly some people claim that lathering Williams is like banging your head against a brick wall (only wetter) but personally I found it very easy to lather. Getting an amazing lather- no. But to get a good workable lather - yes. A 10 second swirl-and-twist load on the soap with a damp brush and then straight to the leg for a quick building lather. Here's a picture of some bowl lather I made to show you all (I'm so good to ya!):

Admittedly the lather was not very thick or cushioned (it's a bit 'foamy' for my liking) but surprisingly my shaves were some of the closest I've had, so clearly it did the job regardless. (I was using my SE Gem GBar if anyone is curious. A bit more about this razor is found here ). I would imagine this lather may not be great for coarse facial hair as it's not very thick but it did the job for me. Where it did lack however was in the moisturising category. Each time I used it it dried my skin out a little and so I had to apply some cocoa butter cream to them. 
So while its not way up there amongst my favourites I think Williams gets too tough a rap. It's very usable and for those of you who claim it's un-latherable... work on those skills!


-BE


P.S. Sorry I didn't have a review product last week but I was test running a shaving soap for a new soapmaker and couldn't post my reviews publicly. Top secret workings! Oh lah lah!

Cornrows Are Hard To Do!

On my bus to college there is this cool little kid with Afro-Caribbean hair and he recently got it put into excellent looking cornrows. He sat in front of me this morning and I kept staring at them! For those of you who aren't sure what these are here's a picture of them in various designs:

Ooooh! Yes, those things! Sometimes also worn by women (think Bo Derek in 10). Anywho, I figured they would be the closest thing to a gents' up-style that I might get a chance to learn to do, so I asked my tutor in college how to do them and man, they are tricky! I've only attempted them twice but I'm picking up a bit of speed and getting them a little tighter with each one. Ideally the hair should be dry with some oil put in it to get them smooth and flat. I didn't have oil in my dolly head's hair so strands kept sticking up. I also have no idea how this is done with shorter hair without the ends sticking up all over the place - I'll have to investigate.

They are kind of like an upside-down French plait with the pieces being taken under the middle strand each time instead of over. Here's a picture of my second attempt at doing them:

I did the middle one first so it's a bit bigger and messier than the others. Despite them being tricky I really love the intricacy and challenge of doing them and find them fun. Though I doubt I'll have many opportunities to do them in my career I'll keep up the skill for fun.

Here's a picture of one of my favourite hairstyles I came across incorporating a funky usage of cornrows - I love it!:

 - BE

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

Go n-éirí an bóthar leat
Go raibh an ghaoth go brách ag do chúl
Go lonraí an ghrian go te ar d'aghaidh
Go dtite an bháisteach go mín ar do pháirceanna
Agus le cuidiú Dé bulailfaidh muid leat in Éirinn gan mhoill...


May the road rise with you
May the wind be always at your back
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
May the rains fall soft upon your fields,
And hopefully we will meet you in Ireland soon....


Oh and:
Féadfaidh gach do bearradh a bheith chomh réidh agus is bun le leanbh!


This beautiful picture of a custom made straight razor might help inspire that last one there!

My Story In Video!

I was on Badger & Blade today and someone posted a Google Search video. I though they looked like fun and figured I'd give one a go myself. It's a little video about my journey to where I am today. I hope you like it!

Double Good News

I got doubly good news this week!
Firstly I finally got the results back from the theory test I did at the end of last year. Now I do theory tests all the time, one for each module, but his one was the BIG one. It was the official City and Guilds' one that incorporated questions from every topic. We had been waiting months to get the results of these as they had to be sent off to England to be corrected and when they were returned a couple of people's certificates were missing, so rather than give some people theirs in January and some later on we all waited to get them together. I still have to finish up all of my practical assessment (there are 86 of them as far as I remember!) and then my results of everything, both practical and theory/written will join to give my final result.
I'm thrilled to announce my result (and yes it's me even though it's blurred out!):

The second piece of happy news I got was that someone nominated me for the Irish Blog Awards under the "specialist" category. Not I have a sneaking suspicion is was a yarn-obsessed friend of mine who is also a fellow blogger, but none the less, it was great to be nominated. I didn't make it to the short-list but it put a smile on my face regardless!

I hope everyone else had a good week!

-BE