Shaving on Such geek. Wow.

Artsy Moose artisan shaving soap review

Wed, 18 Mar 2020 00:00:00 +1300

(Reposting from Facebook - originally written 2020-02-19)

Tonight I’ve got something a bit special for my #shavingPost… A few weeks ago, I offered to help beta test a new product - a shave soap in a cup - for Grere Coutie of The Artsy Moose.

The Artsy Moose is actually a really groovy little artisan handcraft shop, physically located here in Hamilton, but Grere sells most of her work online as well. Primarily focussed on soaps, there are all sorts on offer - from activated charcoal soap, to gardeners soap, to BEER soap… even soap for your doggo!

I received the cup yesterday and tonight was my opportunity to take it for a spin!

My setup tonight was my trusty RazoRock Slant, loaded with a Derby Green blade that’s a bit worn-in, having just finished it’s third shave. I used my synthetic silvertip shaving brush that’s been in my rotation for a few years now.

My regular routine for shaving is to hop in the shower, rinse my face, wash and rinse my hair, wash and rinse my face, and then bust out the shaving gear. This way my stubble has some time to soften up while I’m still being nice and efficient.

The first thing I noticed, of course, was the scent! This is a truly enjoyable scent, a bit reminiscent of sandalwood: elegant, woody, and a little musky. It could be a little bit stronger, but I like my scents quite bold, and it certainly isn’t weakly scented.

So I gave the soap block a brief rinse in warm water, drained it thoroughly, and got my shaving brush in there. After a few moments I had a beautiful white lather and got to work. I did find the lather to be very short-lived; even though I applied it fairly thickly, by the time I finished one side of my face, the other side had thinned enough that I could see skin. On my second pass I REALLY worked the brush and, although the lather came out thicker, it vanished similarly quickly.

Nevertheless, I persisted (President Warren, 2020 🙌)… The second pass was all good, but by the third pass I was feeling… Quite exposed to my blade. It just felt like I was lacking all the cushioning I’m used to from my regular creams. I didn’t let this deter me, and I continued shaving until I achieved my normal closeness of shave.

Folks I gotta say, I was really expecting to have razor burn when I got out of the shower. Persisting with a regular shave while not feeling the cushioning - and with a quickly-diminishing lather, really had me nervous. HOWEVER, I was surprised to find that nothing dire came to pass! I got out of the shower, did my dental hygiene routine, and by then I’m usually feeling a growing burn if my shave was off. But… No burn, no nicks, no cuts. I probably didn’t even need aftershave.

But, like, I USED aftershave anyway, of course. I’m not an animal. Interestingly, my aftershave did burn a little today, which is not normal. I don’t think it got along well with the shave soap, perhaps.

Overall score for the first round: Scent, five stars Cushion, two stars Lather, two stars Shave quality, four stars Face happiness… Actually a full 4.5 stars!

Next shave, I’m going to try my actual badger hair brush, as the lather may have been affected by the synthetic hair. I’ll also try a new (corked) blade and a different aftershave, to compare results. I’m also going to get reports from the rest of the family to see how it works with their shaving routines.

And that’s not all! I’m sure that Grere will be modifying the recipe in response to this review, and I think it’ll only get better as we work through!

[Update 2020-03-18]

I’ve used this shaving soap quite a few times now! I still find the same - the lather vanishes very quickly, and it still feels very thin… but it still gives actually a superb shave and I’ve never given myself any nicks or cuts while using it. I haven’t managed to convince anyone else to try it, but I’m happy it’s in my collection.

I sent this review onto Grere, and as expected, she knew exactly what to tweak:

“It sounds like the recipe could do with more stearic acid, this should provide the more stable later and cushioning that you prefer. I will whip up another batch for you to compare at some stage. However, stearic acid is derived from palm oil, which I don’t use in my soap - so i’ll see if I can try and alternative.”

So, there you go! I’ll be sure to update this post in the future, but for now, this single shave soap is going to last me at least a year. 🙂

American Crew's Moisturising Shave Cream

Sat, 29 Dec 2018 00:00:00 +1300

Yanno how I said it’s hard to find American Crew aftershave? Well my better half went out yesterday and found a place in lil’old Te Awamutu that sells their shaving range: Team Seven, beside Viands. She bought me a bottle of my favourite “Post-Shave Cooling Lotion” (oh my god that name), but also got me a tube of their “Moisturising Shave Cream” to try. For shiggles.

Clearly, American Crew are better at chemical formulation than they are at coming up with names. But I digress.

Whelp I whipped out my trusty DE89, popped in a fresh Derby Extra blade, soaked my shaving brush and gave it a go.

Firstly - no. This is absolutely not made for a shaving brush. It’s hand-application all the way. It’s also not really a foam like what I’m used to - it’s very much a cream style, and it’s quite stubborn about remaining a cream, thankyouverymuch. In contrast, my Proraso or TOBS creams froth up quite heartily when I whip them with a brush, but this really resisted that.

Okay so, without making it frothy, it definitely takes more product to shave. I’m going to say double, but it might even be more. At about $32 a tube, that is definitely verging out of my price range. 2/10 on price for this.

The feeling, however, was really divine. There’s not a whole lot of scent, but there’s significant menthol action going on here, and it really gave me a refreshing zing that dwindled on my face through the shave and rinse. Delight rating 7/10.

Efficacy - this is hard for me to judge, since I was using a brush and thus really didn’t have enough on there for my second pass. So I kinda mucked up my shave, but it was much more my fault than the cream’s. Aside from that it left a beautiful coating of light avocado oil and aloe on my skin, meaning even though I under-catered on the product, I didn’t entirely munge up my face. For this, I’m giving it a decent 7/10 on efficacy. (See update below, though)

These ratings seem kinda low, but honestly this is going to be my favourite shave cream through the summer, with that nice refreshing menthol coolness. However with the price and sheer quantity needed for a good shave, I expect I’ll gravitate back to my Proraso creams once this is gone.

Update 2018-12-31: I’ve had another shave today without the brush, and just applying the cream directly to my skin. Definitely a better result, but once again I under-catered on the second pass and got myself some irritation happening. It’s certainly going to be at least double what I previously used. However once again my face feels actually quite good, and geez the menthol is nice.

Since I’ve under-catered twice now, and both times I’ve actually still had a decent shave, I think I need to upgrade this to 8/10 efficacy.

Proraso Azur Lime aftershave balm

Fri, 28 Dec 2018 00:00:00 +1300

Gather around, children, and I’ll regale you with a tale of tonight’s shaving.

My go-to razor setup at the moment is my Edwin Jagger DE89, with Derby Extra blades. But that’s not new.

You might remember that my favourite aftershave is American Crew’s “Post Shave Cooling Lotion”. I’ve been using this almost exclusively for about 5 years now, and I love it. It’s wonderfully soothing, and it’s a fairly thin balm so it’s easy to avoid overly-thick application. It’s also not as thin as a milk (such as “The Standard”, by The Gentlemen’s Refinery), which has a tendency to run through your fingers on the way to your face, not entirely unlike… milk.

Unfortunately American Crew’s aftershave can be really difficult to find. So I popped a question to the team at FineShave, and Frank gave me some insight into what he uses. This spurred me to try the Proraso Aftershave line, and today I took delivery of a bottle of Azur Lime.

This is a really, really nice aftershave. Again, it’s a balm (I don’t have any splash-type aftershaves yet). It’s a little thicker than the American Crew that I’m used to, but still not thick.

WOW does it cover a lot of distance. I used three, maybe four drops worth and it covered my whole face. This 100ml bottle is going to last forever, but it’s still a bit pricey at $35, which makes me give it a 6/10 on the price scale.

It’s a light citrusy scent, with a little bit of mint, and a slightly musky underbelly. It smells nice, but the scent wears off fairly quickly, so probably a 7/10 for scent.

I also happened to give myself a spectacularly awful shave, which this aftershave has completely addressed - no discomfort or ‘hot areas’, and only a little redness in the mirror. I think that’s a 10/10 for effectiveness.

All in all, this is a serious contender for my new favourite, and I expect I’ll buy another bottle when it’s done! Recommended.