I did everything to wreck my shave and B&M Reserve Cool wouldn't let me

[BrianP]

Last night I was in a hurry to get out the door, so had little time to shower and shave. I pretty much did all the things that would make for a lousy shave. I didn't strop my razor. Short shower, barely washed my face. Shaved quickly and somewhat aggressively, then barely wiped the remaining lather with a luke warm face cloth. I completely abandoned the post shave routine: no cold water rinse, no alum, no second cold water rinse, no witch hazel. Nuthin'.

The shave was smooth, no nicks or weepers and skin felt great afterwards. I was expecting to pay the price later on, but nothing. No burn, no irritation, no drying. Just a great result and the lingering Cool scent. It's a helluva soap.

 

[shavefan]

B&M is great stuff

 

[Hannah's Dad]

B&M is great stuff

Yes, I agree.

 

[GaryTha]

What fun is there is a soap that won't let you screw things up? Then again, maybe you accidentally learned the perfect technique. Try it with Williams.

 

[BrianP]

What fun is there is a soap that won't let you screw things up? Then again, maybe you accidentally learned the perfect technique. Try it with Williams.

What could possibly go wrong?
I should really pick up another puck of Williams and beat it like it owes me money.

I'm actually going to try it with the other soaps I use. I suspect I would get a similar result from the SV Felce Aromatica. The Fine Accoutrements I have is not as moisturizing post shave as those two, but I'll try with those too for comparison. It could be that my post shave routine isn't as helpful as I think it is.

 

[GaryTha]

What could possibly go wrong?
I should really pick up another puck of Williams and beat it like it owes me money.

I'm actually going to try it with the other soaps I use. I suspect I would get a similar result from the SV Felce Aromatica. The Fine Accoutrements I have is not as moisturizing post shave as those two, but I'll try with those too for comparison. It could be that my post shave routine isn't as helpful as I think it is.

What could really go wrong? A few nicks and maybe a weeper? Oh, I suppose a person using a straight razor could lose an ear, but it didn't hurt Van Gogh much.

In my opinion, pre-shave treatments soften the skin and make it more prone to nicks and weepers. Post-shave treatments may do more of the same. Get rid of them for a while and see what happens. The body knows how to heal quickly without help. The skin will also naturally toughen and irritations will stop happening.

 

[ShavePastor]

Definitely a fantastic soap! And IMO the Reserve Cool holds the number one spot for greatest scent in the Reserve line (& possibly of all time)!!

 

[BrianP]

Definitely a fantastic soap! And IMO the Reserve Cool holds the number one spot for greatest scent in the Reserve line (& possibly of all time)!!

In the years I've been wetshaving, I've had good and bad soaps, but the good soaps distinguished themselved more in preference than in performance. The Reserve base and SV 4.3 base are the first times I've seen a significant step in performance in a soap. I think I actually went "whoa" the first time I tried them.

 

[JB1963]

What could really go wrong? A few nicks and maybe a weeper? Oh, I suppose a person using a straight razor could lose an ear, but it didn't hurt Van Gogh much.

In my opinion, pre-shave treatments soften the skin and make it more prone to nicks and weepers. Post-shave treatments may do more of the same. Get rid of them for a while and see what happens. The body knows how to heal quickly without help. The skin will also naturally toughen and irritations will stop happening.

Great advice!

 

[BigJ]

NICE!!

 

[BrianP]

More to follow on this, but I repeated the same post shave with FA American Blend as I did the Reserve Cool. The verdict? Another good result. Not as good as the Reserve Cool but still good. The Reserve was definitely more moisturizing and conditioning than the AB. The AB was still solid and felt good post shave and I wasn't for want of the cold water rinses, alum and witchhazel or aftershave.

I'm going to keep going with this and I'm quickly suspecting that the alum block has the most significant impact on my current post shave experience. I hadn't considered this despite many years of cold rinse > alum > cold rinse > WH/AS for post shave.

I'll keep reporting. And I'll pick up a puck of Williams and try it with that too.

 

[ksblazer]

I like to do this experiment with soaps/creams in my rotation as well.

SV gave me that reaction as well as did Sudsy Soapery.

The BM reserve cool sounds like a soap that I need to try as well. It's scent profile is to my liking and I don't have anything like that in my Den.

 

[BrianP]

I like to do this experiment with soaps/creams in my rotation as well.

SV gave me that reaction as well as did Sudsy Soapery.

The BM reserve cool sounds like a soap that I need to try as well. It's scent profile is to my liking and I don't have anything like that in my Den.

It's worth doing. For me, while Reserve cool has the best post shave feel of my small trial so far, the biggest improvement was removing the alum block from my post shave. Last night was Reserve Cool (again, great result and scent is fantastic) tonight will be SV Felce Aromatica, unless I get too hot and go with Proraso green.

 

[Southernman53]

What could really go wrong? A few nicks and maybe a weeper? Oh, I suppose a person using a straight razor could lose an ear, but it didn't hurt Van Gogh much.

In my opinion, pre-shave treatments soften the skin and make it more prone to nicks and weepers. Post-shave treatments may do more of the same. Get rid of them for a while and see what happens. The body knows how to heal quickly without help. The skin will also naturally toughen and irritations will stop happening.

There's a reason for the term weatherbeaten when it comes to skin. Sure, it will toughen up naturally but that is in reaction to damage. Weather, abusing your skin while shaving, have to be similar.

 

[BrianP]

I got too hot and went with the green. Good shave. Post shave skin is the driest of the soaps so far, but not completely drying. It's not bad or anything but this is the first time where I've been wanting some aftershave. Not desperately needing it, just would like some. That being said, to me, a Proraso Green shave isn't complete without the green aftershave.

FWIW, all shaves have been with either a 5/8 Dovo Special Tortoise or 5/8 Thiers Issard Le Canadien. Both edges finished on a coticule followed by Chromium Oxide pasted balsa.

I still have to buy some Williams.

 

[Cino]

I just tried this soap (Cool) for the first time. I'm crazy about the scent. I think this is supposed to be a copy of Floid Blue?

 

[bobmsp]

I just tried this soap (Cool) for the first time. I'm crazy about the scent. I think this is supposed to be a copy of Floid Blue?

That’s right.

 

[RayClem]

B&M Reserve line soaps are quite good. However, wait until you try the Excelsior line of soaps. They will eventually replace the Glissant base. When I first tried Excelsior, I was skeptical that it would be an improvement on Reserve since Reserve is so good. The new base is a significant improvement over Glissant and a slight improvement over Reserve. Right now, Seville is the only Glissant soap scent that has transitioned over to Excelsior, but the new seasonal and LE scents are also released in that new base.

 

[RayClem]

,.....

SV gave me that reaction as well as did Sudsy Soapery.
.....

I have not tried SV soaps but I purchased several samples of Sudsy Soapery. Uhfortunately, most of the soaps caused severe skin irritation. Since some of the scents like Cola and Almond/Vanilla did not cause the reaction, I think the irritation was scent related rather than a reaction to the the soap base itself. The worst reaction was caused by Uplift which is a strong lemon/ lemongrass scent. I also had issues with scents containing lime, grapefruit, and peppermint. Thus, I now avoid any simple scents containing these ingredients. I also have an issue with clove and cinnamon. However, I can use complex scents in which these ingredients are only a minor part of the overall blend.

The Sudsy Soapery has just come out with a new scent called "Delor De Treget" which contains: bergamot, cedar, lavender, orange, and labdanum. Typically, bergamot and orange does not cause the same reaction with my skin as lemon, lime and grapefruit; I may well pick up a tub at the Maggard meet-up next Saturday.