a PIF Thank You post!

[JCinPA]

Many thanks to @Pressroll for his generous PIF! I was quite surprised I was the lucky recipient, but I noted I had just PIF'd twice in the previous week, and I believe in PIF Karma, so PIF, and ye shall be PIF'd!

Anyway, I have been remiss at not posting my booty pic and my thank yous, please accept my apologies for the lateness of my response, it's poor etiquette--please excuse my poor example. So Pressroll sent some Proraso red pre-shave cream and after-shave splash, and I've only tried the Proraso green products, but have always been curious about the others in the line. Also, I have never used a pre-shave cream, but seeing it used in all the Proraso Master Barber YouTube videos, I am very curious about them. Here is a photo of the booty.

The only product I've tried so far is the A/S splash, but it is really wonderful. I have Cella red and the new Floid splash, as well, and @Marco will be happy to know, I am delighted to expand my experience to fine Italian after shaves, they are very fine products, indeed. The ones I've tried have just the right amount of alcohol and whatever else they put in them leaves a very comfortable face afterwards.

I'd like to try the pre-shave, but I want to try it with a soap I am familiar with so I can see if it makes a difference. The only reason I have not tried it yet is I've been reviewing a Noble Otter soap these last three days. I think I will try the pre-shave with another soap tomorrow and post my thoughts on it here.

Pressroll also sent along a couple of interesting soaps, and I'd not heard of either maker. The Leatherstocking Shaving Soap (Long Rifle, interesting motif) is labeled as Cedarwood, Pine, Orange, Patchouli, which sounds very intriguing, and it is a tallow soap. I will review that tomorrow (Sunday). The other is from Wild West Shaving Company, another maker I've not heard of before now. Their website is closed for maintenance, and I can't find anything on them, but the soap is called Black Sails. No ingredients or scent notes on the tub. Smells kind of choclaty, though. I think I'll try that one Monday morning. I'm guessing it was a Pirate motif, from the name. If anyone has heard of it before, let me know.

Anyway, Thanks again to Pressroll. Watch this space tomorrow for updates!

Here is the original PIF thread link.

PIF - Proraso Red

Since the official first day of Autumn is tomorrow I thought this was the best time for this PIF. Ever since joining the forum back at the beginning of the year, I have been incredibly blessed with many different shaving products. I would like to pay forward some of the kindness and generosity...

www.badgerandblade.com

 

[carluchi]

Looking forward to your thoughts on the Long Rifle and Wild West soaps ...

 

[JCinPA]

Well, I tried the Long Rifle soap and the Pro-Raso pre-shave and aftershave splash today. Very nice soap, indeed! Dense, slick, residual slickness is very good, after shave feel is good. The soap maker knows his business, that's for sure!

I'd call this an "excellent" (my second tier) shaving soap, very much worth trying if you like this sort of scent. For perspective, this is the tier I place Sterling and Barrister & Man in, it is seriously good stuff. I am not a big fan of patchouli scents, but this one is very nice if you like that direction of scent. I may re-PIF this, not because I'm not grateful, but because if there are folks who love patchouli scents, I want to get this excellent soap into their hands rather than see it sit neglected in my den, while I go to more favored scents.

I also used the Proraso Red pre-shave cream and after shave he included in the PIF. Using a technique suggested by Michael Freedburg, I used the pre-shave on only half my face to see if I could detect a difference--I've never used any pre-shave product. I think I can, slightly less micro-stubble on the jawline than normal, but I will try it on the other side tomorrow. The shave ...

The Soap

The lather. This soap is ridiculously easy to lather, by the way, this was my first outing with it and I nailed the later dead to rights.

Thank you again, @Pressroll !!!

 

[APBinNCA]

That soap looks pretty good, looking at the ingredients and their order. Pretty simple scent is a good thing for me, take a break from the intense odors. As for the pre-shave, I started out using that and it does work. I graduated to products with capric/caprylic triglycerides, it's sort of a half way to oil pre-shaves. The Proraso works good, like many, at softening beard hair. The thing for me is not so much figuring out whether I can detect a difference in the shave, it's now when I go without pre-shave. If you use it for a couple weeks and try not to think about it then go back to normal without it, you should notice more irritation. If not, you don't need it.

 

[JCinPA]

Excellent post @APBinNCA I think I’m a fan of that pre-shave. Tomorrow will tell. I am not one who can tell much about a soap from the ingredient list but a lot of you can. It was a tremendous lather. I’m pretty determined to PIF that to the patchouli lovers here. It’s too good a soap to languish on my shelf waiting for me to pick it up. If it was a GIT type scent, it might displace Sterling SDM for me. But I will share the love @Pressroll started sharing I think.

 

[JCinPA]

Well, continuing the PIF thank you review, I found a screenshot of the soap I'll be using tomorrow morning, with scent profile and ingredients. I'm not chemist, but looks promising! See you tomorrow!

Well, I know my nose is whacked, but I smell choclaty!

 

[hairless wonder]

Thanks for the updates! I've enjoyed reading them.

If you do end up PIFing the Leatherstocking, please let me know as I will want to be in on that. I saw some Long Rifle Soaps on a third-party vendor site before but didn't pull the trigger as I was uncertain about the soap's quality.

In any case, enjoy your shaves!

 

[BigJ]

Congratulations on the PIF!! And thanks for the review!!

 

[JCinPA]

@Pressroll Thank you again! I don't know why you let these wonderful soaps get away from you, but I appreciate it! This is repost from my what did you use today post to save time.

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Monday's shave

Pre-shave: shower & Proraso red preshave cream (not pictured)
Razor: Fat handle tech
Blade: Astra Superior Stainless (not the SP) #3
Soap: Wild West Shaving Co., Black Sails
Brush: Sterling synthetic tuxedo
Post shave: Thayer's WH folowed by Old Spice A/S splash

DFS+, 9.5 / 10

Today, I used a second soap @Pressroll kindly sent me in a PIF, Black Sails, by Wild West Shaving Co., in Oklahoma. This guy also knows what he is doing, outstanding soap. Unfortunately, there is no label on my tub, and his website is in stasis, probably for Covid reasons, and I can find no information on ingredients or scent notes. However, The Suffolk Shaver did a video with it a while back, and I got a screenshot of his. Yep, tallow soap!

Despite the complex scent note description, what I get is choclate. Suffolk Shaver said you will want to spoon it out and eat it. I wouldn't go that far, but it is a tasty scent. For some reason, I decided Old Spice was the thing to use with it. I also used Proraso red preshave cream, also from Pressroll's PIF, and on my second day out with it, I do think it makes a bit of a difference. I'm sold on it!

So the shave? Well, I had never heard the term "low-structure lather" until I watched Will from Barrister & Man in a video for WCS. Now that I know what it is, I would describe this lather as kind of a "low-structure tallow Tabac", if that makes sense. It was incredibly easy to lather, incredibly easy. It has a forgiving hydration window, as well, so should not give anyone any trouble lathering--if it does, take up another activity. VERY slick, really about as slick as Tabac! I would put this in my Excellent category (Tier 2) but I could see myself moving it to Tier 1 with more use. I was extremely impressed. Residual slickness is outstanding, as well, again reminiscent of tallow Tabac.

The Astra Super Stainless (uncoated) is a very good blade, I was impressed with it as well. To test the preshave I used it on the left side only yesterday, right side only today, so I had one side free of it for testing. On both days, I noticed a smoother shave on the preshave side and there was less micro-stubble on the jawline on the side using the preshave each day.

 

[BigJ]

Excellent PIF!

Respectfully not in.

 

[CzechCzar]

@JCinPA what is the your tier 1?

 

[JCinPA]

Tier One for me includes

• Tabac (old)
• Noble Otter
• Mitchell's Wool Fat
• Cella red
• Cella Extra Extra Bio
• Santa Maria del Fiore

The first two below, in my Excellent tier, will likely be added to tier one, I just want another shave or two on them. I'd be surprised if they do not make the cut though.

In my Excellent tier I put

• Stirling Varen (mutton tallow) still evaluating move to tier one (probable)
• Haslinger Schafmilch (V2) still evaluating move to tier one
• Long Rifle Shaving Soap (may have been tier 1, but I PIF'd it for scent after 1 use only)
• Stirling non-mutton soaps
• Barrister & Mann Reserve Lavender
• Pre de Provence Bergamot Thyme
• Proraso Green
• Most Taylor creams
• RazoRock Don Marco
• Wild West Shaving Co. (Black Sails)

But this is all so objective, I don't know what it will tell you. YMMV is huge with soaps, and expecially huge with blades.

 

[JCinPA]

Wow! I screwed that up big time! I was moving Stirling Varen (mutton tallow) and the Haslinger Schaflich between groups and mistakenly moved Varen to the Excellent tier. I had done 3 shaves with that and determined it is definitely a top tier along with Cella and Tabac, no question about it! Anyway, sorry. @CzechCzar is probably the only one who cares, but I wanted to correct that mistake.


=====

Tier One for me includes

• Tabac (old)
• Noble Otter
• Mitchell's Wool Fat
• Cella red
• Cella Extra Extra Bio
• Santa Maria del Fiore
• Stirling Varen (mutton tallow)

The first one below, in my Excellent tier, will likely be added to tier one, I just want another shave or two on them. I'd be surprised if they do not make the cut though.

In my Excellent tier I put

• Haslinger Schafmilch (V2) still evaluating move to tier one
• Long Rifle Shaving Soap (may have been tier 1, but I PIF'd it for scent after 1 use only)
• Stirling non-mutton soaps
• Barrister & Mann Reserve Lavender
• Pre de Provence Bergamot Thyme
• Proraso Green
• Most Taylor creams
• RazoRock Don Marco
• Wild West Shaving Co. (Black Sails)

But this is all so objective, I don't know what it will tell you. YMMV is huge with soaps, and expecially huge with blades.