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Arko vs Mogno: The Konomi Code Challenge

thombrogan

Lounging On The Isle Of Tugsley.
The reality is that although Mogno feels slightly slicker to me than Arko, there isn't really a functional difference.

My experience with ARKO! has been that it needs more water when it feels comically slick. Almost to the point where it feels broken/too-thinned.

I think part of the problem is that I underestimated Arko

That can be worse than forgetting about Dré.
 

Ad Astra

The Instigator
Not only did I order Mogno, I also ordered Mongo...

DVD en route!

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AA
 
...I'm using an idiot proof razor, two idiot proof soaps, an idiot proof lathering method, and my favorite blade. Not exactly an ideal setup for pushing soaps to their limit.

...there's no point testing tires with a Toyota Camry....

Is the goal to get to work in the AM looking spiffy? Pick this set up and enjoy your commute in the Camry.

Are you trying to impress your friends at the track? Then, pick the R41 and the Feather.

:a21: :a21:
 
Is the goal to get to work in the AM looking spiffy? Pick this set up and enjoy your commute in the Camry.

Are you trying to impress your friends at the track? Then, pick the R41 and the Feather.

:a21: :a21:

I'm a Camry man through and through. I've used the Game Changer, Mogno, and a Perma-Sharp for most of my shaves since October. If I had to choose one combination to stick with forever, it'd be this. I strongly prefer mild razors to aggressive ones, and I think technique trumps blade exposure 99 times out of 100 when it comes to shave quality.

For my present purposes though, I'm trying to figure out whether or Arko or Mogno has better residual slickness. I thought an 8 pass shave would make it obvious, but it didn't. My favorite gear is mild and forgiving, and I think it's making it harder to tell the difference between the two soaps. Hence the use of more aggressive gear that I don't use very much, and don't prefer. My technique with the R41 is terrible because it's the polar opposite of what I ordinarily use; I want to see how well the soaps compensate for that.
 
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Day 4:

Razor: RazoRock Game Changer .68
Blade: Feather, day a
Arko: Left
Mogno: Right

I don't drag the R41 out that often anymore, and this shave reminded me why. I'm a low-angle shaver at heart, but the R41 tugs my beard like crazy at low angles, so steep angle shaving is more or less required. Additionally, although the R41 gives a nice close shave, it's never a very comfortable one.

Both soaps performed admirably given the circumstances. I did get a nick at the jawline on the Arko side during the second "left" pass, and two tiny weepers to the far left of my chin during an ATG pass. On the Mogno side I had none. I can't necessarily fault the Arko for those however. Of more interest to me was the alum test. Suffice to say the alum felt a bit more "lively" today as the alum found all the many microscopic points of irritation not visible to the naked eye. There was noticeably more sting all over the cheeks & chin on the Arko side than there was on the Mogno side. Moreover, after I finished cleaning up and putting things away, I noticed a slightly redder pallor on the Arko side of my face. Razor burn. Nothing like the razor burn I used to get when I was first starting out years ago, and not something anybody else would likely notice, but razor burn nonetheless.

Thoughts so far:

In the course of a normal 3 pass shave, I think Arko and Mogno perform nearly identically. If I were wearing a clothespin on my nose, I'm not confident I could tell the difference between the two. The residual slickness, which is really all this test is evaluating, is nearly indistinguishable to the touch. Even with an 8 pass shave the two are more or less tied. The primary differentiator to me is that I personally prefer the scent of Mogno, and it's slightly less drying on cold, dry, late winter mornings. That said, scent is subjective and most folks don't suffer from dry skin in cold weather like me.

Under more challenging conditions, with an unfamiliar, highly aggressive razor, and a brand new Feather however, Mogno appeared to outperform Arko. Admittedly, it was only one shave, so it's hardly definitive, but that's what happened. I'm leaning towards doing another shave with the R41 before drawing any conclusions.
 
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Day 4:

Razor: RazoRock Game Changer .68
Blade: Feather, day a
Arko: Left
Mogno: Right

I don't drag the R41 out that often anymore, and this shave reminded me why. I'm a low-angle shaver at heart, but the R41 tugs my beard like crazy at low angles, so steep angle shaving is more or less required. Additionally, although the R41 gives a nice close shave, it's never a very comfortable one.

Both soaps performed admirably given the circumstances. I did get a nick at the jawline on the Arko side during the second "left" pass, and two tiny weepers to the far left of my chin during an ATG pass. On the Mogno side I had none. I can't necessarily fault the Arko for those however. Of more interest to me was the alum test. Suffice to say the alum felt a bit more "lively" today as the alum found all the many microscopic points of irritation not visible to the naked eye. There was noticeably more sting all over the cheeks & chin on the Arko side than there was on the Mogno side. Moreover, after I finished cleaning up and putting things away, I noticed a slightly redder pallor on the Arko side of my face. Razor burn. Nothing like the razor burn I used to get when I was first starting out years ago, and not something anybody else would likely notice, but razor burn nonetheless.

Thoughts so far:

In the course of a normal 3 pass shave, I think Arko and Mogno perform nearly identically. If I were wearing a clothespin on my nose, I'm not confident I could tell the difference between the two. The residual slickness, which is really all this test is evaluating, is nearly indistinguishable to the touch. Even with an 8 pass shave the two are more or less tied. The primary differentiator to me is that I personally prefer the scent of Mogno, and it's slightly less drying on cold, dry, late winter mornings. That said, scent is subjective and most folks don't suffer from dry skin in cold weather like me.

Under more challenging conditions, with an unfamiliar, highly aggressive razor, and a brand new Feather however, Mogno appeared to outperform Arko. Admittedly, it was only one shave, so it's hardly definitive, but that's what happened. I'm leaning towards doing another shave with the R41 before drawing any conclusions.

What about post shave feel: any difference?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Day 4:

Razor: RazoRock Game Changer .68
Blade: Feather, day a
Arko: Left
Mogno: Right

I don't drag the R41 out that often anymore, and this shave reminded me why. I'm a low-angle shaver at heart, but the R41 tugs my beard like crazy at low angles, so steep angle shaving is more or less required. Additionally, although the R41 gives a nice close shave, it's never a very comfortable one.

Both soaps performed admirably given the circumstances. I did get a nick at the jawline on the Arko side during the second "left" pass, and two tiny weepers to the far left of my chin during an ATG pass. On the Mogno side I had none. I can't necessarily fault the Arko for those however. Of more interest to me was the alum test. Suffice to say the alum felt a bit more "lively" today as the alum found all the many microscopic points of irritation not visible to the naked eye. There was noticeably more sting all over the cheeks & chin on the Arko side than there was on the Mogno side. Moreover, after I finished cleaning up and putting things away, I noticed a slightly redder pallor on the Arko side of my face. Razor burn. Nothing like the razor burn I used to get when I was first starting out years ago, and not something anybody else would likely notice, but razor burn nonetheless.

Thoughts so far:

In the course of a normal 3 pass shave, I think Arko and Mogno perform nearly identically. If I were wearing a clothespin on my nose, I'm not confident I could tell the difference between the two. The residual slickness, which is really all this test is evaluating, is nearly indistinguishable to the touch. Even with an 8 pass shave the two are more or less tied. The primary differentiator to me is that I personally prefer the scent of Mogno, and it's slightly less drying on cold, dry, late winter mornings. That said, scent is subjective and most folks don't suffer from dry skin in cold weather like me.

Under more challenging conditions, with an unfamiliar, highly aggressive razor, and a brand new Feather however, Mogno appeared to outperform Arko. Admittedly, it was only one shave, so it's hardly definitive, but that's what happened. I'm leaning towards doing another shave with the R41 before drawing any conclusions.

WOW!! About as close as it can get!! :thumbup: :thumbup:
 
What about post shave feel: any difference?

Post shave feel is one of those terms that often means different things to different people. For me, post shave feel is mostly about hydration. I find Arko to be more drying than Mogno, but the difference isn't that big. Most triple milled soaps that I've tried have been a bit drying.

I think there are two primary ways to improve post shave feel; buy a croap with oils/conditioners added after saponification, or buy the oils/conditioners directly. While experimenting with the former, I've tried soaps from Stirling, Wholly Kaw, Grooming Dept, etc and they definitely leave the skin feeling much more hydrated and conditioned than triple milled soaps. My preferred solution as of late is to shave with triple milled soaps and use a tiny bit of hyaluronic acid after the shave as a balm. Hyaluronic acid is a humectant like glycerin or aloe, but unlike the latter two, it doesn't leave your skin looking shiny/waxy. The post-shave of HA outperforms any oiled croap that I've ever tried. YMMV.

I use Neutrogena Hydro Boost because it's $14, lasts about a year, and it's stocked at my local Target; I'm sure lots of HA products are just as good though.

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thombrogan

Lounging On The Isle Of Tugsley.
I think there are two primary ways to improve post shave feel; buy a croap with oils/conditioners added after saponification, or buy the oils/conditioners directly.

Exactly. Twelve 75g sticks of ARKO! for $8.45 shipped and a pound of CeraVe w/hyaluronic acid for $16.08 shipped or one-two jars of croaps that will be used up before two sticks of ARKO! will be 3017’d.

Obviously, there’s a lot more to it than money spent, but the thought of spending lots of extra dollars and missing out on ARKO! is terrifying.

Prices from Black Friday ARKO! sale.
 
Day 5:

Razor: R41
Blade: Feather, day b
Arko: Right
Mogno: Left

I wasn't sure whether I was going to need to skip a day to let any irritation settle down, but when I woke up, my skin felt perfectly fine and irritation free. I put a bit of my homemade hand lotion on my face/neck last night, which is a concoction of 60% aloe, 30% hyaluronic acid, 9% coconut oil, and 1% glycerin. It seemed like it did some good. Who knows.

So much of shaving is muscle memory. The R41 shave went heaps better today. I find it takes me at least a day or two to really dial in a razor after not shaving with it for a while. Keeping the steep angle was easier and on the whole the shave was a lot more comfortable. Two tiny weepers on the Arko side, and one on the Mogno side. All three were so minor that the alum was sufficient to make them close up and disappear. No razor burn on either side, although the alum stung slightly more on the Arko side than the Mogno side.

Final Conclusion:

In the course of a normal 3 pass shave, I think Arko and Mogno perform nearly identically. If I were wearing a clothespin on my nose, I'm not confident I could tell the difference between the two. The residual slickness, which is really all this test is evaluating, is nearly indistinguishable to the touch. Even with the 8 pass shave used in this test the two are more or less tied.

Under more challenging conditions, with an unfamiliar, highly aggressive razor, and a brand new Feather however, Mogno appeared to outperform Arko. Switching from 4 months of uninterrupted GC .68 usage to an R41 made a noob of me; in a good way. I had a hard time adjusting pressure and angle over the course of the shave much like someone just starting out. Under these conditions, the Arko yielded razor burn, while the Mogno did not. On the second such shave, with improving technique, both soaps performed similarly. Winner by Split Decision: Mogno
 
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Why I am probably wrong about all of this: Caveats and Biases

It goes without saying "Your Mileage May Vary". What works for me probably won't work for you. The way I shave is pretty weird, so take anything I've said with an even bigger grain of salt than usual. It strikes me as worthwhile to enumerate some the reasons our mileages might vary quite a lot when it comes to these two soaps:

1. Hand Lathering: Unlike 99% of DE shavers, I strongly prefer face lathering by hand to any other method. I use brushes regularly, but I have never achieved a lather with a brush as good as I can make by hand. I like my lather thin, wet, and slick as hell. That probably just means I'm lousy with a brush, but it is what it is.

2. Slickness Obsession: The only characteristic I care about in a soap is slickness. I don't even know what cushion means. I like slick lather that stays slick as long as it's wet, even as it thins down. All I've really tested here is residual slickness.

3. Shave Duration: Most of my shaves take around 3 minutes from the time lathering starts to the final rinse. I think as a general rule, the faster the shave, the thinner (and slicker) the lather can be. This is because of evaporation and dehydration. If your shave takes 30 minutes, you probably want a thick, creamy, yogurt-like lather to offset this. I have no idea if either soap is good for that type of lather or that type of shave.

4. Stroke Length: I don't do buffing, don't shave skin that isn't lathered, and take the longest strokes possible. Above the chin is about 16 strokes per pass total, and below the chin is around 9 strokes per pass total. Most folks I see on YouTube take 1" strokes 2-3 times on the same spot (buffing). As a result, my 8 pass shave is probably similar to most people's normal 3 pass shave with respect to how many times the razor touches the same patch of skin. I shave in a weird way, with weird lather, so soaps that work well with that might not be a good fit others.

5. Post Shave Skin Feel: Since I started using Hyaluronic acid, I don't care about skin conditioning soap additives anymore. All my Stirling soaps, for example, are significantly better than Mogno and Arko at skin conditioning if no other product is applied. Personally, I find that hyaluronic acid after a Mogno shave leaves my skin feeling better than Stirling alone. YMMV.

6. Scent Preference: I like moderately scented soaps. I needed to air out some soaps for a month before I'm happy with them. Mogno was absolutely perfect right out of the box in that regard, but if you love strong scents, you might be disappointed.
 
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thombrogan

Lounging On The Isle Of Tugsley.
The only characteristic I care about in a soap is slickness.

I’m surprised that I couldn’t find threads from you involving stuff like Jatai Blade Glide or Billy Jealousy Hydroplane as you have shaved with your hyaluronic serum before.
 
I’m surprised that I couldn’t find threads from you involving stuff like Jatai Blade Glide or Billy Jealousy Hydroplane as you have shaved with your hyaluronic serum before.

As a rule, I'm not terribly fond of k-pop music. Do these bands endorse L'oreal hyaluronic acid or something? Will google.
 
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