Just as I was starting to get anxious about electronic shipping numbers and an approaching weekend, two packages arrive.
Have to commend Scotto(here, as well) and James Ayars. I haven't seen packing so thorough and intricate since my college days. Scotto went so far as to wrap the seams between containers and caps with blue painters tape(!!!). James packed everything so well it took me a few minutes to notice the four conspicuous little round-cap jars--free stuff! One Taylor(Eton) and two T&H(Limes & Trafalgar) creams along with one T&H aftershave. Taking the jars out I found two smaller foil-pouch samples of T&H(1805) cream. Sensing my newbness apparently, James included a postcard-sized, hand-written(front and back) note explaining why he prefers his samples over the Col. Conk soaps I ordered. All around couldn't have asked for more.
For the test run(safety first) I went with the T&H 1805 cream. The Shavemac(finest...not silvertip)brush whipped up more than enough lather for two passes and mop up duty on the neck. Funk was minimal but noticeable. I sat there at the sink fumbling around with the tiny razor trying to do the fingertips grip. Soap was drying out so I just went with the Mach 3 gorilla-fist clinch. The Merkur HD with a Merkur blade only dug in once but no blood. I was sure I'd maul my face. As the title says...turned out better than expected. There wasn't a bit of irritation but I decided to go with the Thayer's Rose from Scotto and the T&H ASB from James simply as a precaution. No bumps, no rash and, visually atleast, a perfect shave. Night and day compared to the the cartridge. Not BBS to the touch though I'll definitely shoot for that once I get the blade sampler and more experience. Time to shave was about the same since I didn't have to stand around nursing my face with a damp cloth and styptic pencil(James threw in a free one of those too...self-contained, screw-top Conk). Everything was perfect.
And everything from all quarters was shipped free of charge
Have to commend Scotto(here, as well) and James Ayars. I haven't seen packing so thorough and intricate since my college days. Scotto went so far as to wrap the seams between containers and caps with blue painters tape(!!!). James packed everything so well it took me a few minutes to notice the four conspicuous little round-cap jars--free stuff! One Taylor(Eton) and two T&H(Limes & Trafalgar) creams along with one T&H aftershave. Taking the jars out I found two smaller foil-pouch samples of T&H(1805) cream. Sensing my newbness apparently, James included a postcard-sized, hand-written(front and back) note explaining why he prefers his samples over the Col. Conk soaps I ordered. All around couldn't have asked for more.
For the test run(safety first) I went with the T&H 1805 cream. The Shavemac(finest...not silvertip)brush whipped up more than enough lather for two passes and mop up duty on the neck. Funk was minimal but noticeable. I sat there at the sink fumbling around with the tiny razor trying to do the fingertips grip. Soap was drying out so I just went with the Mach 3 gorilla-fist clinch. The Merkur HD with a Merkur blade only dug in once but no blood. I was sure I'd maul my face. As the title says...turned out better than expected. There wasn't a bit of irritation but I decided to go with the Thayer's Rose from Scotto and the T&H ASB from James simply as a precaution. No bumps, no rash and, visually atleast, a perfect shave. Night and day compared to the the cartridge. Not BBS to the touch though I'll definitely shoot for that once I get the blade sampler and more experience. Time to shave was about the same since I didn't have to stand around nursing my face with a damp cloth and styptic pencil(James threw in a free one of those too...self-contained, screw-top Conk). Everything was perfect.
And everything from all quarters was shipped free of charge