Nice combo. I used the Art of Shaving cream yesterday and did kind of a similar method, just more towards the bowl method. Did find today that my brush still smelled a little like the Olibanum and Pepper. I assume I might need to rinse my brush a little more.Shave 10: A Bowl Lather?!
Merkur 34C
Merkur Super Platinum (3)
Proraso White
Omega 10051
First of all a slight correction. Shave 9 was with Proraso white, not Cella. There's no way I could use that for 2 shaves in a row!
As for todays shave, I gave the bowl lathering topic a little thought and decided I need to try to let the kind of shave I want to dictate my methods and equipment, rather than the other way around.
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I decided to take both pills and it actually ended up being a half bowl, half face lather.
I soaked my brush for 2 or 3 minutes in the bowl as I filled the sink and got everything ready.
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It's fairly small, but good enough for my purposes. I still planned to keep most of the lather in the brush and to use the bowl more as a kind of lather generator, just to get things started, before moving on to my face to finish building. Last night, I considered using my hand for this part but figured there might be a bit more wastage, plus the bowl would be useful to keep the brush in between passes.
Another thing I've been thinking about is soap preservation. I want to get maximum lather with the least amount of soap, and face lathering seems to need a fairly heavy loading, at least for me.
I dribbled a little water on the soap, lifted the brush from the bowl, gave it a couple shakes and loaded for 5 to 10 seconds. It looked a little foamy so I loaded for another 5. I emptied the bowl and got the lather started in it, dipping the brush once. I stopped after what was maybe 30 seconds, certainly well under a minute.
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It probably looked a little less blurry in real life, but I don't wear my glasses for shaving so who knows?
It felt really, really nice as I finished building the lather on my face. It would easily have been shaveable after 10 seconds but I wanted to make sure I had slick, not thick so I carried on for a couple more minutes, dipping twice. The lather had a much lighter feel than usual, not airy as such, just kind of floaty.
I started the shave as always, WTG, right ear. Long, smooth, gentle strokes, very little to no pressure. I wasn't really thinking about angle too much, just shaving with feel. There was a bit of tugginess below the lower lip as I've had with this blade before, but it was comfortable enough. The lather was still nice and slick by the time I reached my neck and I shaved it without issue, then rinsed off in readiness for pass number 2.
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This was definitely better than my usual lathers at this stage of the shave, and I was looking forward to the second pass. WTG once again, comfort not closeness is my goal. Much smoother than the first pass, especially the lower lip area, and I used confident, smooth strokes from the lip to the edge of my chin.
The lather had started to dry out a little by the time I was onto my neck. I would normally have carried on regardless but a quick glance at the bowl and I thought, it's sitting right there, so I quickly lathered again, dipping one more time. It only took a couple of seconds.
I finished at the right ear, 2 inches from where I'd started, rinsed off and stopped. No touch ups today, a cold water splash, and once again I had an irritation free, no nick, no weeper shave.
There are few rough patches. By the right corner of my mouth, around the left jaw and just under the far right of my jaw below the ear. Of course, a little clean up could've taken care of that if I'd wanted so I'm not to worried. The shave was less close overall than the last one; this is maybe a little to do with the blade and a lot to do with my technique.
The half and half approach worked very well and the lather was really good. Perfect? Not a million miles away. I have no complaints about the brush.
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