The Blades Grim Shave Scents
The Blades Grim Shave Scent And Shaving Bowl
A month has gone by since I first shaved with a straight razor and started messing around with wet shaving products and accessories. I have not used shaving cream yet and that may be coming in the near future, when I shaved with a straight razor and safety razor I used the same Smolder soap each time. It is in a gold tin with a screw on top and I would build the lather right in that tin. This way worked for me each time but I don’t think it is the absolute best way. Classicshaving.com has a section on their website titled "shaving mugs and bowls" and a friend inspired me to give those a try.
Before we attempt to build a lather in one of these and add a shave scent, I want to say some things about wet shaving. There is something to be said for finding a new world of art, products, and techniques surrounding something like wet shaving. I rent my home, it has one bathroom with a sink that doesn’t have much room around it to keep shaving products. All the products I have currently are set out in my living room on my desk, basically on display. I can dream about the day I own my home and have a huge counter-top surrounding my bathroom sink and all the wet shaving products can be displayed in there. I can buy a stand for my badass straight razor, have some aftershaves, soaps, strops and shaving mugs, maybe a shaving towel as well. I'm sure I will have a dinner party someday and someone will ask to use my bathroom, or I will make dinner for the person I am dating and they use the bathroom. They walk in and see those products displayed when they turn the light on, and they think "whoa, this guy is the real deal." When they come back to the dinner table they will immediately ask me about wet shaving and I can start telling them all about it and share my expertise. I enjoy learning and diving into new worlds in my life like drumming, investing, fitness, and wet shaving.
So! Let's get into it, I have a 2.5 inch Unscented shaving soap, a "Vanilla" bottle of shaving scent, and a Classic Brand Beehive Shaving Bowl.
I believe the concept is to purchase a couple different shaving scents, so that you can buy an Unscented soap and mix and match your scent every time you shave. So, I held my soap in my hand (not sure if this is the right or wrong way), got my Satin Tip brush wet and started rubbing it clockwise on the unscented soap. I would periodically transfer all the lather over to the shaving bowl. This continued for a minute or two, until I had a bunch of lather in my shaving bowl, you can then set the soap down by the sink and it will be fine. There was enough lather in the bowl to cover my face so I opened up the Vanilla shave scent, this is the only scent I have smelled but I think it's my favorite, it smells very sweet and clean. I have smelled some bad Vanilla candles and car scents (the little trees on your rearview mirror) and this smells so much better. I put 4 drops into my lather and mixed it up more, after smelling it and applying to my face, I don’t think I would apply any more drops to the lather.
I Used my BOG safety razor again, its becoming my personal favorite.
In my opinion, this was a much more fun system then mixing a soap in a tin, I suppose that if I had just got a Vanilla soap it might have been the same. However, I think I am a fan of buying shave scents and then buying unscented soap. In life I am a fan of options, maybe one day I am feeling Vanilla and another day, Smolder. Using the bowl is the way to go, another new technique added to my skill set of wet shaving.
- Brad
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