Good to hear! Maybe I’ll have to spring for one soon too :)

Huh, I didn’t realise Tabac is expensive in the US. Here it’s much cheaper than Stirling (5.8¢/g vs 8.7¢/g and that’s not even taking into account Tabac is triple milled).

Just a small pile of shave gear in my parent’s apartment :)

Do you still enjoy l’ours russe?

Sandalwood Saturday, The Penultimate Challenge

• Brush: Zenith r/Wetshaving exclusive MOAR BADGER (Silvertip) #SUBBROOSH
• Razor: Eversharp-Schick Hydro-magic (I2, NOS)
• Blade: Personna Injector Blade
• Lather: Proraso – Sandalwood
• Post Shave: Taylor of Old Bond Street – Sandalwood
• Fragrance: Le Labo – Santal 33

I can’t believe that LG is already almost over again!

Theme: Proraso Red is a dry, warm, slightly dirty sandalwood scent.

Relevant post and frag: Both the post and frag are completely sandalwood-forward frags. I smell like dry twigs on a sunny patch of forest floor.

Challenge: It would be a bit unethical for me to answer since I know the current rankings. Well, now I do, but I knew this challenge would come, and I answered today’s challenge on day 1, before I had relevant knowledge. Here’s my answer:

• Main ROTY will go to u/MudAccording. He’s going full hog right out of the gate. The other two roty prizes are random so your guess is as good as mine.
• photocontest goes to u/Crossan1983, that black and white shot looks well set up, like he means business.
• FoF u/Hugbckt: Great write-up, someone to watch.
• LG goes to u/Tsrblke. He was a joy to follow last year, and this first post looks like he’s full of energy this year, plus, he has that racing team!
• No Scruba: The real winner here is going to be everyone (awww!) I’m looking forward to u/Enndeegee’s no scrub list, and dread his scrub list.

Frugal Friday

• Brush: I Am (house brand of local grocery store chain Migros)
• Razor: Wilkinson Sword
• Blade: Wilkinson Sword
• Lather: Arko – Berber Tiraş sabunu
• Post Shave: Wars – Classic - Energetyzujący Płyn Po Goleniu
• Fragrance: Brut — Original

Theme: To my chagrin, the cheapest soap by weight in my den seems to be Arko at CHF 22.80/kg, eking out a narrow victory over my palmolive stick (CHF 30.67/kg) which I bought in my local pharmacy a few years ago when it went out of production. The soap performs well enough, but I struggle with the scent. This is based on a technicality, because I do own an even cheaper soap, Vitos, but it’s in my mountain den, so it’s not in my collection today.

Relevant post and splash: also the cheapest in my den. Wars is CHF 43.33/l and Brut CHF 78.00/l.

Challenge: Luckily I got rid of my horrible clipped boar brushes at CHF 1.50 per brush last year after Frugal Friday (I bought them for my Rookie Lather Games, when there was still a bonus point for using 30 brushes and they were tërrible), so this brush is my new cheapest one at CHF 6.80. It’s still garbage, but less. The Wilkinson razor is GBP 4.99 including the blades, making it my cheapest. Saving so much money on today’s shave wasn’t worth using that brush. I’m getting rid of the brush and Arko.

Yes, me too!

Information Overload

• Brush: Zenith 506B MB (27 mm × 51 mm Manchurian badger)
• Razor: Schick Repeating Razor Type C
• Blade: Schick Injector Blade
• Lather: Highland Springs Soap Co. – Eclipse
• Post Shave: Highland Springs Soap Co. – Eclipse
• Fragrance: Chatillon Lux – Gratiot League Square

My fellow djudge u/RedMosquitoMM’s and my mind have synchronised. My shave happened 12 hours ago, or 7 hours before skeeter’s, I just haven’t had the chance to post yet.

Eclipse is warm and rich and comforting, and more importantly for today’s theme, it has 21 scent notes.

Relevant post and frag: Gratiot League Square is Eclipse’s lost sibling sharing the tobacco-leather-sandalwood core.

Challenge: I got distracted. Started with my left, forgot about it by pass number two. Sigh.

Yes, he did great 😃

Oh, you seem really motivated! Let’s get in touch and see whether we want to spearhead something together maybe after the LG craziness is over?

Right now I don’t feel like I have any free bandwidth 😬

Ulrik did a razor exclusive for Saponificio Varesino so he’s done it before.

So did TI, they’re both gorgeous!

How many would buy a r/wetshaving straight do you think?

Excellent question. It’s not everyone’s cup of tea, and it’s a lot pricier than the Moar Boar 🤔

Christmas in July, but in June

• Brush: Bite of Mammoth – Victor Hyggo
• Razor: Henkotsu #KAMISORI #STR8SNOB
• Lather: House of Mammoth – Santa Noir
• Post Shave: Barrister and Mann – Dickens, Revisited
• Fragrance: House of Mammoth – Santa Noir

Today I’m using HoM, which means that it’s a great opportunity to buts out Victor Hyggo, the French philosopher Mammoth brush.

Theme: Santa Noir is so on theme that the logo wears a Santa hat. I doubt that it’s physically possible to be more on theme.

Relevant post and frag, Dickens is also totally winter themed with the splash bottle art depicting a snowball fight and the soap art depicting a couple on a joy ride on a horse-drawn sleigh.

Challenge: The Kamisori form factor is my least practised type of open blade, so I thought it appropriate mitigate risks and protect myself by wearing a helmet for this shave. unfortunately there is no good way to keep lather from messing up the chin strap even when it’s dangling. shaking fist angrily at clouds

Christmas in July, but in June’s Eve

• Brush: Dogclaration LG 2022 Mystery Brush (B16)
• Razor: Wardonia Possibly a “Rugby Set”
• Blade: Personna Platinum
• Lather: Eleven Shaving Blue Spruce
• Post Shave: PannaCrema Nero
• Fragrance: Spearhead Shaving Company Seaforth! 3 Scots

Christmas Eve! This sub is so damn generous that I had lots of choice today ♥

Theme: All around great guy and Chief Podcast Djustice u/OnionMiasma has a 100% participation rate so far in this year’s Lather Games. Thank you for letting me try this soap from a new-to-me soaper, Onion!

Relevant post & frag (and razor, and brush…): Everything in this shave was received with no exchange of currency involved from someone who is involved in the games in some way: The post shave was a gift from u/VisceralWatch, my friend and one of the two wettubers I follow. He donates his time as a Lather Games Djudge and Podcast Guest Djustice. The razor is from my friend u/Semaj3000, who gave me this piece of Sheffield history and serves as a Djudge in the SOTD Photo Scavenger Hunt. The brush was my prize from u/declarationgrooming after I OnionMiasmaed the 2022 Lather Games, and 3 Scots was a PIF from u/Ironbeard_SYS, both of which are sponsors in this year’s games.

Challenge: I’d love a sub exclusive straight razor from Ulrik of Koraat. A big full hollow 7/8 with blacksmith finish and MOAR BOAR-green scales. (Think Sparschweinchen, but full hollow).

Sweet Sunday

• Brush: Zenith 506B MB (27 mm × 51 mm Manchurian badger)
• Razor: Zwilling J. A. Henckels Friodur 14 (8/8", extra hollow ground, stainless steel) #STR8SNOB
• Lather: Summer Break Soaps – Teacher’s Pet
• Post Shave: Southern Witchcrafts – Pomona
• Fragrance: Stirling Soap Co. – Sweet Stuff

Theme: Teacher’s pet is red apple with brown sugar. It smells sweet and yummy and happy.

I’m sad it’s been discontinued, but luckily Braeburn scratches the same itch.

Relevant post and frag: Pomona is another sweet apple scent, and finally Sweet Stuff is here to dial the sweetness to 11.

Challenge: This was the perfect opportunity to try my new-to-me rubber lather catcher thingy that barbers use to wipe lather from the blade without running water. (My preferred kitchen shave spot is an the kitchen table, not the sink])

The height that you set the knot makes a real difference.

Yeah, totally. I’ve set a Gelousy knot as deep as the bore hole would allow in my Dogwood Tabak handle, but the loft is just too high and the brush is overly floppy. 🙄

I’ve had the same reaction, but several discord members swear that the epoxy softenes significantly when steamed.

Significantly, the group includes Rob from Chisel and Hound who knows better than me 😅

Thanks! I love how it turned out. Super enjoyable brush.

I didn’t try the steam method because I was worried about damaging the handle. I think it’s also some kind of epoxy, so I wasn’t sure the glue would soften more than the handle😅

And I had no reason to try to keep the knot alive, so trying the mill route seemed like the smaller risk

I haven’t tried small badgers yet. My Zenith Manchurian is the smallest with 27mm, but I have bought a 24mm B3 recently that’s still sitting with a reshipper in the US. I’m curious to see what difference it’ll make

30mm Maggard Silvertip

Spooky Season

• Brush: Zenith r/Wetshaving exclusive MOAR BADGER (Silvertip) #SUBBROOSH
• Razor: Wolfman WR2 (1.55 mm SB / 1.25 mm OC)
• Blade: Polsilver
• Lather: Southern Witchcrafts – Autumn Ash
• Post Shave: Southern Witchcrafts – Autumn Ash
• Fragrance: Southern Witchcrafts – Autumn Ash

Challenge: the spookiest fruit of this sub is obviously the Boonana (thanks to today’s sponsor, SW), so have a razorfin boonanashark (razorcut).

Theme, relevant post and frag: It’s right there in the name.

The MOAR BADGER is the biggest badger I’ve ever tried, and while being comically large, it’s super fun to use. Just a giant lather pillow with soft, soft tips. So nice.