Yeah, currently my default is a straight, and I’m using safety razors when there’s some external reason like MMMMFF, or traveling in hotels with Djunior. I’m just getting more thrill from the straights 🙂

And yes, my straight razor shaves are now as good or better than safety razor shaves.

But if I use the same safety razor twice or more in a row like now while travelling, my muscle memory returns quickly.

I have no idea how hard my water here in the hotel is, but we have “medium hard to hard” water in Lausanne (15-25 °fH, 9-15 gpg) where I usually lather, and this soap isn’t giving me a hard time there either. It just loads slowly for some reason.

@gcgallant@sub.wetshaving.social

• Brush: Zenith 506B MB (27 mm × 55 mm Manchurian badger)
• Razor: Fatip - Lo Storto - Testa Dentata
• Blade: Derby Extra
• Lather: Abbate y la Mantia – Don Josè
• Post Shave: Ralon – Sport
• Fragrance: Stirling Soap Co. – Island Man

I’ve determined that Don Josè is the perfect scent for a lazy beach hotel vacation, so I keep running with it. I paired it with a banana-coconut smoothie at the breakfast buffet, except I had to substitute the coconut for lack of coconuts. Life is full of tough choices.

You’ll still have a decent number of straights😅

and might not want to spend all of August using a 5/8.

Yeah, I’ve also been thinking I should sell or pif my Ralf Austs. I’m just not often in the mood to teach for a 5/8

The scent was better than I was anticpating. Not overpowering or, in a way, synthetic(?) smelling, like candies. It was pleasant and fits summer well.

That puts it well!

It’s simple, without being a caricature.

Ha, sounds maybe like too much soap? 😄

My condolences for your loss!

• Brush: Zenith 506B MB (27 mm × 55 mm Manchurian badger)
• Razor: Fatip - Lo Storto - Testa Dentata
• Blade: Derby Extra
• Lather: Abbate y la Mantia – Don Josè
• Post Shave: Ralon – Sport
• Fragrance: Stirling Soap Co. – Island Man

Yesterday’s BVWSC shave was so nice that I repeated it.

Oh, and I’m happy you still like the MMOC!

Excellent!

Looking forward to reading what you think!

I don’t think I gave it too much water, but I also sort of, somehow, didn’t give it enough, maybe?

Sounds like the typical “not dialed-in yet” kinda situation.

Sorry that we ended up with both banana and menthol in our first BVWSC!

Thanks for the nice write-up, that was a good read!

I think the banana must have evaporated through the paper. My 3 year old soap in a closed aluminium tub is a banana bomb.

If you’re curious about AYLM, know that the newer soaps have switched over to a hard, triple milled soap base, and there have already been at least two iterations of the hard soap.

I like both the soft and hard soaps I’ve tried from AYLM, but I do think that the newest hard base with the hemp oil is a step better than the others.

Lol, probably!

The backstory is of Don Josè, who made his fortune importing bananas and coconuts, which it transported across the Atlantic on ice to keep them fresh. The menthol is the nod to the ice chips

Yay, finally the first BVWSC meeting 😊

Now I found myself an old wooden lid from a rituals shaving cream

That’ll work just fine 👍

Banantastic first meeting of the Buena Vista Wetshaving Social Club: 🍌 + 🥥 + 🧊

• Brush: Zenith 506B MB (27 mm × 55 mm Manchurian badger)
• Razor: Fatip - Lo Storto - Testa Dentata
• Blade: Derby Extra
• Lather: Abbate y la Mantia – Don Josè
• Post Shave: Ralon – Sport
• Fragrance: Stirling Soap Co. – Island Man

Today is the first meeting of the club, and we chose Don Josè, the delicious Banana & Coconut soap of Abbate Y La Mantia.

A few years ago, I bought a complete sample set of Abbate Y La Mantia’s offering of the time (this was before the hard soaps, the Babylon series and even before Fufluns. Vulcano and Don Josè were my favourites and I splurged on a trickhole of Don Josè. One fun aspect of AYLM sets is that they come with a comically large 200ml cologne bottle, but a regular sized 100 ml splash.

Don Josè’s banana plays the main role here, with coconut adding only support. It’s a really easy scent to enjoy. Delicious, fresh, simple. The soft base isn’t very popular around here, but I believe it’s just because it’s different from the typical American artisan base in that you need to load a lot more soap. When you do, you get sopping wet, glistening, slick, and – in this case – refreshing mentholated lather. I’m curious to see how the fellow BVWSC members will like it.

Now I’m off back to the beach 🏖

• Brush: Zenith 506B MB (27 mm × 55 mm Manchurian badger)
• Razor: Fatip - Lo Storto - Testa Dentata
• Blade: Mühle
• Lather: Barrister and Mann – Oceana (Soft Heart)
• Post Shave: Ralon – Sport
• Fragrance: Stirling Soap Co. – Island Man

I think the ring of death will start forming any day now.

Groundhog Day

• Brush: Zenith 506B MB (27 mm × 55 mm Manchurian badger)
• Razor: Fatip - Lo Storto - Testa Dentata
• Blade: Mühle
• Lather: Barrister and Mann – Oceana (Soft Heart)
• Post Shave: Ralon – Sport
• Fragrance: Stirling Soap Co. – Island Man