Stubble Daddy’s Shave Journal of Awesomeness and Honesty ...

Absolutely Stunning

Well if aftershave comes after soap and before cologne, isn't a scent unnecessary?

Just my 2€ worth.

Paul, I have had that EXACT same thought lately. And I'm kinda of the mindset that, even if you think you nail an awesome scent, 50% of your users will still probably hate it... then another 10% will have a reaction to the fragrance/essential oils.

I really want the focus to be post-shave feel / conditioning.

You both have good arguments, and FWIW my short answer would be to encourage your conclusions:  Stay unscented, at least for now.  I do have two additional thoughts, one for unscented, and one against:

• Since you are only just at the point of possibly calling the base "good to go", it might be wiser to hold back any scent until you get feedback from a broader spectrum of users.  You want to avoid complicating the recipe until you are highly confident as to what the unscented base can do and how people react to it.
  
• OTOH - and I am just playing the devil's advocate now - for various reasons, some people don't want a fragrance.  For example, they may off to a work environment in which the longevity is not welcome.  For them, the scent of an aftershave is a pleasant finish, whereas the scent of a cologne is too much of a good thing. 
  

Today’s Handcraft is an interesting piece of Black Locust:

Oh my that is a beauty!

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

Today’s Handcraft is an interesting piece of Black Locust:

Beautiful!

Razor: Blackland Blackbird
Brush: Trotter Handcrafts 26mm
Soap: Wholly Kaw Iced Tea
Aftershave: Trotter Handcrafts
Blade: Tatara

The Wholly Kaw soap is a blast to use. It has a menthol kick which is kinda interesting. The scent is sorta a sweet tea and dull lime. Its very unique and I like it a lot. I haven't had much luck with most WK scents, but this one is cool (no pun intended)!

The Tatara blade felt great in the Blackbird. It's been a while since I used a Tatara... if I remember correctly, I love them for the first shave, but they don't last long after that for me... gotta use it more to decide how much I like them.

And finished things up with Paco Rabanne 1 Million. Dave was kind enough to send me some fragrance samples this week and I'm having fun with them. Thanks again Dave!

You're more than welcome. Happy to help as Gus GlazedBoker enabled me for sure ! Just paying forward

Razor: Above the Tie SE1
Brush: That Darn Rob (aka Chisel & Hound) 26mm w/ Oumo Knot
Soap: Ethos - Colonia
Aftershave: 4711
Blade: Feather Pro

My friend Highspeed Mike was kind enough to share some super nice soap samples with me! I was most excited to try Ethos since I've read so much about it here on DFS.

Scent off the sample container was a very nice bergamot/lemon. Very well done and as I lathered it the scent seemed to open up even more. I was instantly taken back to when I was a kid visiting my Grandparents in Arizona during the early spring. They had a lot of lemon/lime trees around there place. In the morning it would rain then get really sunny. The smell of those mornings and happy memories with my family came back when using Colonia. Made my day.

Now the performance... in a word, EXCELLENT. Elite all the way. Lather on the first passes was incredible and nothing short of perfection. I loved how much cushion it had. Maybe its my water, but I can't seem to get most Artisan soaps to produce the big cushion I get from MDC, Tabac, La Toja, etc.... but Ethos does! By the 4th and final pass, it started to break down just a little, but was still nice and thick with a minimal amount of foam/suds. Post shave was insane. I kinda didn't feel the need for aftershave. My skin feels so nice post shave. Frank at Ethos clearly knows skin care and this product is dialed in perfectly to that.

So yes, I think the hype is real with Ethos and it's definitely worth the price of admission for such a premium product. I have already purchased the skin food splash and can't wait to try that as well in the near future!

Thanks again Mike... I really appreciate it!

You're welcome Paul. That's a great writeup, and[font=Tahoma, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif] the photo is very cool to go with it.[/font]  

I'm glad you liked the ETHOS, but not the least bit surprised.  IME ETHOS products are off the charts, and reliably so.  If I knew how to decant the SFS, I would have sent you a sample of that too.  I think you would greatly appreciate the SFS, and it would provide you with a useful, and I would say lofty, benchmark for your own work.  Anyway, enjoy the soap.

Razor: Above The Tie SE1 w/ Razorock DLC Halo Handle
Brush: Trotter Handcrafts - Black Locust 26mm Oumo Knot
Soap: Grooming Dept - Maleki (thanks Mike)
Aftershave: Chatillon Lux - Taum Sauk
Blade: Feather Pro

Great, fun shave today. First outing with my new brush.

The GD sample was provided by Mike. Scent was very unique and similar to a GD soap I tried years ago, but can’t remember the name! Performance was great. Very slick and amazing post-shave feel.

Spent yesterday messing around with brush handles on the lathe and set these up with knots:



Mike, your figured maple brush will be in the mail tomorrow... by the way, I’m very jealous of your amazing SHD 28mm knot. I can tell this is one of the older ones. The new ones that I’ve purchased and seen from others don’t have such soft, white tops like this!

Love the Wood there, especially the middle one. So unique

Awesome work, as usual, Paul!