December 2025 – The Eclectic Mix @ Lathropworld

The State of the Shave of the Day (TSOTSOTD)

It's the end of the calendar year now, with only a couple of hours until the clocks tick over to 2026, and this seems like a good time to look at 2025 and look ahead.

Paul December 31, 2025

Mail Call Personal Care Shaving

The Christmas Gift Haul

Christmas gifts are all opened and everyone is back where they should be. Friday will be a day of relaxation for everyone here, and hopefully for you too. I got one shaving item as a gift (though there are a...

Paul December 30, 2025

Personal Care Shaving Shaving Reviews

The Black and Yellow Christmas Week Shaves (with a debut)

It's Christmas week this week, and it's also the third and final week for now with the Gillette 7 O'Clock Sharp Edge (yellow) blade. It's delivered some great shaves in the Rockwell 6C and last week was almost perfect across...

Paul December 28, 2025

Personal Care Shaving Shaving Reviews

The Christmas Eve Bonus Shave

I really enjoy bonus shaves. They let me plan a shave that's different from whatever shaves I've got going at that time, and they give me the opportunity to play with a combo that I might not have planned for...

Paul December 24, 2025

Mail Call Personal Care Shaving

A Mid-December Mail Call

Recently, in an overall review of all of the lathers I have in the collection (shaving soaps, creams, sticks, tubes, foams, gels, etc.) I ranked Taylor of Old Bond Street Organic Shaving Cream at the #7 position out of 29...

Paul December 23, 2025

Personal Care Shaving Shaving Reviews

The Henson Blue & Gillette Yellow Shaves

I've mentioned this before, but here's full disclosure on this week's shaves: This isn't the first time I've shaved with this razor and blade combo. Back in March, after getting my Henson mild, I paired the Gillette 7 O'Clock Sharp...

Paul December 21, 2025

Mail Call Personal Care Shaving Reviews

The Hoffman’s Grooming Lathers – A Review

Let me set the stage: Back in August (I think), there was a woman who posted in two of the Reddit shaving forums I follow saying that she was going to participate in a bike ride to raise money for...

Paul December 18, 2025

Personal Care Shaving Shaving Information

Talking Passes

Let's talk passes. Shaving passes. I'll address the elephant...er...nostrils in the room in a moment. As I've mentioned before, there are three types of passes, and they're pretty fundamental to everyone's shaving technique. And two of the three are uncontroversial....

Paul December 16, 2025

Personal Care Shaving Shaving Reviews

The 7 O’Clock Yellow Shaves

The next three weeks finish up the journey across the Gillette 7 O'Clock blade line. I started out back in October trying out the Super Stainless (green) blades, just finished three weeks using the Super Platinum (black) blades, and now...

Paul December 14, 2025

Personal Care Shaving Shaving Reviews

Rating the Lathers

I have, at least once in the last year, tried almost* all of the shaving lathers (the product used specifically to hold the hairs while shaving) in my collection, be they foam, cream, gel, soap, or stick. I have also...

Paul December 11, 2025