After a celebratory week of shaves, I’m back to normal(ish) shaves, meaning I’ll stick with one razor and one blade all week. But if you enjoy the chaos I demonstrated last week, stay tuned. You’ll get your wish in August for the Anniversary shaves. But that’s later and this is now.
This week of shaves was built around getting the new to me Wilkinson Sword blades into action. And as I prefer to do, I’m opening them up with the Henson mild.
The Wilkinson Sword, as I mentioned in its mail call post, has an interesting story, and has two manufacturers of it’s blades. The company started out making actual armaments in 1772 (think cannons and such), but started making swords in the 1820s. And at some point, they started making razors and razor blades. While there’s a common belief that they’re owned by Gillette, they aren’t. They’re owned by the same company that owns Schick. The blades I have are made by Wilkinson themselves in Solingen, Germany, but there are also blades made in India by Gillette that have Gillette and Wilkinson branding, as Gillette owns the brand rights in India, but oddly those blades are also imported into America.
I see Wilkinson Sword blades in shaves on a regular basis, but not that often. I think they’re probably just one of those classic brands that’s more popular outside of the U.S. The blades are known for being fairly aggressive, which should translate to a good pairing with the Henson mild, which typically handles aggressive blades well. I expect some added efficiency and hopefully not much irritation. I’m looking forward to seeing how the shaves with the Wilkinson/Henson combo go.
Three other products make their debuts this week as well: Castle Forbes 1445 shaving cream and aftershave balm, and Palmolive Menthol shaving cream.
Castle Forbes is a Scottish brand that started in the Forbes’ family castle (oddly named Forbes Castle) near Keig, Scotland, in 1996 by Lady Forbes and a friend. The company history says it was started in the perfumery of the castle, but whether this was an existing space/activity in the castle isn’t clear to me. The 1445 product line is a nod to the year that the Forbes Clan Chief was named the Premier Lord of Scotland.
I picked up the Castle Forbes shaving cream and aftershave balm samples during a Maggard’s purchase. These products get a lot of praise, and I’m looking forward to giving them a go as Castle Forbes is generally viewed as a luxury brand.
The Palmolive Menthol cream was also picked up in a Maggard’s order, and it’s particularly well known and popular in Europe, where shaving cream tubes seem to be the standard quick shave product instead of a can of foam. And, as with most of those store-bought shaving cream tubes, the Palmolive only cost me $7. I’m excited to get this one into the mix and give it a go and see if it is what some people say about it. It’s a lathering cream made in Italy (yeah, I know, there’s a surprise), and the lather is generally reported to be rich and thick, so I’m really looking forward to it.
Lots of new stuff coming this week, and I’m excited about it. There should be some very good shaves, and nice experience with some new creams.
The Ratings
Sunday’s Shave, #303. The Proraso Sunday Blue Shave.
The setup:
- Razor: Henson AL13+ mild
- Blade: Wilkinson Sword
- Pre-Shave: Proraso Protective pre-shave cream (blue)
- Brush: Proraso boar shaving brush
- Soap/Cream/Gel: Proraso Protective shaving cream (blue)
- Alum Block: Stirling Soap Co. Alum
- After Shave: Proraso Protective after shave balm (blue)
- Stats:
- 1st shave with the Wilkinson Sword blade
- 32nd blade used in my shaves
- 21st blade used with the Henson mild (most of any razor, the Rockwell is second with 15 blades used)–27 blades to go to use all of them with the Henson
- 20th shave with the Proraso blue set (3rd most used lather in the collection after the Proraso white and Nivea gel)
- 62nd shave with the Henson mild razor
- 118th almost perfect shave
- 15th consecutive almost perfect shave
- 41st shave with an overall rating of 24 (17.1% of all logged shaves)
This is a good combo. There wasn’t much blade feel, but there was good closeness–not great, but good. I’m a little surprised at the lack of efficiency with the Wilkinson Sword, especially given its aggressiveness rating, but it still delivered a comfortable close enough shave that I’d be pretty happy to return to. And that’s all that really counts.
There was no irritation, and no sting with the alum post shave. There was some stubble in the usual spots, but that seems to have faded and laid down as the balm has soaked in.
The Proraso blue pre-shave and lather did its thing, laying a nice slick base for the shave, with the balm leaving its signature scent, which I really love.
So, all-in-all, a great Sunday shave
Comfort: 25 of 25
Quality/Closeness: 23 of 25
Overall: 24 of 25
Tuesday’s Shave, #304. The Castle Forbes Blue Shave.
The setup:
- Razor: Henson AL13+ mild
- Blade: Wilkinson Sword
- Pre-Shave: Stirling Soap Co. Unscented pre-shave soap
- Brush: Parker Blue Storm synthetic shaving brush
- Soap/Cream/Gel: Castle Forbes 1445 shaving cream
- Alum Block: Stirling Soap Co. Alum
- After Shave: Castle Forbes 1445 Aftershave balm
- Stats:
- 1st shave with the Castle Forbes 1445 shaving cream and aftershave balm
- 57th lather used in my shaves
- 22nd aftershave used in my shaves
- 10th shave with the Stirling pre-shave soap
- 4th shave with the Parker brush
- 119th almost perfect shave
- 16th consecutive almost perfect shave
- 42nd shave with an overall rating of 24 (17.6% of all logged shaves)
Wow. Talk about consistency–a very similar result to Sunday’s shave with this combo. It was close, not perfectly close, but close enough, with a very comfortable result with no irritation.
This combo makes me happy.
The Castle Forbes 1445 shaving cream made a nice lather, was slick and protective, but had a really weird scent that I can’t quite place. It’s a very complex scent with lots of notes of various things, but I couldn’t nail down one single scent. Looking online, there’s petitgrain, lemon, clove, vetiver, patchouli, lavender and tarragon. All of that explains the strong earthy notes I’m getting, and the lavender and lemon probably explains the fruity and floral highlights. I’m not sure that I like it, but I’m also not sure that I dislike it. But it’s a soft soap or concentrated cream, and performed very well.
The complimentary aftershave balm has the same fragrance notes, and performs excellently, providing great moisturization and post shave soothing. But again, with that same scent to it, I’m not sure whether I like it or not. I can say that it seems to be fading fairly quickly into the background.
In total, though, another outstanding shave that just reinforces the quality of the blade-razor combo. I’ll come back to that down the road.
Comfort: 25 out of 25
Quality/Closeness: 23 out of 25
Overall: 24 out of 25
Thursday’s Shave, #305. The Cool Summer Shave.
The setup:
- Razor: Henson AL13+ mild
- Blade: Wilkinson Sword
- Pre-Shave: Razor Emporium Menthol pre-shave
- Brush: Omega 10019 boar brush
- Soap/Cream/Gel: Palmolive Menthol shaving cream
- Alum Block: Stirling Soap Co. Alum
- After Shave: Duke Cannon Ice Cold Aftershave balm
- Stats:
- 1st shave with the Palmolive cream
- 58th lather used in my shaves
- 3rd shave with the Duke Cannon balm
- 51st shave with the Omega 10019 boar brush
- 120th almost perfect shave
- 17th consecutive almost perfect shave
- 43rd shave with an overall rating of 24 (17.9% of all logged shaves)
There’s something to be said for a menthol-forward shave in the summertime. I do understand why there are shavers out there who swap over to their mint, menthol, and other cooling feeling shave products in the summertime.
I intentionally stacked this one up to feature reinforcing cooling feels, and it did its job, with just a little residual cooling feel about an hour after the shave. And it was a nice feel to the shave.
My first time trying the Palmolive refreshing cream was good–it lathered voluminously, but it wasn’t as slick a lather as I prefer. I mean, it worked, and worked well, but not as well as I know others–including other creams–can do. The result was some irritation on my neck, which hadn’t been there during the previous two shaves this week. But oddly, the closeness on my neck is better, which makes me wonder if I ended up with some extra strokes without fully paying attention.
All told, this was another great shave in a week of great shaves. The Wilkinson Sword-Henson mild pairing is a great one, producing comfortable, close shaves that definitely are among the best I’ve had.
Comfort: 24 out of 25
Quality/Closeness: 24 out of 25
Overall: 24 out of 25