There’s a lot of stuff on that stage. Lots of stuff that seems particularly large: 3 full-sized soaps, 3 brushes, 3 pre and after shaves, 3 razors. 3 blades…But it should be a fun week of shaves with all of that stuff.
Here’s the origin story on this one: I needed to get in some new acquisitions, needed to get second goes with some other stuff, and I needed to use three razors that I haven’t used this month.
First, yes, I’m coming back to a Proraso Sunday shave, because I needed to in order to use the new Proraso Azur Lime balm and to match it all to the Azur Lime beard wash, beard oil, and beard balm that I’ve got so that I can just smell like a wall of Azur Lime. This is the third shave with the Azur Lime shaving cream, but first with the balm.
The Saponificio Varesino 80th Anniversary soap comes back for its second appearance on Tuesday, which will let me rate it officially. But the Goodfellas’ Smile Syntesi appears as well, for its seventh shave and first in over two months, this time getting paired with the Astra blue blade, which I think should be a great combo. The Lucky Dice brush feels positively old as it’s appearing in its third shave.
Finally, back for the first time in 248 days (last used in December 2025) is the Hoffman’s Autism Strong soap, paired with what should be a moderately cooling pair of the Razor Emporium menthol pre-shave and the Stirling Unscented with Menthol balm. This is a first for the balm, and you can read that story in the mail call post of last week. Oddly, this is also just the second use of the Autism Strong lather, so I’ll have to refer to my review at the time to try to remember how it worked (I think well, I hold Hoffman’s products as surprisingly good).
For some reason, I’ve stepped away from the Merkur Progress razor a bit, and that’s mostly because it just feels like it starts at a point more aggressive than mild, and just continues up the scale. This should be a great pairing because the PAA blade is pleasantly mild.
Somewhere this week, I will use the Stirling alum block, probably Thursday, as I really just need to finish it up. But the new Osma will also get some playing time.
I’m kind of excited about this week, with some good full-sized soaps, getting SV back into the mix, getting to some razors that I really don’t use perhaps as much as I should, and just a chance to mix things up and have some fun.
The Ratings
Sunday’s Shave, #322. The Proraso Sunday Azur Lime Shave.
The setup:
- Razor: Feather AS-D2
- Blade: Wizamet Super Iridium
- Pre-Shave: Proraso Protective pre-shave cream (blue)
- Brush: Proraso boar brush
- Soap/Cream/Gel: Proraso Azur Lime shaving cream
- Alum Block: Osma alum block
- After Shave: Proraso Azur Lime aftershave balm
- Stats:
- The Feather razor is coming into the shave with an average rating of 23.57 in 7 shaves
- The Wizamet so far has an average rating of 24.00 in 5 shaves
- This is the 3rd shave with the Proraso Azur Lime lather
- 1st shave with the Azur Lime balm
- 80th shave with the Proraso boar brush
- 135th almost perfect shave
- 54th shave with an overall rating of 24 (21.0% of all logged shaves
There were moments while shaving that I was actually asking myself if this was going to be a perfect shave. I mean, it was very comfortable with almost no blade feel, wonderful slickness, and some closeness, though it took several passes to get it very close.
That was the only thing holding this shave back: closeness. But I’d come back to this readily.
The Feather razor is clearly well in my wheelhouse. It’s performed very well with very sharp or aggressive blades, and now, as I start moving down the aggressiveness scale, it’s still performing well. And yes, my experience with the Wizamet has been amazing overall.
The Proraso Azur Lime lather and balm were outstanding. The cream (and again, I’d actually call it a croap (cream-soap combo)) makes an outstanding lather, with a nice pleasant scent. The balm has the same performance as the other Proraso balms, but has the distinctive Azur Lime fragrance, but it isn’t strong or overpowering. I’m not constantly bombarded by the scent, instead it comes and goes so that sometimes I pick up a waft of the smell. I really like that.
Again, overall an outstanding shave that really was so close to being my first perfect shave. But I’ll happily come back to this any day.
Comfort: 25 of 25
Quality/Closeness: 24 of 25
Overall: 24 of 25
Tuesday’s Shave, #323. The All Italian Shave.
The setup:
- Razor: Goodfellas’ Smile Syntesi
- Blade: Astra Superior Stainless (blue)
- Pre-Shave: Cella Organic pre-shave gel
- Brush: Yaqi R2002-S Lucky Dice synthetic
- Soap/Cream/Gel: Saponificio Varesino 80th Anniversary shaving soap
- Alum Block: Stirling Soap Co. Alum
- After Shave: Cella Organic aftershave balm
- Stats:
- The Syntesi has an average rating of 23.33 in 6 shaves
- The Astra blue blade has an average rating of 23.25 in 12 shaves
- 3rd blade used with the Syntesi
- 2nd shave with the SV 80th Anniversary soap
- 7th shave with the Cella Organic pre-shave
- 6th shave with the Cella Organic aftershave balm
- 3rd shave with the Yaqi Lucky Dice brush
- 136th almost perfect shave
- 3rd consecutive almost perfect shave
- 82nd shave with an overall rating of 23 (31.8% of all logged shaves)
Okay, the title isn’t entirely true. But the razor, pre-shave, lather, and aftershave are all Italian. The blade is made in India or Russia, the alum came from France, and the brush is Chinese. But a lot of it is Italian, and that’s what counts.
To the shave, though, this was kind of a tough one to rate. Objectively, the shave was outstanding: very little irritation, very close results. But the Syntesi seems to always result in a kind of rough-feeling shave, with lots of blade feel (or it could be a lot of feel from the thin base plate). It’s a cheap-feeling razor with a rough cap, thin plate, and a short handle and just feels less premium than it’s selling price would indicate. So while the ratings of the shave were very excellent, the shave itself wasn’t as enjoyable as I’d hope.
But all of that being said, this was still a great shave. The SV 80th Anniversary is an excellent, rich lather, and paired with the Cella pre- and post-shaves, it made for a very pleasant experience and tried to smooth out the Syntesi’s performance the best it could.
Comfort: 23 out of 25
Quality/Closeness: 24 out of 25
Overall: 23 out of 25
Thursday’s Shave, #324. The Cool Autism Strong Shave.
The setup:
- Razor: Merkur Progress 500 Adjustable (setting 2)
- Blade: PAA Platinum Strangelet Super Sharp
- Pre-Shave: Razor Emporium Menthol pre-shave
- Brush: Maggard Razors Purple Swirl synthetic
- Soap/Cream/Gel: Hoffman’s Autism Strong shaving soap
- Alum Block: Stirling Soap Co. Alum
- After Shave: Stirling Soap Co. Unscented with menthol aftershave balm
- Stats:
- The Merkur Progress on setting 2 has an average rating or 22.50 in 2 shaves
- The PAA blades have an average rating of 22.22 in 9 shaves
- As mentioned, this is the 2nd shave with Hoffman’s Autism Strong lather
- 7th shave with the Razor Emporium menthol pre-shave
- 1st shave with the Stirling Unscented with Menthol balm
- 5th shave with the Maggard Purple Swirl brush
- 137th almost perfect shave
- 4th consecutive almost perfect shave
- 83rd shave with an overall rating of 23 (32.0% of all logged shaves)
Granted, I’m still really in early days of using the Merkur Progress razor, but after this, the third shave with setting 2, I’m convinced that it really does skew on the more aggressive end, and that I’ll probably just need to stick to setting 1 going forward.
The shave was fine and mostly comfortable, though maybe I’ll reserve setting 2 for Sunday shaves. But this was almost too aggressive for me and not as efficient as I’d want in exchange for the aggressiveness. There was some burn with the alum, but it didn’t last too long, but there’s that residual blade-scraping feel on my neck.
The other components of the shave were very nice–it was nice to use the Hoffman’s Autism Strong lather for the first time in 9 months. It’s slick, rich, has a very pleasant scent, and works well for me. The first use of the Stirling balm was interesting–it’s very strongly menthol and provided a strong cooling feel for about 30 minutes after the shave, but then has faded into a lightly tingly feel. It makes me a little hesitant to use the Glacial Unscented balm, but I’ll give it a go.
All in all, this was a good shave. Not one of my favorites, but the learning will be taken forward that setting 1 is the way to go with the Merkur in the future.
Next week is the last week of Anniversary Month, and I’m turning to the medium-mild razors in the collection. See you then!
Comfort: 23 out of 25
Quality/Closeness: 23 out of 25
Overall: 23 out of 25