This shave (and next week’s shaves, for that matter) was set up as a chance to try out the Personna Gem blade with some more razors. So this week, it meets the Feather AS-D2, and next week, it will play with the Mühle. I’ve mentioned it before, but I prefer to start out with a blade in a mild razor, and these two are certainly mild, though as shown two weeks ago with the shave #300 week, the Feather proved to be the mildest of the three razors, so it will be an interesting comparison with the Gillette Super Blue, which definitely trended more aggressive. In fact, the milder the razor, the bigger challenge there is for the blade, as it needs to still produce a close shave with a minimum of passes.
The first shave pairs up with the Proraso white (cream) combo, and that should be a nicely slick and protective shave, so I’m expecting good things.
The second shave goes mostly French, with the debut of the Le Père Lucien Traditional soap paired with the Pre de Provence No. 63 balm in what should also be a nicely slick shave, as the Carden Farms lather appears again as the pre-shave. I haven’t seen much about Le Père Lucien soaps, as they only show up rarely in the SOTDs, and the few reviews I’ve seen put it’s formulation similar to Martin de Candre with a similar performance and slickness. This is a glycerin and vegetal base, so no tallow, which will be interesting. The scent is definitely light and herbal
Thursday features another lather premiere with the Village Soapsmith Old Spice Type lather showing up paired with the Edwin Jagger pre-shave (using it to get closer to finishing it or finally finishing it), and Harry’s post shave balm. This is one of those soaps that are made by an artisanal soap maker first, who seems to have come to shaving soap making later. It doesn’t quite have an exact Old Spice scent, but it’s definitely masculine and soapy.
From a software standpoint, these should be above average shaves, matched up with above average hardware as well, so they should make for good shaves. But again, this is why I try them–to see what they’re really like. I’m not expecting any disappointment as I think the Feather is too mild to cause much disappointment in any area other than closeness.
So here we go with some solid Summer shaves as I head toward the Anniversary Month in August.
The Ratings
Sunday’s Shave, #307. The Proraso White Sunday Shave.
The setup:
- Razor: Feather AS-D2
- Blade: Personna Gem Platinum Diamond Glide
- Pre-Shave: Proraso Sensitive pre-shave cream (white)
- Brush: Proraso boar shaving brush
- Soap/Cream/Gel: Proraso Sensitive shaving cream (white)
- Alum Block: Stirling Soap Co. Alum
- After Shave: Proraso Sensitive after shave balm (white)
- Stats:
- 5th shave with the Feather AS-D2 razor
- 3rd blade used with the Feather razor
- 4th shave with the Personna Gem blade
- 6th shave with the Proraso white cream
- 38th shave with the Proraso white set
- 121st almost perfect shave
- 44th shave with an overall rating of 24 (15.2% of all logged shaves)
I’ve mentioned before that reviews I’ve read frequently said that the Feather AS-D2 razor was great, especially with the Feather blade, but when paired with others, it was less than perfect. I will say that in my experience–granted only 5 shaves so far–it is an excellent mild razor that seems to produce excellent results with a range of aggressive blades.
I say this because in this, my fifth shave with the Feather and with a third different blade, I’ve been very happy with the results, both in closeness and comfort. This shave was very comfortable, but close after just a couple of passes.
The Gem blade is excellent–smooth and efficient, but it also does it without a lot of blade feel. This is vastly different from the Gillette Super Blue, which I debuted a couple of weeks ago, and used in the Henson mild, Feather, and Mühle. In each of those shaves, there was a lot of blade feel, despite being in my mildest razors. (I’ve talked about blade feel a lot, especially lately, and I feel like I need to define that term. It’s exactly what it sounds like: the feeling of the blade contacting the skin. In an ideal world for someone preferring a milder shave (like me), you want a minimum of blade feel in order to avoid irritation. Obviously, you need some blade feel, but want it to be minimal).
To wrap this up, I had an excellent Sunday shave with everything I want in my shave great comfort and closeness, which launched it to the top tier of my shaves.
Comfort: 24 of 25
Quality/Closeness: 24 of 25
Overall: 24 of 25
Tuesday’s Shave, #308. The Mostly French Shave.
The setup:
- Razor: Feather AS-D2
- Blade: Personna Gem Platinum Diamond Glide
- Pre-Shave: Carden Farms Clear & Clean Shaving Soap Stick
- Brush: Maggard Razors Purple Swirl synthetic
- Soap/Cream/Gel: Le Père Lucien Traditional shaving soap
- Alum Block: Stirling Soap Co. Alum
- After Shave: Pre de Provence No. 63 aftershave balm
- Stats:
- 1st shave with the Le Père Lucien soap
- 60th lather used in my shaves (19 left to try from the current collection)
- 2nd shave with the Pre de Provence No. 63 balm
- 3rd shave with the Maggard Purple Swirl
- 122nd almost perfect shave
- 78th shave with an overall rating of 23 (32.0% of all logged shaves)
I’ve been anxiously waiting for this shave for a while, and it delivered. Though there was some disappointment.
First off, the Le Père Lucien Traditional shaving soap lathered well, and any concerns I had about its fragrance went out the window. In the tin, it’s got a pretty concentrated herbal scent. But once lathered, the scent diminished a lot and became a nice, pleasant base for the shave. The real downside here is that because this soap has a vegetal base, it isn’t quite as slick as the tallow soaps. And while the Saponificio Varesino is vegan, it does have a slicker feel on the skin.
But, that being said, it still performed very well, partially aided, I’m sure, by the glycerin based Carden Farms soap stick that I’ve been using as a pre-shave.
The second use of the Pre de Provence No. 63 balm proved further that it’s an excellent product for delivering moisture to the skin. I didn’t use a lot, but it has clearly moisturized very well and still feels smooth and properly protected.
Overall, this was another great shave, though it will go down as the worst shave of the week. I think I can firmly say that the AS-D2 does perform wonderfully with the Feather blade, but not quite as well with others, but it’s still a very nice mild shave that makes me happy.
Comfort: 23 out of 25
Quality/Closeness: 24 out of 25
Overall: 23 out of 25
Thursday’s Shave, #309. The Old Spice Type Shave.
The setup:
- Razor: Feather AS-D2
- Blade: Personna Gem Platinum Diamond Glide
- Pre-Shave: Edwin Jagger Hydrating Pre-Shave Cream
- Brush: Omega S10049 synthetic
- Soap/Cream/Gel: Village Soapsmith Old Spice Type Shaving Soap
- Alum Block: Stirling Soap Co. Alum
- After Shave: Duke Cannon Ice Cold Aftershave balm
- Stats:
- 1st shave with the Village Soapsmith soap
- 61st lather used in my shaves (18 left to go)
- 5th shave with the Edwin Jagger Hydrating pre-shave cream
- 6th shave with the Personna Gem blade
- 4th shave with Harry’s post shave balm
- 123rd almost perfect shave
- 3rd consecutive almost perfect shave
- 45th shave with an overall rating of 24 (18.4% of all logged shaves)
Saving the best for last, this combo seemed to really deliver. While I’m not a big fan of the Edwin Jagger pre-shave, I keep forgetting that it delivers a huge cooling menthol punch that lasted the entire shave and then some. And even though it isn’t terribly slick, the soap provided enough extra slickness where the shave was smooth and extremely comfortable.
I was hoping I could finish the pre-shave, but nope. It’s still got one more in it, which means that I’ll get 7 shaves out of the little sample tub of pre-shave.
The Village Soapsmith lather is nice–not one of the top, but it lathered very nicely, and was thick and rich, but it was definitely lacking in slickness–not as much as the Le Père Lucien on Tuesday–but it still isn’t up to the standards I’d like. But the fragrance was nice. Not what I’d consider a classic Old Spice scent, but it’s close. It’s masculine, but very soapy, and when I compare it to the Old Spice cream, the cream is a little less soapy and has a little warmer fragrance. But that being said, this is a very nice soap that I’ll be happy to use. I’ve certainly used worse.
And finally, with each use of Harry’s Post Shave balm, I’m increasingly impressed. It soothes nicely and provides excellent moisturizing after a shave. It’s thicker than many of my balms, but does a great job for me after my shaves.
So far, the Personna Gem blade has delivered 6 straight shaves with an overall rating of 24, placing it at the top of the heap when it comes to blade ratings. And I’m looking forward to next week’s shaves with the Gem in the Mühle R89.
Comfort: 25 out of 25
Quality/Closeness: 24 out of 25
Overall: 24 out of 25