Sacre' Bleu:

Today's shave was great but under some sad circumstances beyond my control. I also had to use a De safety razor today because I had no time for a straight razor shave at all this morning. My mom's aunt buried her husband today and it was a sad thing to see. He proudly served in the U.S. Navy for 16 years which we didn't know about until this past Tuesday. The shave was another "ice rink" type of shave or true BBS:

The U.S. Navy Honor Guard was a class act and done a phenomenal job performing the ceremony and the local V.F.W. (post 4667) done a phenomenal job with the 21 gun salute and playing "taps":

My great aunt said that he spent too many years lighting up and it caught up to him. Being 80 years old didn't help either. "Fair winds and following seas to the U.S. Navy and to him for his service". No matter which branch performs the ceremony and how many times you see it performed, it ALWAYS gets to you.

My New Rotation:

Well I've decided to make a few changes to my rotation and phase out, a couple brands of soap. It's nothing personal, towards RazoRock and Tiki Bar at all and I wish them well, but it's time for me to try other soaps that are available:

So my new rotation will be as follows:

Sunday: Soap Commander

Monday: Soap Commander

Tuesday: Tiki Bar/SteamBath Factory (until they're gone)

Wednesday: Mickey Lee Soap Works

Thursday: Mary Kay

Friday: PAA/Crown King

Saturday: Through The Fire Fine Craft/Samples.

If I don't have any of TTFC's soaps, then I'll tear into some samples that I have around. Which is what will be used this coming Saturday until I can order directly from TTFC.

Mary Kay:

Well today is Thursday which means Mary Kay shaving products gets used. I'll probably just end up using an Unscented shave soap which won't be shown because I don't want it to steal the spotlight from the Mary Kay products and the razor itself. I also will be phasing out 2 brands of soap from my rotation, Tiki Bar and RazoRock. The reason behind it is purely a "YMMV decision" and it's nothing personal towards these brands. I just want to try new stuff that I haven't tried yet: 

My new rotation will be in another blog post.

I Lost the Doc:

Well today's shave started out like any other shave would until I took the razor apart to check and possibly replace the blade like I've done an untold and unknown number of times. When I go to tighten the handle back up, something loosened up pretty significantly to the point where the base plate wouldn't hold the blade. So I took the razor apart again and removed the base plate and re tightened the handle. Had no issues with it tightening up but it does take a lot longer to tighten up. So after much thought and looking at what it would cost to fix it, I've decided to replace it with a newer razor at a later time:

See how the base plate looks chipped? I do NOT tighten the handle up on my safety razors with a king kong grip like other people tend to do. I use a snug or "finger tight" grip which is all that's needed to keep the plates and blade in place and that's it:

Someone did suggest that I send it off to be fixed ad re plated but that would cost more than it would to replace it with a new one all together. The reason I decided to wait is because I'm pretty much a straight razor guy now and I really don't use a DE safety razor much so it can wait.

ClubGuy & Clubman:

Today's shave was great. This screams American Barbershop to a lot of people especially those on the West Coast because 90% of the time, you will see Pinaud's Clubman aftershave on the shelf and it's not just on the West Coast either. ClubGuy is a stronger and more refined version of Clubman that's also much smoother and lasts much longer:

I also lost the Doc this morning and had to switch to my Edwin Jagger DE 89 which will be a detailed post later on:

Out of ALL of the safety razors that I own or have owned, leave to my Edwin Jagger DE 89 to outlast them all and be the oldest DE safety razor that I've bought in 2 years outside of my vintage razors that I have in my collection which are NOT being used.

Number 12:

Well what can I say about this other than wow and some people will be speechless about this. I hit the bottom of my 12th container of soap this morning. I held off as long as I could, but sooner or later I have to reveal it:

MLS's Pantie Dropper :

Oh wow is all I can say about this soap. Between the intoxicating scent, the epic slickness along with exceptional cushioning ability, I can now see why this soap is extremely popular. The first chance I get, this stuff is definitely going in my shave cave. Today's shave was also another "ice rink" type of shave. I have absolutely nothing left at all which is a good thing. Mickey Lee Soapworks is an amazing soap and other than the matching aftershave itself, Aqua Velva's classic ice blue aftershave goes perfectly with this soap: