It’s been entirely too long since I’ve done some shaving videos.  I think I finally have a handle on the new video equipment I’m using so it’s back to my bathroom studio!  Right now I’m working on:

• Holding a Shaving Brush For Better Performance and Control
• Stropping a Straight Razor
• Finding Wet Shaving Products Locally
• Loading and Applying Traditional Shaving Lather (this is a high-definition update of a previous video, with some things added).

What else would you like me to work on?  I’m taking requests!

5 Short Men’s Hairstyles (MaleStandard)

The Complete Beginners Guide To Shaving Brushes [FREE E-Book] (Men’s Shaving UK)

How To Maintain A Beard Or Moustache [Video] (The Men’s Room)

Frank Sinatra Shaving, ca. 1965 (Life)

Best Hairstyles For Grey Hair (MaleStandard)

I’d previously had performance ranging from so-so to, in the case of the violet, downright bad. The coconut was a bump up the rank, to about a “fairly good”. It still didn’t outstanding lubrication or thickness / cushion, but it did the trick, providing a decent middle ground on both. And it was a bit better than average for moisturizing as well. The lather stability wasn’t the greatest, but if you’re a reasonably quick shaver I don’t think it’ll be too much of an issue.  

The scent was a very nice coconut fragrance, not too sweet. It was about middle of the road for strength: fairly noticable when first applied but rather quickly faded away to almost nothingness.

• 9/10 Scent Pleasantness
• 7/10 Scent Strength
• 7/10 Lather Quality

A sample pack can be bought off of the Trumpers website for £8, which includes 6 shaving cream samples, two of their “skin food”, and an assortment of 7 cologne samples (fragrances vary on this one). Or you can go for a 200g tub for £16, a 75g tube for £9.50. For those in North America who might not want to bother with overseas shipping, they can be found a bit more locally for $29.95 and $18 respectively.

Overall, it’s adequate. Decent enough shave, decent enough scent, but nothing outstanding about anything, IMHO. I’m giving it a 7/10.

Also, they don’t have their ingredients listed on their website, making me type out the following from the packaging. Not all that helpful for those people who care about what goes into the stuff that they put on their face.

Ingredients: Water, Stearic Acid, Myristic Acid, Potassium Hydroxide, Coconut Acid, Glycerin, Fragrance, Triethanolamine, Sodium Hydroxide, Methylparaben, Propylparaben.

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Trumper’s Eucris Shaving Soap

Bernard66 on ShaveMyPlace.com some years back pointed out that using N-S for the first past, E-W (or W-E) for the second, and S-N for the final pass was misleading and inappropriate. While some few may have monodirectional beards, most men must contend with contrary patches and areas where the grain slants to some number of degrees—often, on the neck, a “slant” of 180º, so the grain is upward—or even grows in a whorl. (Your only hope for shaving whorls well is excellent prep, a brand of blade that’s very good for you, and—ideally—a slant-bar razor.)

Bernard66 pretty much insisted that we start using “with the grain” (or WTG), “across the grain” (XTG), and “against the grain” (ATG) to describe shaving directions, and people—particularly those who have patches that don’t grow N-S—were happy to follow the usage because it better determines the desire action. I myself have a small area of horizontal grain (growing in the direction of ear to nose) on the corner of my right jaw. Only when I closely inspected the grain did I realize why that patch never achieved smoothness: I was never doing a pass ATG for that little area.

I think we need a similar reformation of terminology regarding razors. Quite often razors are described using “mild” and “aggressive” as opposite extremes of a continuum. That approach fails because the words are ambiguous.

Mild – can mean “comfortable” or “inefficient at removing stubble; suitable only for very light beards.”

Aggressive – can mean “harsh” or “extremely efficient at removing stubble.”

I suggest that we use new terminology that reflects two orthogonal axes, one axis running from “inefficient” to “efficient” and the other from “comfortable” to “harsh.” To describe the two continua more completely:

Axis of Comfort - At one extreme is “comfortable“: razors that give you the feeling that you are not going to cut yourself even if you try; no harshness at all. The opposite extreme is “harsh.” With a harsh razor you feel as though you’re teetering on getting a cut and the result of the shave is frequently razor burn. (Obviously, technique plays a role here, but some razors seem to encourage good technique while others demand it—and even then those razors are risky.)

Axis of Efficiency - At one extreme are “efficient” razors, which remove stubble readily and easily, perhaps leaving BBS patches even after the first pass and certainly after the second. At the opposite extreme are “inefficient” razors that seem almost reluctant to cut and are pretty much useless for guys with heavy beards.

Examples (based on my experience):

Feather AS-D1 stainless razor or the bakelite slant: The old description might be “mild and aggressive.” The new description is easier to understand: “comfortable and efficient.”

The 2011 Mühle R41 open-comb: The old description would be simply “aggressive,” but with the new terms I can be more precise: “efficient but harsh.”

The Weishi razor: The old description is “mild”; the new is “comfortable but inefficient.”

A razor that is both uncomfortable (“aggressive”) and inefficient (“mild”) generally would have a short lifespan on the market, but perhaps you’ve come across one or two.

This new terminology obviates ambiguity.

It is important to note, of course, that these terms apply not simply to the razor, but to the combination of razor, blade, and shaver. For example, the Weber razor is for me comfortable and efficient—with most brands of blades. And Kai blades are (for me) a smoother and more civilized version of Feather blades, the Kai blades being exceedingly sharp (“efficient”) but also quite comfortable—in most razors.

And yet a Kai blade (great in most of my razors) in a Weber razor (great with most of my brands of blades) I found to be exceedingly harsh (albeit efficient). So it’s not simply the razor or simply the blade, but the combination of the two, together with the nature of the shaver’s skin and skill.

“I just experienced the most satisfying shave in all my life.” That was the mantra repeated throughout my day after test driving a Classic Kokum Butter Shaving Puck that a barber friend of mine had recommended to me over a poker game one weekend. “A shave so memorable it stays with you…” he promised and boy was he right. I had dismissed his statements as gin inspired exaggeration, but something in what he said stuck; kokum butter. I didn’t know anything more than that, but a barber gave it his blessing, and I by golly I was going to check it out, so I googled “Kokum Butter Shaving Cake” and bought the first one I stumbled upon. A week later I found myself dumfounded and excited, almost stopping strangers on the street offering up my chin to be caressed and admired…I was a kokum butter believer and I was ready to spread the new gospel.

The shaving puck is by a small company out of New England called Petal Pusher Fancies. If you don’t already know of them you need to, they are creating quite a buzz in the world of male grooming and for good reason. Simply put, they have created one hell of a cream shaving puck. The ingredients are organic, vegan and printed right on the box so there is no mystery to what you are putting on your face. Kokum butter is the main and active ingredient. This unique butter comes from the fruits of the Garcinia Indica Tree in India. The fruit kernels produced by this tree yield an emollient white butter that creates an unbeatable cream, glide, and a controlled slip that I can’t find in any shaving “soaps” these days. Truth be told, most soaps on the market are not soap at all but detergent bars loaded with chemicals. These are not your glycerin melt and pour soap cakes, nor a nature boy clay based clump of earth either. This is a hearty bar of artisan, handmade shaving soap that will last forever, and aid in giving you one of the most amazing shaves of your life.

The puck is 3 inches in diameter and 1 inch in width so sadly, it will not fit in a traditional shaving scuttle. However, if a classic scuttle is your vessel of choice you can always heat the bar with hot water, cut in half, and wedge it in the bowl. I personally prefer a deep, wide mouth scuttle for I find It is much easier to build a greater amount of lather and contain it. After heating my mug under the running tap for a minute or two in preparation, I dropped the puck in, and added a little hot water. With a seasoned swirling action, a skill that is only acquired from years of using inferior products, I was soon creating a genuine cream lather.

This particular bar happened to be a deep purple in color. Sandalwood powder is used to achieve this rich aesthetic. It certainly sets a visual tone to the ritual. The second note that hits you is the scent of the bar, neroli. For those of you not familiar with this aromatic, it comes from the essential oil of the bitter orange tree. It’s nice and earthy, masculine yet meditative, a scent a chap might have found while off in an exotic part of the world working for the East India Company. I am a bay rum kind of fella by nature, this is what I always seek out, but for the sake of a more objective review I chose to try the neroli, and I am glad I did. Don’t get me wrong, I made sure to pick up their Steam-River Rum puck as well.

After I applied a hot, rich lather to my skin, and the shaving mirror was in full extension, I was in the zone. True wet shavers know the zone I speak of, and Buddhists know this zone as satori. I made a conscious decision not to reapply the cream between passes in order to test the integrity of the kokum butter in shielding the skin, as my barber claimed it would. Each pass was true and glide my blade did…amazing.

• 10/10 Glide
• 9/10 Scent Strength
• 10/10 Lather Quality

A week later I stopped by the barbershop and shared my experience with my pal. He was in between customers and sitting in his chair like a guru. After an over exuberating telling of my tale both he and his partner shook my hand, patted me on the back, and welcomed me to the secret club. Kokum butter, who would have thunk?

Ingredients: [Tallow Free & Vegan] Pure Kokum Butter, Organic Mango Seed Butter, Organic Cocoa Butter, Organic Coconut Oil, Organic Avocado Oil, Organic Sweet Almond Oil, Organic Castor Oil, Pure Essential Oils & Natural Plant Extracts.

The Soaps come in four scents: Coconut, Neroli, Steam River Rum (their version of Classic Bay Rum) and Sandalwood.

Cost: $8.95

[Addendum from Mantic59: my interest was piqued from Douglas' glowing description so I got a puck of the Neroli for myself to try.  My reaction was not quite as dramatic as Douglas'--then again I admit to being kind of jaded after trying many, many shaving soaps and creams--but it's a very good product in my opinion.  Unlike Douglas' "rich lather" description, my first try with it made a (deceptively) thinner, "softer" lather in my hard water. It still gave me an excellent shave, though!  After experimenting a little I discovered that treating it like Mitchell's Wool Fat Soap improved the look of the lather considerably.  It's growing on me.]

The scent is just delicious. It’s a “mix of Myrrh and Orange, with tones of Ginger, Cinnamon and Cloves”; the girlfriend thought it reminded her a lot of autumn and apple pies back home in Nova Scotia, but I definitely got a bit more of the exotic vibe that they seem to have been going for. The orange is just sweet enough to balance out all the spices.

It’s got some pretty decent strength to it; what I would say is a medium level of scent when applied to the face, enough to be easily noticeable, but not what I would consider strong. It also manages to not fade during the shave.

• 9/10 Scent Pleasantness
• 8/10 Scent Strength
• 8/10 Lather Quality

The sample puck used was $2 for 1 oz, also available are 2.7 oz cakes for $5.25, 4oz in a tin for $8, or a 2.5 oz shave stick for $9. All are also available in a formulation that includes either a bit or a lot of aloe extract.

Overall, this is a nice solid 8/10. It’s a good performing soap, that smells quite nice. No complaints here! Well worth at least the cost of a sample to give it a shot.

Hemp blend ingredients: Coconut Oil, Palm Oil, Olive Oil (Grade A extra virgin), Safflower Oil, Glycerine (vegetable origin), Hemp Seed Oil (unrefined), Purified Water, Sodium Hydroxide (saponifying agent), Sorbitol (moisturizer), Sorbitan oleate (emulsifer), Soy bean protein (conditioner), Wheat Protein (conditioner)