DOOD.CA: Guy Stuff

Penhaligon’s Blenheim Bouquet After Shave Splash
Product: After Shave Splash
Size: 200ml
Origin: Made in UK
Price: $150.00
Price per ml: $0.75

Penhaligon’s Blenheim Bouquet might just be my favourite scent in the world, so please bear that bias in mind when reading my review. Obviously all reviews are based on opinion, but I want to first say upfront that I love this scent, and it’s my favourite aftershave product I own. Having said that, lets see what makes this high-end after shave so good.

100% British to its core, Penhaligon’s makes no apologies for its British heritage and refers often to its beginnings in 1870. Additionally, Penhaligon’s also features its two Royal warrants very prominently, proclaiming its validation by British Royalty. All this of course is just marketing, and has little to do with how good the performance and the scents are. For that, we’ll just have to try this stuff out!

Penhaligon’s Blenheim Bouquest comes in a very thick cardboard box that slides open in two parts (not pictured here), and is probably one of the nicer packages that I’ve ever seen, especially for after shave. Note that Penhaligon’s is a perfumer first and foremost, so their tendency is to feature scent first, and the scent here truly is the real reason one would pay anywhere near this price tag for after shave.

The main working ingredients here for the Aftershave are the Alcohol, Glyerin and Menthol, common with most alcohol-based after shaves. As such, this performs just as good as most standard alcohol-based aftershaves with Glycerine and Menthol. The amount of menthol in Blenheim Bouquet is not overwhelming like it is with some stronger after shaves, but just enough to give a bit of tingle.

This is the scent profile of Blenheim Bouquet:
Head Notes: Lemon, Lime And Lavender
Heart Notes: Blenheim Bouquet has no heart notes
Base Notes: Pine, Musk and Black Pepper

I personally love the smell of this stuff.. it hits hard with citrus, almost like a lemon drop, then slowly dries down to a peppery pine smell, with a hint of citrus still remaining. A fanastic scent that is unique and while over 100 years old, still smells current and relevant.

Overall, this is my favourite alcohol after shave splash on the market. I’ll freely admit that it is mostly because of the scent, but the performance is on par, neither worse nor better than most I’ve tried such as DR Harris or Proraso. It doesn’t have the menthol kick that Proraso or Alt Innsbruck have, however. A solid performer that you will thoroughly enough if you like the scent.

Scent: 10/10

Moisturizing: 7/10

Performance: 8/10

Packaging: 10/10

Value: 3/10

Overall: 10/10

Ingredients:
Alcohol denat., Aqua, Glycerin, Parfum, Limonene, Cetrimonium chloride, Linalool, Menthol, Geraniol, Citronellol, Citral, Farnesol

Vulfix Travel Super Badger Brush
Specs:
Hair Type: Vulfix Super Badger
Knot Size: 20mm
Loft: 45mm
Handle Height: 37mm
Glue Bump: None
MSRP: $60USD

This Vulfix Old Original Travel brush was my first ever travel shaving brush. Its seen a handful of trips, and probably a few dozen shaves. After a while, I decided that any trip longer than 2 days needed at least two shaving brushes, so now I have 3 dedicated travel brushes and I also have the large Vulfix travel tubes that fit full size shaving brushes. I still do appreciate the compact size of the smaller travel brushes, however.

There is the Vulfix Travel brush, in Super Badger, which is the same grade of hair as Simpsons “best”. Vulfix brushes tend to be packed looser, and thus have less backbone but generally better flow through and are easier to lather with in my opinion. While I love the rich, luxurious feel of a denser brush, they are generally harder to lather with.

The 20mm knot on this Vulfix does feel a bit on the small size for me, but its never really an issue for holding lather or getting the job done. The handle on the other hand could be an issue if you have larger hands. I found it very difficult to bowl lather with, and I don’t have large hands. Its best used for face lathering when on the go – which is what I believe this brush was designed for anyway.

The travel tube has a solid screw-on lid that only needs a quarter-turn to snap into place, much nicer than lots of threads I think. It also has a drain hole at the top. It is an ivory color that is close to matching the color of the brush handle.

The tips on the Vulfix are quite soft, and while they are supposed to be the exact same grade of hair used in Simpson’s Best brushes, it seems somehow softer and less scritchy to me. It’s not silvertip, but it feels softer than best. It might be partly a product of the looser density as well as a particularly soft batch of hair. Overall a very comfortable brush to use that I enjoy when I’m travelling. I never use this brush when I’m at home (except when I first got it) – I don’t like it THAT much.

The brush has a fairly round bulb-shaped profile, and generally works well. Out of all my dedicated travel brushes, this is probably the most convenient and easy to use. I have others such as a Simpsons Case, Custom TGN Finest 2-Band and a Crabtree and Evelyn Screw-together type brush in best, but if I had to grab only one travel brush, I would take the Vulfix. While that doesn’t mean its the most interesting brush to use, it is the most well-rounded I think. Not particularly good for soaps, but serviceable. Its probably better suited to creams because it doesn’t have that much backbone.

Overall I think its a nice travel brush and I generally prefer this to the screw-together affairs that I have handled and used in the past. It has better knot dispersion and feel than the screw-together types, and I prefer the handle feel of a regular shaving brush handle over the super-long ones that the screw-together kinds have overall, though this tube winds up being just a touch larger if you’re really cramped for space. Good brush, I would recommend.

Vulfix Travel Super Badger Brush Specs and Rating:

Handle Comfort: 7
Uncomfortable		Comfortable
Soap Performance: 6
Poor		Excellent
Cream Performance: 7
Poor		Excellent
Bowl Lathering: 6
Poor		Excellent
Face Lathering: 7
Poor		Excellent
Softness: 7
Scratchy		Soft
Backbone: 4
Floppy		Strong
Scrub: 5
Gentle		Scrubby
Density: 5
Sparse		Dense
Hair Thickness: 6
Thin		Thick
Flow-Through: 8
Lather Hog		Lather Giver
Value: 8
Rip-Off		Steal
Overall: 7
Mediocre		Excellent

Proraso White Sensitive Skin Shaving Soap in Tub
Product: Soft Shaving Soap
Size: 150g
Origin: Made in Italy
Street Price: $10.00
Price Per g: $0.07

Proraso is a household name in the shaving community, known for their high quality, Italian made shaving products which are priced very affordably and well within the reach of the everyman. Proraso’s products are top performers, and the only fault I could ever find would be the scents – not the most complex and invigorating but still very decent smelling product overall that wouldn’t offend most.

The Proraso White soap comes in a tub with a snap top lid. The tub has the classic Proraso shape which is larger at the top and narrows down at the bottom. This, like all Proraso soaps is a soft soap, also known as a “croap” by those in the forum community. It is soft enough that you can manipulate it with your fingers but probably couldn’t squeeze it out of a tube like the regular Proraso Shaving cream. This soap also seems to last a lot longer than the cream, which makes it a better value in my books. I also love tubs in general!

The cream is pretty white in appearance, without that irridescent sheen that you see with Proraso Shaving creams. The product has some “holes” in it, that remind me a little bit of Feta Cheese. The scent is a refreshing blend of menthol and some other soapy smells – it just smells kinda clean and menthol-y. Pretty unoffensive but if you’re spoiled by more sophisticated scents like Penhaligon’s and Czech and Speake you might find the smell lacking.

This stuff lathers super easy like all of Proraso’s products and it provides a decent amount of glide too. Not quite a slick as other soaps, and seems to be more like a cream in performance. Fluffier and good cushion, but lacks the slick glide of harder soaps. It is fantastic stuff though, never a bad shave and good enough to use day after day. Its pretty moisturizing too this one, and less menthol-y than the Proraso Green that is favored by many, which I guess is why they call this one “sensitive skin”. It still leaves a skin tingle and the matching pre-shave and aftershave products also have some menthol in them.

Highly recommended stuff, along with all the rest of the Proraso Soaps – can’t go wrong for $10!

Ingredients: Aqua (water), Stearic Acid, Cocos nucifera (Coconut) Oil, Potassium Hydroxide, Glycerin, Sodium Hydroxide, Lactic Acid, Parfum (fragrance), Menthol, Tocopheryl Acetate, Sodium Lauroyl Sarcosinate, Hydroxyethylcellulose, Sodium Hydroxymethylgycinate, Hexyl Cinnamal, Geraniol, Citral Limonene, Linalool, Pentaerythrityl Tetra-di-t-butyl Hydroxyhydrocinnamate, Thymus vulgaris (Thyme) Flower/Leaf Extract, Etidronic Acid, Tetrasodium EDTA.

Scent: 6/10

Lather: 9/10

Cushion: 9/10

Glide: 7/10

Moisturizing: 8/10

Packaging: 6/10

Value: 10/10

Overall: 9/10

Associated Products Used in This Review: Kimson Buffalo Horn TGN Finest Brush, Pottersong Shaving Scuttle.

Edwin Jagger Sandalwood Shaving Cream in Tub
Product: Shaving Cream
Size: 100ml
Origin: Made in England
Street Price: $22.00
Price Per ml: $0.22

Edwin Jagger shaving creams are well marketed, popular shaving creams that most that are not true shave enthusiasts would consider a luxury shaving cream. Now that doesn’t mean they don’t make a good product. But like most stuff out there, there are many supporters and many detractors. I am a big fan of the EJ Sandalwood, and it is in fact my favourite Sandalwood shaving cream.

There’s the Tub of Edwin Jagger Sandalwood with my Rudy Vey brush and TGN Finest 2-Band Silvertip Fan knot, which is the brush I’ll be using to demo the lather generation in this review. The Edwin Jagger creams feature nice screw-top Italian-made plastic jars, which are fantastic for picking up lather and have a nicer appearance than most other Jars I’ve owned – more modern and compact.

The cream has a beautiful sheen to it that most creams seem to have, and the jar is a good size for picking up the lather. For those that are unaware, this cream is identical to the Sandalwood cream produced by Muhle as well. I find with the Muhle and EJ creams, I have to use a bit more cream than usual in order to achieve the same amount of lather, but it is a high performance cream. One of the first things I notice about EJ Sandalwood is the superb fragrance.

Here I am whipping it up, it requires a fair bit of water, and I find that adding too much will make the cream foam more than I like, as with most creams. I like to add water slowly and achieve that yogurt texture rather than the foamy texture. This gives better glide and protection than foam. I also find that this is a very moisturizing cream on my face. It leaves a lot of slickness and takes a lot of rinsing to clean off as well.

The scent of the Sandalwood in Edwin Jagger’s Sandalwood Shaving cream is my favourite Sandalwood out there. Art of Shaving’s is a close second, but the musky Sandalwood combined with the hint of sweetness just really pleases my senses. The cream produced is thick, and fantastic. It lathers well in warm and cold water alike, which is an important quality to me. Some creams don’t do well in warm water which is a deal breaker for me since I can’t use them in the winter when its cold!

Overall EJ Sandalwood is among my favourite creams, even though its probably one of the most expensive creams on the market when it comes to cost per use. In reality the cost isn’t that much since it does last quite a while, so if I enjoy a cream, I will buy it. Don’t mind the shot of the Mach 3 there in the background, I don’t really use it! I promise! 😉

INGREDIENTS: Water, Potassium Stearate, Potassium Palmitate, Potassium Cocoate, Glycerin, Sodium Palmitate, Sodium Cocoate, Beeswax, Potassium Myristate, Cetyl Palmitate, Sendalwood Oil, Parfum (Fragrance), Potassium Laurate, Sodium Myristate, Sodium Silicate, Sodium Thiosulfate, Hexyl Cinnamal

Scent: 10/10

Lather: 9/10

Cushion: 8/10

Glide: 9/10

Moisturizing: 8/10

Packaging: 9/10

Value: 7/10

Overall: 9/10

Associated Products Used in This Review: Rudy Vey TGN Finest Brush, Pottersong Shaving Scuttle.

Thater 4125/2 Silvertip Bulb Brush
Specs:
Hair Type: 3-Band Silvertip Badger
Knot Size: 26mm
Loft: 54mm
Handle Height: 48mm
Glue Bump: 3mm
MSRP: $125USD

Heinrich L. Thater, one of the several major players in Luxury German Shaving Brush manufacturing. The others, of course, are Shavemac, Muhle and to a lesser degree, da Vinci. While all these companies have their unique products and excel slightly differently, they are all meticulous in their design and superb in their execution. H.L. Thater is considered by many to be at the top of that heap.

Ever since I saw the 4125 series of brushes from Thater I had been lusting for one. I finally decided to pick one up and decided on the 3-band extreme bulb shape version instead of the more premium 2-band iteration. I just really liked the idea of the extreme bulb, and also like that it is a trademark Thater brush style. Plop that on their Octogon 4125 style handle and you have vintage Thater.

The brush looks and feels fantastic in the hand, with a knot that measures significantly larger than the 26mm it is listed at. This one measures more like 28mm, but has a bit of a glue bump which almost forces the hair to go out sideways a bit. It certainly lathers and feels like a larger brush, but has fantastic flow through and above average backbone for a 3-band knot. This is probably due to the extreme bulb shape which gives the brush a more differential loft resulting in the hair closer to the edge having more backbone to support the floppier center. It is an excellent design and works very well in practice. Hair density would be a medium on this one.

Here’s a semi-closeup of the knot. Not the best shot, but as you can see the knot hair is a bit ‘frizzy’, but results in some pretty soft tips. Its not the softest brush I’ve used, but its pretty close. This particular example doesn’t have the super perfect smooth look across the top of the hairs that Shavemacs always seem to have. That might be because of the type of hair, however. But when you use this brush, it has a very unique feel to it because of the bulb shape. The brush has sort of a big paintbrush feeling and gives up lather readily. This brush doesn’t hog the lather – which is a very nice thing, especially for a larger brush.

Overall its a super brush, generally better fitted for face lathering creams, however its perfectly fine for bowl and soap lathering as well. I’ve used it for everything. However, if you have a lather collection of brushes like I do, there’s no sense cramming a square peg into a round hole and you might as well use brushes that are better suited to certain products. At $125 this is a decent value of a brush. The pricepoint puts it directly against some major players in brushes like the Simpsons Chubby CH1 and many of the Shavemacs, including the smaller D01’s. However, at 26mm, this is the biggest of all of them and has higher quality hair than the Chubby (though the chubby might actually have more of it due to sheer density). So generally good value for a luxury brush, but TGN knots and the like will always take the prize there.

H.L. Thater 4125/2 3-Band Silvertip Badger Bulb Specs and Rating:

Handle Comfort: 10
Uncomfortable		Comfortable
Soap Performance: 7
Poor		Excellent
Cream Performance: 10
Poor		Excellent
Bowl Lathering: 7
Poor		Excellent
Face Lathering: 10
Poor		Excellent
Softness: 9
Scratchy		Soft
Backbone: 7
Floppy		Strong
Scrub: 4
Gentle		Scrubby
Density: 7
Sparse		Dense
Hair Thickness: 6
Thin		Thick
Flow-Through: 8
Lather Hog		Lather Giver
Value: 8
Rip-Off		Steal
Overall: 8
Mediocre		Excellent