Today was the shave that did not have to happen but it did anyway. I was so close from yesterday’s shave with the R41 Grande there was not even a 5 o’clock shadow to take away just a faint ATG feel. Read on and read about my gear and SOTD.

For my razor I broke out the single edge GEM CCMM closed comb Micromatic and paired it up with the PAL blue blade now on its 4th use. I was highly impressed for a few reasons; first the razor was a pleasure to use and felt great in hand and was very comfortable and easily delivered a great shave. Second the blade being a carbon steel blade I expected since it has been corked for a week or so may or may not have rusted or suffered some sort of issue. This was not he case the blade looked great not a single problem; I guess the bluing does help ! oh yeah and most importantly it was still very sharp and useable and will be around for a 5th use.

For my soap I stuck with my Tcheon Feung sing theme and as always it did not disappoint. Today was another favorite of mine “Cannella Arancio Amaro” in English “Cinnamon with Bitter Orange”; basically the exact opposite of yesterday’s shave which was “Bergamotto Neroli” a Sweet orange scent. I picked up as always in today’s soap the infamous cinnamon bun scent that I love and an underlying scent of the orange. This soap is Cinnamon forward but very well-balanced. the lather created by this soap today was astonishing and on par with all TFS soaps I have used and really was super protective and added more than ample glide for the shave. I used today also for go number two; my New Forest Tubby 2 brush 2-band super badger brush. The Tubby 2 is breaking in amazingly well, and very quickly as it produced an amazingly luxurious lather and was super soft at the tips easily on par with any silver tip if not softer than most. What stood out the most about the Tubby 2 was the backbone it has a 26mm knot maybe 27 I have to check the site but because of the stubby nature of the brush and the fact it is 2 band it was stiff and had little give and zero floppiness.

To finish off this un-needed yet three pass shave….. I figured better safe… and I had zero irritation I did my normal routine. I started with my cold water rinse and alum block, and let it remain for about 3-5 minutes. I have found that this bitter orange and cinnamon soap pairs great with bay rum after shave. I have a few different bay rums but I went with the most balanced one I own which is the infamous Pinaud bay rum, and I laid it on heavy ! to finish off the shave I used the Body Shops “Barber” after shave balm a very sensual in their words scent that is cologne like in scent but marries very well with the bay rum and did not over power it at all and if anything complimented the scent perfectly.