This morning I used Phoenix Artisan’s Solar Flare With Strop Shoppe’s Russian Tea, a spice-fragranced shave soap that uses the same formulation a yesterday’s Strop Shoppe soap, when I used a pre-Vulfix Simpson Emperor 3 Super. The difference in the quality of the lather was remarkable and obvious: the Solar Flare, a fine-fiber synthetic of the general Plissoft category, brought forth a finer, richer, thicker lather with less effort.

I’m now thinking of selling off my badger brushes: I like them, and I admire them, but in fact the performance I get from a good synthetic brush is better.

My Yaqi double-open-comb razor did a very fine job, and left my face perfectly smooth and ready for a splash of Booster Oriental Spice: a great start to Friday.