June 17th, 2025: Don’t have a Cow, Man!

• Brush: Chisel & Hound - Cherry w/ v25 Fanchurian Badger and Omega - 10077 Boar
• Razor: Blackland - Blackbird and Van Der Hagen - Traditional Safety Razor
• Blade: Gillette Silver Blue
• Lather: Catie’s Bubbles - Azure - Soap
• Post Shave: Catie’s Bubbles - 322 - Aftershave

Daily Theme Justification: I ASKED THE SPONSOR AND ARTISAN HIMSELF IF PREMIUM BASE IS VEGAN AND HE SAID YES.

Daily Theme: This has been said before and I will say it again. If you have not tried u/C_Bubbles Premium Base, you need to. It really does go to show that tallow is not the defining factor in making a great soap. There are shitty vegan and shitty tallow soaps. There are great vegan and great tallow bases. Please do not fall prey to the idea that vegan automatically means a lesser product.

Daily Challenge: There will be three parts to this challenge. If you are reading this, it is extremely likely you have a fair amount of different wetshaving gear and I want to explore if more money spent is better.

Inexpensive vs. Expensive Brushes: First up is the C&H badger brush versus the cheap Omega boar brush. I’ve always had sort of a love/hate with badger knots. A really good knot will be super plush and soft like this Fanchurian, but a lot of the times I have difficulty with lathering, as I did today. Load, load, load, and load some more, but right before you think you’re done, you’ll need to load some more. Once you do get the soap loaded, a lot of the times I experience lather that is good, but not as good as I know it can be. In comes the Omega boar brush. Yes, they are cheap, light, and can literally stink like a pig’s asshole. But I have never had issues with it picking up soap. Sure, they can eat lather when new, but that almost always subsides and the knot softens as well. This knot released the lather way better than the badger, which is normal in my experience. Which one is better? Neither, it is totally up to preference, but if I was forced to choose between these two, I’d honestly enjoy using the Omega more.

Inexpensive vs. Expensive Razors: This Van Der Hagen DE was my first safety razor and this Blackbird was one of my more recent razor purchases. One is chintzy, cheap, and mild. The other is precise, heirloom-esque, and aggressive. Two opposite sides of the razor spectrum. The VDH has hardly any blade feel, while the Blackbird is very blade forward and needs a careful touch. Again, which one is better? blah blah… preferences… blah blah. I enjoy milder razors more and I will move on from this section.

Light vs. Dark Software: Azure has been described as a “barbershop in the sky”. Airy, light, and somewhat reminiscent of the blue barbershop style scent. 322 has been described as a wine cellar with a bottle smashed in the corner. Both conceptually opposite and in literal terms. I just recently learned from the man himself that the specialty extract of labdanum in Azure smells resinous and has amber like qualities. The 322 scent smells very dark and dank with the slightest hint of fruitiness from the black currant. Applying the 322 splash grounds you into something darker after just having your head in the sky during the shave. The Yin and Yang of Catie’s Bubbles software.