Comment on Thursday SOTD Thread, November 20th, 2025 (#891)
walden@wetshav.ing 4 days ago
November 20th, 2025: Nice
- Brush: Summer Break Soaps - w/Maggard Silvertip 28mm Badger
- Razor: Joseph Rogers & Sons Near Wedge (2)
- Lather: Martin de Candre - Foug�re - Soap
- Post Shave: Stirling Soap Co. - Varen - Aftershave
- Post Shave: Zingari Man - The Stargazer - Aftershave Serum
- Fragrance: Berceuse Parfum - Minneapolis 5.3 - EdP
Incredible turn-around. The first pass sort of stunk – the razor didn't feel sharp at all. Sort of a tuggy mess. I added more water for the subsequent passes and it made all the difference. The razor cut much better with no irritation. Nice and smooth! Just what we like.
Zing aftershave serum is great stuff. Maybe even better than Nivea Sensitive Balm!
This great shave was topped off with Minneapolis 5.3. Such a wonderful, rich scent.
DaveWave94@wetshav.ing 4 days ago
If the new “aftershave serum” is like the “recovery splash”, it should be leagues ahead of Nivea balms. Together with a few other aftershave toners, the Zingari post-shave products are the cream of the crop for skincare after shaving. At least in my experience. I never understood the hype for Nivea, probably just Beiersdorf being good at marketing. Even for german options available in our supermarkets or drugstores, it doesn’t hold a candle to Sebamed ASB or Speick products.
walden@wetshav.ing 3 days ago
Nivea works great with my skin. We don’t have many commercial products to pick from here in the US. I’ve never tried Speick balm, but it’s available on Amazon for $17USD… Nivea is $10 cheaper.
Still, I’m a hobbyist so I should try more things. A bottle of balm lasts so long it’s hard to work my way through them!
DaveWave94@wetshav.ing 3 days ago
Apologies, I tend to forget that you’re rather limited with commercial products in the US. Even though my original reply came off rather snobbish towards Nivea balms, I want to say that IMHO the Men sensitive ASB is indeed their best product. Since skincare is one of my hyperfixations, I just found the comparison to ZM artisan products a bit weird. But no ill intent on my side, honestly.
I can relate to that though. A lot of artisan balms smell great, but - well - they go bad very fast and that’s just not justifying the high price for me personally. I mostly go for alcohol-free toners nowadays, as both lower face and my scalp are very dry skin areas for me and combine them with more commercial/readily available balms. Unfortunately, artisan balms in big 100 ml bottles will go bad for me; case in point, I probably need to pour most of my old artisan balms/lotions down the gutter and that’s not really appreciative of the great quality they have.
walden@wetshav.ing 3 days ago
I do wish we had more commercial products here, but oh well. Between Nivea, Stirling, and Zing, there are certainly plenty of options that work well for me.