Took the plunge

jww · Post by **jww** » Thu Apr 26, 2012 4:55 pm

GA Russell wrote:I see from my post on the first page of this thread that today is the fourth anniversary of my becoming an SMF wetshaver!

....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=knp9-GY6fHE

C'mon gents -- tell me you weren't thinking about this??????

GA Russell · Post by **GA Russell** » Thu Apr 26, 2012 5:09 pm

LOL Thanks Wendell! That one's new to me.

CMur12 · Post by **CMur12** » Fri Apr 27, 2012 8:43 pm

Congratulations on your four years, GA!

- Murray

GA Russell · Post by **GA Russell** » Sat Apr 28, 2012 10:32 pm

Thanks friend Murray!

Today's shave was my first with the second Natural Science soap, the first of two sandalwood tallow samples.

First, I switched to a Voskhod blade. My experience with the 7 O'Clock black was not as good as I remembered, so maybe my technique has changed, or maybe I just got a pack of sub-par blades. Today's Voskhod performed much better, and I'm thinking now that I have a new favorite blade.

Rob at Natural Science requested that I use a couple of drops of pre-shave oil each time I try a soap for the first time, so I did that today. Now for the last soap, the shave with the pre-shave oil was the best, but I'm certainly hoping that that won't be the case with this sandalwood tallow #1.

I never could get a good lather. There was little cushion and less glide. The first pass didn't take away as much of my beard as usual.

Still, my face feels very good after the shave, which was a comfortable one.

GA Russell · Post by **GA Russell** » Tue May 01, 2012 7:27 pm

Today's shave was my second with the Natural Science sandalwood tallow sample #1. Today, no pre-shave oil.

I used both extra water and extra soap, and got a fairly good lather rather easily. However, there was still little cushion and glide during the shave, which was fairly uncomfortable.

Again today, my face after the shave feels good from the soap, but a bit uncomfortable from the shave.

GA Russell · Post by **GA Russell** » Thu May 03, 2012 7:30 pm

Today's shave was my first with the Natural Science sandalwood non-tallow sample.

As always with my first shave of a sample, I used the pre-shave oil. This was by far the most comfortable shave of all of my Natural Science efforts. It lathered beautifully without effort (and plenty enough for two passes), and there was plenty of cushion and glide. The result was bbs.

However, I'm sorry to say, my face just doesn't feel as special as it did after the Garden Mint non-tallow sample. As I have said before, what I love about Cella is how my skin feels afterward.

Speaking of the mint, I forgot to mention its mixture of Essential Oils: Peppermint, Eucalyptus, Spearmint, Lemon and Rosemary. The Garden Mint is menthol-free.

For the three Sandalwood samples, the only Essential Oil is Sandalwood with the top notes removed.

The pre-shave oil is made up of Jojoba Oil, Sweet Almond, Grapeseed Oil, Black Cumin Oil; and a fragrance made up of Essential Oils of Grapefruit, Lemon, Lime, Laurel, Mandarin, Sweet Orange, Bergamot, Neroli and a basenote of Sandalwood.

GA Russell · Post by **GA Russell** » Sat May 05, 2012 6:08 pm

Today's shave was my second with the Natural Science Sandalwood non-tallow sample, this time without the pre-shave oil.

The shave was quite good, but maybe the last shave was a little bit better. I'm beginning to think that maybe there is something to this pre-shave oil routine after all.

Right now I'm thinking that for my next shave I will return to the Garden Mint, to give it another try at getting lather as good as I got the first time, and to see if I like it as much as the Sandalwood.

GA Russell · Post by **GA Russell** » Sat May 12, 2012 5:35 pm

Having made up my mind that the Sandalwood tallow sample #1 was the worst (for me) of the three tried so far, I re-visited the Garden Mint to refresh my recollection regarding how it compared to the Sandalwood non-tallow.

Again, I couldn't get much of a lather. I wonder why the lather was so good the first time I tried it.

There wasn't much slickness, but where it really suffered was in the cushion, where there was close to none.

However, the shave was not uncomfortable, and the result was satisfactory. Again, my skin didn't feel special afterward, but it didn't bother me either.

So I currently rate the Sandalwood non-tallow the best so far, the Garden Mint non-tallow second best, and the Sandalwood tallow sample #1 a distant third.

My intention is to try next the Sandalwood tallow sample #2 a couple of times, and then follow it with the Sandalwood non-tallow to compare.

GA Russell · Post by **GA Russell** » Sun May 13, 2012 5:09 pm

Today's shave was my first with the Sandalwood tallow sample #2. Although I laid out the pre-shave oil, I forgot to apply it until I was lathering with the first pass. So I will plan to use it the next time.

The lather was a little thin although there was plenty of soap on the brush for two passes. During the first pass, I felt that the lather was drying my skin.

Afterward, my skin felt better than it has after the other samples, though not by much.

I find it interesting that so far none of the four samples have produced a shave which was a highlight of my day, but all four of them resulted in effortless bbs shaves.

GA Russell · Post by **GA Russell** » Sun May 13, 2012 6:04 pm

I think I should add my understanding of what Natural Science's position is. As I understand it...

They did not think they sent me five great soaps. They intended to send me five different soaps, so that I could relate my impressions of each one, finding fault with each of them.

From my comments they will deduce what my skin is like and what kind of soap would be best for me.

That's how I understand it.

GA Russell · Post by **GA Russell** » Sun May 13, 2012 8:17 pm

It occurs to me that all of the four sample thus far have left me feeling dryer than certainly Cella, and also the DR Harris which I have been using for the past couple of months.

A month ago I told Rob of Natural Science that the skin of my beard area was normal (rather than dry or oily). Now I'm wondering if it is dryer than most peoples'. How would you know? I have never liked alcohol-based after shaves, so maybe that is a clue that my skin is dryer than average.

GA Russell · Post by **GA Russell** » Tue May 15, 2012 5:01 pm

I remembered for today's shave to use the pre-shave oil with the Sandalwood tallow sample #2.

Because I told him that I have normal skin, neither dry nor oily, Rob of Natural Science recommended that I use two drops of oil. I have done so, except for the first time when I accidentally used three drops. You might recall that that first shave had by far the best lather. So I decided today to use three drops again. By the way, the scent of the pre-shave oil is quite pleasant.

Today's lather was better than the last time, so maybe there's something to using the oil after all. However, it wasn't all that great. Today's shave was a little bit better than the last one, but not by much.

Truth be told, I expected the two tallow soaps to outperform the non-tallow samples, but that hasn't been the case. I guess there are ingredients that are more relevant to my skin than tallow.

By the way, although we have exchanged a couple of PM's, Rob has not commented on my experiences with these five samples, and will not until I am done with the first round. He doesn't want to prejudice my thinking.

GA Russell · Post by **GA Russell** » Wed May 23, 2012 11:23 pm

Since I last posted, I re-visited the Sandalwood non-tallow, which was my favorite to date, using three drops of pre-shave oil.

Nothing much to report, except that I left the soap on my face as I cleaned my brush and gear. It felt quite good, and my face continued to feel good afterward. Not as good as Cella makes it feel, but the best of the four samples tried thus far.

With today's shave I tried for the first time the last Natural Science sample, the Citrus non-tallow. I had intended to use three drops of pre-shave oil, and laid out the vial, but nevertheless forgot again.

The shave was quite good. It was comfortable, and both the cushion and the glide were satisfactory. In fact, I would say that the cushion and glide were the best of the five samples.

There was something about the shave, and I don't know what it was, but I felt that a plain soapy scent would have been more appropriate than the Citrus. The citrus is mostly orange to my scent, and I don't like it because it makes me hungry!

To my surprise, my skin felt a little dry after the shave, and continued to do so. I wonder if that's related to my subconscious belief that it should smell like plain soap.

Next time I will plan to use the three drops of pre-shave oil.

GA Russell · Post by **GA Russell** » Fri May 25, 2012 5:53 pm

For today's shave, I again used the Natural Science Citrus non-tallow, this time remembering to use the three drops of pre-shave oil.

The shave was great. Plenty of lather for the first pass; plenty of glide and cushion.

After the shave, my face did not feel dry like it did last time, so I imagine that the pre-shave oil had its effect there. My face didn't feel great afterwards, but not dry like last time.

Keep in mind that I have a bottle of aftershave balm which I never use. In the past I have used it during the winter, but not this year. To use it during the course of this experimentation would affect the results, I suspect.

With the exception of my very first sample's shave, none of these has had enough lather on the brush for a good second pass. Perhaps that is because of the small size of each of the samples.

To sum up, using these five samples, the pre-shave oil really did make a difference, every time. I believe that all five of them could have used more moisturizer. Only one of them had obviously sufficient cushion and glide.

I wish that my responses to the use of each had been more varied, because I expect that would help Rob of Natural Science make his diagnosis. However, I called them as I saw them.

It is important to note that these samples were not intended to be the final product. If they had been, I wouldn't be interested, because none of them meet the standards set by Cella, DR Harris and Tabac.

But these samples were only to give Rob an idea of my skin type. I imagine that after Memorial Day he may post here regarding his conclusions, and send me the second round of samples. It's been a lot of fun trying these, but a bit frustrating that none have been close to satisfactory except the last.

GA Russell · Post by **GA Russell** » Tue Jun 05, 2012 6:44 pm

Rob of Natural Science PM'd me that he was called away on emergency family matters, so there has been a delay. No problem as far as I'm concerned. Rob thinks that he should be able to ship my second batch to me Saturday.

Reviewing my posts, I see that I failed to list the ingredients of the Citrus scent: grapefruit, lemon, lime, laurel, mandarin, sweet orange, bergamot and neroli.

I think the Citrus will be popular, but as I say, it makes me hungry!

brothers · Post by **brothers** » Wed Jun 06, 2012 4:20 am

GA, it seems that Rob is receiving a good benefit from your participation with him in the testing of his products. You've been thorough and objective.

GA Russell · Post by **GA Russell** » Wed Jun 06, 2012 7:19 pm

Thanks Gary. It's been fun so far.

I want to be fair to Rob and give him as much information as I can, so that he can intelligently make an appropriate soap for me. I don't want to give him little information to go on, and then publicly say that I don't like the final formula!

I think that Natural Science has received some free advertising from my posts, but they are taking a chance on my liking the product. How do they know that I'm not some jerk who has already made up his mind before he tries their product?

It has occurred to me that I shouldn't say of the final product, "This isn't as good as my favorite soap; therefore, it's no good." As you know, my favorite soap is Cella. But I have been using DR Harris for a number of months prior to this experiment, and I this week have revisited my Tabac.

If the final product turns out to be as good as DR Harris and Tabac for me, that will be good enough I think. After all, the price of $25 for 200g is quite reasonable for a bespoke product, I think.

GA Russell · Post by **GA Russell** » Fri Jul 13, 2012 4:03 pm

This thread has received quite a number of views since I last posted.

There is not much to report. I last heard from Rob in a PM June 28. He said he was finishing up the formulas.

GA Russell · Post by **GA Russell** » Sat Jul 21, 2012 8:43 pm

I shaved at three o'clock this afternoon. Immediately after, I checked the mailbox for today's mail, and was delighted to find my second batch of Natural Science samples.

There are a total of six samples - two each of Vetiver, Cedarwood and Lavender.

The containers do not have ingredient labels, and no cover letter was enclosed. So this will be an entirely blind test regarding tallow vs. non-tallow and whatever other issues there might be.

As you will recall, I was rather pleased with the final sample of the first batch, so I will expect these to be even better than that one.

I will start a new 7 O'Clock black for this round of shaving. I will again alternate between using the pre-shave oil and not.

I've been looking forward to this new batch since May 25 according to the post above, so I'm a happy camper today!

Squire · Post by **Squire** » Sun Jul 22, 2012 11:40 am

So Russ, it's Sunday, shaved yet?