Review - The Artisan Soap Shoppe / Arctic

Company: The Artisan Soap Shoppe

Product: Arctic / Barber Shop Aftershave Moisturizer

Founder: Jenny & Aaron Peck

Location: Springfield MO

Website: https://theartisansoapshoppe.com/

There’s a buzz in the wet shaving community and it’s all because of Jenny Peck one of the owners of The Artisan Soap Shoppe. Last month when I was visiting Pastures in N.Y. and overheard conversations from a few visitors also included was the person who helps with the ordering of shaving products. They all talked about how great this new artisan is but I had no idea who they were talking about. 

Review - Forge & Foundry / Bay Rum Shaving Soap

Company: Forge & Foundry

Product: Bay Rum Shaving Soap

Founder: Jeff Bridgers

Location: Wilmington, North Carolina

Website - https://www.forgeandfoundryproducts.com/

Jeff Bridgers is a local modern blacksmith in Wilmington, North Carolina. An amazing artisan whose independence and dedication to his craft shows in the quality products he produces. Jeff’s creations are all hand made from the art he forges to the grooming products, handcrafted knives, and razors he makes. You’ll get a better sense of what I’m talking about by taking a quick look on his website. His video explains who he is and what he stands for. An impressive individual.

Review - Palmolive Shaving Cream

Company: Colgate-Palmolive

Product: Palmolive Shaving Cream

Location: New York City, NY

Website - Palmolive

I’ve seen this happen before a new shaving soap or cream comes on the market with the price around $100.00. All the wet shaving YouTubers jump at being the first one on the block to make a video about it. What really excites me is finding something that coast $3.00 that acts and performs like it’s $100.00. Well I found one although it’s not from the US this is a UK product called Palmolive Shaving Cream. This was possible due to my friend from the UK Leslie Asare he subscribes to my youtube channel and thought I would enjoy a few soaps and creams from the UK. This happened once before with my friend Melvin Hollenberg he gave me the shaving soap called De Vergulde Hand from the Netherlands another amazing shaving soap that’s considered a staple and costs very little.

Review - Sudsy Soapery / Twice Mint

Company: Sudsy Soapery

Product: Twice Mint

Founders:  Jonathan and Kaycie

Website - https://sudsysoapery.com

When time permits and the stars are aligned just right which happens less and less these days I head over to Pastures Pharmacy. It truly is the Mecca for all wet shavers to visit. I’ve never seen so many shaving products in one place or like-minded people for that matter like Dave Flores whom I met when I was there. We talked about products we tried and thinking of getting until Leon the owner told us about a package he just received from Sudsy Soapery. They had been sent samples of shaving soap and told us to go through them and pick out the ones we liked.

Review - Victory Shaving Company / 75th Anniversary Doolittle Raid

Company: Victory Shaving Company Veteran Owned

Product: 75^th Anniversary Doolittle’s Raid 

Location: Cheyenne WY

Website - https://victoryshavingcompany.com

A little background first

Taken from the website

On April 18, 1942 80 brave Airmen led by Lt. Col. Jimmy Doolittle took off from the deck of the USS Hornet in (16) B-25 Mitchell Bombers on a top-secret mission more than 650 miles from their target destination which was 200 miles further away than originally planned after their discovery by a Japanese picket boat. Although the raid itself inflicted minimal strategic damage the boost to US morale following the events of Pearl Harbor and the damage to both the Japanese psyche and their war strategy were priceless. Following the raid reporters speculated and clamored for days continually asking where the planes had taken off from. In response President Franklin D. Roosevelt wittily stated that the B-25s had taken off from "Shangri-La" in reference to a fictional place as described in the 1933 novel Lost Horizon written by British author James Hilton.

Rockwell Razors / 6C Adjustable Settings

Company: Rockwell Razors

Product: Rockwell 6C Razor

Founders: Garth / Morgan

Location: Toronto, Canada 

WebSite - https://rockwellrazors.com/

I’m a big fan of kickstarter.com and when they have something that I might like they notified me and this one really peaked my interest. A company called Rockwell was coming out with a new DE razor that adjusts to your skin type and stubble length, so you get a close, comfortable shave - every time. Over 2,054 backers pledged $98,915 to help bring this project to life. I was backer number 22. I went for the early bird special and got in at $40. The project was successfully funded on Oct 21, 2016. I don’t often jump into things like this but with KickStarters it does often pay to be first.

On May 10th, the parcel arrived and to my surprise they included an additional 70 blades from the 30 they had offered and added a very nice Rockwell Razor Bank to complete the package.

Review - C.O. Bigelow Shaving Cream

Company: C.O. Bigelow

Product: Shaving Cream

Created by Proraso Exclusively for C.O. Bigelow

Established: 1838

I’ve been looking for a good shaving cream lately and been very disappointed on my search results. Then I came across a post from both Stephen Davison and Michael Davis members of my Google+ Wet the Face community. They  posted a SOTD using C.O. Bigelow shaving cream. I tried just about everything else so why not try this one too. I found the site online and put an ordered in.

When the parcel arrived, on the outside the box read 414 Sixth Avenue below ninth street. I had no idea of the address so now I might be able to take a visit to the store when I’m in the city during my lunch break. Everything was carefully packed nestled inside the bubble wrap. My order of one premium shaving cream 5.2oz and two additional samples of Proraso Balm and Marvis Mint Mouth Wash where both free of charge when you order from the website over a certain amount.