First Line Shave - First Responder Owned and Operated

Company: First Line Shave
Product: First Line Shave
Founder: Michael Riley

Today we have a new player in the field of shaving apparel. Michael Riley reached out a few weeks ago wanting me to test one of his creations which when it arrived seemed pretty polished even tho it was on its 7th revision when I received mine and has been revised even further. Its final release will be this May 19th, 2019 I’m talking about First Line Shave a first responder owned and operated business.

Ming Shi - 3000S Adjustable

Company: Ming Shi
Product: 3000S Adjustable  (Clone)
Location: China
Website: Google Search for the cheapest price

When it comes to knock offs Ming Shi seems to be the winner. They have done amazing things with bringing classic and sometimes out of reach DE razors to the masses but are they any good and are they safe. Let’s take a look at some razor manufacturers like Merkur, Edwin Jagger and Parker they put more R&D into there products than any clone maker will ever do and the result is a precision quality tool. The clone maker is not that caring they just copy a design and may not understand the reasons behind certain aspects of that design and therefore might omit a key element or feature for cutting costs due to the lack of understanding why it's there in the first place.

The clones I have reviewed in the past range in the order of 5 to 7 dollars not including shipping. Pretty darn cheap and almost irresistible not to purchase. Most of these knock offs are from razors that cost hundreds of times over this price.

Today I’m going to review one more clone from Ming Shi it’s the 3000S adjustable. Some say this clone was meant to mimic the Gillette Slim or Fatboy. These razors are in high demand for collectors an original 1960 Gillette FatBoy can fetch well over $200.00 in fair condition so Ming Shi knows the market well.

Duke Cannon - Hot Shave Gel

Company: Duke Cannon
Product: Hot Shave Gel

I was first introduced to Duke Cannon with there amazing bar soaps I think one of the biggest bars on the market and the scents are just fantastic. So I will really disappointed when I got my hands on a tube of there Hot Shaving Gel. What in gods name were they thinking? First off gels just don’t work well for anyone and I’ve reviewed many of them and only found one to be any good and it was extremely expensive, all this product did was piss me off.

The packaging was typical for a modern product flip open top easy to dispense and store. Nice attractive coloring.

The instructions say that you can’t use a brush and you should use warm water first on the face and then massage it in with your fingertips leave it on for 30 sec or so and it should begin to get warm not hot warm even though the products name is Hot Shaving Gel.

Through The Fire Fine Craft - Arrow / Joesph Meyer - Shaving Foam

Company: Through The Fire / Joesph Meyer
Product: Arrow Shaving Soap
Foam After Shave
Website: https://www.ttffcraft.com/   /  https://josephmeyerclub.com/


Each year I call upon my brothers and sister in the wet shaving community to contribute to our Wet The Face Giveaway’s and so far since 2015 we have never missed a one yet. This year our group of artisans includes Through The Fire fine craft which gave us the Arrow Shaving soap and splash. I was lucky that inside the box was a sample size tub for me to try as well. So I will be reviewing this along with something else that I received it’s a shaving form from Joseph Meyer. Not too many foam aftershave are hitting the shelves lately which makes this one extremely special. It stands out in scent and performance which I will talk about here as well.

Pure Shaving Cream by Gillette

Company: Gillette
Product: Pure shaving Cream
Website: Google For Cheapest Price

Today I’m using the new shaving cream I picked up called Pure by Gillette. I have to say I’m very impressed with the ingredients. This cream has no alcohol, Dyes, paragons or sulfates just like the name says it’s Pure. I’m always seeing the Gillette blades offered right at the same location and you have to laugh at the multi-blade prices at $45.00 for 5 it just highway robbery.
Any wet shaver will tell you how cheap and how long a box of 100 DE takes you. In fact, I’m on the same box for over 2 years now.

Barlow's Shaving Cream Crafted For Men

Company: 180 Innovational LLC.
Product:  Barlow's Charcoal Shave Cream
Website: Exclusive at Rite-Aid

This week I took to the local Rite-aid for another look on the shelves and came up with 4 different products that I will be reviewing. First up is Barlow's Charcoal Shave Cream. Charcoal is becoming the new additive these days in lots of products I’ve seen it many times in shaving soap before but not shaving cream. Come to think of it I’ve never even heard of Barlows until now. So I did a little investigative work online and found something very interesting this is a Private label company owned by 180 Innovational LLC. This brand has no website and only sold through places like CVS, Target, Rite-aid you get the picture. They also own other brands ranging from Medical to HairCare products. Here is a link if you're interested - https://trademarks.justia.com/owners/180-innovations-llc-3504706/ So you can see that the experience of an artisan product is pretty much gone so don’t let its advertising fool you.

Wet the Face - Creation Of Bar Soaps

Another peek into the soap making process. This time bar soaps. A different process than making shaving soap we use the cold process method. Here I start you at the beginning of melting the oils and butter to the end when we pop them out of my 3d printed molds and placing them on the racks to dry.