What order to do stuff in?

well ive got some trumpers skin food, varoious different aftershaves and balms, and all the rest

do i do the following? or change the routine?

shower first
apply skin food
lather face with soap/cream
shave
apply a suitable balm or aftershave

ive heard skin food can be used befoore and aftershaving, is there any point doing it twice?

is it better before or after shaving to use?

since i have various aftershaves and balms would i be better off using it before shaving?

As much as the skin food costs, I'd be using it post-shave so it doesn't all get washed off with the soap/cream from the first shaving pass, but that's just me. Maybe put it in rotation with your other aftershaves.

My routine is:
Shower (but don't wash face)
Lather (directly on face - no bowl necessary)
Shave (wtg, xtg, reverse xtg, atg)
warm rinse
(possible alum block here)
cold rinse
aftershave (Aqua Velva followed by moisturizer, OR Musgo Real alone)

hmmmmm so i should maybe use it when im not going out say for a special occasion, because i dont think its smell is that powerful, and when i am going out, use an appropriate aftershave/balm to woo the ladies

it is expensive i went for the 500ml bottle which was roughly $58 (£29) so i guess your right about the whole after shaving thing

The skin food can be used as both a pre and post shave.

If you want a good pre-shave (which I don't think is necessary FWIW), you can use straight glycerine, olive oil or a host of other pre-shave products that are less expensive.

Skin food is primarily used as a post-shave treatment - to me, its a unique product in that it doesn't provide much moisturizing, but does an excellent job of sealing the skin. For this reason, I use it alone as a post shave during the summer when I don't need any moisturizer and during the dryer months, I often use it on top of AS balms that absorb completely into my skin - the skin food acts as a nice barrier and seals in the moisture.

You only need to use a very small amount of the skin food - a few drops is all it should take and a 500ml bottle should last you a very long time - even if you used it daily as a pre and post shave.

As for wooing the ladies, its really a cologne or aftershave that you're looking for - most ASB's don't have enough staying power (C&E being one of the few exceptions I'm aware of).

More important, the balms sold by many perfume houses may smell nice but they're not necessarily (in most cases not) the best balms out there in terms of performance as a balm, not to mention being pricy.

thanks for the info suzuki, im gonna try that next time, i used the skin food after my shave and it feels good but i think that was down to my shaving mostly, im on my 3rd blade, merkur, israeli (shaving shack) then derby, i was gonna try the IP israeli to see if there was a difference compared to the shaving shacks version but decided for the derby instead, was a damn good shave, my scores are now as follows

merkur - 5 (average)
israeli - 8.5 (very good but not quite there)
derby - 9 (best shave ive ever had but not sure if im in heaven yet)

so i still have 3 blades to try IP israeli, swedish gillete and the feather, i use my merkur futur on the 2 setting and its a damn good shave on that setting, which is surprising seeing as it goes up to 6 but 3 and above just seem to cut my face to pieces whereas on 2 its perfect only 1 or 2 small nicks

so next time ill go through the same routine but before applying the skin food ill apply either my tumpers limes after shave or my truefitt and hill limes AS balm, i just love the smell of limes, T&H has been the best smeller so far but their shaving cream is good for shaving but the scent is weak

im guessing my 500ml should last me a good year or so, so its £30 well spent

TromboneGuy said:

As much as the skin food costs, I'd be using it post-shave so it doesn't all get washed off with the soap/cream from the first shaving pass, but that's just me. Maybe put it in rotation with your other aftershaves.

My routine is:
Shower (but don't wash face)
Lather (directly on face - no bowl necessary)
Shave (wtg, xtg, reverse xtg, atg)
warm rinse
(possible alum block here)
cold rinse
aftershave (Aqua Velva followed by moisturizer, OR Musgo Real alone)

Click to expand...

+1. Except I use the alum block after a cold rinse. Since the skin food is primarily glycerine I would suggest saving a pile of cash and using straight glycerine, save the trumpers till after, although I personally think there are better after shave treatments.

shower and don't use anything on my face so the face has all the oils, when using a brush and semi-scrubbing it on the face i find that it removes enough of the oils to make me clean. a double washing would just make it oh so dry throughout the day.

i spend the majority of the time trying to make sure i get the lather correct then i think most everything else just falls in line with that.