or have I, after 3 years of wet shaving, run into my first brushless cream. I'll tell you the story and you guys, if possible, can fill me in.
I dropped in on a place called Anthony's Barber Supply as it's listed on this site as a place to check out. I went in with the purpose to try some JM Fraser cream and was a bit disappointed to hear that not only did he not have any but he also stated that he was having issues getting the product in and was very apologetic.
This was an older Italian gentlemen who was very surprised to see me in there being that I'm rather young (28) and that I knew as much as I did about what he called "A lost art" Anyways, I was looking around at his other stuff and he brought me over to this homemade cream called Anthony's Gold and he said I should give it a try. I took the top off and was hit with a very tropical scent...a scent that I would usually run from and at first, it put me off. After talking to my gf, she suggested that I just wait until he gets his stock in which I later told to who I can only assume was Anthony.
As I was looking at his straights and brushes, Anthony started laughing and I turned to him and he said "I think it's great that you are taking your time looking around. Everyone is always rush rush rush." I ended up picking up a fantastic brush from him (Omega 10098) and when I was pulling out my wallet he handed me a very large sample of Anthony's Gold. Needless to say, I was in shock at his generosity.
I get home and right away run to go try to lather up this new cream using both my Duke 3 and my Shavemac D01 and neither could lather the stuff up no matter what I did. More product, more water....nothing in my bowl. I figured, "Oh well, glad I didn't believe the old timer" and figured I would use it to condition my stubble while in the shower. Tonight, in the shower, using a very old boar brush, I was playing around and found that if I used a painting motion, I was able to create a very slick and thick coating on my face. After my shower I decided to give this stuff a go using the painting motion I found to work in the shower. Now, I usually only go for BBS shaves which if I want little irritation, takes 5 passes with some minor touch ups. Because of that, I found that I would have to dip the tip of my brush in the cream every 2 passes but it still left an amazing layer of cream on my face. But to the best part...it was the best shave I've ever had. Zero irritation after, no nicks (don't usually get those anyways) but what really shocked me is after my shave, when I hit my face with my Alum and Aqua Velva, I felt NO sting at all and my face was better than BBS.
So, after all of that, I'm confused as to if I have stumbled upon some brushless cream or am I doing something wrong in terms of trying to create lather. I guess I could try adding even more water to the mix but when I tried that last night, I was heading towards a soupy mess.
Sorry for the length of the story...I got carried away.
I dropped in on a place called Anthony's Barber Supply as it's listed on this site as a place to check out. I went in with the purpose to try some JM Fraser cream and was a bit disappointed to hear that not only did he not have any but he also stated that he was having issues getting the product in and was very apologetic.
This was an older Italian gentlemen who was very surprised to see me in there being that I'm rather young (28) and that I knew as much as I did about what he called "A lost art" Anyways, I was looking around at his other stuff and he brought me over to this homemade cream called Anthony's Gold and he said I should give it a try. I took the top off and was hit with a very tropical scent...a scent that I would usually run from and at first, it put me off. After talking to my gf, she suggested that I just wait until he gets his stock in which I later told to who I can only assume was Anthony.
As I was looking at his straights and brushes, Anthony started laughing and I turned to him and he said "I think it's great that you are taking your time looking around. Everyone is always rush rush rush." I ended up picking up a fantastic brush from him (Omega 10098) and when I was pulling out my wallet he handed me a very large sample of Anthony's Gold. Needless to say, I was in shock at his generosity.
I get home and right away run to go try to lather up this new cream using both my Duke 3 and my Shavemac D01 and neither could lather the stuff up no matter what I did. More product, more water....nothing in my bowl. I figured, "Oh well, glad I didn't believe the old timer" and figured I would use it to condition my stubble while in the shower. Tonight, in the shower, using a very old boar brush, I was playing around and found that if I used a painting motion, I was able to create a very slick and thick coating on my face. After my shower I decided to give this stuff a go using the painting motion I found to work in the shower. Now, I usually only go for BBS shaves which if I want little irritation, takes 5 passes with some minor touch ups. Because of that, I found that I would have to dip the tip of my brush in the cream every 2 passes but it still left an amazing layer of cream on my face. But to the best part...it was the best shave I've ever had. Zero irritation after, no nicks (don't usually get those anyways) but what really shocked me is after my shave, when I hit my face with my Alum and Aqua Velva, I felt NO sting at all and my face was better than BBS.
So, after all of that, I'm confused as to if I have stumbled upon some brushless cream or am I doing something wrong in terms of trying to create lather. I guess I could try adding even more water to the mix but when I tried that last night, I was heading towards a soupy mess.
Sorry for the length of the story...I got carried away.
