My package from Gifts & Care arrived around a week or so ago, and in it was a big ol' 1kg tub of Myrsol shave cream and a 235ml bottle of Myrsol Don Miguel 1919 agua de colonia. Since then, I've been playing with little else. Thought I'd make a few comments here.
First issue for me was whether or not to pick up the Myrsol shave cream or the dedicated Myrsol Don Miguel 1919 shave cream. In studying the ingredients of the latter and in comparing them to the former plus the Don Miguel 1919 AdC, my conclusion was that the dedicated cream was nothing more than the straight cream with the cologne added. (This did not seem to be the same with the after-shave, which has menthol and other ingredients added to the mix.)
As to working with the cream and mixing in the cologne, I've been having good results with the following method:
First I scoop out about an almond's worth of the cream and place it into a lathering bowl. The cream itself is kind of solid, so next I add a very few drops of hot water to it and kind of mash this down with my thumb. Then I add around five drops of the cologne to this. With regard to brushes, I have found a boar or horsehair brush to be preferable to badgers. The reason is that in starting out in the bowl, it is better to have a knot that has not absorbed too much water, or subsequently will want to absorb water; and a Vie-Long horsehair brush in particular seems to work very well in this regard, given a thirty second soak followed by a gentle squeeze to excess standing water. As to building up the lather, I add a few drops of water at a time, gradually adding more until the desired consistency is achieved.
I'm glad to have purchased the cream and cologne separate like this. I can wear the cologne by itself and I can blend other colognes into the relatively neutral-scented cream according to whim. That said, the cream is very faintly biassed towards citrus, so I would suggest colognes more in this vein. Haven't tried it yet, but I'm guessing that 4711 will work well with this.
The scent of the cologne itself takes a little bit of getting used to. At first, I was reminded of a bottle of Gabel's lilac after-shave that I sadly had to part with. There is a strange off-putting musty smell at first that then gives way to the jasmine as a finish. Mixed with the cream, this isn't an issue as it goes straight to jasmine there. As a cologne though, it is sort of like being chosen by the Veg. Opening the bottle beforehand and letting the contents breath a little bit helps to mitigate this, so I suppose that the cologne will start to mellow nicely once the volume has receded a little, allowing more air-surface interchange.
First issue for me was whether or not to pick up the Myrsol shave cream or the dedicated Myrsol Don Miguel 1919 shave cream. In studying the ingredients of the latter and in comparing them to the former plus the Don Miguel 1919 AdC, my conclusion was that the dedicated cream was nothing more than the straight cream with the cologne added. (This did not seem to be the same with the after-shave, which has menthol and other ingredients added to the mix.)
As to working with the cream and mixing in the cologne, I've been having good results with the following method:
First I scoop out about an almond's worth of the cream and place it into a lathering bowl. The cream itself is kind of solid, so next I add a very few drops of hot water to it and kind of mash this down with my thumb. Then I add around five drops of the cologne to this. With regard to brushes, I have found a boar or horsehair brush to be preferable to badgers. The reason is that in starting out in the bowl, it is better to have a knot that has not absorbed too much water, or subsequently will want to absorb water; and a Vie-Long horsehair brush in particular seems to work very well in this regard, given a thirty second soak followed by a gentle squeeze to excess standing water. As to building up the lather, I add a few drops of water at a time, gradually adding more until the desired consistency is achieved.
I'm glad to have purchased the cream and cologne separate like this. I can wear the cologne by itself and I can blend other colognes into the relatively neutral-scented cream according to whim. That said, the cream is very faintly biassed towards citrus, so I would suggest colognes more in this vein. Haven't tried it yet, but I'm guessing that 4711 will work well with this.
The scent of the cologne itself takes a little bit of getting used to. At first, I was reminded of a bottle of Gabel's lilac after-shave that I sadly had to part with. There is a strange off-putting musty smell at first that then gives way to the jasmine as a finish. Mixed with the cream, this isn't an issue as it goes straight to jasmine there. As a cologne though, it is sort of like being chosen by the Veg. Opening the bottle beforehand and letting the contents breath a little bit helps to mitigate this, so I suppose that the cologne will start to mellow nicely once the volume has receded a little, allowing more air-surface interchange.
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