Pre shave

Thanks and well done, Nishy. Used mine this morning and like it a whole lot!

I need a few minutes pre-shave and yours worked very well indeed. Nice smell, went on smoothly. Then had doubts when I found it is water soluble but got in front of the shaving mirror and my beard was still soft and moist. Best shave I ever had from an 89 - in the form of a Muhle Jet head on Gecko's Nemesis handle - and used a Sharpedge to jazz the Jet up a little. Close and smooth, skin felt good.

It didn't interfere with the lather though I noticed the razor swill-off lather stuck together rather than spreading across the water surface. Washed away no problem when I was done, no residue left behind.

For my money, you can play with the fragrance all you like but the base balm is absolutely great as it is. I'd buy a bottle if you bring it to BST market.

Many thanks for the sample and the basis of a great shave!
 
Bechet45 said:
Thanks and well done, Nishy. Used mine this morning and like it a whole lot!

I need a few minutes pre-shave and yours worked very well indeed. Nice smell, went on smoothly. Then had doubts when I found it is water soluble but got in front of the shaving mirror and my beard was still soft and moist. Best shave I ever had from an 89 - in the form of a Muhle Jet head on Gecko's Nemesis handle - and used a Sharpedge to jazz the Jet up a little. Close and smooth, skin felt good.

It didn't interfere with the lather though I noticed the razor swill-off lather stuck together rather than spreading across the water surface. Washed away no problem when I was done, no residue left behind.

For my money, you can play with the fragrance all you like but the base balm is absolutely great as it is. I'd buy a bottle if you bring it to BST market.

Many thanks for the sample and the basis of a great shave!
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Thanks Carl, much appreciated, quite taken back by the positive comments.

Spot on with being water soluble, it was engineered this way, because I love slickness but hate not being able to remove the stuff off my hands (for grip with the straight), so wanted something as they say 'easy on easy off'.

May have to get batching. I believe the viscosity (high organic oil content mixed with glycerin for slickness purposes) may cause the skidding. I was concentrating on avoiding clumping which I achieved but can always play around with solubility ratios to alleviate any swill-off.

Thank you again for taking the time to review.
 
Bechet45 said:
For my money, you can play with the fragrance all you like but the base balm is absolutely great as it is. I'd buy a bottle if you bring it to BST market.
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Totally agree with Carl. The predominant scent I detected was Lemon and Eucalyptus. The water solubility caught me by surprise, but worked perfectly and worked well with MWF as the lather wasn't affected at all. It was my last shave with the pass around Fatboy - perfect.

Thanks again Nishy.
 
Electrif said:
Bechet45 said:
For my money, you can play with the fragrance all you like but the base balm is absolutely great as it is. I'd buy a bottle if you bring it to BST market.
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Totally agree with Carl. The predominant scent I detected was Lemon and Eucalyptus. The water solubility caught me by surprise, but worked perfectly and worked well with MWF as the lather wasn't affected at all. It was my last shave with the pass around Fatboy - perfect.

Thanks again Nishy.
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Thank you for your response Electrif. I was hoping the cedar wood would be stronger, my next batch I'm considering adding vetiver as well as the cedar as Melissa (citrus blend) being the devious lady she is keeps punching above her weight!

Incidentally how did you chaps find the pill bottle to work as a container, will create waterproof labels next time (spare added for this reason).
 
The pill bottle was great for a sample but I'd recommend looking on ebay for a suitable plastic bottle and cap if you are going to sell this juice.

The child lock was a pain in the proverbial with wet hands and the bottle pours too fast for my taste.
 
Bechet45 said:
The pill bottle was great for a sample but I'd recommend looking on ebay for a suitable plastic bottle and cap if you are going to sell this juice.

The child lock was a pain in the proverbial with wet hands and the bottle pours too fast for my taste.
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I was pro-active and opened the bottle 1st :p
 
Pill bottle fine as a tester bottle, but if I was buying, I would prefer a pump bottle or something with a fliptop lid to avoid messing about opening and replacing caps.
 
Had delayed shaving today hoping it'd come, and so it did. So, second shower of the day just now and a slightly greater growth due to the delayed shave...it's possible/likely, I suppose, that this has an effect on the shave and maybe makes it a tad closer, so this MIGHT be a contributing factor in the closeness?

Hot shower...usual shower soap and shampoo (I still have a head-full of hair), no oils or extras, no Noxzema, no Franken-pre. Just another splash of water and an application of Melissa. Followed by, an admittedly well doctored, creamy shaving soap with a mixture of goodies in it.
Followed by ATT S2 Slant + Gillette Yellow (3rd outing). Usual unconventional system of passes and touch ups at the end and usual post shave applications.

Result. Super job! Really soft result, and lovely and close. A real pleasure and no mistakin' guvnor.

But, rightly or wrongly, I told myself before I started that I was going to like it. I had supreme confidence that Nishy was gonna give us a right decent turn out...and he has!

I thought the feel on the skin was thoroughly excellent .... not overly oily or greasy but a treat to apply. It must be said though that alternative pre-shaves mixes I regularly use are OK (otherwise I wouldn't stick with them) and these are usually a mish-mash of oils and creams and soaps that take my fancy and now include Nox and Proraso Green along with assorted proprietary solutions. But Melissa was an easy and delightful treat and I look forward to more of it tomorrow.

So it felt great and was easy and pleasant to apply. The smell was indeed pleasant (I'm no good at descriptions, as Nishy Knows) but not in any way too strong to my nose, I could easily relish Nishy's promise of Vetiver. I didn't find the menthol kick to be particularly strong myself. But I do like a drop of menthol as others here will attest. I realise others will not so I suggest a good balance was achieved and I could easily add more menthol myself at a later stage.

Could this not also serve as a post-shave as well?? I'll try doing that tomorrow.

I would definitely be happy to support Nishy's aspirations to international stardom as a creator of specialist potions by buying it in full size bottles (100ml would be a minimum for me) if Nishy considered it as a bit of a project.

Postage and packaging is gonna add to costs though. Today's sample made it but the envelope was partly open and I suspect I was lucky as the width of the envelope could have resulted in interception at the sorting office, being over the LARGE LETTER classification maximum of 25mm thick...I think I got away with that. Anything over 25mm thick becomes a SMALL PARCEL at £2.80 and I imagine a Jiffy Bag is likely required plus the container is gonna cost a bit. My local Post Office examines stuff like hawks when I post gear and if it's a millimeter or a gram over the limit they up it to the next category.

But if we want it we'll pay for it if Nishy's prepared to make it in bulk (maybe that's a bit of a presumption). I would happily add my name to a prospective customer list.

Conclusion....Excellent. Thanks so very much for time and trouble, Nishy.
 
Wow! Stan many thanks for the positive review, no promises as to when the next batch will be made simply down to time restrictions. I suspected you guys may have to pay a charge on the receiving the envelope, so confirmed with the PO before posting. Most definitely will improve packaging on my next attempt.

Menthol oils/eucalyptus oils/tea tree oils have been a delight to sample. My current favourite is an Australian brand costs about £50 to get it in the UK from Amazon, but makes for an ultra menthol kick, may use that in the next and provide a disclaimer! I am a menth head.

With regards post shave. I wanted to make the mixture non-sticky (my only quibble with coral skin food) and in turn very slick. It could almost be akin to Arko moisturising cream in that it leaves a thin film of oil (vitamin E, eucalyptus, citrus, cedar, jasmine, rose, olive and lavender oils are used) so not sure if its of great use in the summer perhaps cold months of winter when skin is drier, given that this is just for my personal preference due to my skin type. Be interested to hear how it performs for others.
 
Second shave with Melissa. Again, no other preparations used other than shower and a quick splash before a decent spread of Melissa....allowed a few minutes for it to soak in...then final splash before Tabac shaving soap, Progress on setting 4 with Voskhod blade (4th and final outing).

Another lovely shave. Slick and super.

Then nothing else and used Melissa as a post-shave. All around me chops, forehead, neck.

No problem at all...certainly not oily. Still find the smell difficult to explain...but not strong but does linger for several hours. Again I say VETIVER :) PLEASE....

Finished off with some Aramis Havana under the chin. (some say use a very thin smear of Petroleum Jelly or Olive oil or similar beforehand to make it linger longer and I do believe it works too). They also say spray it on yer hair as it apparently lasts longer than on the skin...tried that too and it seems to work well too.

Melissa won't last forever but there's still some left which'll get used tomorrow.

As mentioned, I'd happily use it regularly and would take as much as was available. Would it be an idea (if it was to be made in volume) just to send it out in as cheap a container as possible and have fellas decant it into their own pump dispenser (ie Superdrug or whatever)...and make that clear at the outset to avoid disappointment in the event some might expect a super duper dispenser to arrive with Melissa?

Great stuff. Thanks, Nishy.
 
I'm in love with this stuff! It is most definitely a commercially viable product. Had a second shave using it this morning and another super shave with feel good skin afterwards.

Dark brown or blue plastic/PET bottles with flip top - various sizes of bottles - a fancy stick-on label and you have a winner!

Please let me know when you have another batch ready - I'd love to buy some.
 
Good idea with the bottling Stan, Carl I have some flip top plastic containers in the shop already, so should be able to keep costs relatively low and use these.

The base ingredients were relatively high being of a high quality and volume, these in the future I shall not change as its taken several years to differentiate good to average products over a sensible price range and we of course want the best.

The scent profile was my biggest challenge I wanted a pre shave which would compliment my favourote software being:

LPV/icolonialli/boudelaire/CRSW sandalwood /grandstaff holy smokes

So it needes a heavy sweet spicy, amber warmth. But not to become overly sweet, citrus was added as a top note. Initially I get cardboard and citrus. That fresh boxy carboard if that makes sense, then the line of cedar mixed with grapefruit, lemongrass, lavender and lemon oil. The cedars warmth and woody nature sits at the base and stays with the shave (as i wanted to compliment the soap) whilst the citrus dies down. I hope this comes across, as the citrus is boisterous. Most importantly no sweet lemon oil, don't do sweet starburst lemon.

My next scent profile may be wild spicy lavender (think Castle forbes), green vetiver and peppercorn, again depending on oil performance as a pre.
 
What I did today was transfer it from the pill bottle to an empty 10ml plastic eye drops bottle, perfect for squeezing onto wet hands.
I tend to keep things like that, thinking 'that will come in handy sometime'
I used it under bowl lathered NSS Citrus Zinger and used it between each pass - super slick shave.
I also copied Stan's use as a post shave, worked really well.
This is a really good product Nishy.
 
Used mine last night. I had 2 weeks worth of growth so I left it on longer than I normally would. I dont usually do any other prep so didnt bother this time either. Initially the scent of eucalyptus came through but he longer I had it on, the stronger the lemon became.

First test was to rinse it off my hands with just water to see how greasy it was. It came off straight away, no greasy residue, but left my hands feeling soft with a faint smell of lemon.

I lathered up with MWF and the first pass with the Kai Excelia was very smooth. I was expecting some tugging due to the length of hair but the oil definitely helped soften the hair.

I didn't reapply between passes or use it as a post shave. Post shave face was soft and not at all dry which sometimes happens with MWF.

Very pleased with the oil. Like the others, can't fault it. I was worried about the scent when I read what you used (I have totally gone off menthol and thought the eucalyptus might be too strong). But the combination works really well and overall scent is very pleasant and not overpowering.

Add my name to the list of potential customers.

Can't wait to try the other scents, looking forward to the Vetiver.

Well done Nishy.
 
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