Sandalwood SEptember
Saturday 14th September
The White Company (Vintage) Shaving Bowl & Semogue SOC Taj Pure Bristle
Leaf Twig (Prism) & Derby Extra (2)
Drakkar Noir Aftershave
Golly! That was a superb shave!
The White Company soap has a lovely scent. Centered on sandalwood, there's also a warming amber, some green spices like clove and cardamom, and there's green leaf and begamot. Lovely! That scent profile puts me very much in mind of Floris Santal. Alas, I don't have their aftershave (if they even made a Santal aftershave) but on paper Drakkar Noir is pretty damn close ... and it really suits the soap well.
Last weekend I ran the Derby Extra against the Premium back to back in this razor and this is the second run on each of those blades. Tonight, the Extra performed exceptionally well in the Twig. Exceptionally. Better than the Premium? Better? Dunno ... but certainly smoother. It's sharp enough and a smooth run; in many respects very much like the Treet Platinum to my face. I'll use the Premium tomorrow with the same setup, but sure I'll find what I found last week which is (if they are indeed different blades) that the Premium is sharper and therefore not quite as smooth.
Either way, the Derby Extra is an excellent pairing with the Leaf Twig.
Derby revised their blades some time around 2016, we gather. The Extra got some bad rap prior to that but we're like eight years on since that change now and no doubt there's many folks with pre-2016 blades in their stashes but the market is unlikely to still be pushing that era of blade. I'd say buy in a tuck, pack or pillar of these new blades and see for yourselves. You might be (hopefully pleasantly) surprised.
Enjoy the rest of your weekend, guys!