He spoke "Man."

[elfs]

In my eternal quest for the perfect shave, I stopped by the Bellvue Shopping Center on the way home the other day to drop in on Excalibur, one of the few places I know that carries Colonel Conk, my preferred brand of soap. I was reminded as I arrived that JenK had recommended an alternative in the same shopping center, so I stopped by The Art of Shaving instead.

The very gay establishment near my office does not carry safety blades. The Art of Shaving, however, does indeed have "the kind of clientele who use that sort of thing, hmm." Not only that, but the proprietor of the place said (note: "said") he was a safety razor man himself, and even asked if I store my razor in mineral oil.

Good heavens, he spoke "man."

In the end, his excellent salesmanship sold me on a cake of sandalwood shaving soap, that's actually very nice in quality. I spent probably twice what I would have at Excalibur, and got about twice as much soap out of the deal. We shall see if it lasts as long as he claimed.

Comments

[danlyke.livejournal.com]

Speak to me of this storing the razor in mineral oil! Does this prevent rust? Seems like it'd be a scary way to promote anaerobic bacteria growth, but I could be convinced otherwise...

[elfs.livejournal.com]

That is the point, to prevent rust between uses. I haven't heard of a problem with anaerobic bacteria growth (which sounds scary enough to look into it), but the storage thing is a popular technique.

[danlyke.livejournal.com]

It came to mind only because I'm conscious of it as a problem with salad dressings and infused oils in the kitchen, specifically botulism can grow on garlic submersed in oils, so I was mid-way between "Oh, I'm gonna do that right now" and a bit of a pause. Thanks, will investigate further.

[lisakit.livejournal.com]

The bacterial growth on dressings is in the garlic and/or other ingredients. The oil itself is part of the preservation like a vinegar or citrus is. Oil can eventually go rancid, but it has a very long shelf life.

I can see how it would be a good method of preserving your blade, like in a shallow dish so you don't waste alot of oil, with proper cleaning and oil replacement in between. And mineral oil is pretty cheap.

[dv-girl.livejournal.com]

Mineral oil is a petroliate. It should be sufficiently hydrophobic that I think most bacteria would have difficulty living in it or moving in it.

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

Mmmm, sandalwood. I wonder if they have a cream aftershave in a mild scent like that.

(You may ask, WHAT, he's one of those Bearded Fellows, he doesn't shave?! No, not south of the cheekbones, but it looks better topside if the chrome dome doesn't look fuzzy... :)

(And part of me does miss a nice shave... but the advantages of being fuzzy outweigh it...)

Correct e-mail addy?

[(Anonymous)]

Sorry to drop this note here, but I'm unsure whether the only e-mail address I could find was working or not. I used your PayPal stub to send a donation, but I just got a notice that it's unclaimed. Do you still receive at drizzle.com?

(Going over all of your websites (elfsternberg, pendorwright, the others), I ha a very hard time finding ANY e-mail address. Are you concerned with your address getting out there and being used for spamming?

[bldrnrpdx.livejournal.com]

I ran across Art of Shaving's line when we were in Vegas last Christmas. The husband has recently become a fan of the safety razor. I'm not a fan of sandalwood in general, but I really liked AoS's lemon scents in their men's line - neither sugary sweet nor bitter-sour like many lemon-scented body products I've run across.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_candide_/]

There has been an AoS shop in Grand Central (that would be in NYC) for about 5+ years now. I've been in there, sometimes to browse, sometimes to purchase a nice, non-oily aftershave.

(I have very oily skin; if I don't wash my face and hair in the morning, by 5pm it feels like someone's turtle-waxed my forehead.)


I found their consumables very pricey for what they were.


I find it amusing, Elf, that you refer to the, "very gay establishment near [your] office," but not about AoS. Because whenever I swung by the Art of Shaving in GCT, the guy behind the counter was tres gey. Masculine, yes, but in that manly-fey-way that's so yummy. ^_^