TriplePlaid

SOTD - 2026-02-21

• Prep: Hot Towel
• Brush: West Coast Shaving Synthetic
• Razor: RazoRock Game Changer .84 closed comb
• Blade: Astra SP green (2)
• Lather: Castle Forbes 1445 Shave Cream
• Alum: Stirling Travel Size Alum
• Toner: Stirling Unscented Witch Hazel & Aloe
• Serum: Ash Hopper Blueberry Serum
• Lotion: Humble Bee Botanicals "Calendulove" Face Cream
• Balm: Stirling Deton-8 Aftershave Balm
• Fragrance: Stirling Deton-8 EdT

1st pass WTG 2nd pass XTG. I was heavy handed with the XTG pass which lead to some light-duty irritation on the jawline. The Game Changer is nice but can only make up so much for my pressing too hard >.< Pretty close shave though.

This was my first time using Castle Forbes. I face lathered as suggested. Next time I need to use less product, but I think this stuff definitely works well! 1445 is a very clean and yet earthy/outdoorsy scent, it feels like something my grandma would have liked :)

SOTD - 2026-02-20

• Prep: Shower
• Facewash: Stirling Charcoal facial soap
• Brush: Unbranded; badger?
• Razor: RazoRock Game Changer .84 closed comb
• Blade: Astra SP green (1)
• Lather: Farmcraft VT Cedar shave soap
• Alum: Stirling Travel Size Alum
• Toner: Stirling Unscented Witch Hazel & Aloe
• Serum: Ash Hopper Blueberry Serum
• Lotion: Humble Bee Botanicals "Calendulove" Face Cream
• Fragrance: Stirling Rambling Man EdT

1st pass WTG, touch up XTG on chin and neck. Taking down 5 days of growth. Resulted in a socially acceptable but not super close shave.

This was my first time using the Game Changer. I wanted to do an apples to apples comparison so I used my favorite blade in my current favorite shave soap instead of trying all the new stuff I got. I like this razor a lot! It is maybe slightly more efficient than the Stirling razor and certainly much less irritating/aggressive feeling (for me). I did have a small amount of tugging on my chin hairs which I mostly attribute to poor technique. The XTG felt way better than XTG feels with the Stirling razor so maybe I will try a full XTG pass next time :)

SOTD - 2026-02-15

• Prep: Shower: hot towel
• Brush: Unbranded; badger?
• Razor: Stirling de3p6s standard head
• Blade: Gillette Silver Blue (1)
• Lather: Stirling Deton-8 Shave Soap
• Alum: Stirling Travel Size Alum
• Toner: Stirling Unscented Witch Hazel & Aloe
• Aftershave: Stirling Deton-8 Aftershave Splash
• Serum: Ash Hopper Blueberry Serum
• Balm: Stirling Deton-8 Aftershave Balm
• Lotion: Humble Bee Botanicals "Calendulove" Face Cream
• Fragrance: Stirling Deton-8 EdT

Not my greatest shave. First pass WTG second pass XTG (should have stopped after 1st pass). Yesterday's irritation evidently was not resolved enough for it to be a good idea to shave again. Still a nice distraction, love to smell good.

I have some shave creams on the way, I'm hoping they will be less drying than these soaps I have been using.

SOTD - 2026-02-14

• Facewash: Stirling Activated Charcoal Facial Soap
• Prep: Stirling Unscented Preshave Soap
• Brush: Unbranded; badger?
• Razor: Stirling de3p6s standard head
• Blade: Astra SP Green(2)
• Lather: Farmcraft VT Cedar Shave Soap
• Alum: Stirling Travel Size Alum
• Toner: Stirling Unscented Witch Hazel & Aloe
• Aftershave: Stirling Deton-8 Aftershave Splash
• Serum: Ash Hopper Blueberry Serum
• Balm: Stirling Deton-8 Aftershave Balm
• Lotion: Humble Bee Botanicals "Calendulove" Face Cream
• Fragrance: Stirling Deton-8 EdT

Pretty good shave, not quite as nice as my last two. Taking down 6 days of growth. First pass WTG second pass XTG. I think I didn't have the lather dialed in quite as well today. I got a little bit of irritation in all the problem areas :( pretty close though...

Also maybe my technique sucked today. I'm distracted because I had a wisdom tooth pulled yesterday. Deton-8 helps me to feel better.

Edit: it seems my left side is much better than my right side...

My car has been on my mind a lot recently - a 2009 2WD Honda Pilot with 222k on it. I just called my mechanic today and asked them to put together a quote for a laundry list of things that will hopefully keep it running for another 100k: timing belt, water pump, valve adjustment, motor mounts, radiator, fluid refreshes, a few other small things.

I have been getting conflicting advice. Folks on the piloteer forum and reddit (and AI for whatever that's worth...) generally seem to think this sort of vehicle would be worth investing in since the transmission seems to be working well and it is pretty light on rust.

My mechanic is absolutely willing to do the work but they haven't really spoken forcefully one way or another if they think this maintenance is a good idea.

My coworkers however have said if it was their car they would trade it in and get a newer used vehicle.

Any thoughts?

SOTD - 2026-02-08

• Facewash: Stirling Activated Charcoal Facial Soap
• Prep: Stirling Unscented Preshave Soap
• Brush: Unbranded; badger?
• Razor: Stirling de3p6s standard head
• Blade: Astra SP Green(1)
• Lather: Farmcraft VT Cedar Shave Soap
• Alum: Stirling Travel Size Alum
• Toner: Stirling Unscented Witch Hazel & Aloe
• Aftershave: Stirling Deton-8 Aftershave Splash
• Serum: Ash Hopper Blueberry Serum
• Balm: Stirling Deton-8 Aftershave Balm
• Lotion: Humble Bee Botanicals "Calendulove" Face Cream
• Fragrance: Stirling Rambling Man EdT

Another nice shave, again approaching DFS. First pass WTG 2nd pass XTG excluding the neck. This soap is soy wax based, as was another of my favorites in the past. Maybe I'm just a soy wax boy.

I like rambling man: fresh, modern, some kind of mildly bitter background note makes it feel sophisticated.

I think my technique is not anywhere close to perfect, so that is almost certainly part (or most) of the story here.

I really struggle to avoid tugging on my chin, so much that I find it almost impossible to do a smooth/fluid pass; the razor frequently catches. I think I am having a hard time keeping the angle correct as I navigate the quickly changing angles and that I have a bad habit of pressing the blade too hard. I feel like even when I am getting it to cut on my chin it is impossible to get a close shave, so then I do more passes which results in irritation. I have the same problem in my moustache area except the difficulty navigating contours isn't an issue there so idk why I can't get it close there.

I am also pretty inexperienced in making good lathers so that may be part of it as well. Overall though I feel that I have been making faster progress in this department, especially in the last week or two :)

The irritation I experienced was despite bowl lathering - I shudder to think what it would have been like if I had face lathered 😬 luckily the soap I used today was pretty gentle so my face is feeling pretty great right now!

SOTD - 2026-02-06

• Facewash: Stirling Activated Charcoal Facial Soap
• Prep: Stirling Unscented Preshave Soap
• Brush: Unbranded; badger? I reached out to the person who sold it to me and they aren't sure but they think it is badger.
• Razor: Stirling de3p6s standard head
• Blade: Gillette Silver Blue(1)
• Lather: Farmcraft VT Cedar Shave Soap
• Alum: Stirling Travel Size Alum
• Toner: Stirling Unscented Witch Hazel & Aloe
• Aftershave: Stirling Deton-8 Aftershave Splash
• Serum: Ash Hopper Blueberry Serum
• Balm: Stirling Deton-8 Aftershave Balm
• Lotion: Humble Bee Botanicals "Calendulove" Face Cream
• Fragrance: Stirling Deton-8 EdT

One of my best shaves so far, approaching DFS. First pass WTG. 2nd pass WTG on chin. 3rd pass XTG on chin and moustache. I changed a lot of things for today's shave which makes it hard to tell what made it so good. I think the blade was nice, but so was the shaving cream - nice cushion, sufficiently slick, mild but pleasant scent. Possibly the least feedback I have ever gotten from my alum!

I also changed up my preshave method a bit, trying something I saw on shavemyface.com. I showered as usual but this time after sudsing the preshave soap on my face I didn't rinse it straight off. Instead I got a washcloth damp with really dang hot water and held it on my face until it cooled down and then repeated 3x and then rinsing off fully before shaving. Maybe that helped more than my usual routine where I would just rinse it right off.

Also my package from Stirling arrived:

My lips are still not all the way recovered. I am starting to think that I may have a lanolin sensitivity? But I overthink things... Whatever it was, that Scots Pine Sheep did a number on me ☹️

I want to shave today... Hopefully my poor skin can take it 😰 I guess I will try a different shave soap.

Anyone else have experience with lanolin and/or fragrance sensitivity?

Ah, the ultimate insult in 2026: accusing someone of behaving like an LLM. In hindsight my original comment probably had less value than the average LLM comment would smh 🤦

It is also the most serious contributor to acid rain.

https://www.gem.wiki/Sulfur_dioxide_and_coal

The EPA estimates that more than 65%, or over 13 million tons per year, of SO2 production in the U.S. comes from electric utilities, 93 percent of which is produced by coal power plants.