The 14 Day Quarantine Challenge

The LT texted me and, after looking at the SOTD I posted, offered up this contest:

  "Looking at that SOTD, here’s an idea. I call it the Quarantine Challenge. For 14 days, you can only use one soap, one brush, one razor, and one aftershave. What do you choose?"

So, after some thought (but not too much thought), I came up with this...

1.  The Fitjar Islands Folgefonn soap is from Norway, and it has a distinct juniper berry scent that's pretty nice early in the morning, or alternatively, on a hot day.  Instant lather, and good slickness.

2.  The brush is a three band badger from Ca-Yuen in New Orleans.  Badger always works well to whip up a lather, and the handle reminds me of gold bearing quartz, which is of course something that's always sought here in the Golden State.

Kinda like this.

3.The straight is a J.A Hellberg I got off Etsy from Stefan, in Sweden, with an exquisite edge on it.  The handle was deteriorating, as these things sometimes do, and to avoid the off-gassing damaging the steel, I sent it off to Max Sprecher in Las Vegas and had him re-handle this in white shell (Awabi).

With its excellent etch, nightmarishly sharp edge, and the now safe handle, I could see myself using this one for 14 days.  It might be a good thing to become very familiar with a straight razor like this, and it could be enlightening to compare the shave efficiency between now and two weeks from now.

4.  For the aftershave, it has to be Sterling's Gin and Tonic.  With the menthol load this one has, your face retains the chilled feeling for a good long while after application, and the smell complements the juniper from the soap.  All very refreshing and energizing.

I've volleyed the Quarantine Challenge back to the LT, and we'll see how he responds.  He's pretty busy right now as he's on the base Coronavirus Task Force, so I might have to wait a bit, but it'll be interesting to see what he says.