7a.m platinum

Possibly the closest shave I have gotten next to the feather blades. These blades feel abnormally thin next to other blades. They come in a cardboard box, no dispose unit attached.

They are double sealed in an outter coat and an inner coat of wax paper. They have a thin one coat seal on the outside of the blade. I got about 5 shaves out of it before I felt a reduction in sharpness. Very smooth shave and awesome around the neck and chin. Very sharp, very affordable. Great blade for a beginner to start out on because you can really feel the cutting edge.

Derby Extra Shaving Blades

Derby Extra, Super Stainless double edged blades. Comes in packages of 5, nice plastic container with a used blade dispose section.

Blades are coated in a "chromium-ceraminc platinum tungsten polymer.  This is one of my favorite blades. It seems to keep cutting and cutting shave after shave. The coatings prevent against oxidation very well. I've counted 10 shaves with this blade. I eventually tossed it not because it lost its sharpness, but because I dropped the razor in the sink and clipped an edge. If you're on a budget and want a fine razor, give this a try. It was great on my sensitive face and is one of the razors I keep stocked up on. I would also like to note, I passed a few of these off to a friend and he had a large reduction in shaving bumps after just a week's use.

Phase 1: Lather

You wouldn't build a house on a foundation of sand would you? Well, the same concept applies to achieving a great shave. We're going to cover the secret to a great shaving cream lather here!

                                                    STEP 1

Get your stull together! Your brush, cream and a nice bowl.

STEP 2   

Run that brush under some hot water! Soak up all 

those bristles. Don't be an idiot and pour boiling water on it either. Get it all nice and hot. Tap it off a little bit. Keep it moist but not dripping wet.

STEP 3

You're going to want to put about a nickle sized amount on the brush now. Keep the tube clean and wipe it on the brush. This saves product and keeps the tube cap neat and tidey!

STEP 4

Start swirling the brush around in the bowl. Above, this is after about 3 solid swirls.

Here we got our lather building after about 10 swirls. KEEP SWIRLING!

Keep swirling! "Smoosh" the brush down. Get all those bristles saturated and covered with your lather.

STEP 5

Your product should look like this. Nice and smooth and fluffy. It's not too watery and not to thick. But how do we know when it's ready?

Bounce the brush up and down on the bottom of the bowl. You should get stiff peaks. When you pull the brush up you should see a buncha little mountains that retain their shape.

            Solid amount of lather here. Note how it does not drip.

Looking good.

STEP 6

Put that brush in the bowl and get ready for the next phase.

Some people like to keep their lather as hot as possible. I set it on a hot washcloth throughout the next few steps.