Thread: A trip to Vegas - a report

So I’m back from a trip to vegas and I have to say that I did indulge myself and may be went a little bit over my budget but it was completely worth it!



I couldn’t take a lot of pictures as they were giving me some weird looks at the stores and some of them acted like I was taking pictures of the gambling tables.


Now, remember that I’m still new to SR shaving so take these reviews with a pinch of salt as this is my personal and unexperienced point of view, and I’ll try to remember as many details as I can.


First of all, let me say that my SR equipment so far has been:
A Parker Shavette with disposable blades (Astra and Derby)
An Omega Boar brush
Crabtree and Evelyn Nomad soap.


My first stop was at The Art of Shaving, I had a very specific blade in mind - The black scales TI - which they had in stock and thanks to a gift card it came down to a very low price. They also had the TI with Stainless steel scales, Horn scales and two different Dovo Blades, both with wood scales.
The staff was friendly and they explained in detail every question I had. I also started sniffing around the shaving creams, I wanted to try the Ocean Kelp and the sandalwood scents. I actually didn’t liked them as much as I thought I would, or at least not as much as they are highly reviewed.
I ended up buying a small travel size tube of the Lavander shaving cream, I’m a big fan of Lavander but I didn’t want to buy the bigger size without taking it for a ride first.
I also played with some of their Badger brushes (Pure, fine and silvertip) and I have to say that my favourite was the Fine Badger. I compared it to the Jack Black Synthetic brush, it has a very nice blue and silver handle that feels solid and heavy in the hand; but, the actual bristles were better on the AOS, at least for me. I feel that the Fine Badger has the perfect balance between softness and scrubbiness and it definitely is a step-up from my boar bristle.


Than I went on walking and just looking around on different stores, both small and department stores.


Now, for the stores that many of you recommended…
I wasn’t sure if I wanted to go inside “The Apothecary” store at the Wynn, they’re the ones that sales Penhaligon’s products. I was kind of afraid because it’s in the Wynn and I thought that it was gonna be pricy… And oh boy, I was absolutely right! (may be I’m wrong but at $40 for a shaving cream tube it felt steep to me) but I can’t believe how much I don’t regret going in there.


The staff was amazing! very friendly and willing to talk and explain every single product in detail. Giving you samples and helping you testing and trying any products you want. I ended up with about four different samples of their colognes and even some for my wife.


They had a huge assortment of ladies creams and perfumes, but not as many on our side of things, you can see in the pictures what they had. (I’m not sure if there are any other scents of this brand, but compared to ladies perfumes the list was shorter)


That being said, they had every single product for each one of the scents, Shaving cream, shaving soap, Hand soap, Eau de Toilette, After shave splash, bath oil and even candles and room scent oils. I wasn’t thrilled with any of the smells right out of the box.


I have this trick that I use to get the smell out of any plastic bottle, I start by squeezing the tube lightly but at a fast rate, this helps to push out some air from the tube and helps the smell get out more consistently making it easier to perceive.


In this case I squeezed out a little bit too much and ended up with some shaving cream in my hand. This was the best thing that ever happened, as I was cleaning the cream off my hand I absolutely fell in love with the smell!
It took me back to a time when we used to go camping on a forest where there is this very specific type of wood which in spanish it’s called “Ocote” and it’s a type of pine tree which is used to help start a fire. It has a very high content of oils and a very strong scent. This Penhaligon’s scent is called Blenheim Bouquet.


I liked the scent so much that I ended up buying both the shaving cream as well as the after shave splash. Yes, they are expensive but it’s the first time I’ve bought any other soap other than Crabtree & Evelynn (at least in over a year or two) and I think I haven’t got this excited about a scent in years. I pampered myself. And the packaging is absolutely beautiful.


Sadly, I wasn’t able to go to the Treasure Island and look for the Trufetti & Hill Products and my guess is that my wallet is happy about that.
And for some reason “L’Occitane en Provence” store at the fashion mall had only lavender, lime and verbena scented stuff, they ran out of a lot of their other products.


Now, the cherry on the cake, I went to see Max for some Honning services on my new blade.
If you’ve read anything about him on the “Straight Razor Place forum” you’ll see people love him, and now I know why.
He is a gentleman, very detailed in his craft and you can tell he loves what he does as he does it with passion and care. Highly recommended if you’re ever in vegas needing some sharpening and even a custom SR.


And finally, at McCarran airport I found some very interesting vending machines, you have the usual ones, sodas, crackers, chips… now there’s a Best Buy one where you can buy electronics ranging from headphones to cameras. But there was this one that was the weirdest of all.
It’s called “3FLOZ” where they sell you all sorts of products in travel friendly sizes, from pain killers to hand creams, lip balms and emergency kits. I ended up buying a Jack Black super cushioning shaving cream which I’ve read some great reviews about, and it was less than10 bucks… so not to bad for that one. Let’s see how it will perform.


I haven’t been able to test all the stuff I got; so far I’ve tried the AOS Lavander cream and I was absolutely impressed. I had to lather it without a brush or a bowl so I wasn’t sure how good it was going to be, it felt sticky at first, I added some more water but it kept feeling the same way, not a foamy airy lather like I’m used to see with C&E, either way, after rubbing it in my hands I started putting it on my face and it did kind of improve at some point, but not too much, or so I thought.
The smell was subtle and nice, the performance however, was absolutely amazing. Even without a brush it performed leaps and bounds better than the C&E soap. The cream stayed in my face for the entire shave and it provided some very nice cushioning for the blade… oh, and that sticky feeling, completely gone, it was a delight. (for that day I used a dovo shavette with the long disposable blade)


The only other thing I’ve tried is the Captain’s Choice Bay Rum which many of you may already know and love and I have to say that this is not the scent I had in mind, too much clover for me at first. But as time went by the smell got lighter leaving a milder tone which I enjoyed more.


I’ll try to write a “beginner’s review” once I’ve tried all of the products, but for now this will have to do.


Thank you everyone for your recommendations and I hope this will help someone else.


Cheers.


E.

Well sir it sounds like you had a very successful, and lucky, trip

Every time I go abroad I look for quality shaving products and almost always go home empty handed. Though I must admit that my fair city has become more of a shaving boon than it was even a year ago.

It was a great trip indeed, although I think I got some severe acquisition disorder as I ended up with three different shaving creams, one soap and two after shave splashes...

I'm quite happy but I'll have to put some extra hours at work to compensate he he he