Geoffrey,

It seems like you are the second person who has posted lately about having problems with dry skin since switching to a straight. If you are wanting to find a solution to this, it would be helpful if you told us a little bit more about your shaving routine since using your straight. Are you using any kind of moisturizer after you shave? How about an Aftershave? Is your skin naturally oily or does it have a tendency to be dry?

Now for my personal opinion. First off, in your first post on this thread you said in reference to the Lush cream. "Never gave me a close shave but certainly my skin felt nice after". I imagine it did. That stuff looks more like a face lotion than anything else. If you have been using that for some time you probably dont realize it basically eliminated the need to re-hydrate your skin after shaving. Shaving isn't so easy on our face after all. Using something to sooth and replenish our skin surface is very important, so if you haven't been doing that since using your soap and brush I'm sure that is the reason your face has been dry. Take the time to find a good after shave product and see how it goes for awhile. Perhaps your skin is reacting to the soap you are using as well.

I dont see a problem with that stuff from Lush. In fact it looks like it has some pretty nice ingredients. I dont see why it would be hard on your razor in any way either.

I'm no expert, but that's my two cents.

Matthew