A paint brush does not perform as a shaving brush.
I'm waiting on some shaving equipment to arrive by mail still, but I did receive my tube of Proraso cream from Amazon. Since I've gotten my pre-shave cream (Udderly Smooth) and my home-made aftershave (witch hazel base), while not being ready yet is already fragrant and effective, I wanted to give the Proraso a try with my gillette fusion. I thought the Udderly Smooth was a bit too floral smelling when I put my nose in the jar, but its much lighter when actually applying it.
Lacking a brush I tried lathering up on my face with my fingers. That didn't work out so good, seemed resistant to spreading out very much that way. Failing that, I tried to think of what else I could use. Ding! Went out to my garage and found a 1 inch paint brush, gave that a go. Lol, tinted the shaving cream orange due to the not so good rinse job I did on it after using it last time I suppose, and while it seemed to work much better than my fingers if I pressed my fingers into the bristles to splay them out, it ultimately failed to generate substantial lather. Bristles were very stiff and not comfortable. I abandoned the notion of trying to lather my scalp and just decided to shave my face.
I'll tell you what, I didn't expect the Proraso to gunk up my razor as much as it did. Definitely need a brush to lather it up right, and either a DE or a Straight to properly remove it from the face. Either way, was a fun experiment. :) I'm not entirely thrilled by the scent of the cream, but I'm not turned off by it either. I found that aftershave pretty much banished any scent it left behind. The cool feeling is definitely nice.
