When I started wet shaving, I bought a "starter kit" from AoS. It had the basics and after reading many reviews I figured it was a decent place to start. I currently use DE for budget reasons but I want to move onto SR soon. The past several months have been good with AoS.

As I have read many posts on this forum, I got confirmation of what I had suspected: that there are many other brands to use and I need to try others to find what really works for me. Because of a tight budget (two boys in scouts as an example) I have not been able to explore as much as I would like. It also does not help that there are no other stores here in the area (KC Metro) that I have discovered that sell quality shaving products; other than AoS stores.

I had started to notice that my AoS is a little thick as I tried to whip up a lather. Learning comes in small steps with me. I tried different "methods" with no real luck. And I started to think that this was just the way AoS is.

For Christmas my wife bought me a bowl of ToBS, it was on my "wish list" with an online vendor. I have been using it for the past couple of weeks and discovered that it has a much more "aerated" lather. More air and water and "less" cream but still a very nice lubrication. Again more confirmation that different products act differently.

Today I was in a hurry and I grabbed my AoS, it was closer. I put my normal dollop into my bowl. The light bulb finally went off above my head. I used a bit more water as I whipped up my later. Suddenly I thought I was looking at my ToBS. It was "light" and "airy". It still worked like AoS but I am finally able to do a better comparison between the two. I suspect that ToBS will become my regular and AoS my backup, at least until I can discover my next product.

Thanks for letting me ramble on.