Face & Co

Last weekend I bought some shave stuff on eBay. No, that's not quite true. I bought one thing on eBay – a Boker Black Shavette, paid for it and waited for it to arrive. About two days later, I got a phone call from Stuart at Face & Co, apologising profusely as they were out of stock of the black-handled Boker and so delivery was going to be delayed. Then he promised to put in a few extra things into the package by way of apology for the delay, I said he really didn't need to but thank you and then we said our goodbyes.

You can imagine the look on my delighted face when the delivery finally* arrived and I opened the well-packed box** to find these:

Let's go through them. Shall we? This way, please.

Boker Black Shavette

This is what I was waiting for.

Well hot diggedy-dog. I love the Olivewood version but there's something overwhelmingly elegant and sexy, or sexily elegant, I suppose, about this one. It's the black handle. It looks like the sort of thing James Bond might shave with, if he wasn't already shaving with an actual straight razor (the first of two references to James Bond there. See if you can spot the next one). It seemed only right, proper and sporting to welcome the black-handled one into my home too. So I did and I'm happy to say it's settled in nicely and has its feet, methaphorically up on the table and is making itself very much at home.

St James of London Black Pepper & Lime Post-shave Gel

Oh crikey. I'm looking forward to trying this. Apart from the scent, I like the bottle, which has a a nice bit of weight*** to it. And the box that the bottle comes in has a bit of entertaining blurb on the back.****

I love the bit about going out and facing my next adventure. It makes me feel all rugged, like Russell Crowe or Daniel Craig. Which I suppose is the idea.

Virgilio Valobra – Crema di Sapone Purissima (Almond)

I'd never heard of this shaving soap until I opened the box, so I can't pretend to know anything at all about Virgilio Valobra. Although his name is sort of familiar. Oh, no, wait. No. Hang on a second. Wasn't he the Italian gentleman who set up a soap manufacturing laboratory in Genoa, Italy, almost a century ago? Yes, of course. It's all starting to come back now. And wasn't it his priority to adhere strictly to the formulas and methods of the master soap manufacturers of the 18th century; the master soap makers that had made the Riviera between Portofino and Marseille an area reknowned for the finest quality soaps in the world?*****

Thank you very much, Face & Co. For what amounted to just a few days' delay as opposed to the oceans of time****** that were implied I'd have to cross before I ever saw the black-handled Boker, you went way above and beyond the expected. First-class customer service all round*******. I'm looking forward to trying all of this stuff out in the weeks to come. Although we're about to get a new bathroom, which will include a nice wall-mounted, mirrored cabinet above the sink for my ever-growing razor collection, so I'm going to have to fit shaves in around the builders. But I'm looking forward to taking you all on a tour of my shave den******** in a few weeks' time.

* My use of the word 'finally' here makes it sound like I had to wait for weeks on end. I didn't, clearly, as I referred to placing the order last weekend right at the top of the page. Come on, lads. Keep up.

** I do like a well-packed box, it has to be said. I've just made that sound like some sort of smutty, Frankie Howerd-style innuendo. But I do genuinely like it when you receive a parcel in the post and you can see that the sender has taken a bit of time and care to make sure your goods arrive safely.

*** I do like a nicely-weighted bottle.

**** I do like a box with a bit of entertaining blurb on the back.

***** There's no way, absolutely no way whatsoever, that I got this information from the Italian Barber website. No way at all.

****** A reference to Gary Oldman's disturbing portrayal of that horrible count - Dracula - in Bram Stoker's Dracula, which also featured an equally-horrible English accent from Keanu Reeves.

******* I do like a nice bit of first-class customer service.

******** By 'shave den' I mean the wall-mounted, mirrored cabinet I referred to in the previous sentence. So I'll actually be taking you on a tour of a bathroom cabinet. Strap yourselves in, folks. It's going to be a wild ride.

#wetshaving #Faceandco #shaving #DEsafetyrazor