DozenWinks Shave Box

It's back to shaving again, and this time I'm going to be talking and giving my thoughts on DozenWinks Shave Box, a mail order shaving box designed in the hope of bringing back the ritual of traditional British shaving, shaving with a proper razor blade. In the past I've tried the disposable razor box available from Cornerstone (which has an amazing face scrub) and The Real Shaving Company (that seems to have ceased trading) so the opportunity to have a crack at a new box was most welcome, after all, they usually contain everything you need to make shaving as simple and painless as possible.

Dozenwinks allows you the consumer to decide on how often you receive a box. At £29.99 you can decide on whether you receive a new box dependent upon how often you have to manage your mane. Personally as I treat shaving like a chore I would probably need a new box every 12 weeks. 

So what do you get for your cash? Well, the first box comes with a free safety razor and brush, but also inside the box you'll find enough razor blades to keep a prison in shivs for a good year, pre-shave soap, shaving cream and allum sticks should you, like me always nick some part of your face.

Double Edge Safety Razor

The double edged safety razor takes any double edges razor blades, and when you look at the cost of the blades it works out at a fraction of the cost of using disposables. It's a piece of cake to insert and remove the blade and despite having a chunky metal look and feel, it' actually as light as a feather which means that I can sweep across my bearded face removing fuzz effortlessly. 

I've been using a safety razor now for over a year and I have to say I'm impressed with the grip, the fact that it's typically about 80% cheaper than standard cartridges and haven't had one in-grown hair or outbreak of razor burn. 

Razor blades & Matchsticks

My box came with three packs of razor blades, so probably enough to keep me covered for about nine months! They are sharp (er, razor sharp). One gentle swipe across the face and my beard is removed, there is no having to go back over the same spot a few times to get rid of thick hairs as is often the problem for me when using cartridges. It's a personal opinion but I really do prefer the feel of my face after shaving using a safety razor when compared to disposables, there is little to zero stubble, the blades do take your beard back down to the wood.

Shaving Brush

The shaving brush is crafted using a wooden handle paired with high quality bristles to ensure a thick lather. Amongst all other bristle types, this shaving brush will be the kindest to your skin, all the while guaranteeing a smooth and luxurious shave every single day. That's what they say and I agree. I have about ten shaving brushes at home (I think I may be turning into a hoarder) and this sits up there with some pretty expensive contemporaries - the best thing? The bristles don't fall out as you dip it into the shaving cream and spread the lather across your face. It's a gripe I have with brushes, having to pull bristles off your face before you start shaving and thankfully I don't have this problem with the brush in my box.

Shaving cream

In my box came a big tub of sandalwood shaving cream from Taylor of Old Bond Street. I've used their coconut shave cream before and I loved it and again, this stuff is top notch, with one of the manliest fragrances, enough lather to sink a battleship and something of a moisturising effect this stuff lasts and last and lasts.

Pre-Shave Soap
Each shaving kit comes with a premium quality pre-shave soap which will last you the entire time, probably even longer! The one that came with my box did as promised have a strong scent of pine tar (OMG I love that smell). The soap does cleanse skin and help to unblock pores before shaving. I like it, it's not a good as using the volcanic ash based offering from Cornerstone but it's pretty damn close.

Want a shave box that gives you everything you need for a super close shave, with blades that make removing fuzz from your face as easy as 1, 2, 3 then you really should take a closer look at what Dozenwinks can do for you. With options to suit all and a price that won't break the bank (unlike purchasing disposable blades) this box will drop through your door at a time to suit you. Unlike Virgin Media, if you want to cancel your subscription you can do really easily which makes this a great little venture for us the consumer. Well worth a punt. It's a personal thing but given the results after using this box I'm inclined to stick with a safety razor now as shaving is so much easier. Now if you could get some of that volcanic ash face scrub in there I would be incredibly happy.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

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Clarins Men Rasage Ideal Smooth Shave

Shaving is the bane of my life, I‘m not constantly craving that lumbersexual look and to be honest shaving ranks as one of the largest thorns in my side when it comes to attempting to make my face look respectable. Sometimes I can go weeks without shaving until the resulting beard starts to itch - at that point out comes the razor, and to avoid a shaving rash out come lots of products to choose and use (look how I made that rhyme….). 

Today I will be giving my thoughts on Clarins Men Rasage Ideal Smooth Shave, something that came in my Selfridges&Co male grooming box back in June. Yes, it has been sat around that long!

To put it quite simply (as I’m a simple kind of guy), I have been using a whole host of shaving gels and creams over the years as a kind of bathroom pre-emptive strike against the botchy red rash on my neck that I used to get when shaving.  

Taylor of Old Bond Street Coconut Luxury Shaving Cream, Erasmic Lather Shave Cream and Gillette Fusion Proglide Shaving Gel are all favourites that have helped put pay to that rash in the past but fancying a change I decided to try out Clarins. 

A foaming gel, ISS as it shall now be referred to (not ISIS) has a lovely fragrance, clean and fresh as you would expect but it is highly perfumed, almost floral. I love it, its much better than the synthetic fragrances you can get with other shave products.

Even though this is supposed to be a gel when you dispense it is comes out in a combination of gel and foam form and this is where it starts to go down hill. Quite a lot of the gel is needed to cover my face - yes, it may be a large face but it felt like I had used nearly half of the 50ml can. That wasn’t a particularly pleasing development but worse was to come…. 

The lather, if you can call it that is watery and runny, not rich at all and a bloody nightmare - as soon as it was on my face the lather started to deteriorate immediately, soaking in way too much to the point that I couldn‘t tell where I had applied it to my face. You would think that this would make shavng easy and the build up on the razor less - WRONG. 

Even with short stubble the gel/lather mix (whatever you want to call it) acts like a natural barrier between the blades of the razor which meant vigorous cleaning in between strokes down my face. It took twice as long to shave and time shaving is not my idea of fun.

My skin felt hydrated in fairness to ISS, but have soft and smooth cheeks does not forgive the fact that an hour after shaving the dreaded red blotches started, and the stayed for two hours. Nothing would clam it down. 

I won’t be finishing the can…..

NOT RECOMMENDED

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Regal Gentleman - Taylor of Old Bond Street Coconut Luxury Shaving Cream

For the last couple of months my face has been rocking either stubble or a full blown beard. Not because I’m a trendy hipster, no, its because I hate shaving and am generally the most lazy person you will ever find….EVER (that‘s a guarantee folks).

When approached by any shaving people I always jump at the chance to try new things and regularly seek out new products to try. When Regal Gentlemen asked me to try a new product they were stocking I jumped at the chance to compare Erasmic with Taylor of Old Bond Street Coconut Luxury Shaving Cream. 

I hate shaving - it’s a pain, I slash my face and I get irritation after I’ve finished. I found solace in Erasmic Lather Shave Cream and loved using the old style shaving brush. In a previous post I mentioned that I had a weird flashback to my youth when I first used the brush, and being lazy (as mentioned above) I have copied this from a previous post (so sue me):

‘My late grandfather would always shave using one, normally at the kitchen sink so he could gain easy access to the rear garden (yard for my American readers - so thoughtful) to terrorise any passing squirrels with the nuts (and I don’t mean literally) to pass through.

I can see him now hunched over the sink in his trousers, white vest and shaving kit. It always seemed to take hours!’

This is only the second shaving cream product I have ever tried that involves using a brush and deciding yourself how thick you want the lather. 

I received a 150g tub of the Coconut Luxury Shaving Cream from Regal Gentlemen about five weeks ago when I had a five o'clock shadow, by the time I managed to open it I had whiskers like Captain Birdseye*. I struggled so much to get the lid off I would try three times a day, sit and ponder new approaches and tactics. In the end there were direct messages on Twitter to see if I was doing something wrong when trying to unscrew a lid. Two more weeks passed and I had a brainwave (can you still say that in a politically correct world?!?) I would use power tools…….

I’m joking, I used a knife to pry the lid up a bit and it opened a dream. Opening this tested my sanity and I know its probably all my own fault.

After the laps of my flat in joy and I’d finished high fiving all of my cats (even if they didn’t want to) I set to work. Removing the plastic protector for the cream I thought I had been sent a lemon. It wasn’t a cream but it looked fairly solid to me. It then dawned on me that it needed wetting.

All joking aside, as soon as the protector was removed my nostrils filled with a lovely, fresh coconut - it was so present yet subtle on the nose so evident but not overpowering. After wetting and dabbing the brush in the aroma only intensified, for the better. I’m not a fan of coconut - the body butter knocks me sick, and I only just got over my entire coconut hatred with Dirty Works Coconut Body Scrub.

I love the smell of this - there, boom, in six rather than 500 words.

This lathers up brilliantly - a wet brush dabbed and run around the rim of the tub once resulted in my massive face being covered in a lovely smelling thick, rich lather. Happy days as they say.

I left it for a few minutes to soak in as I hadn’t used anything to soften my beard and hacked away with the razor (after I had trimmed it down to the bone using a beard trimmer). The shave was smooth, the lather didn’t block the blades that much but the best was yet to come.

After I had finished shaving and washed my face off their was a noticeable coconut fragrance following me around for a good few hours. After an hour usually I have a rash or some burning - I had none, and in fact instead of a red rash I had silky soft skin to the touch.

Thinking the coconut smell would alter my aftershave I was surprised, it didn’t. It instantly faded away so thankfully no deep wood infused with coconut poisoning the people around me.

This does the job brilliantly, costs £8.95 for 150g and will last me probably six months if I have shave daily (which I won’t).

An amazing quality product that will give you value for money. 

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

*This is Captain Birdseye for those who haven't experienced their brand of 'fresh' fish....

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