OMEGA Alum Stick
A few weeks back I decided to give the ME1 butterfly razor from Men Essential another try. Obviously, with a different blade than the Rockwell’s it came with. The blade for this test was a Derby.
Test Stage:
- Razor: Men Essential’s ME1
- Blade: Derby
- Pre-Shave: Proraso white
- Shaving Foam: Vichy
- Fixer: Omega Alum Stick
The goal of this test was to see if my first bad experiences with this razor and blades combination could be isolated or blamed on a specific element. This time, I used a blade I have had consistently good results with, the Derby premium.
The stage was set and I started to shave. After a few passes, I was starting to think that maybe I had been too quick to make a bad judgement on this razor. But no. By the time I was done, I realized that I have about 5 big nicks. Of course, you don’t feel this when shaving and are thus not aware of the problems as they happen. It also pointed to the razor being the culprit of my previous bad experiences.
This led me to another test all together. What to do when you do have cuts and nicks? While doing some research on razors, I came across an old school solution; Alum. The pitch is that you would wet the alum stone and rub it on a cut to stop the bleeding. Sounds a whole lot simpler and more appealing than the tissue solution. During my last visit at La Botega Nicastro’s a few days before, I had picked one of these up for $5. Being in need of such a solution at that exact moment, it was clearly time to try the Alum stick. I wet the stick and gently rubbed it on my nicks. The first contact is unpleasant as this stings. Think of the sensation of applying rubbing alcohol on a cut. That being said, the shock is extremely brief and it does reduce/stop the bleeding.
Packaging wise, the fact that the stick comes in a plastic sleeve is very convenient as it resolved the storage of this item. You won’t need to get some sort of a dish to put it in while it dries between usages.
There is little more to say than it did what the sales pitch said it would do. Considering the initial shock sensation, I don’t think that this is really a winner solution, specially when compared to the Proraso fixer, but it is an acceptable solution nevertheless. Not knowing that I would find the Alum stick so easily, I had also ordered an OSMA branded one from Amazon for a bit more than the $5 I paid at La Botega. Just out of pure curiosity, I will try that one in the coming days to see how the OSMA compares to the the Omega Stick.
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