Shave Right, Feel Brilliant

Kerry Burrows, spokesman, chief soap maker and scent maker for Phoenix and Beau of Hitchin, Hertfordhsire, wants us to reject the expense and predictably inferior results from 'fast shaving' and return to traditional wet shaving — to 'shave right, feel brilliant'.

Stalwart enthusiasm

I think we've already done the rejecting, right gents? I suspect most readers of The Tweed Pig are enthusiastic wet shavers. Phoenix and Beau produce small batches of highly-commended traditional wet shaving products by hand with which we can gratify our stalwart enthusiasm.

Plus Ultra

An Anglophile Spanish reader of The Tweed Pig swears by Phoenix and Beau's Spitfire Shaving Soap. So much so he enthusiastically sent me the photo below. He uses the soap in his grooming rotations — we all have them — and he believes the soap is 'wonderful in design and performance'. I can see it going down a storm in the grooming salons of the sophisticated cities of our beloved Spain. Plus Ultra, mis amigos.

Spitfire is a tallow soap made with essential and fragrant oils using the 'hot process technique'. The soap is decanted into moulds and cured for eight weeks. Spitfire has a scent of juniper, bergamot and cedarwood on a base of leather and tobacco.

Phoenix and Beau's modus operandi is to freshly blend scents by hand when they are making their small batches of soap. The same hands-on approach is given to their other handmade, human-scale products.

A Kickstarter campaign introduces more 'simple, honest, British' grooming items like the black and antique gold shaving bowl and shaving brush in the top photo, made in conjunction with potter Ross Giles and brush maker Mervyn Cadman.

Exciting times for Phoenix and Beau. Enticing times for us, gents.