Category Archives: Life

Bluebeards Revenge Shaving Cream

Life

Bluebeards Revenge Luxury Shaving CreamDuring February, Stephen mentioned to me that Schick had a promotion in facebook where they would send you one of their latest razors if you liked them. After receiving their latest Schick Hydro 5, I wrote that I thought it was the best mens razor that I’d ever used.

Shortly after that, Sam from Shave Shack got in contact with me and asked if I’d review their latest arrival – a luxury shaving cream from the United Kingdom named Bluebeards Revenge. I was really excited to hear from Sam, he is a local Gold Coast small business owner and his shaving shop sells boutique, luxury shaving products that the major players ignore – which I think is great.

The first thing that I noticed about Bluebeards Revenge was the kick arse box that it came in. Instead of some puncy pretty boy container, Bluebeards Revenge comes in a simple blue cardboard box with their signature skull & crossbones stamped on the lid. Around the box, instead of the typical ‘you should use us because we are the best’ – they instead inform their prospective clients that it is a shaving cream for real men and that wimps need not apply.

Unboxing the Bluebeards Revenge reveals a clear plastic container with a metal lid, to give it that nice solid manly feeling. The shaving cream has a great fragrance and looks silky & luscious in the container.

It only takes two finger fulls of Bluebeards Revenge shaving cream to lather up in your hands to cover your face. I’ve seen other people use it with a shaving brush & shaving bowl and only use an almond sized amount to produce a beautifully thick shaving lather – so I might need to invest on some of those to experience it to its fullest effect.

Once applied, the shaving cream provides nice protection for your face and my Schick Hydro 5 that I was provided via facebook works with it really well. I’ve noticed that I’m getting very little shaving rash with the new razor and Bluebeards Revenge which is great and it produces a very clean shave. One thing I really like about it is that once you’ve run the razor over your face once, you can put a small amount of water into your hands and re-lather your face to tidy up any bits that you missed in pass one.

After you’ve finished shaving with Bluebeards Revenge, it washes off your face easily with a little water. I particularly liked that it doesn’t leave any residue on your skin either, comes off cleanly and your face feels smooth, clean & refreshed. I haven’t been using it long enough to notice it just yet but it also contains Decelerine, which is meant to slow down beard growth as well – handy if you’re particularly hairy.

Overall I think the Bluebeards Revenge Shaving Cream is a great product. I love that it has attitude and isn’t another sterile product that you’re so accustomed to in the supermarkets. I like the scent, it goes on well, assists with a really clean shave and doesn’t leave a mess.

Now I just need to sort out a badger hair shaving brush & a shaving bowl!

Best Men’s Razor

Hardware, Life

Schick RazorsA couple weeks ago, Stephen mentioned to me at work that Schick had a promotion running in facebook in which you’d receive a free Schick Hydro 5 – the latest Schick men’s non-disposable shaving razor, just for liking the Schick for Men Australia facebook page.

Like most males, I’ve tried a whole swag of different razors from cheap disposable razors, various Gillette, Schick and electric razors. For my skin, I find that a razor gives me less irritation then an electric razor and for quite some time now I’ve settled on the Schick Quattro Titanium as my razor of choice. It is sharp, a nice flexible head and it gives a close shave.

After trying the new Schick Hyrdo 5 razor, I’ve now found a replacement and my new favourite razor. While the head of the razor feels a little bigger than the Quattro Titanium, the razor glides through stubble and over your skin. I was particularly impressed with the closeness of the first pass as well, it was nearly completely smooth and I had even less irritation than I normally would with the Quattro Titanium.

Schick are suggesting that the new Schick Hyrdo 5 is the best shave for your skin and I whole heartedly agree. I really do think it is the best men’s razor I’ve ever used, certainly for my skin. If you do use a razor, I’d recommend you pick on up next time – if for no other reason than to see what the latest shaving innovation is – it might surprise you!

Suncorp Bank Anti-Fraud Department Saved Me $686.73

Internet, Life

For the first time in ten years, I’ve been a victim of credit card fraud to the tune of $686.73!

I first became aware of it this morning when I received a phone call at work from Suncorp informing me that they suspected that there was fraudulent credit card transactions on my account. That was after they called home & left a message because Claire couldn’t answer the phone and then followed that up with a call to my mobile but I was driving to work. You’ve got to appreciate their persistence to call three different numbers trying to get a hold of me.

I don’t keep an eagle eye on my bank account, so I probably wouldn’t have noticed that transaction sitting on my credit card for a week or more but the Suncorp credit card protection system picked it up the day after it happened, which I think is great.

The Suncorp representative that called me at work gave me the run down on what had happened, also said they’d tried several other transactions as well but they were declined for some reason. They immediately set about cancelling my credit card and lodged a dispute about the charge for me.

Claire checked back through out past transactions to make sure nothing else was on there and it doesn’t appear as though there were. I called Suncorp back to check about what will happen next and was given case numbers for the cancellation & the transaction dispute to follow up on if required.

I’ve been really impressed with Suncorp customer service of late, like for instance sending me warning emails about large money transfers automatically. Now I’ve had them tell me about a fraudulent charge on my credit card and it’ll be resolved within the next few days and my replacement credit card will arrive mid next week.

Great to see them going out of their way to keep a customer informed about their money.

How To Kill Paper Wasps

Humour, Life

Over the last couple of years, I’ve had several encounters with paper wasps and had varying levels of success in attempting to kill paper wasps as well.

In the last couple of weeks, there have been four different sets of paper wasp nests forming around the house. Two of the four were in really inconvenient places, such as above the back sliding door near the laundry and in the joint of our clothes line.

On the weekend, it seems like as good a time as any to try my hand at killing the paper wasps again. Last time I attempted it, I was armed with a can of Mortein and I can assure you, when I sprayed their nests – they were very unhappy.

Wanting to see if I could one up the paper wasps this time, I was armed with a can of Baygon Surface Spray and WK-40. You’re probably wondering what WK-40 is; well it is your garden variety WD-40, the spray lubricant with a thousand uses with an awesome new label provided by Andrew for my 27th birthday. The WK-40 was the key in avoiding getting bitten this time, as with the thin nozzle connected you can spray a tight stream of WK-40 for over 2 metres – great for distancing yourself from angry as hell paper wasps!

With a can in either hand & feeling a little like Peter Venkman from Ghostbusters, I walked up as close to their nests as I dared and coated them & promptly ran away as the wasps swarmed the area looking for something to string! As it turns out, WK-40 and Baygon Surface Spray is a lethal concoction with great knockdown power.

In each of the four paper wasp nests, I came out on top without getting bitten once. I’m sure WD-40 didn’t have killing paper wasps on their list of 1000+ things that their fantastic lubricant is good for!

30th Birthday

Family, Life

Like sands through the hour glass, err what was I thinking – I’m now officially 30!

The day kicked off by Claire, Hugo & Evie waking me up – which is always good fun. Hugo enjoys waking me up in the morning I think, he knows how to say ‘wake up’ and knows that if my eyes are shut that he should say it and I get a big smile from him when he succeeds and I open my eyes.

Claire loves presents and can’t wait & I obliged when she whipped out a couple of presents and sat them on the bed. Of course, at this stage I’m still bleary eyed and have the cognitive capacity of a well fed gnat but lets not get into that! I was completely spoiled for gifts and received:

  • Two new Nintendo Wii games
  • Season 3 and Season 4 of Heroes
  • Gift voucher to go tandem parasailing!
  • Samsung 40″ Full HD 100Hz LCD television

The new LCD TV in the list was my ‘big’ present this year and it was absolutely worth it. I can’t believe we’ve, and I’ll use this word loosely, suffered with an old 45cm CRT television we’ve had for at least the last six years but probably closer to eight! You don’t realise how poor something is until you replace it and then get the ‘wow’ kind of moment. We’ve now had that and I’m definitely never going back!

After presents were dealt with, standard morning things ensued. For breakfast, Hugo and I popped out to the local McDonald’s get to get some pancakes – which he loves.

As a bit of a tradition, we’d normally head to Hogs Breath for lunch however this year we decided to break that tradition as the traffic to get into Sea World or Marina Mirage is typically bonkers at this time of year due to school holidays, which was going to be compounded by today being the first sunny day in quite a while.

In lieu of Hogs Breath for lunch, we grabbed a couple of sausage rolls from Brumbies – which are always delicious. The remainder of the morning and lunch were spent organising for the afternoon when we were having a few family over for afternoon tea and an early dinner.

Everyone arrived nearly at the same time which was fantastic, so we ended up with:

  • Sterle, Lorraine & Jean
  • Anita & Lucy
  • Andrew, Belinda & Ben
  • George & Jude

Hugo and Ben spent quite a bit of time playing in a new outdoor water toy that Hugo received for Christmas. Water went everywhere, they both got wet & had a great time doing it. We snacked on a variety of things for afternoon tea, ate a little pizza for an early dinner and attempted to put a dint in a completely evil chocolate cake from the Cheese Cake Shop – I failed miserably!

I’d just like to thank everyone for driving up this afternoon, it works out to be nearly a neat hours drive for everyone. Its great to be with family and friends on your birthday and it means a lot of me to have you all here, especially since my birthday falls on the back of Christmas festivities & madness.

Next up, 31 – look out!