Today, I’ll be testing the Yates Winning razor. Well, I’ve been wanting to test Yates Razor for a very long time. I remember seeing it for the first time, like the Merica razor, many years back, and I thought, “This is a really cool razor.” Yeah, this is not the Merica razor, but yeah, I’ve been following Yates, and I’ve been looking—I mean, many people out there have been trying the Yates razors, and they swear by it. I’ve been looking forward to trying it, and yeah, good thing, now is the time. Now, this is a very beautiful piece of art, I would say. For those who don’t know, Yates uses CNC machines for their razors. You can get razors in brass, stainless steel, or titanium, you can get them polished as they come out of the machines, you can get them sandblasted, and you can even build your razor with whatever specs you want. That’s really cool! You can even get it engraved on the top cap. It’s a really cool thing! Also, if you like engineering products, machines, and shaving, you should give Jake and Ashley a follow on Instagram. They post really cool content and some backstage on making those beauties here. So, that’s really cool! 

One thing that I thought was interesting about this design is the head. So, the top cap, there’s this concavity, whereas, on the base plates it’s flat. So that allows you when you’re loading the blade or when you’re holding the cap, you can hold it with your fingers and hold it tight. Also, you can hold the blade, actually. And when you put the base plate, there’s no blade overhang, which is good when loading and unloading the razor. I like to feel the blade. So, for those who don’t like blade overhang, this one doesn’t have it. 

So, today is going to be my first shave and impressions with this razor. I was reading this should be a blade-neutral exposure, and the gap is 0.016 of an inch, and in millimeters, it’s 0.4 mm. So, when you read these specs, maybe you would say it’s like a mild razor. But they also say on their website, “Well, don’t get distracted with this. It is still a very efficient razor,” and that’s what we’re going to put to the test today. You can see on my neck area and also on my cheeks, I’ve got a lot of stubble to go through, so let’s see how it goes. 

But it’s heavy, it’s robust, solid. Yeah, obviously, it’s CNC machined. Very nice, beautiful-looking razor, and interesting. I’m very intrigued with the razor. Today’s shave is going to be with the Olympus soap, I got some samples actually from the soap, the splash, the aftershave balm, and the perfume. It’s at night, I’m actually going to bed, so I’m not going to use perfume. I’m going to go with soap and balm. And since the soap, you know, like it’s the sample size, I cannot load my brush here. I’m just going to put a little bit of soap on my Yaki bowl, a plastic bowl to load the brush, and then face lather. 

The blade I’m going to be using is the Persona. Well, just like the Merica and other razors from Yates, they have also this magnet on the bottom. So yeah, that’s the Persona Platinum. These are made in Germany, really good blades. I like them very much. I use them a lot, so I know what to expect. And by the end of the shave, I’m going to be using on my beard the Taconic Excalibur beard oil. So that’s going to be today’s shave. As always, just go for the shave and in the end, go with my impressions. 

So that was today’s shave. Just a recap: we went with the winning razor from Yates Precision, paired up with the Persona Platinum made in Germany. The soap and the aftershave balm were Aion Soap Olympus. And because it was a sample-sized tub, I just loaded my brush on this Yaki plastic bowl, and I finished off with the tonic beard oil Excalibur. So that was a phenomenal shave, I admit. Amazing, amazing shave. 

Well, I like the Persona a lot. I know what to expect. One of my favorite blades, it’s easily on my top five. As for the soap, amazing one. Amazing shave. Slick, protective, great cushion, nice glide, and creamy. The lather was very creamy. It exploded even while loading the brush with very little water. It just became a very thick, dense, creamy lather. Really easy to lather up and has amazing protection, post post-shave feel is moisturizing. Like this hydration feels, really, really good. It’s not on purpose that I voted for Elysian as the soap maker of the year on the Retro Wet Shaving Podcast 2023. If you haven’t listened to it yet, just go to your favorite podcast app, you know, Spotify or whatever. It’s there on your favorite podcast distributor. So, I’ll also, of course, leave the link below. If you are interested, amazing soap. The balm is also extremely moisturizing, absorbs quickly, and leaves very moisturized skin, but it doesn’t get your skin oily, or greasy. It has a very nice touch, good feeling, good sensation, and amazing; amazing products from Elysian. 

So, going for the razor. Amazing one. I’m really, really surprised. You might have seen on my first pass — I mean, there was a lot of hair to go through, and it took almost everything on my first pass, and I didn’t expect that. I don’t expect that on my razors to go through all the hair on my first pass. Of course, it left a little bit behind, but I mean, it was unbelievable, the amount of hair that it took off already on the first pass. It’s extremely intuitive with this head design to find the right angle, to know when cutting. It’s heavy, so you know, just let the weight of the razor do the job, and easy to use. I really like the horizontal knurlings that you don’t see very often, and these horizontal knurlings help a lot with the grip. The grip is, you know, it’s a deep grip if I can say that. This knurling is really deep so you can really hold the razor with comfort. The size of the razor, I think it’s just perfect. I do like even a shorter handle, but I mean, to this one, I think it matched nicely, and yeah, the size, is very comfortable to use on your hand and very easy to maneuver on your face. 

And yes, I actually admit I’m not the type of guy that goes through the specs and reads like the blade gap, that exposure, whether or not positive, negative, or neutral. I only get the razor, I test it, and there it goes. And yeah, I’m really surprised with this one. Super comfortable, extremely comfortable. I would definitely say it is mildly comfortable in a way

I would say the aggressiveness is medium, medium to mild towards mild. It’s not super aggressive at all, it’s super comfortable but super effective. You know, you feel the blade just a tiny bit, but incredibly smooth and a great shaver. I also liked very much the audible feedback. Interesting, very good use. I could feel it was cutting, I could see it was cutting, I could hear it was cutting, but yet very, very comfortable and very nice piece of razor. It’s CNC-machined stainless steel. You can also get it in brass, you can get in titanium, you can get your razors customized, you can get it sandblasted, or polished, you choose it. 

I’m thrilled that I finally got to test this razor. Thank you very much, Jake, for sending me this over. And if you’re considering getting one of these razors, make sure to add the coupon code BT5 on your way out at checkout so that you get 5% off. I’ll also get a share, and you’ll be helping the channel, and I think it’s a good win-win situation. So if you’re looking for your Yates razor discount, just make sure to hit that coupon code. I definitely recommend it. I think you should give it a try. Also, for the price, I think it’s 75 bucks, this winning razor stainless steel in this configuration, for this quality razor, I think the price is phenomenal. You see many other stainless steel razors for much more out there. This one is absolutely worth it. And yeah, why not? You should give it a try. So that was all I wanted to say in today’s video. Let me know what you’d like to see next in the video comments. Do you have any Yates razors? What’s your favorite razor? Let me know, and I’ll see you next time. Thank you.

Yates Precision: https://yatesprecision.com/
Save 5% using CODE: BT5

Elysian Soaps: https://www.elysiansoapshop.com/

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