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Grooming Department: Absinthe & Leather

GearNoir

“The Disney Princess’s Apprentice”
Today is my designated SR/shavette only day, but it was a treat!

Today soap was Grooming Department Absinthe and Leather! Mohammed from GD was kind enough to send some very generous sample portions of 5 of their soaps and this was one.

Official profile:



Absinthe & Leather - Beef tallow. Scent notes: Cardamom, Absinthe, Leather, Cade, Opopanax, Castoreum.

Ingredients: Stearic Acid, Water, Beef Tallow, Kokum Butter, Potassium Hydroxide, Castor Oil, Shea Butter, Cupuacu Butter, Glycerin, Goat Milk, Sucrose Cocoate, Fragrance, Safflower Oil, Jojoba Oil, Meadowfoam Oil, Babassu Oil, Abyssinian Oil, Pomegranate Oil, Grapeseed Oil, Carnauba Wax, Hydrolyzed Oat Protein, Acacia Senegal Gum, Sodium Hydroxide, Sunflower Lecithin, Xanthan Gum, Allantoin, Chamomile Extract, Sea Buckthorn Extract, Sacha Inchi Extract, Grape Seed Extract, Kaolin Clay, Silk Peptides, Sodium Lactate, Sodium Citrate.

This was my first use of this product, so these are merely initial thoughts based on one use. When you open the packaging (I thought it was quite ironic that it is a beef tallow product and came wrapped up like a cut of butchered meat) the scent is quite pungent. The leather scent was most noticeable to me right away, with underlying hints of other things that were hard to nail down. I’d never used anything with a scen
t profile similar to this, so it was all quite new.

The soap is a semi-soft soap, but not a croap, in a rough “chunk”. Just handling the product on bare skin, I could already tell this soap was primed for slickness! I transferred it to a square of plastic wrap and misled it a bit into my ramekin that I use for “bowl” lathering when needed.

I did my normal brush load, RR Big Bruce synth lightly wetted, loaded one the chunks for 30ish seconds. Then re-wet my face and the face lather was on! The scent immediately began to enrich and deepen, oh what luxury! If you are a leather scent lover, check this out! There was also a subtle “pop” of another overarching scent that sidled along with the leather, it was almost menthol-y (there is no menthol in this soap), but deeper and, well, not menthol. I assume this must be the cardamom/absinthe combo?

The lather was rich and slick, very easy to build up nicely. The Feather AC SS seemed to just have a little extra glide from it today. The soap was a little thirsty for me (not a bad or good thing), but a little soap seemed to go a long way. The residual slickness and post shave feel was great. I fully enjoyed my “lather soak” while cleaning up my gear. Grooming Department Absinthe and Leather is well out of my normal wheelhouse being mostly a sandalwood man, but it is a great soap!

Has anyone else been able to use this soap or have an experience with it? Please share!
 
Sounds like a great soap and good experience. Did you get any other scents? What are your impressions?
 
I did! I have I think 4 other scents to try. All of the scents seems pretty strong in the sample bags, very subtle differences.

I’ll be sure to put up thoughts on each one as I try them.
 
Have not tried any GD soaps but this sounds like one I'd like to try. It's in my radar but out of Stock I believe.

These are fantastic soaps. really. However, being in Canada, they are quite difficult to order as he doesn't ship outside of the US and the majority of his soaps are always out of stock.
I have given up trying to acquire them as I am extremely content with my favourite soaps, as it is.
Nonetheless, if you are in the US, then I would highly recommend trying them, especially, the ones with the duck fat, but all of his soaps are excellent.
Scents are another matter as you may not get on with them, so I won't comment on this.
 
Topofthechain.ca carries GD soap when it's available.

Thank you, very much and I had known this. I was actually in contact with the owner of Top of the Chain, but he was very disappointed that he never received the promised shipment, quite some time ago. Furthermore, this soap seems to always be out of stock at this site, unfortunately.
 
I managed to actually order and receive a tub of Absinthe & Leather from the Grooming Department website earlier this year. For some reason it took over 30 days to reach me. I mentioned this on a different forum. Mohammed figured out who I was by shipping date and sent me an email.

This is a great performing shaving soap, rich, creamy and thick with a really nice after shave feel. Interesting scent that I am not confident in describing except, as I later learned, it smelled like Absinthe and yes, leather.

For a soap also having leather scent, I would compare it to Wholly Kaw Cuero Oscuro.

Not long after I received the tub we were in New Orleans and I started the day with a shave featuring this very same Grooming Department Absinthe & Leather soap.

Later that same, long day I was wandering around the French Quarter in New Orleans on a Cocktail Tour, sampling the signature cocktail in each of 5 bars. Of course this included the famous Hurricane. Toward the end of the tour, 4th or 5th stop, we ended up in a bar which featured Absinthe which I had never had. What a show! Water was poured over sugar from a centrally located carafe into the drink. When the drink was complete the Absinthe had an other-worldly green glowing hue with a scent that was somehow familiar.

On consumption, the Absinthe circle was complete for the day, the Absinthe and Lather shave in the morning then that eerie looking cocktail in the afternoon. On reflection, I would not recommend reversing the process i.e. consuming six New Orleans signature cocktail (yes I had two at one stop) then shaving. And no, I won't explain how leather figured into the experience. I will only say that we stopped in at the local French Quarter police station to buy a t-shirt. True dat.
 
That scent definitely intrigued me, would love to try it sometime.
 
I managed to actually order and receive a tub of Absinthe & Leather from the Grooming Department website earlier this year. For some reason it took over 30 days to reach me. I mentioned this on a different forum. Mohammed figured out who I was by shipping date and sent me an email.

This is a great performing shaving soap, rich, creamy and thick with a really nice after shave feel. Interesting scent that I am not confident in describing except, as I later learned, it smelled like Absinthe and yes, leather.

For a soap also having leather scent, I would compare it to Wholly Kaw Cuero Oscuro.

Not long after I received the tub we were in New Orleans and I started the day with a shave featuring this very same Grooming Department Absinthe & Leather soap.

Later that same, long day I was wandering around the French Quarter in New Orleans on a Cocktail Tour, sampling the signature cocktail in each of 5 bars. Of course this included the famous Hurricane. Toward the end of the tour, 4th or 5th stop, we ended up in a bar which featured Absinthe which I had never had. What a show! Water was poured over sugar from a centrally located carafe into the drink. When the drink was complete the Absinthe had an other-worldly green glowing hue with a scent that was somehow familiar.

On consumption, the Absinthe circle was complete for the day, the Absinthe and Lather shave in the morning then that eerie looking cocktail in the afternoon. On reflection, I would not recommend reversing the process i.e. consuming six New Orleans signature cocktail (yes I had two at one stop) then shaving. And no, I won't explain how leather figured into the experience. I will only say that we stopped in at the local French Quarter police station to buy a t-shirt. True dat.

Great read!

It is definitely one of my favorite scents right now. The aroma fills my soap drawer and explodes into the air whenever I open it. It is magnificent!

I’ve been using my sample of it very sparingly.
 
That scent definitely intrigued me, would love to try it sometime.

KJ will gladly break you off a little chunk of my sample if you like. May be a little bit before I can mail it. Think it would survive the heat from CA to MO? ? It’s a tallow based soap.

Not sure when when it would pop up again otherwise.
 
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