Ariana & Evans is the new kid on the block in the ever growing group of elite artisan shaving soap makers. This past March/April they released L’Orange Verte, a partial nod to Hermes D’Orange Verte, but as all of his homage scents, very much unique. Where the Hermes scent has quite a bit of green in the form of mint, this goes towards the more earthy scents in oakmoss and patchouli. Off of the tub, the darker notes are barely detectable, with the strong citrus opening dominating your nose. Strength of scent out of the tub is around a 3/5, normal for Peter’s scents.
The notes, as listed are: Bergamot, tangerine, lemon peel, orange, black pepper, lavender, neroli, oakmoss & patchouli
As I have come to expect, the packaging is top notch, with 4oz of soap coming in a 6oz tub, with waterproof labels on the top and sides of the tub. The artwork for the labeling is another homage, this time to Stanley Kubrik’s “A Clockwork Orange”, which happens to be one of my favorite movies, and is quite striking while staying somewhat simple. The soap is a medium tan color, but lathers to a brilliant white. Ingredients are listed on the side of the tub and consist of:
Stearic Acid, Tallow, Goats Milk, Shea Butter, Potassium Hydroxide, Kokum Butter, Glycerin, Sodium Hydroxide, Mango Butter, Cocoa Butter, Coconut Oil, Avocado Oil, Castor Oil, Lanolin, Bentonite Clay, Sodium Lactate, Beeswax, Fragrance & EO's
This is a more vibrant orange, and the scent notes as listed bear this out. Top notes of bergamot, tangerine, lemon peel and orange really balance each other out well, with the tang of the lemon peel and bergamot balanced out with the sweet citrus of the tangerine and orange. The scent, when compared to others, is hard to describe other than using an analogy. If scents such as AdP and your classic Colonia’s are a Ferrari, this would be a German BMW M5…larger, a little more cumbersome, but a great performer all the same, while TdH would be American muscle like a classic ’69 SuperBird. It doesn’t get overwhelming or too sweet, because black pepper and lavender come right in to ground all the citrus, with oakmoss, neroli and patchouli rounding out the scent profile. I didn’t really get the oakmoss, neroli and patchouli until I went to wash out my brush, where I got a full whiff of those scents…this really is a three phase scent, not very common in shaving soaps. Scent does increase as you lather to about a 4/5…maybe higher. Performance wise, I’ve waxed poetic on how good this soap base is before, and this is no different. Here are the scores (as always, strength of scent and preference aren’t included since they’re so subjective):
Lathering: 10/10
Cushion: 10/10
Slickness: 9.5/10
Moisturizing: 10/10
Residual Slickness: 9.5/10
Stability: 5/5
Total: 54/55
Comparable soap bases from a performance standpoint:
Declaration Grooming Project Icarus (55/55)
Declaration Grooming Bison Tallow (54.5/55)
Wholly Kaw Donkey Milk (52/55)
WSP Formula T (51/55)
Eufros (51/55)
Conclusion: As stated a couple times above, this is an elite performing soap, for me, and one that I’m glad I have in the den. From a value perspective, if you’re going to order multiple soaps, I would go with the membership to save that money, since after a couple of product sets you’ve off-set the cost of the membership. I’m not stumping for anyone here to pay for a membership, but you do get access to early releases, as well as VIP only releases…for me it as worthwhile. From a scent preference standpoint, this is right up there with SoCal Hipster, it’s that good. Peter seems to have a talent of putting together some complex scents that just work…and being a wet-shaver himself, he knows what is important to emphasize, performance, with scent coming second. Luckily, he doesn’t skimp on either, and the result is a soap and product that, in my opinion, wet-shavers should be queuing up to use.
https://youtu.be/YyKm1bnMRGE
The notes, as listed are: Bergamot, tangerine, lemon peel, orange, black pepper, lavender, neroli, oakmoss & patchouli
As I have come to expect, the packaging is top notch, with 4oz of soap coming in a 6oz tub, with waterproof labels on the top and sides of the tub. The artwork for the labeling is another homage, this time to Stanley Kubrik’s “A Clockwork Orange”, which happens to be one of my favorite movies, and is quite striking while staying somewhat simple. The soap is a medium tan color, but lathers to a brilliant white. Ingredients are listed on the side of the tub and consist of:
Stearic Acid, Tallow, Goats Milk, Shea Butter, Potassium Hydroxide, Kokum Butter, Glycerin, Sodium Hydroxide, Mango Butter, Cocoa Butter, Coconut Oil, Avocado Oil, Castor Oil, Lanolin, Bentonite Clay, Sodium Lactate, Beeswax, Fragrance & EO's
This is a more vibrant orange, and the scent notes as listed bear this out. Top notes of bergamot, tangerine, lemon peel and orange really balance each other out well, with the tang of the lemon peel and bergamot balanced out with the sweet citrus of the tangerine and orange. The scent, when compared to others, is hard to describe other than using an analogy. If scents such as AdP and your classic Colonia’s are a Ferrari, this would be a German BMW M5…larger, a little more cumbersome, but a great performer all the same, while TdH would be American muscle like a classic ’69 SuperBird. It doesn’t get overwhelming or too sweet, because black pepper and lavender come right in to ground all the citrus, with oakmoss, neroli and patchouli rounding out the scent profile. I didn’t really get the oakmoss, neroli and patchouli until I went to wash out my brush, where I got a full whiff of those scents…this really is a three phase scent, not very common in shaving soaps. Scent does increase as you lather to about a 4/5…maybe higher. Performance wise, I’ve waxed poetic on how good this soap base is before, and this is no different. Here are the scores (as always, strength of scent and preference aren’t included since they’re so subjective):
Lathering: 10/10
Cushion: 10/10
Slickness: 9.5/10
Moisturizing: 10/10
Residual Slickness: 9.5/10
Stability: 5/5
Total: 54/55
Comparable soap bases from a performance standpoint:
Declaration Grooming Project Icarus (55/55)
Declaration Grooming Bison Tallow (54.5/55)
Wholly Kaw Donkey Milk (52/55)
WSP Formula T (51/55)
Eufros (51/55)
Conclusion: As stated a couple times above, this is an elite performing soap, for me, and one that I’m glad I have in the den. From a value perspective, if you’re going to order multiple soaps, I would go with the membership to save that money, since after a couple of product sets you’ve off-set the cost of the membership. I’m not stumping for anyone here to pay for a membership, but you do get access to early releases, as well as VIP only releases…for me it as worthwhile. From a scent preference standpoint, this is right up there with SoCal Hipster, it’s that good. Peter seems to have a talent of putting together some complex scents that just work…and being a wet-shaver himself, he knows what is important to emphasize, performance, with scent coming second. Luckily, he doesn’t skimp on either, and the result is a soap and product that, in my opinion, wet-shavers should be queuing up to use.
https://youtu.be/YyKm1bnMRGE
