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Rich's Journal: Adventures with Life and Sharp things

Majorrich said:
Today’s soap was “Cucumber Fumbler” whi smelled like, uh, Cucumber. Performance was as before. The KIKUBOSHI severed whisker as it should be legendary for doing so, and the fragrance lingered for about 20 minutes. I reckon this might be a refreshing summer fragrance, but it’s just not one that I think I’d be reaching for. I did some research on how cucumber fragrances are made, and if they are natural or synthetic. It appears cucumbers don’t have much in the way of essential oils to make a fragrance oil. Given that, I presume it’s a good chance that most cucumber frags are probably synthetic. Good shave, not feeling this frag.
The label art is pretty good though.

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WTHeck do cucumbers smell like? I had a European aftershave splash that was “cucumber” that smelled like nothing. Nothing! What’s the point? Some folks would buy a “fresh air” and argue it was stale air. At least in my Unscented products, they add organic mined Unscent. 🙄
 
Today’s scent is called “Fiddlers Friend”, and it’s a pretty good one! I’d call it a take on classic barbershop. Performance of the soap is unchanged, but this fragrance is actually something I could reach for, if I didn't already have several products in the same scent tree that are much better performers. A Schick M-type with a fresh blade (single edge) predictably provided a DFS+ in 2 passes.
I’m still enjoying daily shaving and getting surprise scents daily, but I think I’ll like going back to my every-other-day routine after Christmas. If I don’t try to grow a sparse mangy beard. 😆

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8th Night said:
It's obvious from all your advent posts that you are not a fan of CK-6, which is a vegan base. What are your goto shave soap bases?
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Performance for CK6 is adequate. But yes, I’m not a tallow purist either. In fact I’m a huge fan of pre de Provence, which is a vegan soap. I like Stirling’s tallow base quite well, but I find my top of the heap soaps, Pannacrema and Saponificio Verisino are both also vegan. (I actually never looked)
 
Majorrich said:
Performance for CK6 is adequate. But yes, I’m not a tallow purist either. In fact I’m a huge fan of pre de Provence, which is a vegan soap. I like Stirling’s tallow base quite well, but I find my top of the heap soaps, Pannacrema and Saponificio Verisino are both also vegan. (I actually never looked)
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I am not a PAA fanboy, but I think the CK-6 base is pretty good. I too like both tallow and vegan based soaps.
 
Today’s fragrance was “Mr. Basil Preylean” Based on the scent notes, this appears to be another entry in the sweet, baked-goods—or gourmand—family. While I can appreciate the craftsmanship behind these fragrances, I’m still a bit on the fence about this style overall. They’re pleasant and approachable, but not typically where my preferences land. It started out like smooshing a cupcake on my face, drying down, the basil came out and turned the tables from sweet sweet back to a moderately savory fragrance. All in all a pretty ok setup. I’m sure the artist for these labels plays a lot of Fantasy RPG’s or eats the magical mushrooms.

The soap is the one constant in this series. It performs adequately for use with a Bengall Sheffield razor. It all came together for a pretty good shave.

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Todays soap was "Harvest Sun". A Citrus patchouli fragrance reminiscent of Terre de Hermes. It was slick enough to allow me to use a true Kamisori with no problems. I consider that high praise as I am finally learning how to use some of the characteristics of the soap to my advantage. Looking at other youtubers views on this soap i think its one PAA may think about bringing to production. Its different enough to not be accused of being a knock-off while being adjacent enough to hint of Orange Dirt.IMG_1273.jpeg
 
Today was “Lemon Lozenge” which I am actually kind of enthused about. I think it smells a lot like Ricola cough drops. Lemon, Honey and a bit of ginger was what my mom used to brew and have us drink as a cough tonic, and this really nailed that! It also triggered other memories of mom’s purse full of lemon drops from the farm store doling them out to us to keep us quiet in Church. She’s been gone 8 years now, and not a day passes when something doesn’t put her to mind. This was one of them.

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Today’s scent was “Spice Trail North”, a sandalwood anchored fragrance that I enjoyed very much. Coming from yesterday’s fairly simple lemon, this one is complex and interesting and more memory provoking. While a scent can smell like something tangeable, like a lemon, or a banana, this one smells like a space, like an old chapel or to my memory an old temple. Very nice. And with a KIFA razor from @Luecke3262 , a very nice shave.

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Today’s fragrance gave me nasal whiplash. Yesterday was a fairly complex and today… Root Beer 🍺
Actually, I’ll just call it a palette cleanser for tomorrow and Christmas which I anticipate to be something really nice (at least that’s what I’d do if I were doing an advent calendar like this. Henson AL-13 is a mild quick shave. No wonder it’s a popular razor.

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Today’s scent is “Frost Chapel”. A conifer and mint fragrance that I am kind of impressed with. I had hoped it would be a bit more green, but the sweetness of the mint caused it to be brighter than I imagined, but that could be my undisciplined nose. I still like it quite well and, combined with the Limey Batman provided a great shave.

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Today I took a bit of each of the twelve soaps in the Advent Calendar to make a clown puke lather. This time the soap base was the same and only the fragrances differed. The result was shocking. The fragrances went from some strong, spicy gourmands to subtle cucumber. What emerged was a different critter altogether, and it was pleasant! What I learned was under the top defining fragrances lay numerous supporting characters across multiple soaps. The aggregate brought these scents to the front and others down and, in some cases, drowned some out. It was not elegant, but taken as a whole, it was like a muddy barbershop scent with remnants of a Christmas party lingering around.
Blackland Vector came in and took care of whisker removal for a darned fine shave.

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Thanks for the birthday wishes Brothers!

Today’s shave brings us back for a shave with Proraso Red. I’ve been on a bit of a sandlewood kick lately and Proraso red is supposed to fill that scent slot, but oh so gently. That and a seldom-seen Schick Krona made for a great shave. Interesting winter story about the continental army in the winter of 1775-76, Washington authorized supply to commandeer privately owned snowshoes to be reissued to guard mounts around the encampment at Cambridge. There was some grumbling.Turn in Your Snowshoes!.png
 
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