May 2, 2026
• Bowl: Doug Smith Pottery – Ceramic Shave Bowl
• Brush: Semogue – 1500 (Boar)
• Razor: Muhle – R41 (Black)
• Blade: Lord – Super Stainless
• Soap: Catie’s Bubbles – Dranks
• Aftershave: Stirling – Unscented Aftershave Splash
• Balm: Bundubeard – Reijger Aftershave Balm
• Fragrance: Olympic Orchids – Café V
What a wonderful shave. I believe this is my first time trying Catie’s Bubbles Premium Base. I believe the other Catie’s Bubbles scents that I have tried, Barnegat Bay, Waterlyptus, and Sunset are in the “Luxury?” line. I am not a fan of artisans offering multiple bases. I can understand if they want to offer a tallow and a vegan base (like Wholly Kaw or Talent Soap Factory Duck Fat) to serve a wider range of preferences. However, I do not understand nor care for this idea that some scents get the deluxe treatment while others are in the value line. I suspect that Catie’s Bubbles does the Premium base for the more “cologne-y” scents, but I cannot be sure. I should give Catie’s Bubbles credit: they do offer many of their soaps in that luxury line in 2 and 4 oz. formats for a generous price. Perhaps this is how Chris accomplishes it?
It just makes me think of one of the questions I had growing up: “Some folks need 93 premium gas for their luxury cars and everyone else seems to get 87 regular gas. Who gets the 91 Super and why?” I used to get upset when some gas stations put the regular in the middle as a means of tricking people, but I digress.
The Catie’s Bubbles Premium Base provided a very close shave. The slickness and glide were excellent. It was easy to whip up a gorgeous lather. I think, though, that it needed just a little more protection and moisturizing to put it next to the elites. As I was thinking about it, I’m not sure if it is fair to compare this vegan soap to the tallow-based elite bases like Mike’s Natural and Long Rifle. But, there is an elite vegan base: The Sudsy Soapery’s Supercreamed Triple Butter base. Catie’s Bubbles falls a bit short of that, but that still makes it an outstanding base. As I often tell my students, prior to grade inflation ratcheting up as a means of keeping college students from being drafted for Vietnam, the general grade distribution was something like A 7-11%, B 25-29%, C 45-49%, D 12-16% F 0-5%. So, to be in that B group (I don’t believe in this mythical S-tier group as it just seems another way to inflate by shifting everyone up one notch) is prestigious.
The Dranks scent is fantastic. I don’t know the history of it and am hesitant to speculate because there is some conflicting information online that I cannot quite make sense of. It may be a newer name for what was called “Porch Drinks.” I just know that it is very limited edition and is unavailable. That’s a bummer. This would be a very nice EDP to have. In fact, it is somewhat close to the fragrance I chose today and have written about before: Olympic Orchids’s Café V. It’s around 50 degrees here and sunny, so it works for sure.
Have an awesome day, friends!
