Tallow & Steel Kyoto

[Southsider]

I pulled out my Kyoto set for today's shave. I was inspired to do so by the excellent shave video featuring the same soap provided by @Dagwoodz .

This was a limited edition release that I bought last year along with T&S Sicily. Later on I added Madagascar and West Coast IPA, another limited release I picked up at Pasteur's, to my T&S collection.

Kyoto is rich with Asian cypress and cedar though yuzu has the highest percentage of the ingredients listed. Sencha (green tea) and seaweed dance beneath the other notes. Also listed is perilla though I am not sure what that adds. For me, Kyoto is a complex scent with a wood based accord. This scent requires attention but that attention is rewarded as you open up the tub and begin lathering the dark brown colored soap. I imagine myself walking through a cypress forest on my way to a Japanese temple or shrine furnished with cedar furniture. I inhale the forest air and sense the sea is nearby, past the shrine.

This is a full-on olfactory experience.

As with other T&S soaps the performance of Kyoto is excellent. I have the matching aftershave and it is full of skin food.

 

[bobmsp]

I pulled out my Kyoto set for today's shave. I was inspired to do so by the excellent shave video featuring the same soap provided by @Dagwoodz .

This was a limited edition release that I bought last year along with T&S Sicily. Later on I added Madagascar and West Coast IPA, another limited release I picked up at Pasteur's, to my T&S collection.

Kyoto is rich with Asian cypress and cedar though yuzu has the highest percentage of the ingredients listed. Sencha (green tea) and seaweed dance beneath the other notes. Also listed is perilla though I am not sure what that adds. For me, Kyoto is a complex scent with a wood based accord. This scent requires attention but that attention is rewarded as you open up the tub and begin lathering the dark brown colored soap. I imagine myself walking through a cypress forest on my way to a Japanese temple or shrine furnished with cedar furniture. I inhale the forest air and sense the sea is nearby, past the shrine.

This is a full-on olfactory experience.

As with other T&S soaps the performance of Kyoto is excellent. I have the matching aftershave and it is full of skin food.

I had a set of this but traded it away. I enjoyed the scent of the soap but was hoping that it was going to have more of a yuzu scent given that it had the highest percentage of EO. Unfortunately, the AS didn't do much for me (from a scent or a skin perspective) so that was the primary reason for getting rid of the set.

I've yet to find a T&S flavor that I love but I do like the soap. Merchandise 7X is probably my favorite that I've tried of the v2/v3 scents and Morocco (R.I.P.) and Sicily are OK. Ryan said elsewhere that he's considering some less complex scents given the reception of Orangeilla.

 

[HMan]

Probably makes financial sense for him to go that way too. I was sad to Morocco go by the wayside it’s my number two favorite. Orangeilla is a simpler West Indies to me, with vanilla that really whips up a creamy lather.

 

[Southsider]

This is one of those soaps that has grown on me. At first, I had no idea what to think--Seaweed (Nori)? Who puts that in a shaving soap? This is not a lollipops and rainbows scent and it demanded that I open my mind to what is has to offer. This is something I am not readily able to do.

With this particular formulation, the bitter citric yuzu scent has become secondary to the heavy olfactory influence of the cypress (two different types no less) and cedar oils. Fragrant woods resting atop bitter yuzu with some green tea and seaweed providing an active note which pokes through on occasion. I have never been to Japan and this makes me want to take that trip.

I certainly understand why you traded it away. This is not a soap or scent that lends itself to easy acceptance. With regard to T&S soaps in general, that seems to be the case. As to the aftershave, I do not particularly like how it goes on with a film but the end result hours later is excellent for me.

I had a set of this but traded it away. I enjoyed the scent of the soap but was hoping that it was going to have more of a yuzu scent given that it had the highest percentage of EO. Unfortunately, the AS didn't do much for me (from a scent or a skin perspective) so that was the primary reason for getting rid of the set.

I've yet to find a T&S flavor that I love but I do like the soap. Merchandise 7X is probably my favorite that I've tried of the v2/v3 scents and Morocco (R.I.P.) and Sicily are OK. Ryan said elsewhere that he's considering some less complex scents given the reception of Orangeilla.

 

[bobmsp]

Quite frankly, I would have kept and enjoyed the soap if I didn’t have the AS. I didn’t think that I’d be able to trade/sell the AS by itself, so I figured I’d give up the soap as well to get some value out of the AS. As you say, the scent is unusual and somewhat challenging, but I ended up enjoying it.