West Coast Shaving | Oriental
RazoRock 400 | Noir Plissoft
The New Improved Schick Injector Razor | Schick Plus Platinum PTFE
Phoenix Shaving | Speakeasy
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Once again, West Coast Shaving dodged a bullet. If you read my impressions of " Pear-Brrr Shoppe", you'll recall that despite my aversion to fruity fragrances, I rather enjoyed it, and can appreciate the artistry involve in its formulation. That said, since I don't particularly want to smell like the fruity fragrance, Pear-Brrr Shoppe will not be one of the splashes I purchase. The other soap that was coming my way was also unknown to me. Imagine my disbelief when "Oriental" arrived having "rose" listed as the first descriptor. I've noted countess times that even though I find rose fragrances to be appealing, I often have to avoid them because, in most cases, if the rose is forward enough, it will elicit a wave of nausea and headache. I simply have an intolerance to the fragrance, regardless of my affinity for it. Out of the 5 launch scents that West Coast Shaving is releasing, how did they manage to send me the 2 with which I'm most likely to have a problem?
When I cracked open the tub, I was met with a bold, but pleasant rose. Given that this was only a soap and the fragrance, if undesirable, wouldn't linger, I reluctantly elected to proceed. Fortunately, soon after loading, the rose element quickly acquired a woodiness and musk that continued to descend to a resinous, more classic oriental as the lather was built. Once the lather foundation was fully established, the dry fragrance hemmed in the rose to more of a labdanum characteristic. Labdanum is one of my favorite notes, and despite its absence from the documented scent notes, it's the impression I get. As the two-pass head-and-face shave progressed, the fragrance continued to darken and acquire even more resin and ancient dry wood notes. In light of this being a head-and-face shave, it should be noted my exposure to the soap is roughly 15 to 20 minutes, and towards the end I began to note some smoky spiciness reminiscent of Madagascar vanilla bean. This is truly a lovely fragrance, and I predict will be quite wearable for me. I will certainly be picking up the paired splash.
The soap base paired with my test tub of Oriental was Oleo Soapworks' Canard (duck fat) formula. This is a moderately firm soap that loads best with a fairly damp knot, but not saturated and dripping. While Canard is not prone to easy break down, excessive water is not necessarily required. A dense and slick low-profile lather is forthcoming, and this is precisely the sweet spot for this base. More water can be added for a more voluminous lather, but its optimal slickness can be found prior to that. First pass and residual slickness are high level, and post-shave is stellar as with all the top-shelf artisans. Bufflehead is my only other experience with a duck fat soap, and Oleo's Canard has always out-performed it by a significant margin.
Once again, a post product is not needed with a soap of this level, but I don't feel like I've finished my shave until I apply a splash. I opted to use Phoenix Shaving's "Speakeasy" splash which is about as far into rose I can safely tread, and even then, only in cool climates. Since this was an evening shave, I had no qualms using it as I'll be indoors for the remainder of the day. This was a good choice for a pairing, but any oriental would do. A daring alternative could also have been old-school Leeming Pfizer's Black Belt. That is, until I can pick-up the true paired splash when these West Coast Shaving offerings go on sale later this week.
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