Ariana & Evans | Project C
APShaveCo. Elegant Emerald | SynBad 24mm
Durham-Enders | Enders Speed Shaver | Schick Proline B-20
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Project C thankfully returns a second time as a SFWS Facebook group soap. I passed on it last year, but after more experience with Ariana & Evans soaps, I decided to pick this up strictly for the performance coupled with a scent profile that seemed to fit my preferences.
The Ariana & Evans soap base is among the very best currently available. While there's essentially nothing upon which this base can improve, its most extraordinary attribute is the absolutely stellar post-shave.
This rich tallow base has plenty of ingredients that can potentially color a fragrance, but I find this is primarily evident upon cracking open the tub. Each one of them pours out a milky cocoa scent that, depending on the strength and character of the intended fragrance, may briefly bleed over into the first few moments of the shave. Knowing nothing about soap making, I suspect that after successfully duplicating a known fragrance, the artisans' biggest challenge is probably accounting for transformative effects of the soap base.
Project C is no different, but the ultimate results are that the soap simply mutes some of the more intricate notes, and given the nature of the delivery, there's simply not enough time to appreciate the development of a complex fragrance. The soap, in this case is a tease for what's yet to come by way of the splash.
Given this, I'm inclined to comment on my impressions of the splash first, and then I will explain what the soap is unable to convey. I used the splash on a non-shave day, and I applied it to my head and face immediately following a shower. I did this the day before I actually shaved with the soap. This allows me to more carefully scrutinize the soap later, since the basic profile, as my nose interprets it, has already been explored.
Project C opens as a familiar boozy cola but with a twist of bitter citrus along with an abrupt medicinal and perhaps metallic intrusion. This is eventually intertwined with a gentle spiciness and rose. The fragrance becomes more oriental with thick syrupy resin, moderately sweet florals, and cured tobacco, before giving way to dry woods and worn leather. The established sweetness prevails but remains guarded. Spicy vanilla and cardamom invade the dry down early, acquiring more spiciness with time. It's at this point in which the scent becomes more gourmand. This is followed by a brief resurgence of leather before settling back into a softer, sweet, powdery vanilla and rose. Just when the fragrance seems to have faded, the initial fizzy cola waxes and wanes.
While the boozy opening is enjoyable, it's been done. The real allure for me from Project C lies in the heart and protracted dry down. Certainly there's nothing groundbreaking about gourmand vanilla and cardamom and even leather, the delivery of which is what makes this particularly enjoyable to me. While I enjoy sweet fragrances, they're not always wearable for me. Project C perfectly rides this line and makes it a win for me. Over the course of a typical work day, I lost track of the fragrance after about 5 hours, but it was resurrected with the evening shower.
The soap surprisingly carries this fragrance well. The cola aspect is more citrusy and the cognac is perhaps more recognizable. Overall the soap is less sweet, the resin is softer, and the aldehydes struggle to pierce through. The gourmand vanilla and cardamom own the stage for the most part, but leather does play a role just prior to finishing up. I detect very little powder aspect in the soap.
Project C is apparently a dupe of Roja Parfums' Enigma pour Homme. After a quick search, I discovered it's a rather pricy fragrance, but if Project C is accurately reproducing it, I can't see how I can avoid picking up a retail bottle.
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