Ariana & Evans - NYC
Wolf Whiskers | Raptor | Black Wolf
Ever-Ready SE | Gem PTFE
Wholly Kaw - Fougère Bouquet
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Finally! Ever since Peter perfected his tallow goat's milk and lanolin soap base, I've been craving a release in a fragrance that I like. As one of the testers for his debut soap base, I was privileged to receive "Asian Plum" for my trouble. Not unexpectedly, it just wasn't for me, and I passed it on. I was quite willing to wait for a release more in line with my tastes, but the artisan wasn't having it. Instead, he kindly hooked me up with an advance release of "NYC", a fearless, yet elegant fougère.
The performance of this soap base is beyond reproach, placing it among my favorite artisanal soap bases. In fact, it really needs an establishing code name to further validate it among the others. All kidding aside, this soft-ish soap loads easily from the tub with a damp brush, but it's not so soft as to cause concern for digging out hunks or accidental overloading. Undeterred by my hard water, it has a fairly wide water tolerance range. Face lathering (scalp lathering, in my case) is easy, and a usable lather is quickly forthcoming, but introducing a moderate amount of water showcases the real performance chops of this soap. The lather is creamy and dense with an iridescent sheen. First-pass glide is effortless, and the residual slickness easily holds up against the most elite artisanal soaps that I routinely use. The post-shave feel is also exemplary.
With the exception of Declaration Grooming's new Icarus base having recently assumed the mantle as my benchmark soap, I've given up on trying to rank soaps in a meticulous manner such as naming them second and third place. Ultimately, there are about six soap bases that, while all of them are on the same performance level, each of them does it by shining in different aspects without failing in the others. This soap base is among these top-performing soaps. I don't know how this crowded group impacts the individual artisans' bottom lines, but I do know as wet shavers, there's no reason to use anything other than a luxury performance soap. I remember a time when that level of performance meant paying upwards of $70 USD to import a soap---a hurdle that's completely unnecessary in the current climate. Now, we're left up to subjective aspects such as fragrance and even packaging.
In terms of that subjective fragrance, NYC is a winner for me. Off the dry tub, I detected tangerine and something close to tomato leaf or green pepper. This is certainly not what I experienced as soon as the damp brush began stirring up the fragrance in the shower. NYC opened with a rather sharp and bold bergamot and woody lavender. Despite the perplexing green pepper off the dry tub (not the way to assess a soap's real fragrance), this is one of the least herbaceous fougères I've used. This sharp--approaching bitter---citrus gave way to woody lavender about midway through the first pass. Progressing from there, the fragrance became more woody and slightly darker as the characteristics shifted from sharp to slightly creamy, and finally a very subtle powder which prevented this darkening from becoming bleak. This is very much a wearable fragrance, so it's my hope Peter offers at least a matching splash. As it was, I'd already chosen Wholly Kaw's Fougère Bouquet as a finisher. I'm a fan of Fougère Bouquet, but the floral component completely dumped the masculine fougère vibe I was getting from NYC. Until there's a proper pairing, I think Chatillon Lux's TSM Fougère would have worked better, and to a lesser extent even some artisans' interpretation of Drakkar Noir would suffice in a pinch.
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