ETHOS Grooming Essentials A New Line

Mandarino Fumo today from a sample I received recently from a fellow shave bro-ham. Big thank you to AlphaFrank75 for getting to me a very generous portion of this fabulous soap and scent. I’ll just say this. This has to be a standard offering in the Ethos line up in all 3 products (soap, splash & edp) if the ingredients needed to make it are reasonably accessible for Frank to make this particular creation. I’ve conversed with Frank on occasion and I know his products & the ingredients for those products are not cheap to acquire then produce and still relatively keep his prices at reach for most shavers that want and desire a premium shave product. Ethos gets my money because I know first hand as some of you other shave bro-hams know as well, he puts his heart & soul into every gram of product that he creates and releases. It’s a labor of love on his end and he’s relentless at striving for perfection in his products. I know a few doubt his commitment to excellence in this regard and think that his periodic explanations of the process, procurement and maintaining an equal balance to achieve the maximum output of his products be overblown rhetoric or plain whimsical nonsense. They couldn’t be more wrong in making that assumption. I can personally say that I have benefited immensely from using his products on a regular basis and can attest first hand on what those products accomplish for my needs as well as many others here in this forum and across other forums as well that have expressed their commitment to Ethos for what it brings to them personally.

Everytime we have our phone conversations, I tell him the same thing, you need to slow down Franky and take it easy. This his his response every single time “I can’t my friend. I can only offer the best of me 100% of the time. Anything less is just simply unacceptable. This is who I am and I can’t & never will change that”. That’s the commitment and just the kind of guy he is. And I truly appreciate and will stay a loyal customer for as long as he produces wet shave and personal skincare products.

Enough about waxing poetic. Can we get some Mandarino Fumo in stock? Pllllleeeeeeaaaaasssee???

Mandarino Fumo today from a sample I received recently from a fellow shave bro-ham. Big thank you to AlphaFrank75 for getting to me a very generous portion of this fabulous soap and scent. I’ll just say this. This has to be a standard offering in the Ethos line up in all 3 products (soap, splash & edp) if the ingredients needed to make it are reasonably accessible for Frank to make this particular creation. I’ve conversed with Frank on occasion and I know his products & the ingredients for those products are not cheap to acquire then produce and still relatively keep his prices at reach for most shavers that want and desire a premium shave product. Ethos gets my money because I know first hand as some of you other shave bro-hams know as well, he puts his heart & soul into every gram of product that he creates and releases. It’s a labor of love on his end and he’s relentless at striving for perfection in his products. I know a few doubt his commitment to excellence in this regard and think that his periodic explanations of the process, procurement and maintaining an equal balance to achieve the maximum output of his products be overblown rhetoric or plain whimsical nonsense. They couldn’t be more wrong in making that assumption. I can personally say that I have benefited immensely from using his products on a regular basis and can attest first hand on what those products accomplish for my needs as well as many others here in this forum and across other forums as well that have expressed their commitment to Ethos for what it brings to them personally.

Everytime we have our phone conversations, I tell him the same thing, you need to slow down Franky and take it easy. This his his response every single time “I can’t my friend. I can only offer the best of me 100% of the time. Anything less is just simply unacceptable. This is who I am and I can’t & never will change that”. That’s the commitment and just the kind of guy he is. And I truly appreciate and will stay a loyal customer for as long as he produces wet shave and personal skincare products.

Enough about waxing poetic. Can we get some Mandarino Fumo in stock? Pllllleeeeeeaaaaasssee???

I'm so glad to  hear someone else speak up for this scent.  The soap is another great ETHOS soap, but the thing that's really special for me is the EDP - off the hook delightful IMO, and with legs too.  Will it please everybody?  H... No!  But it pleases me - I think it's beautiful - and besides, to be perfectly honest,  sometimes you just don't want to smell like a guy who pleases everybody.

I'm also looking forward to Mandarino Fumo coming back. I have never used this soap and splash.

I guess it starts with citrus scent and come down to leather and tobacco scents. 

How does it smell? very strong or acceptable? Is it warm and deep for winter?

Hi Shaver_Brian.  Don't expect Gus GlazedBoker and I to have identical reactions, but as for me, here goes. ...

Mandarino Fumo smells very strong.  It's acceptable to me, but it won't be acceptable to everyone - at least, not my edition.   Why?  Because IIRC there were mixed reactions when Mandarino Fumo first appeared, and I have the first edition.  Also, FWIW I avoid some well known and controversial scents, like Black Afgano for example, where the controversial note(s) strike me as being gratuitously in your face.  To me, Mandarino Fumo is well blended, like a symphony, where every voice has a purpose, and the sum of the voices blends into a more beautiful whole.  I can understand that one of the notes could be viewed as a tobacco ash note, and possibly off-putting to some.  But I don't smell it that way.  I smell this note as having a remarkable underlying combination of purity, cleanliness, and fidelity. it appeals to me, and it supports the concept of telling something masculine like it is, but in an unabashed and unapologetic way.  And by the way, that is one of the reasons that I view Mandarino Fumo as a year round scent, even though I expect many would say "Yes" to "warm and deep for winter".   

The last things I would say are first, that Frank is noted for listening to and responding to customer feedback, so GlazedBoker's more recent sample may differ from mine.  I am happy to leave discussions of specific notes to owners of the latest version.  And in the spirit of better-late-than-never, I will repeat my often stated disclaimer that long time members may remember hearing from me before:  My nose is not a bellwether for popular opinion.  It is, however, the only nose I have, and as always, YMMV.

Mandarino Fumo today from a sample I received recently from a fellow shave bro-ham. Big thank you to AlphaFrank75 for getting to me a very generous portion of this fabulous soap and scent. I’ll just say this. This has to be a standard offering in the Ethos line up in all 3 products (soap, splash & edp) if the ingredients needed to make it are reasonably accessible for Frank to make this particular creation. I’ve conversed with Frank on occasion and I know his products & the ingredients for those products are not cheap to acquire then produce and still relatively keep his prices at reach for most shavers that want and desire a premium shave product. Ethos gets my money because I know first hand as some of you other shave bro-hams know as well, he puts his heart & soul into every gram of product that he creates and releases. It’s a labor of love on his end and he’s relentless at striving for perfection in his products. I know a few doubt his commitment to excellence in this regard and think that his periodic explanations of the process, procurement and maintaining an equal balance to achieve the maximum output of his products be overblown rhetoric or plain whimsical nonsense. They couldn’t be more wrong in making that assumption. I can personally say that I have benefited immensely from using his products on a regular basis and can attest first hand on what those products accomplish for my needs as well as many others here in this forum and across other forums as well that have expressed their commitment to Ethos for what it brings to them personally.

Everytime we have our phone conversations, I tell him the same thing, you need to slow down Franky and take it easy. This his his response every single time “I can’t my friend. I can only offer the best of me 100% of the time. Anything less is just simply unacceptable. This is who I am and I can’t & never will change that”. That’s the commitment and just the kind of guy he is. And I truly appreciate and will stay a loyal customer for as long as he produces wet shave and personal skincare products.

Enough about waxing poetic. Can we get some Mandarino Fumo in stock? Pllllleeeeeeaaaaasssee???

I'm so glad to  hear someone else speak up for this scent.  The soap is another great ETHOS soap, but the thing that's really special for me is the EDP - off the hook delightful IMO, and with legs too.  Will it please everybody?  H... No!  But it pleases me - I think it's beautiful - and besides, to be perfectly honest,  sometimes you just don't want to smell like a guy who pleases everybody.

I'm also looking forward to Mandarino Fumo coming back. I have never used this soap and splash.

I guess it starts with citrus scent and come down to leather and tobacco scents. 

How does it smell? very strong or acceptable? Is it warm and deep for winter?

Hi Shaver_Brian.  Don't expect Gus GlazedBoker and I to have identical reactions, but as for me, here goes. ...

Mandarino Fumo smells very strong.  It's acceptable to me, but it won't be acceptable to everyone - at least, not my edition.   Why?  Because IIRC there were mixed reactions when Mandarino Fumo first appeared, and I have the first edition.  Also, FWIW I avoid some well known and controversial scents, like Black Afgano for example, where the controversial note(s) strike me as being gratuitously in your face.  To me, Mandarino Fumo is well blended, like a symphony, where every voice has a purpose, and the sum of the voices blends into a more beautiful whole.  I can understand that one of the notes could be viewed as a tobacco ash note, and possibly off-putting to some.  But I don't smell it that way.  I smell this note as having a remarkable underlying combination of purity, cleanliness, and fidelity. it appeals to me, and it supports the concept of telling something masculine like it is, but in an unabashed and unapologetic way.  And by the way, that is one of the reasons that I view Mandarino Fumo as a year round scent, even though I expect many would say "Yes" to "warm and deep for winter".   

The last things I would say are first, that Frank is noted for listening to and responding to customer feedback, so GlazedBoker's more recent sample may differ from mine.  I am happy to leave discussions of specific notes to owners of the latest version.  And in the spirit of better-late-than-never, I will repeat my often stated disclaimer that long time members may remember hearing from me before:  My nose is not a bellwether for popular opinion.  It is, however, the only nose I have, and as always, YMMV.

Well said and perfectly articulated. I add nothing more to this assessment other than the bottle of edp that I have was from the initial release. Rich, deep, clean and very comforting.

There, enough said…..

I'm also looking forward to Mandarino Fumo coming back. I have never used this soap and splash.

I guess it starts with citrus scent and come down to leather and tobacco scents. 

How does it smell? very strong or acceptable? Is it warm and deep for winter?

I'll throw in my thought on MF. To start, years ago my former in-laws raised tobacco and by default I became cheap labor for their tobacco patch. I spent four seasons doing everything from pulling suckers leaves and topping the plants during growing season. Then in September it was cutting the plants and hanging them in the tobacco barn. Come November we were back in the barn pulling everything down to strip the leaves and tying hands of tobacco and stacking it making it ready for the tobacco auction. I guess this experience forever tied me to the scent of tobacco as it's one of my favorite scents.

Now decades later my soap collection contains tobacco scented soaps that range, to my nose, from the green plants through to the finished tobacco products. Mandrino Fumo smells like fully cured loose leaf chewing tobacco or plug tobacco. It's strong and beautiful in that tobacco scent and I doubt anyone else will ever come close to this scent. Frank just knocked this out of the ballpark. It's not for everyone. You have to like strong scents and this soap and SFS have some legs when it comes to the scent.

Mandarino Fumo today from a sample I received recently from a fellow shave bro-ham. Big thank you to AlphaFrank75 for getting to me a very generous portion of this fabulous soap and scent. I’ll just say this. This has to be a standard offering in the Ethos line up in all 3 products (soap, splash & edp) if the ingredients needed to make it are reasonably accessible for Frank to make this particular creation. I’ve conversed with Frank on occasion and I know his products & the ingredients for those products are not cheap to acquire then produce and still relatively keep his prices at reach for most shavers that want and desire a premium shave product. Ethos gets my money because I know first hand as some of you other shave bro-hams know as well, he puts his heart & soul into every gram of product that he creates and releases. It’s a labor of love on his end and he’s relentless at striving for perfection in his products. I know a few doubt his commitment to excellence in this regard and think that his periodic explanations of the process, procurement and maintaining an equal balance to achieve the maximum output of his products be overblown rhetoric or plain whimsical nonsense. They couldn’t be more wrong in making that assumption. I can personally say that I have benefited immensely from using his products on a regular basis and can attest first hand on what those products accomplish for my needs as well as many others here in this forum and across other forums as well that have expressed their commitment to Ethos for what it brings to them personally.

Everytime we have our phone conversations, I tell him the same thing, you need to slow down Franky and take it easy. This his his response every single time “I can’t my friend. I can only offer the best of me 100% of the time. Anything less is just simply unacceptable. This is who I am and I can’t & never will change that”. That’s the commitment and just the kind of guy he is. And I truly appreciate and will stay a loyal customer for as long as he produces wet shave and personal skincare products.

Enough about waxing poetic. Can we get some Mandarino Fumo in stock? Pllllleeeeeeaaaaasssee???

GlazedBoker Gus

Thank you my old friend for your kind and encouraging words. As I read this write up it brought back some memories of when I first joined the other big shaving forum and you and Honka were the first two members to welcome me in. You and I had many phone conversations and I learned a lot about razors from you. You more so the modern razors and Honka the vintage razors. In fact he was responsible for me making the Vanilla Safi but that’s another story I’ll share when it’s time to release that one. So we’ve been friends for many years now and I appreciate that. You’re a good man with principles that haven’t changed at all in all these years. So once again thank you brother!


I plan on making the Mandarino early in 2024. The reason I’m waiting is that there are two different Tobacco Absolutes in the Aroma blend and only one place I can get them both. Ones called Burly and the other is Virginia. There’s one place in the US I can get the Virginia but honestly it’s good but not as good as the one I get from my Italian supplier who also carries the Burly. They close for one month during the Christmas Holidays and won’t be open until after New Years. I’ll jump on the site and order them as soon as they reopen. I have some of each but not nearly enough to make the size batches I’m making nowadays.
The story and inspiration about this Aroma Blend is a friend of mine and member over on Basenotes and I were having a phone conversation about some of our favorite niche colognes and I was mentioning that in the last few years I’ve been leaning a lot towards natural aromatics rather than synthetic aroma chemicals. In that conversation I said something about a nice Tobacco cologne and he mentioned a Artisanal perfumer who only uses naturals and sent me a sample of a Tobacco forward cologne he had from this person and I feel in love with it. I went to go buy a full bottle and it was sold out! I read his story about how he’d use many different things from nature and infuse them. So it set my curiosity mind into high gear and it has honestly changed the way I look at creating Aromas completely. Mandarino Fumo was one of the first I did. I don’t know if you know it has a real Beaver Castoreum in the blend which really adds to the scent. It’s definitely got some legs and is without a doubt the longest lasting scent I’ve made so far. It’s a masculine scent and I’m sure that any animal loving ladies would not be a buyer for this scent lol

Be reassured Mandarino Fumo is in this next year’s schedule.

Kind regards!

Frank

Made my software selection last night and every time I went into the bathroom I had to open the jar to take a deep sniff.  A perfect combination of earthy vetiver and bright citrus.  I kind of wish I had grabbed a matching SFL.

Made my software selection last night and every time I went into the bathroom I had to open the jar to take a deep sniff.  A perfect combination of earthy vetiver and bright citrus.  I kind of wish I had grabbed a matching SFL.

That’s an awesome looking SOTD Photo and just so you know I’ve got the lotion if you need one or I can put one aside for you until you’re ready for it 

Regards 

Frank

Mandarino Fumo today from a sample I received recently from a fellow shave bro-ham. Big thank you to AlphaFrank75 for getting to me a very generous portion of this fabulous soap and scent. I’ll just say this. This has to be a standard offering in the Ethos line up in all 3 products (soap, splash & edp) if the ingredients needed to make it are reasonably accessible for Frank to make this particular creation. I’ve conversed with Frank on occasion and I know his products & the ingredients for those products are not cheap to acquire then produce and still relatively keep his prices at reach for most shavers that want and desire a premium shave product. Ethos gets my money because I know first hand as some of you other shave bro-hams know as well, he puts his heart & soul into every gram of product that he creates and releases. It’s a labor of love on his end and he’s relentless at striving for perfection in his products. I know a few doubt his commitment to excellence in this regard and think that his periodic explanations of the process, procurement and maintaining an equal balance to achieve the maximum output of his products be overblown rhetoric or plain whimsical nonsense. They couldn’t be more wrong in making that assumption. I can personally say that I have benefited immensely from using his products on a regular basis and can attest first hand on what those products accomplish for my needs as well as many others here in this forum and across other forums as well that have expressed their commitment to Ethos for what it brings to them personally.

Everytime we have our phone conversations, I tell him the same thing, you need to slow down Franky and take it easy. This his his response every single time “I can’t my friend. I can only offer the best of me 100% of the time. Anything less is just simply unacceptable. This is who I am and I can’t & never will change that”. That’s the commitment and just the kind of guy he is. And I truly appreciate and will stay a loyal customer for as long as he produces wet shave and personal skincare products.

Enough about waxing poetic. Can we get some Mandarino Fumo in stock? Pllllleeeeeeaaaaasssee???

I'm so glad to  hear someone else speak up for this scent.  The soap is another great ETHOS soap, but the thing that's really special for me is the EDP - off the hook delightful IMO, and with legs too.  Will it please everybody?  H... No!  But it pleases me - I think it's beautiful - and besides, to be perfectly honest,  sometimes you just don't want to smell like a guy who pleases everybody.

I'm also looking forward to Mandarino Fumo coming back. I have never used this soap and splash.

I guess it starts with citrus scent and come down to leather and tobacco scents. 

How does it smell? very strong or acceptable? Is it warm and deep for winter?

Hi Shaver_Brian.  Don't expect Gus GlazedBoker and I to have identical reactions, but as for me, here goes. ...

Mandarino Fumo smells very strong.  It's acceptable to me, but it won't be acceptable to everyone - at least, not my edition.   Why?  Because IIRC there were mixed reactions when Mandarino Fumo first appeared, and I have the first edition.  Also, FWIW I avoid some well known and controversial scents, like Black Afgano for example, where the controversial note(s) strike me as being gratuitously in your face.  To me, Mandarino Fumo is well blended, like a symphony, where every voice has a purpose, and the sum of the voices blends into a more beautiful whole.  I can understand that one of the notes could be viewed as a tobacco ash note, and possibly off-putting to some.  But I don't smell it that way.  I smell this note as having a remarkable underlying combination of purity, cleanliness, and fidelity. it appeals to me, and it supports the concept of telling something masculine like it is, but in an unabashed and unapologetic way.  And by the way, that is one of the reasons that I view Mandarino Fumo as a year round scent, even though I expect many would say "Yes" to "warm and deep for winter".   

The last things I would say are first, that Frank is noted for listening to and responding to customer feedback, so GlazedBoker's more recent sample may differ from mine.  I am happy to leave discussions of specific notes to owners of the latest version.  And in the spirit of better-late-than-never, I will repeat my often stated disclaimer that long time members may remember hearing from me before:  My nose is not a bellwether for popular opinion.  It is, however, the only nose I have, and as always, YMMV.

I'm also looking forward to Mandarino Fumo coming back. I have never used this soap and splash.

I guess it starts with citrus scent and come down to leather and tobacco scents. 

How does it smell? very strong or acceptable? Is it warm and deep for winter?

Hi Shaver_Brian.  Don't expect Gus GlazedBoker and I to have identical reactions, but as for me, here goes. ...

Mandarino Fumo smells very strong.  It's acceptable to me, but it won't be acceptable to everyone - at least, not my edition.   Why?  Because IIRC there were mixed reactions when Mandarino Fumo first appeared, and I have the first edition.  Also, FWIW I avoid some well known and controversial scents, like Black Afgano for example, where the controversial note(s) strike me as being gratuitously in your face.  To me, Mandarino Fumo is well blended, like a symphony, where every voice has a purpose, and the sum of the voices blends into a more beautiful whole.  I can understand that one of the notes could be viewed as a tobacco ash note, and possibly off-putting to some.  But I don't smell it that way.  I smell this note as having a remarkable underlying combination of purity, cleanliness, and fidelity. it appeals to me, and it supports the concept of telling something masculine like it is, but in an unabashed and unapologetic way.  And by the way, that is one of the reasons that I view Mandarino Fumo as a year round scent, even though I expect many would say "Yes" to "warm and deep for winter".   

The last things I would say are first, that Frank is noted for listening to and responding to customer feedback, so GlazedBoker's more recent sample may differ from mine.  I am happy to leave discussions of specific notes to owners of the latest version.  And in the spirit of better-late-than-never, I will repeat my often stated disclaimer that long time members may remember hearing from me before:  My nose is not a bellwether for popular opinion.  It is, however, the only nose I have, and as always, YMMV.

Well said and perfectly articulated. I add nothing more to this assessment other than the bottle of edp that I have was from the initial release. Rich, deep, clean and very comforting.

There, enough said…..

I'm also looking forward to Mandarino Fumo coming back. I have never used this soap and splash.

I guess it starts with citrus scent and come down to leather and tobacco scents. 

How does it smell? very strong or acceptable? Is it warm and deep for winter?

I'll throw in my thought on MF.  To start, years ago my former in-laws raised tobacco and by default I became cheap labor for their tobacco patch.  I spent four seasons doing everything from pulling suckers leaves and topping the plants during growing season.  Then in September it was cutting the plants and hanging them in the tobacco barn.  Come November we were back in the barn pulling everything down to strip the leaves and tying hands of tobacco and stacking it making it ready for the tobacco auction.  I guess this experience forever tied me to the scent of tobacco as it's one of my favorite scents.

Now decades later my soap collection contains tobacco scented soaps that range, to my nose, from the green plants through to the finished tobacco products.  Mandrino Fumo smells like fully cured loose leaf chewing tobacco or plug tobacco.  It's strong and beautiful in that tobacco scent and I doubt anyone else will ever come close to this scent.  Frank just knocked this out of the ballpark.  It's not for everyone.  You have to like strong scents and this soap and SFS have some legs when it comes to the scent.

Thank you so much guys.

Your opinions really helped me to decide if I will buy MF or not.

Your posts are the most detailed explanation and information that I have ever had.

I am really impressed because I could see you guys have warm hearts.

Anyway, the reason why I have considered buying MF is that I thought I could expect citrus scents from mandarins to mix very well with the scents from tobacco and leather in order for both not to be excessive heavily. 

I love tobacco, leather, and woody scents but people around me avoid them if they can.

That's why I didn't buy the set when it was released at first but now I want to have it.

So my choice is to buy it as soon as it is released because I could control the amount of SFS and EDP not to smell excessively.

I am really looking forward to getting it.

citrus, tobacco, leather and sandalwoods? why not try?

SOTD Dec 11th

Razor - Merkur 37C
Blade - Gillette Platinum Light Blue
Brush - Semogue 2000 
Pre - Bracti Cream
Soap - ETHOS Grooming Essentials Pure Clean 
Post - Torriden Dive-in Hyaluronic Serum & Cream


'Perfect' shave indeed.


I am looking for some post shave products that match Pure Clean in terms of the colour of the label or that of the bottle matching the label of Pure Clean.

Could anybody recommend some?

SOTD Dec 11th

Razor - Merkur 37C
Blade - Gillette Platinum Light Blue
Brush - Semogue 2000 
Pre - Bracti Cream
Soap - ETHOS Grooming Essentials Pure Clean 
Post - Torriden Dive-in Hyaluronic Serum & Cream


'Perfect' shave indeed.


I am looking for some post shave products that match Pure Clean in terms of the colour of the label or that of the bottle matching the label of Pure Clean.

Could anybody recommend some?

Yes I have the Pure Collection Skin Food Lotion and Splash. A soon to be the Unscented Hyaluronic acid serum. Just waiting on labels and they arriving in tomorrow’s mail. Just got notice 

So all the labels will be this color on all Unscented products. That’s the Lotion bottle below. 



Thanks Brian for the cool looking SOTD photo. 


. 

UPDATE:

Just made a decision to put both the Bay Rums ahead of the Beaute Sauvage. The reason is I don’t think I have enough of two of the Aroma ingredients to make all the post shave products. I need more of an absolute and an essential oil and realistically if I order them today I won’t get them for at least 5-8 days and I can make the Bay Rums in that amount of time. So my apologies to those waiting for the Beaute Sauvage. I’ll get the products made as soon as possible.


Oh and the last of the Dragonsbeard shipped out to one of my vendors yesterday and the other one tomorrow. The Razor Company and Pasteur’s Pharmacy. Anticatura will go out on Friday.

Derma Boost will be released this month and I’ll announce the date as soon as I secure it.



Thank you!


Frank