What soap/cream did you use today?

Morocco t. (Tallow+Steel) cade, cedar, juniper, cypress

A shave with Morocco is like a week in the Wind Rivers or Sawtooths. It leaves you smelling smoky, woodsy, earthy, and a little dank. This is a powerful fragrance that hugs your cheeks for half a day, and when you come home you’ll smell the puck in every corner of the house. It turns our beach cottage into a cabin in the mountains, and that’s a good thing. The lather of course is magnificent. Dense like fudge, it clings and protects against my sharpest blades and my clumsy hands.

Lipripper660: The scent borders on brutal, but I love it, and I think you may enjoy its deep smoke and woodiness, too.

Bouki,

Thank you for a T&S review. Can we possibly hope for some more?

I am intrigued by this vendor, but the descriptions I've found are difficult to follow. Always happy to get a Bouki review... It's really become the gold standard for me.

Tallow + Steel Sicily - Think I'm looking at the Mediterranean Sea every time I use it

Exotic Elemi Paste v. (Meißner Tremonia) pickling spices

This smells a lot like my great aunt’s kitchen. She always kept bunches of dill and coriander dangling from the old wood rafters. They looked like brooms without their handles and smelled damp and dry at the same time. When cured they found their way into her pickles, which tasted great, but never really put me into the mood for shaving. So, Exotic Elemi is nostalgic, but not really strange, and not exactly exciting either.

In the past most samples gave me four, maybe five, shaves. But lately I’ve been purging the shelves of older items, trying to use them up before they separate or become insipid. Today I scooped up all that was left of this sample, nearly three-quarters of a tublet, and dumped it all into the lather bowl. What came out was marvelous. These suds were extremely slick and protective, and I ended up with a fantastic shave. For creams and pastes, one almond-sized daub is rarely enough. When I’m after a great shave, I need to double that amount.

Bouki,

Thank you for a T&S review. Can we possibly hope for some more? I am intrigued by this artisan, but the descriptions I've found are difficult to follow.

mrdoug: I can see why the descriptions are hard to follow: T+S make some very unusual fragrances. They offer six or seven scents, each taking its inspiration from a different spot around the world. I've tried Maya, Himalaya, West Indies, and Morocco. (I'm sorry to note that Morocco is currently unavailable. Clearly a smoky cade fragrance, it's my favorite of them all.) Apart from Morocco, none of they others smells like any one scent. They're very complex, drawing on a broad palate of olfactory notes peculiar to the region they're supposed to represent. Though all the scents are certainly interesting, many shavers find them an acquired taste. They start off loud and confusing, like listening to an orchestra warming up before a performance. Smells are bouncing all over the place. Nothing comes to the fore. It's a bit of a mashup. After a few uses, though, the fragrance seems to mellow, and your nose starts making peace with it, and you may pick out some harmony. I can't say I love any of them, but they are intriguing; and they linger, so you have plenty of time all throughout the day to think about whether you like them.

The lather is sensational. It's as thick, heavy, and dense as Wholly Kaw's donkey milk soap, or Declaration Grooming's Icarus base, or CRSW's Glide, or Barrister & Mann's latest recipe (I've lost track of their roster). It's super fatty, highly hydrating, and weighty. The cushion's deeper than the Mariana Trench. But the stuff is clingy. If I were still living on the high, windswept prairies of Wyoming, I'd treasure this thick protective finish. It's a little much, though, here in the hot tropics.

I hope this gives you a little more information. Very few, if any, stateside vendors offer their samples or soaps any more, but you can easily order tubs and sets from the T+S Web site.

Cold River Schapenmelk Shave Soap

Eleven - DFS LE 2019

Eleven / DFS

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