What soap/cream did you use today?

When you slide your raft down the ramp and into the staging pool below it starts to get real on the Middle Fork of 5he Salmon.  It’s a zoo up top with people inflating and packing food and strapping frames and gear to make sure it stays with them on the trip.  One way to avoid that hubbub is to launch and leave late.  Let everyone get down river and past the closer camps.  So what? Who cares?  A later start let’s the sun come up over the canyon and get a little warmth in your bones.  A later start allows a less frenetic pace and to my mind leads to more enjoyment.  Besides, Trail Flats is only a 7 mile float down stream and if the water level is right, one of the best hot springs on the river.  First Bend rapid is full of wood these days and I like to do the short hike down and make sure I’ll choose the right side of the center rock.  Less than a mile below that is Murphs Hole followed by some no-name warm up waves.  Then the fun begins.  Sulphur Slide followed by Ramshorn, and then Hells Half Mile and you’ll know by then if your rowing game is on point.  Not to far after that and Velvet Falls is there to sneak up on you.  The river looks flat and peaceful and unless you notice Velvet Creek coming in from river right you’ll be in a 7 ft drop into a tough reversal that can bring you right back under the falls and flip your boat!  I love velvet!  After that it’s a quick float down to Trail Flats on river left and man does this spot hold some memories for me.  This is where I caught my first trout on a fly.  It’s also where a few years after I fished the evening with golf legend Jonny Miller.  The smell of supper cooking as Cloyd the camp cook gets ready to feed the guests.  The smell of rubber and rope and the river as I do a last-check to make sure the boats are good for the night.    But the best thing about this camp is the riverside hot springs.  Ah man!  
This soap reminds me of soaking in the Trail Flat Hot Springs.  Surrounded by lupine, columbine, fir and pine, the smell of mossy rock, and that ever present sulphur.  I only wish this scent was in one of the premium bases.  As it is, that hint of sulphur clings to my skin so I get a whiff of it throughout the day and boom, I’m transported right back to the river. 

Great soap and scent, and an even better story!
My skin loves this soap (how else did I end up with a half-ton?). They use olive oil, sulphur and some other goodies, which makes this a unique base... So for RR, I think this is possibly their most premium base.
Why it hasn't caught on, even among RR heads, I'll never know.
The aftershave has more zip in it (less sulphur too), not sure you've got that yet, Lip?

Put some water on the puck and immediately dumped it off.  Used a nearly dry synthetic brush and did a quick 10 second load swirling as quickly as i could without making too much of a mess.  Face-lathered for about 3 minutes and used my new favorite toy (Overlander) for an easy/comfortable 3-pass shave. 

Amazing isn't it. MdC, ETHOS, SH lather just breathing on the puck

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My calendar clearly says that it's...

Crema da Barba (Santa Maria Novella) Tabacco Toscano, eucalyptus
Shave 4 ・ 215 g left

Whew! I forgot how much eucalyptus is in this cream. In spite of the luscious tobacco-vanilla accord in the background, it’s clear that this Crema’s a kissing cousin to Proraso Green. No question about where it's made. Florence has indeed cornered the market on the eucalyptus tree. But at least Santa Maria Novella got the menthol just right!
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Razor Merkur 42C ・ Blade Gillette Nacet ・ Brush Phoenix Shaving Peregrino ・ Hoard 17,683 g (-42 g)
   

My calendar clearly says that it's...

Good choice Paul

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When you slide your raft down the ramp and into the staging pool below it starts to get real on the Middle Fork of 5he Salmon.  It’s a zoo up top with people inflating and packing food and strapping frames and gear to make sure it stays with them on the trip.  One way to avoid that hubbub is to launch and leave late.  Let everyone get down river and past the closer camps.  So what? Who cares?  A later start let’s the sun come up over the canyon and get a little warmth in your bones.  A later start allows a less frenetic pace and to my mind leads to more enjoyment.  Besides, Trail Flats is only a 7 mile float down stream and if the water level is right, one of the best hot springs on the river.  First Bend rapid is full of wood these days and I like to do the short hike down and make sure I’ll choose the right side of the center rock.  Less than a mile below that is Murphs Hole followed by some no-name warm up waves.  Then the fun begins.  Sulphur Slide followed by Ramshorn, and then Hells Half Mile and you’ll know by then if your rowing game is on point.  Not to far after that and Velvet Falls is there to sneak up on you.  The river looks flat and peaceful and unless you notice Velvet Creek coming in from river right you’ll be in a 7 ft drop into a tough reversal that can bring you right back under the falls and flip your boat!  I love velvet!  After that it’s a quick float down to Trail Flats on river left and man does this spot hold some memories for me.  This is where I caught my first trout on a fly.  It’s also where a few years after I fished the evening with golf legend Jonny Miller.  The smell of supper cooking as Cloyd the camp cook gets ready to feed the guests.  The smell of rubber and rope and the river as I do a last-check to make sure the boats are good for the night.    But the best thing about this camp is the riverside hot springs.  Ah man!  
This soap reminds me of soaking in the Trail Flat Hot Springs.  Surrounded by lupine, columbine, fir and pine, the smell of mossy rock, and that ever present sulphur.  I only wish this scent was in one of the premium bases.  As it is, that hint of sulphur clings to my skin so I get a whiff of it throughout the day and boom, I’m transported right back to the river. 

Great soap and scent, and an even better story!
My skin loves this soap (how else did I end up with a half-ton?). They use olive oil, sulphur and some other goodies, which makes this a unique base... So for RR, I think this is possibly their most premium base.
Why it hasn't caught on, even among RR heads, I'll never know.
The aftershave has more zip in it (less sulphur too), not sure you've got that yet, Lip?

I do have the aftershave and yes the sulphur is gone.

Ethos Fresco

We live in a time of shaving greatness.  So many fantastic choices for pre and post shaving products.  So many exceptional choices for soaps.  A veritable cornucopia of vendors to choose from.  And to think that not yet a decade ago we had but a very few options. (Most of those options were, and still are, very good performers).  But here’s the deal, with all those options comes a tendency for variation.  This mornings shave was a testament to that.  I like Mystic Waters performance.  Truly I do.  She was producing low structure, nourishing lather long before many of us discovered the world of super-fatted soaps.  Way back in the day I had a puck of Poggio dei Pini and wow did that soap take me on a trip.  It smelled of pine and dry shrubs and heat.  It put me in a saddle in august working up towards the head of Stinson Creek.  Up on the Ridge between Clyde and Stinson, where the north side is tree covered and the south side is blue sage.  I can yet hear the locusts buzzing and smell the dust kicked up by my horse.  The soap was great and grand and nostalgic, so when I finished it I bought another and…..rats!  The pine and dry brush seem to still be lurking but mostly I get flowers.  It’s like some town girl threw her rope and caught a ridge riding cowboy, took him to town, washed him up, threw away his Stetson, and put him in a flat brimmed ball cap and sneakers.  Sold his horse and pickup and now he drives a Prius (no offense intended) and generally harnessed his wildness.  Leather is replaced with flannel and his domestication is complete.  Darn! Rats! Sweet mother of meat!  I get it.  Our makers are small.  Their ingredients sometimes are unavailable.  There will be variations between batches.  Sometimes the scent is overhauled to gain more mass appeal.  But that doesn’t change the fact that my former soap has been “trotted to town”.  I have it in a window sill with the lid off praying that the cowboy inside will shake off his fetters, chuck the boutonnière, don his chaps and fork a horse headed to the high-up.