I'm not dead.
Nor is SSL
Thrill is.
But a promise is a promise.
Thanks @walden for the smush. Great base and I enjoyed the scent but like DJ I don't think I picked up on the heavier elements.
Merry chrimbo kids.
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I'm not dead.
Nor is SSL
Thrill is.
But a promise is a promise.
Thanks @walden for the smush. Great base and I enjoyed the scent but like DJ I don't think I picked up on the heavier elements.
Merry chrimbo kids.
Wednesday, December 18, 2024: BVWSC End of Year Edition
The last meeting of the Buena Vista Wetshaving Social Club for the year is today, and this was a great way to end the year.
I've seen others describe this scent as almost funerary, which makes sense to me. I get florals in the scent, but they're dry and wispy. I get a bit of smoke, but it's faintβlike a cold, overcast, closed-in winter morning in New England.
There's a lot of subtle complexity here that I quite enjoy. I'm not sure I'd pick up a full set, but I'm definitely glad to have the opportunity to try this out.
Thanks @walden for sending around the smushes this month!
December 18, 2024 - Buena Vista Wetshaving Social Club
This is the best this soap has ever smelled to me. I blame @pridetwo@sub.wetshaving.social and his biased review that mentions florals. "Aha!" said my nose after reading that. In the past I just found that part of the scent unpleasant, but being able to call it "floral" makes it smell much better. It's no longer some strange, volatile, smell, but something natural and real.
It's interesting reading other people's accounts. There's definitely a mature, darker side to the scent, but I still can't put a name on it. To other people it's clearly leather and whatever else, but to me it just smells "good".
This event being scheduled today was a big coincidence for me. The theme of this scent is life and death, and it just so happens my wife finished chemotherapy yesterday. It also just so happens that we'll likely need to put one of our dogs down tomorrow. Life and death, indeed. She's an old lady at 14 and has had a wonderful life.
I'm glad to hear your wife made it through her chemotherapy! Having witnessed it with one of my family members, that's a difficult struggle that I wouldn't wish on anyone.
I'm so very sorry to hear about your dog. We also have elderly pets. Although we can see the inevitable coming, it unfortunately doesn't make it that much easier when it arrives. All the best to you and your family.
Thank you for the kind words.
Hope that this will have been her last chemo (in a long life)!
Glad to hear about your wife finishing her chemotherapy treatment; very sorry to hear about your elderly dog. Life and death indeed, but losing pets sucks. Wishing you & your family all the best.
Thank you!
So good to hear that chemo is done for waldette!
Itβs interesting reading other peopleβs accounts.
Super interesting, the descriptinos are really all over the place
December 18, 2024 -- BVWSC
Brush: Wald Nimbus Chryselephantine 29mm A1 Fan
Razor: Koraat 6/8" Full Hollow
Lather: House of Mammoth - You and I (Will Die) - Soap
Aftershave: Stirling Soap Co. - Sharp Dressed Man - Aftershave
Fragrance: Floris of London - Elite - Eau de Toilette
Talc: Yardley Gold
Β
3 passes. Bowl lather. Excellent shave.
It is a Buena Vista Wetshaving Social Club day, and You and I (Will Die) is our soap for the day.
I admit that I am very put off by the name and the marketing for this scent. Exploring the "fragile impermanence of humanity" with a scent is a little too much drama for me. (but I'm told I lack sensitivity). Then again, we invented overly dramatic afternoon TV shows in the 60's to sell soap^*^, so there's precedence.
I liked the scent though. I did not get a that sense of "an extraordinary balancing act between dark and light", but I only used the soap, and fragrance details are generally lost there. I'm sure that the full impact of the experience comes from the EdP.
Anyway, as I said, I thought the scent was pleasant and very well blended. All the notes work well together. While using the soap I thought I got hints of Green Irish Tweed and of Floris Elite, so Sharp Dressed Man (dupe of GIT), and Elite rounded out my setup today.
Thanks to @walden@sub.wetshaving.social for sending out the sample!
*The reason some TV shows were called Soap Operas.
The Buena Vista Wetshaving Social Club meets again, this time around HoM's You & I (Will Die). I was expecting a darker fragrance from the description, but what I got off the smush is vernal florals on top of earthy, but still fresh grass. I wonder whether the heavier leather, smoke, truffle, and musk notes that I can't sniff out have evaporated from the smush?
Either way, this happy version of You & I (Will Die) is nice, and I combined it with other happy vernal florals for a little spring break just before Christmas.
Playmobil figures have changed!
That they have! π
Octidi 28 Frimaire an 233 de la RΓ©volution, jour de Truffe
It is Buena Vista Wetshaving Social Club again! I was very excited about this one, because I had never before used a House of Mammoth soap. The smell I could identify was essentially leather and smoke, but the whole thing being rounder than in Oro Valley.
What they say about it:
The perfume accomplishes an extraordinary balancing act between dark and light, opening with airy vegetation and water and gradually descending into dark earth before, impossibly, becoming light, fragile, and delicate. The timeline of the wear is like a pulse, a heartbeat, a vibration, a life.
Yeah. It reminded me of Fumoir des Anges by Annette Neuffer, but less brutal with the smoke.
I thought since they are heavy on smoke, the Stag would complement it well β but I don't know: the Stag is for me distinctly blue-collar, maybe proletarian, and this one clearly isn't. Maybe after all, I did get the light, fragile and delicate part of the scent. And who would have thought, it is very fitting for the day, since it contains truffle notes, and today is the day of the truffle in the French calendar!
This is a scent that did not immediately vibe with me, but I believe that there are very good chances that it would grow on me if I bought the full tub π€
Thanks to @walden@sub.wetshaving.social for this smush!
What did you think of your first use of the HoM base?
It was not the supercreamy lather I got from Old Strathcona, but it was good, not outstanding. But I don't hahe it dialed in, and with all the hype surrounding HoM, it's difficult to see how I could not have been a bit disappointed if I didn't find it the best thing since the invention of fire π€·
I've heard people say it's the type of soap that you don't need to load very heavy, but I find the opposite to be true. The more the better. It's hard to gauge if smushes are going to be enough soap -- hopefully nobody suffered from having to under-load.
In general Tusk is so-so for me. It's easy to accidentally over hydrate in my experience, and you won't know it has too much water based on how it looks, only by the lack of slickness.
I'm surprised by how differently I perceived this scent. I got none of the smoke and leather.
I got none of the smoke and leather.
must have been confiscated by Swiss customs
The Germans seemingly confiscated it too, no smoke at all for me and perhaps just a faint touch of old leather (could've been the vetiver though). π€
Me neither, zero smoky notes - and I actually hoped for those...
and I actually hoped for those...
Same!
18.12.2024 - BVWSC December Edition
-> 2 passes on the dome, 1 around the beard lines. Smooth shave.
For the last edition of Buena Vista Wetshaving Social Club of 2024, we're using a new release by Mammoth. You & I (Will Die) seems to be intended as a Memento Mori in shaving soap form. I mean, read the description at Maggards - sounds pretty profound, doesn't it?
Here's the thing though: upon receiving the sample, my first thought was "Oh. Not what I expected." And now that it was time to use it, this didn't change. I'm glad for the opportunity to use this as a part of BVWSC, but if I am brutally honest: I would have expected something very different just from the scent description/marketing babbling than this. It smells very cologne-y to me, in the sense of an old school cologne. It's definitely floral in the opening and the aldehydes don't really add a fresh note, they rather amplify the floral notes and give them some complexity. The darker notes aren't as present to my nose then. I get a bit of woody stuff, a faint dank note either by the vetiver or the leather. 0% smoke. But the musk hits hard, damn. "Fragile musk" is definitely wrong - this is very musky. Combined with the strong florals and musk, this IMHO is an Oldschool scent. Something ol' geezers would appreciate to smell like. Not that it's a bad scent; oh no, quite the contrary. But I feel like I am at least 20 years too young to wear this. Good that I now know never to get a full tub...
The good thing is that Tusk base is really great to shave with - whips up tons of slick, protective lather. Leaves my skin feeling rather nice. I agree with @djundjila that the florals give the scent a springtime feeling, so I followed up with GraveFruit II - something that also combines light & dark notes but also reminds me of warmer seasons. All in all, a great and comfortable final BVWSC shave for 2024. The scent isn't for me, but at least now I know how it is like. Folks, it's always an honour to shave with you. I'm really looking forward to the 2025 editions with all of you fine people. Have a good time! π€π»
Dec 18, 2024 - BVWSC - End of the Year Edition
Today's soap, You & I (Will Die), was generously provided by @walden@sub.wetshaving.social. I had already ordered the splash from Anticatura in anticipation of today's BVWSC shave.
This unfortunately named scent opens with airy and light florals, but none of the darker, smokey notes presented themselves. It is still an enjoyable scent, but the marketing does it no favors.
Missing the darker tone of the scent, I opted for the heady and earthy Encre Noir A L'Extreme.