Dear denizens of r/Wetshaving -
The season of good smells is soon going to be upon us. In the spirit of things, please allow me to introduce the Sixth (?) Annual Feats of Fragrance (FoF) Contest! 🎉👃🌹🏅
Wetshaving is a multi-faceted hobby. Choose a rabbit hole - vintage razors, chasing the latest bases, taking super technical and well composed SOTD pics and hydrating your bowl lathers with a syringe - there is something for everyone to go crazy about.
For me (and I suspect many others), scent is where it’s at. I love pairing soaps, splashes and fragrances of different kinds and probably haven’t used a matching set in more than a year. I like thinking about what synthetic chemicals, EOs and FOs have gone into making a fragrance, what was the inspiration and what were the choices made when composing a scent. If this is you, then you are what Feats of Fragrance aims to celebrate.
###History of the Contest
FoF was started by u/hawns, Shawn Maher of Chatillon Lux and Maher Olfactive at some iteration of the Lather Games. Shawn has been a major part of the /r/Wetshaving community for many years, beginning with Chatillon Lux, making scents and post shave products inspired by the history of St. Louis and a thriving soap collaboration with Declaration Grooming. This culminated in the opening of Maher Olfactive, allowing Shawn to emphasize artistic creativity, over material and budget constraints. Both lines feature fine fragrances that have garnered many, glowing, reviews and was even nominated for the 2020 Art and Olfaction Awards!
For many years, u/whiskyey, followed by u/dganjo ran this competition (along with being a judge for the Lather Games). Thank you both for all the work that you put into it (and for letting me steal from your respective writeups).
###So…What is this contest?
From the original competition announcement, FoF is an LG side contest for those who "show olfactory excellence in their post-shave and fragrance routine. It could be education, personal or downright weird."
My interpretation of this is as follows (this is an open interpretation, please feel free to run away with it as you like)
- How much are you thinking about your scent choices for a particular theme?
- Why did you choose to dickhole (or if you are like me, non dickhole?).
- How does your scent evolve over the course of your shave and the day.
- How do your scent choices make you feel?
- Can you write out a thoughtful comment/haiku/shitpost to give us an insight into all of this? It does not have to be a million words. Pretty Please - make my life easy.
###How do I enter?
Earlier FoF contests considered all SOTD posters as entrants into FoF. This year, however because of how the Lather Games have scaled up, I will be doing things slightly differently.
If you are particularly interested in participating in the FoF side contest, please use the hashtag ‘ #FOF’ in all your SOTD posts through the course of the LG. Note the spacebar before the hastag. .
Shawn and I will be reading your posts and taking notes to keep track of who’s submissions we have enjoyed the most over the course of the games.
Your performance in this contest will not affect your LG overall score, so it is completely optional.
###What will you win?
This years prize pool is pretty gorgeous. Shawn has been kind enough to offer a fair number prizes this year. Dave Kern (u/AMERICANPERFUMER) from American Perfumer, who Shawn worked with to create the amazing Madame Chouteau, Benton Park and Lamplight Penance, is once again a co-sponsor, along with Shawn. The American Perfumer store curates a wonderful collection of American made perfumes and offers spray samples of everything they have in stock, which is a rare treat when trying to test new-to-you scents. Be sure to check out his store and buy a few samples if you're at all curious of anything!
The prize pool this year is
- A Bottle of the recent American Perfumer run of LLP,
- Choice of 3 bottles from either MO or CL, one per winner
- $50 GC from American Perfumer
- $50 GC from a fellow redditor
- A bottle of Inneke Derring-Do from me
The winners will decide their prizes as outlines
- 1. The first place winner will have their pick of two items from the list.
- 2. The second place winner will then have their choice of what is left.
- 3. The third place winner gets whatever is left.
I can’t thank Shawn and Dave enough for their generosity this year. We have a lot more (and some pretty effing awesome) prizes and I encourage all of you to bring your A game to the FoF contest.
Happy shaving, splashing, spritzing, and writing!
Cheers