LG23-25: Christmas in July
- Brush: Chisel & Hound 26mm Timberwolf
- Razor: Timeless Ti95 .95 DC Matte
- Blade: Voskhod (16)
- Lather: Macduffs Soap Company - Christmas Cabin - Shave Soap
- Post Shave: Lather Bros. - Lone Bear - Aftershave
- Fragrance: Blackbird - Triton
- Passes: WTG, XTG
- Coffee: Peru, Cajamara - v: Geisha - p: Washed.
- Music: Woody Goss - A Very Vulfy Christmas
- LG Tags:
#FOF
Shave with a non-dominant hand. I've fallen for that challenge before and I know how it ends: red slashes on my face. I barely have enough eye-hand coordination to shave this handsome mug with the hand that's supposed to know what it's doing.
So what's a guy to do? Skip the daily challenge? Of course not! Not this late in the game.
One of the likely-unintended lessons I learned from our recent leg shaving challenge is that while I need to lather and shave for the Daily Theme Points, I don't need to shave my face. So I used my non-dominant hand to shave my dominant one. (I shaved my face too, but with my right.)
I'll admit that my hands aren't quite yeti paws, but there's plenty of hair on the top of my fingers, and even more getting towards my wrist. At least there was. Now the top of my right hand is silky-smooth. I needed to return for a few passes of touch-up to get everything with my open-comb Timeless; apparently the direction of growth on my fingers is all over the place. It's all against-the-grain.
Now's a good time to thank u/Specialist-Quiet-833 for the sample of Christmas Cabin I used to lather up 'ol Reliable Right. I haven't tried many Macduffs products, but I'd like to work through more of their catalogue. The brand thoughtfully composes original scents with an eye to classic perfumery and IFRA guidelines, has a very good soap base, and puts in the extra effort on their packaging (including detailed labels on the side of the tub). I don't think Sean's scent preferences align perfectly with mine—especially his sweeter scents—but I've appreciated the nuanced execution of every MacDuffs composition I've tried.
For example, I like his take on Christmas scents, which include a better-than-most cherry tobacco. This one from his Cabin series is a remote getaway full of family and friends celebrating Christmas, warm from the oven running all day, and fragrant with the smell of spiced holiday bakes. It smells almost exactly like a bed and breakfast I stayed in for a few days after my wife and I married, which kept scented candles burning, stocked excellent scented bar soap, and always had freshly-baked cookies in the lobby. Cashmere brings a creamy texture that didn't work for me in a gourmand MacDuffs scent; paired with cardamom, allspice, nutmeg, and cinnamon here, it alludes to the winter holidays' most comforting traditions. I also appreciate that Christmas Cabin prioritizes texture over sweetness, and spice over fruitiness, even using a small amount of oud in the woody base to add complexity. Not my favorite Christmas scent in wet shaving, but well done.
Following up my cozy-cabin shave, I thought about how the strongest feelings of yuletide hygge correspond with the coldest days of the year. To complete the scene, I recreated the harsh chill outside our titular Christmas Cabin with my aftershave and fragrance. Both smell cold, but go about suggesting frigid landscapes in totally different ways.
Lone Bear cleverly uses rosemary, frankincense, and frangipani to create a cooling scent that doesn't rely on the usual eucalytus or mint notes (though it is mentholated). It smells clean and pretty—pristine snow, covering the landscape in brilliant white dunes, coating the trees in crystal and sparkling powder. (In our particular cabin scene, there's probably not a polar bear, but the landscape fits.) Complex frankincense centers this accord, frangipani lends it floral sweetness, and rosemary and menthol provide freshness and texture. It's a perfect aftershave scent.
Unlike Lone Bear, Triton imagines harsh terrain that never thaws, smelling brittle, raw, and wind-blown. Blackbird's unique spin on cold-smelling fragrances (named after Neptune's ice-covered moon) uses diverse floral, mineral, and woody notes to achieve this. A strong black pepper note hits my nose immediately and persists throughout the drydown. Incense, cedar, and vetiver reinforce that note with a pungent bite, filled out by a subtle floral accord that I can't parse (Blackbird lists violet leaf, mimosa, and iris root). Almost absent of sweetness, Triton reminds me of both Dawn Spencer Hurwitz's Snowy Owl (Zoologist) and Will's Eigengrau, though it's less mint-vanilla fresh than the former and less mossy than the latter. There's only ice, gem, stone, and atmosphere here, smelling beautifully untarnished by growth of any kind.
Like I planned, it makes that Christmas Cabin seem cozier than ever.