SOTD by u/ginopono

u/ginopono posted on 2023-07-30 09:07:14-07:00 (Pacific Standard Time). Reddit Comment (See markdown)

2023-07-28 Safe Travels, Don't Die!

  • Brush: Yaqi - Metal Timberwolf
    China
  • Razor: "Germany"
    Germany
  • Lather: Abbate Y La Manta - Blue Tobacco
    Italy
  • Post Shave: Løthur Grooming - Oregon
    United Kingdom
  • Fragrance: Guy Laroche - Drakkar Noir
    France
  • u/ginopono
    United States

Bon Voyage/Buon Viaggio/Gut Reise/旅行愉快:
Soap is from Italy. I'm from the most backward developed country in the world.

Challenge Accepted: Places of origin listed above.
It occurred to me this morning that I could conceivably trek down to Mexico for a Games-final huzzah, but the list of reasons not to do that is long. I won't be surprised if someone does cross a national border today, though, particularly in the Schengen area.

Relevant Post-Shave and Fragrance: As required by the challenge. Also, pleasing black/silver color scheme.

I grabbed Blue Tobacco around last year's Games, motivated by a stupid as-many-tobacco-soaps-as-I-can thing, but I ended up using Garibaldi instead. For today, my original choice was Earth of Mankind, because it's a bit special to me, but the colors Blue Tobacco's tin work better here and it says travel right on it! How perfect is that?

#FOF The tobacco note seems to be the same as that of Garibaldi, and both strike me as being in the neighborhood of Tobacconist's, so that's a win. It allegedly also has eucalyptus, but either the tobacco or menthol drowns it out. I think it is a very good thing that it does not smell like a tobacco-y Proraso Green.

Oregon I also picked up last year, largely because I very much want/plan to relocate to the PNW (Pacific Northwest). I had my eye on Oregon as a destination, but everything I've heard indicated that it has become a terrifying place in the past few years. I had been planning a trip there in January of this year, but I set my sights a bit more northward and scoped out the Seattle area instead. I still feel like the summers there are hotter than I'd like. I do not care for being warm.

Oregon (the scent) is a "tribute to Wonderwood by CDM". FFS why does no one just say what these abbreviations are? Comme des Garçons. Oh, pardon me. COMME des GARÇONS. But with an asterisk as the cédille for some reason.
I haven't used Oregon much since I got it, and I do like the Oregon scent, but this aftershave seems oddly inconsistent. The last time I smeared this on my face, it immediately took me back to Cascadia. This time, it almost didn't have any scent at all. Perhaps it's a matter of how it interacts with the preceding scent, and Blue Tobacco is quite understated itself.

Drakkar Noir I think was the first fragrance-fragrance that I ever bought. Let's see, how is it classifi—oh, fougère. Of course. Dammit. As if it weren't bad enough that is has a reputation.

I'm probably inclined to just renounce everything I've learned over the past month about fragrances, which admittedly is not a lot, but huge compared to where I was at the start. I don't think I care about picking out scent notes, or what's a fougère or a chèvre or an aromatic (which is kind of a batshit label when talking about different aromas, I might add). I just want to appreciate scents holistically without the need to analyze the components. There's nothing wrong with that!

I can't deny the practical convenience of say, being able to inform a purchase decision based on scent notes and such, but if I ever manage to stop buying so much damn soap because, dude, how many years do you think the soap you already have with last, then that won't be an issue anytime soon. Certainly not next year when the new Games calendar comes out and I try to work out what I can cover with what I already have...

#photocontest
Photo: Mobile Phones
Not quite as shoe-horned as some have needed to be, so that's good.

Detected Items:

This SOTD is part of the challenge
  1. SOTD photo scavenger hunt
  2. Lather Games 2023
  3. Feats of Fragrance 2023