photocontest

Theme: Sugar and Sweets

Brush: Vintage STANHOME restored and reknotted by Talent Soap Factory 20mm #FRANKENBRUSH #RUNT #SMOLL
Razor: Rex - Ambassador #CNC #ADJUSTABLE
Blade: KAI [1]
Lather: Talent Soap Factory - Nevermore
Post Shave: Barrister and Mann - Dickens, Revisited - Aftershave Splash
Fragrance: Meleg - Very Cherry Rose Chocolate Patchouli (sample)

LET'S KEEP TALKING ABOUT FOOD

I am not a fan of gourmand scents, especially when they take their inspiration from stuff I like to eat.

Why would someone want to smell like yummy food?

Are you trying to lure your peers into cannibalism? Halloween was yesterday's theme!

So, here I am with today's theme, outside of my comfort zone.

Big thanks to Aaron from Talent Soap Factory for assisting me with my choice of soap among his various dessert-y options. In the end, I was undecided between Kcal and Nevermore, and he suggested the latter.
Which made me happy, because I LOVE both the label art (I wish the artist was credited), and the E.A. Poe reference.

Nevermore's scent is inspired by a Fudge Jalapeno Cupcake, a recipe I would be curious to try, one day.
To my non-American nose, the dough + cocoa/chocolate accord that I get from the soap evokes core memories of chocolate chip cookies.

After Poe's Raven reference, this Sunday's literary supplement continues its homage to 1800s authors with a brand new bottle of Dickens, Revisited.

Just like with Nevermore, my emotional memories prevail here on any rigorous scent analysis.
I smell mostly a nice accord of dark cherries with gingerbread and Swiss-style Christmas cookies.

My photocontest scavenger theme required me to include an actual sweet.
I thought about continuing my exploration of confusing identities, by choosing a danish pastry, like a typical Italian "sfoglia ripiena", i.e. laminated pastry filled (with custard, would've been my dream choice).
The confusing identity aspect is that in Danish and other Scandinavian languages the term for laminated pastry is wienerbrød, meaning "Viennese bread". On the other hand, in Vienna, danish pastry is called Kopenhagener Plunder, referring to Copenhagen, or Dänischer Plunder.
No one seems to want to take credit and own it.
I understand this kind of attitude when applied to something annoying, such as Syphillis (various countries used to name it after a country different than theirs: French disease, German disease, Polish disease, etc). But in a world of continuous appropriations, why leave to other the credit for good pastry?

In any event, I felt that it would have been insensitive to Dickens (Revisited) if I had picked a Danish, after the the "barbershock" that befell on Charles Dickens when Denmark's most famous writer, Hans Christian Andersen, went to visit him in the UK:
"When he arrived, he asked that one of Dickens’s own sons give him a daily shave, explaining that this was a custom for hosting male guests in Denmark. Weirded out, Dickens made him a daily appointment at a nearby barbershop instead."

I therefore picked another Florentine pastry specialty, the budino di riso, a rice-pudding tart.
As an homage to B+M cherry-forward AS, I picked a variant with a sour cherry on top (pictured in my SOTD).

To complete my shave, I tried yet another new-to-me creation, Meleg's Very Cherry Rose Chocolate Patchouli, which I found surprisingly great (considering the gourmandy notes in the name): the chocolate backbone connects to the main inspiration of Nevermore, while the other notes entertain a subtle and hypnotic dance that resonates with the cherry element in Dickens (Revisited).

FOF

And this could be the revisited song for that hypnotic dance.

SWEET JUNE

Anyone who's ever had a rice tart
Wouldn't turn around and diss it
And anyone who loved cocoa with their heart
Wouldn't turn around and hate it

Sweet June, sweet June
Oh, sweet, sweet June

You're thinking of chips in your cookies
Your Nevermore smells just like them back home
You're splashing down with Dickens
And thinking of cherries back home

Sweet June, sweet June
Oh, sweet, sweet June

Anyone who's ever had a cherry
Anyone who's ever had a rice tart
Anyone who's ever been gingerbread-hungry
And anyone who's ever loved pastry art

Sweet June, sweet June
Oh, sweet, sweet June

Heavenly cherry and roses
Seem to whisper with chocolate
Heavenly cherry and roses
Seem to whisper with chocolate

La-la-la-la, la-la-la
La-la-la, la-la-la
Na-na-na-na, na-na-na
Na-na-na, na-na-na

Sweet June
Sweet, sweet June

TODAY'S CHALLENGE

No issues shaving in the kitchen: there's a sink, all it lacks (at least in my kitchen) is a mirror, but my tablet's front camera solved the issue.
No, I didn't use any kitchen tool to prepare my shave, mainly because today I was using another untested product for the first time: the tiny Stanhome restored and re-knotted by TSF. To me, the handle looks a lot like a caramel pudding, and I couldn't think of any other tool to make my first TSF lather. It felt like shaving with a toy, and I wouldn't use it every day, but it was fun and it contributed to the slightly nostalgic mood dominated by classic authors and memories of past pastries.

ROTY

Detected Items:

Razor: Rex - Ambassador [#CNC, #ADJUSTABLE ]
Brush: Vintage STANHOME restored and reknotted by Talent Soap Factory 20mm [#RUNT, #SMOLL, #FRANKENBRUSH ]
Lather: Talent Soap Factory - Nevermore
Post Shave: Barrister and Mann - Dickens, Revisited
Fragrance: Meleg - Very Cherry Rose Chocolate Patchouli (sample)

This SOTD is part of the challenge

Lather Games 2024