July 16, 2023
- Brush: AP Shave Co. – Blue/Clear Handle with Oumo 26mm Horse #HORSEASS
- Razor: C.V. Heljestrand 6/8 Straight #STR8SNOB
- Lather: Summer Break Soaps – Picture Day
- Post Shave: House of Mammoth - Beloved
- Fragrance: Tommy Hilfiger - Tommy
- Music: Yellowcard – Ocean Avenue
We’re over the halfway point and I feel like the best is yet to come from everyone. From me, there’s more interviews, more memes, and more over the top ridiculousness. Hopefully no more ice bath shaves, but if u/MrTangerinesky comes at me again, he’s getting the smoke again. I’m not above doing a month of Spite Shaves.
Today, I shaved with Summer Break Soaps’ Picture Day (RIP in Peace). Gone too soon. Barbershop scents can be tough because it seems like every single soapmaker has “their own” barbershop, yet so many just use Crafter's Choice™ Barber Shoppe - EO & FO Blend 123. Seriously, go to this Thirsty Badger Dupe list, and type “barber shoppe” in the search bar. And that’s just the ones they know about!! Boring! Maybe SBS thought the same thing because Picture Day is now uNoBtAnIuM. Did I do that alternating letters thing right? Sucks because I really enjoy this soap, buuuut, life goes on. Well, not for Picture Day…. But you get the point.
Today, I’m really happy to be using Picture Day. It’s a great barbershop style scent. It’s a little floral, a little earthy, and a little powdery. It’s really a well-balanced scent. No surprise to any of us, because Summer Break only makes top-notch stuff. I decided to pair it with Beloved from House of Mammoth. It’s heavy on the Lavender and shares a touch of Bergamot with Picture Day, and has a woodiness that goes great with the oak moss and patchouli from the soap, but is a good bit sweeter, thanks to Beloved’s immortelle absolute (which smells like honey), but it’s a good combo. And to finish the routine for the day, I sprayed on Tommy Hilfiger’s Tommy. It has an obscenely not creative name, but it also shares bergamot, mint, and lavender notes with the aftershave to make a nice #FOF combination.
For the challenge. You want the memes? I got the memes. I thought about doing a some memes dedicated to my Spite Shave, but I’ve already proved my point to MrTangerinesky. Then I thought about dedicating that Chapelle meme to either u/cowzilla3 for Old Spice Dupes or u/Enndeegee for Spice Girls gifs. But then, I opted to stick to something we can all agree on. Something we can all unite with: 10 memes about how awful PAA is. But I'm not done! I have one more meme left in my tank... Quite possibly the most impressive meme for meme day that's ever memed:
Bringing a Meme Soap to life.
That's right! Remote Learning is becoming a reality. The inmates are running the asylum and I'm leading the charge for Doritos Soap and Mountain Dew Splash. You're welcome, r/wetshaving.
For the #photocontest, I’m going with Story/thematic as Joker finally has the jump on Batman. Robin is trapped under a giant bottle of splash and Batgirl is trapped under a frag! How will Batman escape??
And of course, I have an awesome interview today! I talked with Kyle from Summer Break Soaps. For me, SBS is about fun and nostalgia. Taking us all back to a time when this were… Simple. And all of Kyle’s scents tell a story or evoke a feeling. That is not easy to do. And on top of all that, Kyle is one of us, posting in the Lather Games threads, tossing out gifs and memes like it’s nobody’s business. This is a great interview that you won’t want to scroll by and I’m so glad Kyle decided to take part. Thank you, u/rocketk455! You are a great part of this community!
10 Questions with... Summer Break Soaps
1) As a student, Summer break is no question the best break, yet Spring Break seems to get the most hype. Why do you think that is?
I've basically been in school for 30ish years now. In all that time I've noticed a lot of patterns. One of those is that the month of February absolutely sucks. Teachers and students are tired, its cold, days are short, and summer is so so far away. Spring Break comes along at the perfect time to provide hope that summer is in fact getting closer and that the weather is finally getting better.
2) I would always wait until like the last day of Summer Break before school went back into session to try to bang out the entire summer reading list (shoutout Cliff Notes for saving me on more than one occasion.) What percent of students do you think actually do the summer reading?
Honestly, I don't think anyone around here even bothers to assign summer readings because absolutely no one would do them. You and your Cliff Notes might be the only person in the history of always that actually at least kind of did the readings.
3) When you aren’t using your own soaps/splashes, what are your other favorite brands/scents to use?
Several years ago when I was a peak thrill I decided to mostly limit my purchases to only brands that have a presence here on r/wetshaving. After SBS, Declaration is a solid 2nd place as far as amount of stuff that I own. I very much enjoy all other Reddit artisans as well.
4) Which is your favorite SBS scent that you’ve released?
It’s interesting how the answer to this has changed. The answer was always Picture Day previously, but I've kind of gotten tired of barbershop scents. Right now, it is probably Woodshop. I just really enjoy how that came together especially since it was years and years in the making. I also really like International Studies.
5) Real talk: How many people do I need to get to committed to buying a set of Remote Learning for you to do a limited run?
Making small batches of soap is a huge pain, but you find me 10ish or more people to buy it, and I'll make it.
(INTERVIEW CONTINUED IN THE REPLY)