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.