LG SOTD Jun 13, 2024 - BASHING THE WAVES ABOVE THE DUPE DEPTHS
photocontest
Theme: Water vehicles (Painted sailboat by TTAAP, Yellow Submarine figure, BASH dupe boat)
- Brush: Alpha Brush & Shaving Co. - T-400 Blue Shaving Brush with 24mm Synthetic Knot #RESURRECTIONBRUSH
- Razor: Henson - AL-13 Medium Blue #CNC #RAINBOW
- Blade: Gillette - Silver Blue [4]
- Lather: Stirling - BASH - Maggard Meetup 2023 sample soap
- Post Shave: Stirling - BASH - Maggard Meetup 2023 sample aftershave
- Fragrance: Rogue - Bon Monsieur - sample
NEEDLE DROP
BASH!
Ah-ah
Sailor, I'm dupe-averse
BASH!
Ah-ah
You shave without a fuss
BASH!
Ah-ah
You're not typical
BASH!
Ah-ah
Stirling is usable
Lathers for everyone of us
With ease for anyone of us
AS is all 'bout drydown
Every man, every woman, could use the dupe-y BASH!
INTRO
First time for me using Stirling: found it super intuitive to lather, although (understandably, given the lower price per tub) just not as stellar as other artisans' top bases.
I lean dupe-averse, and strongly prefer official collabs between perfumers and shave artisans, but I can understand "applied" dupes of beloved frags when there's no official equivalent in the soap/AS world, although I believe that credit is, in any case, always due, and that artisans are way more deserving of respect when they're not exploiting other creators' work.
However, I try to keep in mind the dupe-evoking paradoxes I shared on my entry on day 2.
THE SCENTS
I am not familiar with Maison Francis Kurkdjian Grand Soir, allegedly the fragrance inspiration for BASH.
Opening the plastic wrapping around the simple I got a whiff of a pleasant amber-vanilla accord. Once lathered, the smell got reduced to a faint hint.
I am happy I dickholed because the AS provided the most unusual experience: at first, you get a strong volatile, fragrance-less alcohol kick. Once it evaporates, the drydown reveals the amber-vanilla accord, and the vanillic notes keep doing a little minimalistic dance, bouncing between the slightly more "dirty" facets and the more rounded and gourmandy ones.
It's like a stripped down version of Catie's Bubbles Miracle, without the Bergamot and Lavender notes.
A pretty long-lasting one, to the point where after a couple of hours I started to feel the need to wash it off, because I don't like scents that overstay their welcome. I would be super curious to try the prestigious model fragrance, Maison Francis Kurkdjian's Grand Soir, to see if from its "Real Deal" heights it does provide more complexity, uniqueness, etc.
My fragrance choice for today's shave goes into a completely different direction: as I used my only declared fragrance dupe (which I bought mainly to test its "solid" form factor) in yesterday's SOTD, today I wanted to continue my celebration of official "originals" that reflect the work of creative perfumers.
Bon Monsieur (which is also available in soap/tonic form as a collab with Zingari) is an official Rogue creation. However, if you are familiar with Drakkar Noir, you may find a striking resemblance.
The twist here is that instead of being a cheaper surrogate, Bon Monsieur is a more expensive and sophisticated reinvention - like when a couturier take inspiration from street fashion and then designs something unique, which looks a bit like the original, but feels totally different.
Someone (whose name bizarrely is not u/cowzilla3) mentioned in the Fragrantica comments that Bon Monsieur smells like Old Spice. I have no frame of reference to comment on that. I'll just say that Bon Monsieur is just the quintessential lavender/wood aromatic fougere.
It's excellent, but for some reason I can't rationalize I don't feel like wearing it, so I won't go beyond sample size.
FOF
SPECIAL CHALLENGE, PLUS BONUS MATERIAL (BONUS MATERIAL COMES FIRST)
As I was planning to use a 2017 piece by Florentine street artist TTAAP for today's photo background, I contacted them to ask for clearance to publish the sailboat featured in my SOTD pic. I mentioned how there are all kinds of soap label art, and ended up making the examples of the two different versions I saw of B+M Passiflora over the last couple of years: the older black/red/white "heart" label, and the new minimalistic black text on magenta background that almost feels Vignellis-inspired.
After this conversation, and having smelled u/BostonPhotoTourist's Passiflora, TTAAP ended up sketching three alt versions of a Passiflora label, that I'm happy to share here even if they are not an entry for today's challenge (all choices were made by the artist only, I cannot take any credit besides sharing my Passiflora trifecta).
Back to today's challenge, my concept for a label for BASH is here in two variants, obtained thru a digital collage of a vanilla pod trapped into an amber ball. These are just concept sketches, not mockups of complete labels with Artisan and Product name.
EDITed for clarity and typos
#ROTY