Built on a trio of teas (white, black, and Earl Grey), Tenacity boasts a bright, flavorful blend of apples, ginger, cedar, spice, light citrus, and light florals…
Soap Commander’s Tenacity is going to be one of my top favorites for my evening shaves for the foreseeable future simply because this soap smells AWESOME! Along with the holy trinity of slickness, residual slickness and post shave being superb, it’s going to be hard to beat.
I am no stranger to online purchases. More so when doing so requires stuff to be sent to me half way around the world, and paying a premium in shipping for things I want.
So imagine my surprise when I received an email a day or so after making my order, that I am getting a refund. My first thought was that something I wanted was sold out and I was given a partial refund. So I contacted Soap Commander (Carrie) and I expressed my concern, my email itself wasn’t properly constructed as it was around 2am or so for me and I wasn’t fully awake but I got my message across.
Then came my second surprise. I was told that the reason for the refund was because I was overcharged for shipping. They could have kept quiet, kept the money and I would not have known. Instead, they took the high road and refunded the difference.
For showing Honesty, Integrity and most of all, that you rather take care of your customer first and foremost, I thank you Carrie of Soap Commander. You have made me a life time customer.
ps: Thank you for the hand written note and card, and yes, the package did take a while to get over here, but it is probably one that had to travel the furthest. And just in time for my evening grooming routine. Again, Thank you. – Steven
Future Fiction: Citrus (Lemon, Bergamot & Mandarin Orange), White Musk, Jamaican Ginger, White Pepper, Haitian Vetiver, Hiba Wood, Honey Amber, Black Sage, Peppermint, Jerusalem Pine
Future Fiction is a bright scent. I am not sure if the batch I got was a little light on the scent, but the stuff I received is the weakest compared to all my other PAA’s offerings. I do need to be a little more liberal in application of both Cologne Aftershave and the Solid Cologne to get the same “scent cloud” effect than compared against say John Frum for example.
But that aside, this is a great scent. Very wearable, it’s not intrusive, it’s clean, bright and still comes forward as a male’s scent from the mix of citrus, spice and musk. You definitely can wear this in place of a designer scent. Personally I would like to see that the scent gets a boost up a notch in strength but that is my take. YMMV. For anyone looking for a good subtle scent to wear, highly recommend giving this a try. (get a cologne sample vial)
Brushes, bristles and price.
Having used both the G4 and the Manchurian Macy’s and comparing them against the Oumo SHD Silvertips, I have to say that the G4 is definitely the winner of the three.
While the Manchurian has really good backbone, the G4’s ability to just make lather explode whether you are bowl lathering or face lathering is just too awesome and at times I even feel that it edges the Oumo out somewhat by simply being able to paint your lather on evenly and easily without any scratchy feeling while still holding enough lather in its bristles to complete several passes.
I do however, prefer to go back to the bowl and generate a fresh brush full before each application. Its the cheapest brush of the lot, and at $25 before discount, it’s definitely the “Best Buy”. The Macy Dual band Manchurian Badger and Oumo’s SHD Silvertip badgers are $34.00 and $60.00 respectively.
Having said that, the Oumo is a larger brush at 26mm and the better brush if you need a brush that’ll hold a ton of lather. But price vs performance,
Bowl : Van Yulay Resin
Brush : Friendship Shaving’s Macy G4 Synthetic by Frank Shaving
Together with Atomic Bay Rum, Al Fin was my first purchase from Phoenix Artisan Accouterments. It was a blind buy, just the soap and aftershave set. To say that I fell in love with the scent when I used it, is an understatement.
Rose, Bay Leaf, Lemon Myrtle, Vetiver, White Clover, Cypress, helichrysum, Ambrette, Geranium and Tobacco Absolute.
This is a bright tobacco scent. Open fresh, as it dries you get your floral and a herbs and then settles with tobacco, rose, a little sweetness and a light touch of vetiver holding the scent together. A balance of light and dark.
Bowl : Van Yulay Resin
Brush : Friendship Shaving’s Macy Dual Band Manchurian Badger by Frank Shaving
Pre-Shave : Shower, PAA’s The Cube Mentholated
Soap : PAA’s Al Fin
Razor : PAA’s Copper DOC w/Bic Platinum Blade (1)
Post Shave : PAA’s Al Fin Star Jelly Aftershave and Aftershave Cologne
Not much I can say about this other then it is different. Personally, I would have preferred if the strength of the scent on the cologne to be a little stronger but that’s just me. It is unique, kind of like sage, oud and smokey blackcurrants all got together and had a party.
Bowl : Van Yulay Resin
Brush : Friendship Shaving’s Macy Dual Band Manchurian Badger
Pre-Shave : Shower, PAA’s The Cube Mentholated
Soap : PAA’s Copalli
Razor : Rockwell 6S-R4 w/Bic Platinum Blade (1)
Post Shave : PAA’s Copalli Star Jelly, Cologne Aftershave
Others : PAA’s Copalli Deodorant and Epic Solid Cologne
I needed this shave. It’s a little over 32°c or about 90°f and its humid as heck. Nothing beats a cold shower and just soaking in the cold on days like this. And the notes of the soap are :
The play on these “prime” notes though create a ton of scent notes within the scent imagery that you will smell. Its a very fresh scent. You’d smell ozone, grass, fresh water, ferns, wood freshly broken, rich wet earth, cold wind… Its hard to describe unless you have smelt it or worn the scent for a day and you will probably need a day to catch all the notes. Heck I have worn this on more than a few occasions and I still sometimes think I smell something new as the scent dry down. I do recommend however to get the mentholated version. While the non mentholated version is fine, with menthol, holy crap, the experience is something else.
“Let there be life. ” She said. With a breath, Mother Gaia breathed and her breath ran down the mountain gathering frost and snow till her breath reached the warm air of the lowlands bringing rain, wet earth, new life. And life bloomed, with all the beauty that is Mother Earth.”
Also a note of caution. Monica’s cologne is potent stuff. Just a little will do. I once went a little overboard and sprayed a little too much. Pretty sure I got a little high from the scent fumes.
And finally the blade started to leave micro stubble behind. Minor issue, just an additional clean up pass and those were cleared. No feedback from the Alum, glass BBS shave.
Bowl : Van Yulay Resin
Brush : Friendship Shaving’s Macy Dual Band Manchurian Badger by Frank Shaving
Lazy off day shave. Been a while since I used Soap Commander and I was very quickly reminded why I am getting more of their soaps. Amazing slickness, amazing residual slickness and great post shave. And of course scent. I’m a scent guy and they don’t disappoint. Endurance being the old Shulton Old Spice, and a dead ringer at that. I was able to compare to my vintage 1980s-ish Old Spice EDT before P&G reformulated and made Old Spice a shadow of itself.
Thanks Stephen Davidson for pointing me towards them.
If you have never used soap commander, you need to at least give them a try. It is a shame that I can’t ship their aftershaves due to shipping issues but I can make do with the balms which finishes the shave in good order.
I am expecting a package from them soon and I’ll go into more detail on another post why they won me over as a life customer.
Bic blade is on its 6th use and still going strong. Still holding it’s edge and not feeling like it’s scraping the skin off which is a concern for BBS chasers. Zero feedback on the alum. For those who want a Feather alternative, I’d highly recommend Bics.
Bowl : Van Yulay Resin
Brush : Friendship Shaving’s Macy G4 Synthetic by Frank Shaving
Pres-Shave : Bluebeard’s Revenge Pre-Shave oil
Soap : Soap Commander’s Endurance (Old Spice)
Razor : Rockwell 6S -R4 w/Bic Platinum Blade (6)
Post Shave : P&G Old Spice Aftershave, Soap Commander Endurance Aftershave Balm
If you like musk, if you are a muskhead, this is one of the soaps (and she makes an even stronger one that’s just musk) you might want to get. Ginger’s Garden’s British Empire is as much a White Musk bomb as the old Dior’s Eau Sauvage EDP was a Myrrh bomb. And boy does her scent last a long, long time. Application of her cologne will last you at least 8 hours. Last time I used this, I was a little too liberal with the spray and almost 12 hours later, my clothes were still giving off that musky scent.
Of course this time I know better and a just one spray will do. I’ll probably still smell of musk even by the time I go to bed but hey, I am not complaining.
I will experiment layering this with PAA’s Supreme Sandalwood Science to see if I can tame that musk a little with a deeper sandalwood base in the future though. Or maybe with something Fougere / Floral.
R5 plate with a Bic blade. Holy crap what was I thinking?! I really felt that blade going over the skin and if the lather was less then stellar, I’d be punished for it. Thankfully, Irena’s Argan base soaps are slick as heck and I had no weepers but it was a very, very close shave. No pun intended.
I really can’t believe that people were complaining that the R5-R6 plates weren’t aggressive enough. Put a feather or Bic in there and you tell me if its not “aggressive” enough. Alum application had a very slight sting, which told me that I almost paid for the Glass BBS chase. Worth it though.
Bowl : Van Yulay Resin
Pre-shave : Shower, Blue Beard’s Revenge Shave Oil
Brush : Friendship Shaving’s Macy Dual Band Manchurian Badger
Soap : Ginger’s Garden’s British Empire
Razor : Rockwell 6S-R5 w/Bic Platinum (5)
Post shave Ginger’s Garden’s British Empire Aftershave and Balm
Others : Ginger’s Garden British Empire Cologne spray
Got tagged to come in for the midnight shift, so 4+ hours of sleep and its time to clean up before heading off for work. Usually my evening shaves would be one of the non dress-up “scents essentials”, and I wondered if I should include this as part of the “A series of scents” and thought, might as well, since scents and the love for scents does not have to be only of products from design houses. Our Shaving Artisans make really damn fine stuff.
Which brings us to John Frum. Scent profile is : Sicilian Cedrat, Black Pepper, Sea Salt, Ambergris, Royal Hawaiian Sandalwood, Kava Kava, White Musk & Animalic Musk.
And Holy crap is this one fantastic Sandalwood musk scent. And I love solid colognes, for many reasons, one of which is the ease that one can reapply at any time, anywhere with as little fuss without annoying any around you unless they don’t like the way you smell, unlikely as that is.
Bowl : Van Yulay Resin
Preshave : Shower, PAA’s The Cube Mentholated
Brush : Friendship Shaving’s Macy G4 Synthetic by Frank Shaving
Soap : PAA’s John Frum
Razor : PAA’s Copper DOC w/Bic Platinum Blade (4)
Post Shave : PAA’s John Frum’s Star Jelly Aftershave Balm and Aftershave Cologne
Others : PAA’s John Frum’s Deodorant and Epic Solid Cologne
The scent of Orange, Grapefruit, Cedar, a little spice, throw in some vetiver with a little warm sweetness and holy crap what a juice!
Razorock’s Son of Zeus did a pretty good job with this, while you can tell that it’s not a “quality” clone, you can’t mistake it for what it tries to be. To be clear it is missing or the balance of woods, spice and that warm sweetness isn’t right, but I’d put this one as “good enough” and even if you don’t use the EDP / EDT that inspired it, you’ll still smell damn fine regardless.
A word on the EDT / EDP though, for those who have never used it, its a freaking beast and one that screams “HERE I AM!! LOOK AT ME!!! LOOOOOOKKKK ATTTT MEEEEEEE!!!” (or apply 1 to 2+/- hours before going out to allow scent to mellow somewhat) Projection, sillage and longevity are nuts.
If you don’t like loud and long lasting at that, scents, just using the aftershave might be a good idea if you just want to kind of smell of Hermes Terre D Hermes without having a scent bubble the size of Texas.
Bowl : Van Yulay Resin
Brush : Oumo SHD Silvetip Badger (love this brush but I really need to use a bigger bowl with it)
Soap : Razorock Son of Zeus
Razor : PAA’s Copper DOC w/Bic Platinum blade (3)
Post Shave : Razorock Son of Zeus Aftershave, Prep
Steve's Wet Shaving in Singapore 