Great run down of the scent and your’s and your wife’s impressions. Thank you for the tag.
Is it weird that “rotten chewing gum” has me more intrigued than being turned off by it?
Comment on Wednesday SOTD Thread - July 17th, 2024
djundjila@sub.wetshaving.social 5 months ago
Koké Wedgeday
- Brush: Zenith 506B MB (27 mm × 51 mm Manchurian badger)
- Razor: Zwilling J. A. Henckels Friodur 72-V (13/16", quarter hollow or near wedge, stainless steel)
- Lather: Abbate Y La Mantia – Koké
- Post Shave: Abbate Y La Mantia – Koké
The frag description intrigued me so I YOLOed a set of Koké which arrived yesterday. Look at this:
Top notes
- bergamot
- burnet
- rhubarb
Middle Notes
- ginger
- animalic notes
- white pear
Base Notes
- wine leaves
- vanilla from Tahiti
- guaiac wood
Rhubarb with pear and ginger is what caught my eye. The vanilla note worried me a bit (maybe a cloying sweet scent), but the animalic notes seemed unlikely in a sweet fruity frag. I asked around a bit, but it seems this is too new and nobody on the sub, our lemmy, or any @wetshaving follower on the fediverse has tried it yet.
I sniffed the splash fist, and right off the bat I was intrigued. So it is sweet and heavy at first, but not cloying at all. The animalic notes keep it grounded. On the skin, the scent quickly becomes lighter, and fresher. I immediately thought of using this for AA and ran it by my wife with devastating effect: “Oh please don’t use this for August, choose something nice, not this rotten chewing gum”. So that happened.
Experience tells me that not all hope is lost in such situations. Valley of Ashes for instance - “a dirty gas station” off the bottle - gets me “oh you smell nice” if surreptitiously used and inconspicuously flaunted in her presence. Weinstrasse is either “cat piss” or “a whorehouse” when I wear two spritzes or more, but a single spritz is “fresh” or “delicious”.
So this morning’s was an important test shave. First off, I’ve lost track of the soap bases that AYLM has, and this seems to be a new-to me variant of their hard soap base, of which I’ve only previously tried the original first offering in Verbena Toscana. The ingredient lists are identical for the first 11 ingredients and diverge there. This new soap has menthol and cannabis oil here followed by more diverging ingredients. It seems like a small tweak, but it feels like this base creates a creamier lather, or I just got super lucky on my first try. Point is, this lather was dense, wet, and slick. Not anything extraordinary, but solid, leaving nothing to be wished for. The menthol level is low, so low that it took me a while to even notice it.
Really just a wonderful shave with the chonky and smooth Frio wedge. The menthol level in the splash is also low enough not to bother me. Noice.
The wife didn’t complain, even better, it “smells ok on my skin”. Boom.
Not enough to choose it for AA, but definitely enough to keep this around. I count that as a win.
Tagging @sahenders@sub.wetshaving.social and u/Marquis90 who were curious about my first impression.
sahenders@sub.wetshaving.social 5 months ago
PorkButtsNTaters666@sub.wetshaving.social 5 months ago
Is it weird that “rotten chewing gum” has me more intrigued than being turned off by it?
It is weird, but now that you mention it, it’s also odd!y understandable
djundjila@sub.wetshaving.social 5 months ago
Not weird at all. Whenever there’s a polarising scent, I get curious, too.
I mean, somebody made the scent and was convinced it’s so good that people will pay money for it, and others are repulsed by it? That’s automatically interesting 🤨
PorkButtsNTaters666@sub.wetshaving.social 5 months ago
No hemp smell, then?
djundjila@sub.wetshaving.social 5 months ago
Absolutely none, you can buy with confidence😄
PorkButtsNTaters666@sub.wetshaving.social 5 months ago
But do I want to buy it 🤔
djundjila@sub.wetshaving.social 5 months ago
Rest assured agar l that you are free to want to buy it, or not to want to buy it, as long as you do it in full confidence that there’s no hemp smell 👨🏫
gcgallant@sub.wetshaving.social 5 months ago
Now there’s discussion of what I will smell like all of August. I have, many times, pointed out that for years I only used one soap and one aftershave. I have confidence that after Aug. 1, whatever I use will be ignored.
I read up on Koké when you first mentioned it, was interested by the fragrance description, but put off by the menthol. I’m glad to hear that it isn’t overpowering.
djundjila@sub.wetshaving.social 5 months ago
Is your opposition to menthol due to its smell or the cooling effect? The menthol level here is low enough that I couldn’t smell any
gcgallant@sub.wetshaving.social 5 months ago
I don’t care for the cooling effect. The may be just a boomer thing, but I equate cooling with Aqua Velva, and there are only a few scents (e.g. Margaritas in the Arctic) where it is expected. Most of the time, though, I don’t see it as a benefit. Back in the old days Aqua Velva was marketed for its refreshing healing sensation. This implies that your shave is so bad that your skin burns badly when you apply an alcohol aftershave. I have always thought that burning relates to bad technique, or sensitive skin, but was not a “given”. I, therefore, have never seen the necessity to always use a menthol aftershave.
djundjila@sub.wetshaving.social 5 months ago
I feel similarly about it, as you know, but I mind menthol less than the synthetic WS23 which annoys me for the rest of the day. At least the menthol effect is short lived.