Razor: Karve CB on C CC
Blade: Wilkinson Sword
Brush: Simms Best Badger
Soap: Hub City Soap Company Chats with Grandpa
Aftershave: Hub City Soap Company Chats with Grandpa
As I mentioned earlier, I recently made it back from a trip to Winnipeg, MB. While I was there I was able to meet up with a couple of fine local gents to have a socially distant beverage and to chat shave. One of those gents was Jonathan from Stonefield Shaving Company, which of course led to a nice big mail call 🙂 Stonefield recently added Hub City Soap Company to their arsenal of products so I decided to pick some up (3 sets in fact). Luckily I had a gift card from a raffle win in my back pocket so I didn’t kill my wallet (this time, lol).
Chats with Grandpa instantly jumped out at me as the scent I wanted to try the most. I enjoyed it so much that I have already used it several times since picking it up less than two weeks ago (with a few other products new to the den untouched as of yet). This particular scent has notes of Amber, Musk, Rum and Bay. To my nose, this is a slightly sweet, powdery and boozy barbershop scent. I really enjoyed it. Scent strength is also dialed up which is a welcome discovery. This instantly brought the Highland Springs Soap Co Barbershop into my mind as similar, but different. They both have that sweet powdery side but this reads a bit more boozy and not as earthy. Both stand alone in the den but would also pair up very well.
Being this was my first go with Hub City Soap Co using their base (Raider) I wanted to get several uses under my belt before I reviewed it. I have to say I’m quite impressed for a first time base. You would think they have been making and improving on soap formulations for years. This dual tallow and goat milk formulation loaded and lathered very easily. It didn’t take a lot of water to dial in either. Resulting lather had excellent slickness (I got a bit on my hands and almost dropped my Karve). Residual slickness was excellent as well. Cushion suffered a touch today but that was user error, I had it over-hydrated a touch (this Simms brush is a bit tricky for me and I was interrupted by a phone call mid lather), Post shave also felt excellent. If I was to put a knock on it, I’d say the labelling is a bit pedestrian, something they just fixed with new artwork. Hub City Soap Co is an artisan you should seriously consider picking up.
The matching post shave was really nice as well. This alcohol/witch hazel base had just enough skin food to do the job proper. No burn so there was some restraint on the alcohol side. Strength was stronger side of medium and has carried now for over an hour. I would say the splash reads a bit less powdery and a bit more Rum/Amber but no complains on that.
Cracking good shave today. All for now – J
