Razor: Yaqi Mellon
Blade: Astra Green
Brush: Yaqi Cashmere Synthetic
Soap: First Canadian Shave Dicken’s Cider
Aftershave: First Canadian Shave Dicken’s Cider
Up today, a political incorrect shaving soap, Dicken’s Cider from First Canadian Shave. I’ve been wanting to pick up a product from FCS for a while and just couldn’t pull the trigger on a scent. I’ve used a couple of their old bases and both had some real positives and negatives for me. I was waiting to see if there was a scent that really spoke to me and then I saw FCS had repeated their holiday release of Dicken’s Cider. This year’s release had a few limited quantities of XXX version splash infused with bourbon and aged in charred oak. That seemed like a sign to purchase if there ever was one. If the double entendre namesake doesn’t do it for you, you can pick this set in the Holiday Cider label, although I don’t think the XXX splash is an option.
The scent on this one is warm apple cider, bergamot, fir needle, rosemary, clary sage, almond, gingerbread, and smokey spiced vanilla bourbon. It is an excellent holiday seasonal scent. I get that up from crisp apple, the baking notes of almond and gingerbread and a subtle booziness of the vanilla bourbon. It isn’t overly sweet, it doesn’t make me think of straight up sweet apple pie. This kind of reminds me of the Apple Pie shots I would get at my local drinking establishment in my younger days…. with a ginger cookie chaser. Scent strength off the tub was on the lighter side of medium but jumped up to the stronger side of medium once hit with water and brush.
The base on this is on the softer side, more-so than I was expecting given the appearance. I made the mistake of overloading. This particular soap base is a tallow and buffalo milk formula. It took quite a bit of water (unsure if that was the base or the overload, probably a bit of both). I would say this is very much along the lines of the new popular soap bases out there, very fatty, less volume on the lather but ultra creamy, rich and glossy. I LOVED this soap base. Cushion, Slickness (lathered and residual) and post-shave were all excellent. This soap base will compete with any on the market. Two big thumbs up to Randy on this one. Don’t change a thing.
I followed up the shave with the XXX splash. This has a bit of an alcohol burn but nothing major. There is definitely some skin food in there. The scent is dialled up and the apple and boozy notes jump a bit more for me. It has a bit more depth to it from the ageing I believe. I’d say I prefer this over the soap scent but it compliments it perfectly. A fantastic finish to a fantastic shave.
PS – Thanks Randy for all the bonus samples, excited to try more of your scents in this base.
