Razor: ALE 9/8″ 1/2 hollow
Brush: Oz Shaving Synthetic
Soap: Oleo Soapworks New City Back of the Yards
Aftershave: Oleo Soapworks New City Back of the Yards
Other: Thirsty Badger lather bowl
This SOTD post is a few days late…… we added a puppy to our family late last week and the weekend has been a bit of a blur training and getting our new girl on a family schedule. I was able to get this SOTD done as a live shave on CWS but I didn’t get a chance to photograph and post until now.
Tom Ford Tuscan Leather is one of my favourite scents. I absolutely love the scent and funny enough, I discovered it by a shave soap…. RazoRock Tuscan Oud. And while the scent is a big win for me, the performance of RazoRock soaps for me are been about average. They perform well enough but now that I have experienced more artisans I find their soap leaving me wanting more. Given my love for the scent I was on the lookout for other artisans that did this scent and once I discovered that Oleo had a version (via a submission on my Fragrance Homage page) I wanted to pick up the set.
Oleo New City is an homage to Tom Ford Tuscan Leather with notes of Raspberry, Saffron, Thyme, Jasmine, Frankincense, Amber, Woods, Leather, and Black Suede. It compares quite well to the RazoRock Tuscan Oud scent but the raspberry note is much more pronounced. The DNA is definitely the same though. Scent strength is about a medium. One thing that surprises me is how little I hear about Oleo considering how well it performs. While this might not be the ultra fatty luxury base some of the new soaps are showing, this is one of the easiest lathers and hits all the high points in the areas of slickness and cushion. I’d say the only thing that wasn’t elite level for me was post shave, which was still excellent. I will give up a touch of post shave for the lather-ability. This was dead simple to load and dial in a fantastic lather. This has seriously leapt into the class with other elite performing soaps in my den and might be my new go to for starting new wet shavers.
Sadly, the post shave is a bit of a let down compared to the soap. It is a pretty basic alcohol and fragrance aftershave base. The scent on this is almost all raspberry to my nose. Skin food is pretty much non existent, so this doesn’t pick up any slack a shave soap may leave in the post shave department. Scent on this is also a touch on the light side and due to the presence of menthol, slightly masked from the soap. I honestly think for future shaves I’ll pair the soap with the RazoRock Tuscan Oud aftershave, also a simple alcohol splash but with no menthol and a more present Tom Ford Tuscan Leather scent.
No complaints on the shave itself though, nice and smooth. A quick touch up pass with the Rockwell 6s and I was pretty much ready to go…. and back to the dog training.
I also hear that Wholly Kaw Italian Holiday is also in this scent style so I’ll be on the lookout to give that a try in the future. I’ll keep you posted when I get a chance to give it a try. All for now – J
