Razor: John Clarke & Son Sheffield 3/4″
Brush: Spiffo Two Band Badger
Soap: Declaration Grooming Nefertiti
Aftershave: Chatillon Lux Nefertiti Toner
Other: Thirsty Badger lather bowl
It has been a while since I last used a Declaration Grooming product, and I’ve yet to use the new Icarus base. So you can imagine how quick I jumped at this when I saw it posted on a Buy/Sell/Trade group. This offering, Nerfertiti, is another collaboration with Chatillon Lux who creates the scent and released the matching post shave products.
The scent on this one is inspired by the compositions of Miles Davis. It seemed rather fitting to do this shave while our Saskatoon Jazz Festival is happening. Scent notes on this are honey, orchid leaf, jasmine, kyphi incense, jazz cigarette, immortelle absolute, oud, vetiver and musk. I would describe it as a sweet, luxurious, Arabian scent. It is a very pleasant scent, but not really something in my wheelhouse. You get the honey and jasmine right up front, followed by a slightly floural incence scent. This is all anchored by a base of oud, vetiver and musk. I wouldn’t say this is a dark scent, it would be more along the lines of sweet and rich.
Performance on the soap base is fantastic. I’m not sure I would say the base is an improvement over the bison tallow base I had previous experience with, but it isn’t a step back either. The soap loads and lathers very easily and you get a lower structure/glossy result. Slickness both lathered and residual are excellent and the post shave is quite nice. It had been a while since I last used the straight but with the high quality software I had no issues and could have skipped the post shave if I chose to.
With the matching Chatillon Lux aftershave toner available, why would I? The scent on this is a bang on match with the soap. The post shave feels fantastic, no burn, and the skin is left feeling soft and silky. A fantastic shave. I’m not sure I will keep this around as the scent really isn’t something I would use often, but I do think I will have to keep these artisans on watch for something more my style.
All for now,
J
