The Blades Grim has launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund their Shave Scents “Alchemy” kit, where you can mix-and-match scent oils with their (unscented) shaving soap to create your own scent profiles. I was lucky enough to get a pre-production sample to indulge my inner mad scientist.
Shaving Alchemy
Along with a puck of their unscented soap and an inexpensive brush I got a set of 12 scents in the kit:
- Smolder – “a warm and toasty accord of creamy camphorous notes, subtle hints of citrus and a masculine gourmand base.”
- Cinder – “bergamot, lemon, fir, and geranium with a hint of wood, leather, and musk”
- C4 – “a blended citrus infusion (Lime, Lemon, Orange and Grapefruit) with a hint of sweet spice.”
- Vanilla – vanilla
- Mahogany – oak and leather
- 6th Sense – “a light vanilla with lavender”
- Bay Rum – bay rum
- Sandalwood – sandalwood
- Tobacco – pipe tobacco
- Hot Chocolate – chocolate
- Toxxxic – “A salty mariner, grass stain, lettuce, sea moss, and sweet grass”
- Vanilla Ice – vanilla & menthol
More scents are in the planning stages. The idea here is to be able to add a scent to an otherwise unscented shave lather. Want a mild scent? Add just a drop from the bottle. Want a stronger scent? Add a few more drops. The actual mixing process takes place when you lather in a mug/scuttle or on the brush itself (you wouldn’t want to put a drop directly on the soap puck because that might leave a scent behind after use and possibly confuse you on the next use).
Mad Scientist Mixing and Matching
The cool thing is you can also combine scents to make up a completely different profile. Blades Grim suggested a few “recipes” like Cinder and Vanilla (for “Cindernilla” 🙂 ) or Smolder and Bay Rum. I combined Smolder, Hot Chocolate, and Vanilla Ice to make a hot fudge sundae shave lather!
Blades Grim may be opening up a whole new segment for wet shaving artisans with their Alchemist set. I’ll be keeping an eye on the Kickstarter closely while I continue to experiment with the kit. Stay tuned!
