Zingari Man | The Blacksmith
Leo Frilot Tru-Stone Copper Matrix | AP Shave Co. SynBad 30mm
The New Improved Schick Injector Razor | Personna 74
Bulgari Man | In Black
The Blacksmith is an r/Wetshaving exclusive and my first experience with a Zingari Man product. In terms of fragrance, it's inspired by the popular men's fragrance Bulgari Man In Black. I blind bought both The Blacksmith and In Black at the same time since the profile (amber, spices, rum, leather, guaiac wood) would very likely be in my wheelhouse. The Blacksmith arrived several days before In Black, so I spent a few days applying the matching Zingari Sego After Shave Balm as a post-shower moisturizer. I'm really impressed with The Blacksmith's fragrance. The soap and balm smell the same to my nose, and I feel like the soap is lightly scented which seems appropriate for this kind of fragrance. An authentic warm, weathered leather is a prevailing undercurrent, but it never overrides the other notes. A dark, spiced rum with judicious sweetness makes a respectable sustained presence. For you rum-heads, think smoky Brugal Leyenda as opposed to syrupy Captain Morgan Private Stock. Otherwise The Blacksmith allows the booze to burn off, leaving a bed of spicy warm amber in the dry down. And that dry down lasts just a little bit longer than it takes to get dressed. Certainly, a balm is never intended to be a fragrance offering any notable longevity, but it absolutely left me anticipating the Bulgari EdP that influenced it.
Unfortunately, Bulgari Man In Black is a bit of a disappointment. The leather just smells fake. The spiced rum is done well, but I detect a musty iris note that I do not experience in the Zingari The Blacksmith balm or soap. It's almost as if Bulgari is trying to impart musk while being determined to avoid anything animalic. This is purely subjective, of course, and I admit both iris and orris have been a personal point of contention with other fragrances. The bottom line is, while The Blacksmith and In Black share similarities, I find The Blacksmith to be a more pleasant fragrance. In the future, I will probably complement this set with Zoologist's Rhinoceros.
In terms of performance, Zingari Man's Sego tallow base is immediately competitive with the top artisan soaps. Customary preliminary test lathers reveal this base demands relatively large amounts of water. Anything short of this yields a serviceable, dense lather, albeit suboptimal. At this stage, you can almost double the water to experience a truly luxurious, creamy, glistening lather. In practice, Sego is remarkably slick on my skin but it doesn't carry over to slippery gear as can sometimes be problematic for a shower shaver with an all-metal razor. Residual slickness is equally impressive, permitting low-risk revisiting of areas devoid of visible lather. Not surprisingly, the post-shave is very nice as well, making a post product redundant.
I'll probably always prefer splashes---alcohol or otherwise---over balms, but the Sego balm is an extraordinary product. As previously noted, I used this balm for a few days prior to using the soap. The results on non-shave days clearly make my stubble softer, but also make my skin feel the same way it feels when I've just shaved with the Sego soap. For best results, your skin should be fairly damp as you apply a very small amount of balm. I found a single-pump dose was more than adequate to cover my scalp, face, and neck. I assume face-only shavers may need to distribute the excess to their arms and hands which is hardly a negative.
Speaking of negatives, I always have to do this unfortunate part with my inaugural use of an artisan's product. Fortunately, these are minor. The balm pump mechanism is finicky. Initially, I could not get it to prime. In fact, with my first two uses, I had to remove the pump and apply the product directly from the stem. Ultimately, I fiddled with it, disassembled it, and finally got it working correctly. The soap's label seems to have fallen victim to shipment and handling battle wounds as evidenced by scratches, feathered edges, and scuffs. Had the art been a lighter color, it would not have been so photogenic. As it is, the faux texturing in the image obscures these imperfections with some biased photography. (The balm's label is flawless, by the way.) See, I told you they were minor.
Overall, I'm very pleased with my introduction to Zingari Man products both in terms of fragrance execution and performance. I congratulate r/wetshaving for using your platform to introduce this artisan to more wet shavers.
You make some of the best lather pictures on line IMO. Big D also likes to make stellar lather also. I do enjoy the effort you guys put into lathering.
Hey, thanks for your appreciation! I am glad you enjoyed it. It's a great place here to be able to share...
