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Southern Witchcraft sample haul

A friend of mine mentioned he'd been looking at some of the Southern Witchcraft soaps, and I impulsively went out and purchased a few of their samples. Yesterday I got a lovely treat in the mail.

The samples I picked up were Desairology, Pomona, Carpathia, and Tres Matres. This morning I scooped a small amount of Tres Matres into my shave bowl and tried it out. First, we can discuss scent ... it was simply lovely and complex. SW describes it as having notes of Amber, Oakmoss, Damp Earth, Rosewood, Lavender, Almond, Calla lily, Cotton, Aldehydes, Grapefruit, Ginger, Ambergris, Ozone, Peach. You get the damp earth note but it is wonderfully softened by the florals and fruit. It's not your everyday soap scent for sure, but the more I spend time with it the better I like it. The lather was easy to create even using one of my inexpensive badger brushes. The performance had everything I look for ... the wetness, slickness, protection, etc were all within my normal expectations even though I suspect I didn't initially load enough product. In an unfair test I also subjected it to a razor head I've only used twice and that is a notch more aggressive than my normal razor heads. I ended up with a lovely shave that due to the newer head I'm testing was quite close.

I look forward to using Desairology tomorrow. It has a take on sandalwood that is interesting to me and it is actually the scent I initially liked the most on the first examination. Pomona smells like a potpourri bag in a good way since I typically detest potpourri but seem to like this. Carpathia is going to be the scent I have to wrap my head around how much I want it on my face but I think it may grow on me. It leads with a very strong 'wet pavement' scent that has some notes behind it that keeps it a little sharp. I may have to lather it to get a real take on it.

I can definitely see myself purchasing a full tub of whatever scent wins my heart during this sample run. Even with only one shave, I can tell this is quality stuff.
 

Ad Astra

The Instigator
You'll love the performance, their base is excellent.

Have to say Pomona is my favorite, glad I got the aftershave too.

Samhain is a classic pumpkin spice thing, Fougere Nemeta is a really nice fougere/Berry accord. I admit Lycanthropy is a bit strong but fun when the mood strikes. Their stuff is great.


AA
 
I used Tres Matres again today and increased the amount of soap used and also used one of my RR synthetic brushes. The resulting lather was nigh near perfect. Smooth, wet, thick, and slick.

This is simply an outstanding performer.
 
I started with their samples too, fast forward to now, and I have all of their regular offerings, plus the recent special releases! I never new a vegan base could be so good, and all of their scents appeal to my spooky side :)
 
I went camping with the Scouts this weekend so I had a three day batch of whiskers to test SW Pomona on this morning. First I have to talk scent, and to keep it brief it’s simply a superb fruity spicy potpourri blend of awesome. Performance is also very good. An almond sized scoop and a synthetic brush whipped up a great lather that let the Polsilver in the Rockwell 6C mow through the 3 day growth on my face, and post shave feel was great after a weekend spent outside in windy cool weather. I’m not missing the tallow in this vegan soap base at all.
 
And now for a different take on Southern Witchcrafts. I impulsively purchased a Druantia set (soap and as).

The maker describes it as follows:
"A tribute to the druid celebration of the Winter Solstice or “Yule”, Druantia is woodsy and spicy scent perfect for crisp Winter days.

Scent notes: Cedar, Oakmoss, Rosewood, Moss, Cypress, Tobacco, Fungus, Sandalwood, Mitsutake, Myrrh, Amber, Orange, Ginger"

What I get is Nutter Butter. This is not a scent that I want on my face. I would say the performance is acceptable but the scent really turns me off. I will not be purchasing any more of their products.
 
I really like the Southern Witchcrafts soaps. Their scents in the tub are not the same once you start lathering. It's an interesting phenomenon that I hadn't experienced often with soap. For me the scent opens up and I can detect more notes than when sitting in the tub. I had that experience with Wild West soaps as well.
 
And now for a different take on Southern Witchcrafts. I impulsively purchased a Druantia set (soap and as).

The maker describes it as follows:
"A tribute to the druid celebration of the Winter Solstice or “Yule”, Druantia is woodsy and spicy scent perfect for crisp Winter days.

Scent notes: Cedar, Oakmoss, Rosewood, Moss, Cypress, Tobacco, Fungus, Sandalwood, Mitsutake, Myrrh, Amber, Orange, Ginger"

What I get is Nutter Butter. This is not a scent that I want on my face. I would say the performance is acceptable but the scent really turns me off. I will not be purchasing any more of their products.

Their scents are polarizing. Druantia is my absolute favorite fall/winter scent. I love everything about it. OP - Carpathia is different. To me it smells a bit like potpourri. But as others have said, they tend to smell different when lathered.
 
You'll love the performance, their base is excellent.

Have to say Pomona is my favorite, glad I got the aftershave too.

Samhain is a classic pumpkin spice thing, Fougere Nemeta is a really nice fougere/Berry accord. I admit Lycanthropy is a bit strong but fun when the mood strikes. Their stuff is great.


AA
I ordered Samhain from a Canadian distributor: (TOTC). I'm looking forward for that soap and aftershave to arrive. I'll take a break for a few days from my Proraso challenge. I'm looking forward to a nice change of pace.
Paul D
 
I really like the Southern Witchcrafts soaps. Their scents in the tub are not the same once you start lathering. It's an interesting phenomenon that I hadn't experienced often with soap. For me the scent opens up and I can detect more notes than when sitting in the tub. I had that experience with Wild West soaps as well.
The only soap I've noticed a change of scent while lathering is Proraso Red.
 
And now for a different take on Southern Witchcrafts. I impulsively purchased a Druantia set (soap and as).

The maker describes it as follows:
"A tribute to the druid celebration of the Winter Solstice or “Yule”, Druantia is woodsy and spicy scent perfect for crisp Winter days.

Scent notes: Cedar, Oakmoss, Rosewood, Moss, Cypress, Tobacco, Fungus, Sandalwood, Mitsutake, Myrrh, Amber, Orange, Ginger"

What I get is Nutter Butter. This is not a scent that I want on my face. I would say the performance is acceptable but the scent really turns me off. I will not be purchasing any more of their products.
I want to try that one as well but is currently sold out so they'll email me when it's back in stock. From the description it sounds really interesting and I'd like to give a shot. I totally get the turn off as far as scent is concerned. For me, my kryptonite is TOBS Sandalwood cream. That is the only one that my wife strongly recommended that I never use again..
 
I finally got around to using Desairology this morning. Today was another shave after skipping a few mornings so that is always a good test. I used a new ( to this soap ) brush this morning - a Vulfix Grosvenor badger/boar mix and it had no problem whipping up a creamy lather from the almond sized knurdle I scooped out of the sample container.

The shave itself was easy and smooth. I was using my SLOC with a Polsilver blade and that is a very nondramatic combo on my face while being oddly efficient. I shaved through my normal routine with a bit of touch up and got a pretty much perfect result. It’s obvious to me at this point that the SW base is above average in all the qualities I look for ( residual slickness is off the chain and the SLOC just enhances that ).

Now to talk about scent. I like this scent without deeply loving it. I think it’s a great fall/winter scent but those aren’t always in my wheelhouse and I just like their Tres Matres and Pomona better. I let my wife smell it and it was a similar reaction - good without being one of her favorites. I don’t always appreciate scents with Sandalwood in them. That said if I had a full tub it is actually good enough that I’d use it up with no complaints.

So I’m down to Carpathia last. I’ll report back on it.
 
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I used Pomona this morning, and get a bit of Apple scent, which is nice. The only other tub I have is Autumn Ash, which has a very strong scent that I can smell all day, which I like. The scent itself I initially really liked, but it's appeal is diminishing for me.
 
I used Samhain for the first time today and I really like everything about it. Super easy to build a lather, excellent cushion, felt great on my face and head. Even after rinsing my skin was feeling nice and slick. The aftershave felt amazing and I really like the scent. Samhain is a definite winner in my book.
 
OK. Used Carpathia this morning.

The lather was simply fantastic. I loaded a smidge more soap into my lather bowl than I have with the other samples and slowly added water as I felt it needed as I built it. I was rewarded with plenty of wet and delicious end product. It was thick, protective, slick, and simply felt 'right' ( whatever that is but as soon as it hit my face I was thinking 'yeah this is dialed in' ).

The scent is probably where I'm partially confused. It's strong and unique. An hour after shaving I put on some PPE at work and was still picking up robust hints of it. I feel like I don't like it a lot initially, but I don't dislike it and I also feel like it's interesting enough to see if it is a scent I develop a liking for from reuse. It's described as Evergreen forest, musk, herbs, rose, coffee, black tea and by evergreen forest think walking through a deep dark forest after a full day of rain. I get a strong note of dark wet earth that isn't unpleasant, but at the same time, it's not a scent I usually consider one of my faves. I'm going to reuse and see what develops.

So - I've used all 4 of the samples I purchased. I've decided the SW base is a very nice and obviously well-crafted shave product that delivers a well-balanced product that provides enjoyable and safe shaves and feels fantastic while doing it. It is very slick during the shave, and post-shave slickness was noticeable as I did buffing and cleanup. Creating lather from small samples is always a balancing act since I usually load from large pucks, but I did get the idea that maybe more is better with the SW base but not to the point where it surprised me.

Scents are so YMMV but all 4 of the ones I ordered were obviously well crafted. I may not love a couple of these, but I also wouldn't toss any in the trash.
 
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