Art of Shaving Sandalwood..

[HorseCreek]

Anyone have a Sandalwood that is close to their's? My brother had some and he loves it and I tried some of his aftershave and just couldn't quit smelling my hand, lol. It's really nice.

 

[HorseCreek]

And just fyi, I checked the fragrance finder and the soap scent review board.

 

[songwind]

According to their website, they use Mysore sandalwood EO.

Don't look up prices if you have a heart condition. :shock:

 

[TRBeck]

They claim essential oils only. Okay, maybe. They undoubtedly use some mysore EO, but it's not a straight mysore scent. There's a definite eucalyptus note in there. Other than that, I feel confident they use some cedarwood and possibly some amyris to augment the Mysore sandalwood oil. It's a great scent, my favorite in all of wetshaving. Mess around with sandalwood, cedar, amyris, and maybe eucalyptus in a tiny quantity and see what you can come up with.

 

[HorseCreek]

Well, I personally will not be buying any Sandalwood EO... so your favorite FO version of true Sandalwood? I know... million dollar question.

 

[not_ally]

Horse Creek, this *is* one of those holy grail questions. I am a sandalwood super freak (hm, possible name change in the future , have tried so many of them, and they are never completely right. There are quite a few that smell nice, though, just not like real sandalwood.

Also, I am w/TR Beck on calling bull**** on the pure Mysore EO. I don't know how much that soap costs, but unless you had to put in a separate monthly line item expense under your mortgage, that is hard to believe.

Sorry, just realized that you already knew this and were asking for our favorites nonetheless. I will check my notes and answer later.

 

[HorseCreek]

It's really not that expensive (not what it would cost to scent with the Mysore EO.

 

[TRBeck]

One note on using Mysore EO: I used some sandalwood absolute in a shave soap and it was so overpowering at my usual usage (3%) that I had to fold in some unscented soap to make it pleasant to use. Sandalwood is awfully potent and I don't think they would have to use a ton. Nonetheless, it is not a straight mysore scent.

 

[not_ally]

I am more than willing to be schooled if it means that the soap will be better and the ingredients less costly! In truth, I have a small amount of Mysore EO that I cannot bring myself to put into soap, just body oil. So that is good to know. How much does that soap cost, though, just curious? It seems as if it would introduce a very high marginal cost for a commercial manufacturer.

 

[TRBeck]

Art of Shaving Sandalwood pucks are 99g for $30. That said, most everyone I know would say they are overpriced (although AoS Sandalwood is the only commercial shave soap I would bother using these days).

 

[boyago]

It's really not that expensive (not what it would cost to scent with the Mysore EO.

My goto EO supplier sells it for over three hundred bucks and ounce. That's pretty spendy for me. Or are we talking about FOs? If so has anybody here used the Oregon Trails FO?

 

[not_ally]

I'm not sure if Horse Creek was talking about the FO/EO, at that point in the thread I was discussing the EO being expensive to use in soap. I just looked at my FO chart, there are 34 sandalwood entries, and most I have not tested in CP yet (I made MP until about 4 mos ago, and I would expect most of these to be different when used with lye). ****, another long-term project. And that does not even include the OT one, sorry Boyago.

Maybe I am just obsessed/too picky when it comes to sandalwood. At this point I think I am going to settle for pleasant rather than a really true scent.

I just reread HC's post, I think she was talking about an FO, I might have misunderstood at that point. Sandalwood FOs *are* affordable for soap, they are just (see foregoing) never quite right.

TR, $30 for a 3.5 oz soap is a lot to me. I don't use shaving soap though, maybe it lasts for a really long time (imagining the shaving soap mavens rolling their eyes

 

[TRBeck]

Yeah, that soap does last for several months, but it's still too spendy.

Make something better at home. That's what I do.

But the scent...

 

[not_ally]

I agree, always better to make something better at home! I have thought of making shaving soaps for my male buds/relatives, but you know, there is a very steep learning curve on that, you guys are more obsessed than even us regular soap makers. Although the fact that you and Horse Creek are waxing so lyrically about that scent makes me want to buy it for my nephew (bearded hipster type.) But then I have to buy him a good straight blade, shaving pot, good brush, worry about him cutting himself, it just seems so complicated. Probably an Amazon gift certificate, instead.

 

[boyago]

I agree, always better to make something better at home! I have thought of making shaving soaps for my male buds/relatives, but you know, there is a very steep learning curve on that, you guys are more obsessed than even us regular soap makers. Although the fact that you and Horse Creek are waxing so lyrically about that scent makes me want to buy it for my nephew (bearded hipster type.) But then I have to buy him a good straight blade, shaving pot, good brush, worry about him cutting himself, it just seems so complicated. Probably an Amazon gift certificate, instead.

Yeah, I keep getting guys I know excited to try my shave soap and am totally willing to load them up with the soap but not at all willing to give em a good brush or a good razor. Incidentally I did buy the Lord 6 DE razor (under $10 on amazon) to try out and maybe give to dudes who were curious but it was pretty unpleasant. I should give it another go but when it comes time to shave I usually stop caring about that and just want to enjoy myself.

 

[not_ally]

So hard to be an enthusiast! Easy to gift with regular soap, I can just put it in a basket with a pouf and draining wooden soap dish and know that I am done. If they can't figure out the difference at that point, then I am done giving them soap. But shaving soaps really do require more of everything.

 

[TRBeck]

Wetshaving is way less complicated than making soap! No lye, no worrying about temperature, no concerns about acceleration, discoloration, morphing, etc. You can make it complicated, but that's true of everything.

The Lord 6 is not a great starter DE, IMO. I would go with an inexpensive used DE from a shaving forum member. Many of the members at B&B, ShaveMyFace, etc., will PIF razors to newbies.

Brushwise, while I like some high-end stuff, an $11 Omega 10049 from Amazon performs as well as anything I've used. I use mine regularly despite other options.

Don't worry about a shaving pot/scuttle/etc. for now.

A good used DE and an Omega boar oughta set you back $40, tops.

 

[not_ally]

"A good used DE and an Omega boar oughta set you back $40, tops."

Ok, the boy might be getting a shaving kit whether he likes it or not. Plus an Amazon gc just so that he does not hate me Thank you for the reccs, TR!

As an aside aside, I have to say that I love the soapiness of this board sometimes. On a somewhat heated political/religious discussion on another. That is cool, too (I feel more comfortable talking about certain things there) but the two definitely serve different needs.

 

[HorseCreek]

To answer the above question.. I was removing to the shaving soap not being expensive enough to have a whole lot of the EO in it.