Petal Pusher Fancies – Ciderhouse 5 (Scent off entry)

Tags

7/10, Apple, apple cider, Discontinued, Fruit, petal pusher fancies, shaving soap, spice

Edit: It appears that the line has disappeared off the face of the earth, after a small scandal erupted following a few allegations, including that the fellow who ran HTGAM had been under different names reviewing some soaps that he made (under the Petal Pushers brand), and that the ingredient listing for at least some of the soaps was likely falsified. Here’s a bit of an overview.

Frankly, what I saw put a bad taste into my mouth, and I don’t think I’ll be doing any more business with that company. Anyhow, they’ve since rebranded into “Phoenix Artisan Accoutrements”

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Next up is the next scent off entry, and the 2nd shaving soap that I’ve tried from Petal Pusher Fancies; Ciderhouse 5. As per usual, here’s what the other judges had to say about it.

I really wanted to give this one top marks for the scent. When I did the initial sniff tests of all of the soaps sent out, I liked this one the most, by a fair margin. A wonderfully delicious and accurate apple cider scent, perfectly fitting for the season. However, unfortunately, once it came time to lather it up and actually shave, I found the scent didn’t transfer to the lather very well. It came across weak, and faded from there.

The soap itself performed much like the previous soap I’d tried from them; a bit fiddly, but still fairly easy to get a great shave, great thickness and glide, with some decent moisturization.

• 10/10 Scent Pleasantness
• 6/10 Scent Strength
• 9/10 Lather Quality

Anyhow; relatively weak scent, but it smells really really nice. Feel free to make your own determinations based upon just how strong you tend to like your shaving soap scents. I’m giving it a 7/10 overall.

• Cost: The soap is available in a 3 inch tin that nets you about 3.5 oz, for $9.95.

Gear used:

• Brush: Wee Scott
• Razor: Feather AS-D2
• Blade: Gillette 7 O’clock Black

Ingredients: Water, Stearic Acid, Potassium Hydroxide, Sodium Hydroxide, Pure Kokum Butter, Organic Coconut Oil, Organic Castor Oil, Organic Avocado Oil, Organic Sweet Almond Oil, Pure Essential Oils & Fragrance

Petal Pusher Fancies – Steam River Rum

Tags

bay rum, Discontinued, petal pusher fancies, shaving soap

Edit: It appears that the line has disappeared off the face of the earth, after a small scandal erupted following a few allegations, including that the fellow who ran HTGAM had been under different names reviewing some soaps that he made (under the Petal Pushers brand), and that the ingredient listing for at least some of the soaps was likely falsified. Here’s a bit of an overview.

Frankly, what I saw put a bad taste into my mouth, and I don’t think I’ll be doing any more business with that company. Anyhow, they’ve since rebranded into “Phoenix Artisan Accoutrements”

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So I finally got around to trying a puck of Petal Pushers Fancy soap which I had kicking around, and let me say, I’m rather pleased. They’re one of a crop of relatively new soapmakers who burst onto the scene in the last year or two who, unlike so many “artisan soapmakers”, actually make their own soap with their own recipe of fats and lye, instead of just buying a commonly available soap base and fiddling with it a bit or just adding scent.

And it looks like they’ve been successful in figuring out what it takes to make a great shaving soap. They tout it as a “Kokum Butter Shaving Puck”, which makes sense I suppose given that it’s a relatively uncommon ingredient to use in soaps that I’ve seen. Even if it is only the 3rd most common fat used in the soap. But then again, if we were being that picky, then there’s no way that Mitchell’s Wool Fat would get away with referring to themselves as such, considering the lanolin there is only a minor ingredient at best, percentage wise.

Anyways, it lathers up nice and thick. I found it a bit tricky to get the right amount of water needed for the right balance of thickness and glide, but once I get it I was rather pleased. That trickiness is balanced out by the fact that the soap did leave my face feeling rather nice after the fact. All things considered, it’s a top notch shave.

This particular puck is their River City Rum, which I now notice appears to be discontinued. Alas, this is what I get for buying far too many types of soap at a time and holding on to them for too long before getting around to review!

It was a fairly nice bay rum scent, although there was just something about it that seemed a bit off to me, although I can’t put my finger (nostril?) on it. Not that it was unpleasant, mind you, but just not as nice as I find most good bay rums smell.

The strength was so-so; it started off at a medium strength, and faded away to a “relatively weak” by the time I got to the end of a pass.

• 8/10 Scent Pleasantness
• 7/10 Scent Strength
• 9/10 Lather Quality

Obviously I can’t really recommend getting this particular scent, as it’s gone, but I’d say it’s probably safe to assume some of their other stuff is pretty decent; I’ll get around to some more in good time! 7/10.

• Cost: Also no longer available are the cakes shown above which I shoved in a tupperware container; they now all come in tins, with a 3.5 oz tin going for $9.95; 5 oz for $12.95; and 8 oz (5 inch wide) tin for $18.95.

Gear used:

• Brush: Wee Scott
• Razor: Edwin Jagger DE81BL (Red)
• Blade: Asco Super Stainless

Ingredients:  Water, Potassium Hydroxide, Sodium Hydroxide, Stearic Acid (Vegetable Derived), Organic Castor Oil, Pure Kokum Butter, Organic Coconut Oil, Organic Avocado Oil, Organic Sweet Almond Oil, Pure Essential Oils, Fragrance (unscented version does not include essential oils or fragrance)